Pudsey Remembers: Lost and Found War Memorials Part 6

Pudsey's Nonconformist Memorials: The Methodists

With grateful thanks to Mahony & Ward Funeral Directors for their kind permission to photograph the beautiful historic war memorials in their care.

Two Chapels, Two Memorials


Pudsey's Nonconformist churches played an enormous part in the town's community life. But as congregations merged and chapels closed, what happened to their war memorials?

Two particularly beautiful examples survive from Church Lane Wesleyan Chapel and Trinity United Methodist Church.


Thought to be the Trinity memorial board

Trinity was a large and influential chapel in Lowtown, Pudsey's Nonconformist heartland. Its memorial records members of the congregation who lost their lives during the Great War, including James Milner and Joe Forrest Skirrow.

Joe Forrest Skirrow

Twenty three names representing twenty three families.

Imagine those familiar faces missing from the chapel pews on a Sunday morning.

The Wesleyan War Memorial Institute

Church Lane Wesleyan Chapel opened in June 1861, designed by John Kirk of Huddersfield at a cost of £2,300.



Following the First World War, the congregation went a step further than simply installing a memorial.

Believed to be the Church Lane Wesleyan War Memorial


On 4 October 1919, the Church Lane Wesleyan War Memorial Institute was officially opened by Pudsey's Mayor, Alderman Sir William Croft Forrest.

Newspaper reports record £452 raised towards the £900 scheme, with subscriptions, concerts and other fundraising helping to finance the project.

The larger of our two surviving memorials, featuring carved figures and an extensive list of names, may have originated here, although this still needs confirming.

Among those commemorated in the Methodist community were Charles Battye, son of Pudsey's Fire Brigade Captain; William Hylbert Allum and Squire Clough, both killed on the opening day of the Somme; and Thomas Lund Jowett, a Bradford Pal with family connections to local mill owners.



Later casualties include Wilfred Swithenbank, Ronald Minke and Dorothy Whiteley. Ronald and Dorothy are buried in Pudsey Cemetery.

St Andrew's – Bringing the Congregations Together

Church Lane Wesleyan Chapel closed in 1971, its congregation moving to the former Primitive Methodist chapel on Robin Lane, which became St Andrew's Methodist Church.

In 1982, the Trinity congregation also joined St Andrew's, bringing together Methodist traditions that had been separated for around 130 years.

Today, St Andrew's preserves an important part of that history, including a beautiful Roll of Honour displayed near the entrance.

Among those recorded are four brothers of the Briggs family and former Leeds Pal Julius Wilcock, who survived repeated wounds before eventually being discharged.

These records are particularly valuable because they remember those who served as well as those who died.


A Heritage Worth Protecting

The survival of these memorials is a reminder that our history doesn't always remain where it began.

Chapels close, congregations move and buildings change hands. Fortunately, these memorials have found sanctuary.

The buildings may be gone, but the names and their stories deserve to remain.

Next: Troydale Club and Garden of Remembrance.

Sources and thanks: Contemporary Pudsey & Stanningley Times reports (1919); historical account of Church Lane Wesleyan Chapel; Margaret Ford's Pudsey Town War Memorials; Pudsey Cenotaph research archive; and Mahony & Ward Funeral Directors for preserving and allowing access to the memorials.

Enjoyed the blog? Have an interesting Church or Potts clock tale of your own? Please leave some feedback in the comments. Wait – there's more! Follow for future blogs on a wide range of local interest topics.

All views my own unless specifically quoted, or clearly promoted on behalf of an organisation, group or individual. To avoid stepping on copyright toes I generate and edit my own images, credit given where others work is used.

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