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Eastby Methodist Chapel

Eastby Methodist Chapel, now a house, first opened in 1823. The Trustees bought the land in 1818 from Miss Jane Baynes, formerly of Embsay Kirk, a Quaker family who had converted to Methodism (see Part 2 – The Quakers). She sold the plot of land to the Trustees for a token amount of £10 specifically for the building of ‘a Methodist Chapel or Preaching House’. She had also donated the land to build the Union Chapel on East Lane, Embsay.

The initial Trustees of the Chapel in 1818 were: William Mattock and William West of Embsay, and Joseph Heyworth of Eastby, plus eight other tradesmen from Skipton, Bradley, Gargrave and Addingham.

Jane Baynes (1739-1825) was also influential in the growth of Methodism in Skipton. John Wesley had visited Skipton in 1764 and 1766 but the movement failed to grow. He visited again in 1782 and by 1787 Skipton was part of the Keighley Methodist Circuit. The first Methodist Chapel in Skipton was built in 1791 with the financial help of Jane Baynes who had moved to Skipton from Embsay Kirk with her mother Elizabeth. It was replaced by a larger chapel on the same site in 1811. The building still survives on Chapel Hill but has been converted into houses.

Methodists had been meeting in Eastby and Embsay from at least 1800, at first in their own homes but later in an earlier Chapel, probably converted from an existing building. A Sale document dated 1847 of a field opposite Dale Head Farm describes ‘A Cow House’ and ‘The Site of the Old Chapel’. The field at that time was leased by Joseph Heyworth of Dale Head Farm (1765-1848), one of the Trustees of the new Chapel.

Following the purchase of the land in 1818, money was raised to build the new Chapel. It finally opened in 1823, coinciding with the recent arrival of the Primitive Methodists into Embsay in 1821 (see Part 5 – The Primitive Methodists). The Embsay Methodists continued to meet at the Union Chapel on East Lane.

Eastby Chapel thrived in the later 19^th century and had a strong choir. Thomas Boardman, a Methodist from Darcy Lever, near Bolton was Choir Master in the 1870’s and lived with his family at Chapel House. On Christmas Day 1876 Thomas Boardman & the Eastby Chapel Singers, along with girls & boys, sang outside the Chapel, and outside the Mason’s Arms.

Good Friday’s were always popular. Tea parties and bazaars were held, along with prize giving when small books were given to the children for good attendance. People from other Chapel’s in the neighbourhood also visited, some with their choirs.

The diaries of Elizabeth Greenwood of the Mason’s Arms reveal much about activities at the Chapel in the 1870’s and 1880’s. Although the family were Anglicans and attended St Mary’s Church every Sunday, Elizabeth would often go to Eastby Chapel on Sunday evening, and her children attended special events and tea parties. Her son Richard also brought coal from Skipton for the Chapel.

The mid-1870’s marked a period of ‘Revivalism’ with the visit to England of Evangelists Ira Sankey & Dwight Moody from America. They landed at Liverpool in 1873 and their slogan was “to win ten thousand souls to Christ”. They held meetings around the country and although they didn’t visit Eastby or Skipton their influence was widely felt.

In June 1875 a United Prayer meeting was held at Eastby Chapel where Elizabeth Greenwood records that there were “some of Sankeys & Moodys converts”. And on Good Friday 1876 she records that the Embsay Brass Band played at a tea party at the Chapel and afterwards called at the Mason’s Arms where they played Sankeys and Moodys hymns.

However, the Revivalist Sermons weren’t always to the taste of the villagers, and Elizabeth’s daughter Annie wrote that their loud shouting did not suit her, nor did their exhortation that you could either go straight to hell or heaven. She wrote that she enjoyed the Sermons at St Mary’s, but whenever she attended the Chapel she thought the sermons were too long.

In 1878 the Chapel closed temporarily for refurbishment, and villagers were allowed to look through the Chapel prior to its grand re-opening. One of the preachers for the service was Rev Thomas McCullagh, a Wesleyan Minister from Hull, who Elizabeth Greenwood remembered preaching there in the 1840’s.

The Chapel finally closed in the 1920’s having been in use for 100 years, and in 1929 the building, along with the adjacent cottage, was sold by the Trustees for £500 to Septimus Wray, a Wesleyan Methodist and Property Dealer of Heysham, formerly of Keighley. Septimus and his wife Sarah continued to live at Heysham where he also owned Morecambe Pleasure Gardens, so, it is possible that he bought the chapel as a either a property investment, or for family holidays. In 1935 is was sold to James Smith, a retired farmer of Eastby. Since then it has passed through several hands until it was bought by the present owner in 1978.

Next year will be 200 years since the Chapel first opened.

Kind thanks to Liz Roodhouse for a copy of the 1818 Deed and additional information about the history of the chapel.

NEXT TIME: PART 5 – THE PRIMITIVE METHODISTS

David Turner, Embsay with Eastby Historical Research Group