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Heaton Baptist Church History

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HEATON:
Heaton Baptist Church History up to 1912.

Source=h:/!Genuki/RecordTranscriptions/WRY/BaptistChurches.txt

HEATON BAPTIST CHURCH

As already stated at the commencement of these notes, the Baptist cause at Heaton dates back at least as far as 1689, at which date there was, as stated by Rev. John Haslam, D.D., a registered place of worship there. The pastor of Heaton, Rev. R. Howarth, has in his possession the copy of a sermon preached in "the old meeting-house at Heaton" by Rev. John Moore, in 1711. In 1713, the Baptists there, jointly with those at Gildersome and Rawdon, were formed into a Church. Twice since those early days the Church apparently ceased to exist. The first time in the eighteenth century. It was resuscitated in 1828, the Rev. J. Spooner, a student at the Bradford Academy (now Rawdon College), labouring as the pastor for four years, but again in 1840 the Church "dissolved" itself and the chapel became a preaching station connected with Westgate.

In 1868, a separate Church was again established, with Rev. G. Brockway as pastor. In 1877, Rev. R. Howarth, then of Manchester College, was invited to take charge, and for thirty-five years has remained a faithful pastor to a loyal people. In 1896, the present beautiful chapel was erected, and the old chapel became, and still is, the schoolroom. Since then the erection of a Manse has completed a block of buildings admirably suited to the needs of the district.

As Heaton has, during the last few years, rapidly grown in popularity as a residential suburb, the prospects of the cause there are exceedingly promising.


Transcribed by Colin Hinson © 2014
from the "Present Churches" section of
The Baptists of Yorkshire
by Rev. J. Brown Morgan
and Rev. C.E. Shipley