John Taylor of Red House in Gomersal built a brick chapel near his home c 1800. He was a Radical and Nonconformist, but not attached to any particular denomination. The Taylor family used the chapel as essentially their own private place of worship, and John Taylor also preached there to his own band of followers. In the earlier 1800’s this chapel was also used occasionally by Congregationalists for preaching. Congregationalists services were also sometimes held in the music gallery of Pollard Hall, the home of James Burnley, a deacon at Heckmondwike Upper Independent Church.
Grove Congregational Church was built on Oxford Road. Gomersal in 1825-26 by members of the Congregational churches at Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike; the leader of this project was James Burnley. The church was opened in 1826 and the members who worshipped there became a separate congregation in the same year.
The Sunday School was built behind the church in about 1828. It was paid for entirely by James Burnley. It was enlarged in 1842. The church was enlarged in 1849-50 and again in 1876 and 1882.
Grove became a United Reformed Church in 1972 on the national amalgamation of the Congregational and Presbyterian churches into one denomination. In about 1981, the three United Reformed Churches of Gomersal Grove, Cleckheaton Providence Place, and Norristhorpe joined together to form the Spenborough Group of Churches, sharing a minister. Providence Place Church in Cleckheaton closed in 1991 and the members there then joined the church at Grove.
The cache
The cache contains a log only. Please bring your own pen(cil). There is no room for swaps or trackables. Replace the cache exactly as you find it and be careful not to be spotted.
The building to the right of the church is no longer used as a school, with Gomersal Primary having moved into the former buildings of Gomersal Middle School, further up Oxford Road, in April 2013.
A retrieval tool has been provided in the upper section of the location should anyone need it. Please replace carefully for the next finder.
FTF: RandomGoat
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