Hide

Skipton Baptist Church History

hide
Hide
Hide

SKIPTON:
Skipton Baptist Church History up to 1912.

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

SKIPTON BAPTIST CHURCH

The Church at Skipton is the outcome of pioneer work undertaken by Samuel Jones and Robert Hogg, who, in 1848, travelled as evangelists of our faith through Airedale. At Skipton they preached in the market place, where their Baptist statements were opposed by the Wesleyan minister then stationed in the town. This opposition culminated in a public debate which roused no little interest, a thousand copies reporting the discussion being sold. In this atmosphere of theological contention the Church was born, for services were immediately held in private houses, and in 1849 a room was opened for services. On Christmas Day of that year a public baptism took place in the river Aire.

The Church was constituted on March 26th, 1850, with the small roll of eleven members. The chapel was built in 1861, at an expenditure of £1300, and in 1864, Rev. Francis Britcliffe became its first pastor. He continued in his office until his death in 1878, and was succeeded, in the same year, by Rev. W. Judge, whose resignation in December, 1911, was necessitated by ill-health. New school premises were erected in 1899, the responsibility of i000 being defrayed in six years.


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