The historic church of St Mary’s Oxenhope, with links to the Bronte family, has received a confirmed grant of £37,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project aims to undertake much needed restoration work to the tower walls.
Custodians of the Grade II listed building in Hebden Bridge Road will use the cash to complete the funding of a £120,000 project. The project will enable re-pointing of the tower, inside and out, together with plastering internal walls using methods and materials in keeping with the heritage of the building.
The tower rooms are much used by the community at large and the works will improve the environment significantly for educational, recreational and community users, in addition to the many and varied regular church activities. A full programme of heritage and educational lectures will accompany a whole host of activities to celebrate the reopening of the tower on the completion of the works.
In 1845, Reverend Patrick Bronte of Haworth, father of the famous novelist sisters Charlotte, Anne and Emily, appointed his curate, Reverend Joseph Brett Grant, to take charge of the newly formed ecclesiastical district, soon to become the Parish of Oxenhope. Reverend Grant began holding services in a wool combing shop. Within a year he had raised enough money to build a day school, which also served as a Sunday school and church. He was a tireless worker who also collected money for a purpose-built new church. According to Charlotte Bronte he wore out 14 pairs of shoes in his quest for money. His efforts were rewarded on the 14th February 1849 when the foundation stone for St Mary the Virgin was laid. The church was built from millstone grit with stone and natural slate roofs. The square west end tower is 44-feet high. The church was completed and opened on the 11th October the same year. The tower now houses a fine ring of 8 bells, and in 1991 two levels of meeting rooms, a kitchen and toilets were added.
St Mary’s Oxenhope vicar, the Reverend Nigel Wright, said: “We are delighted with the news and have found the help and assistance provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund throughout the planning of this project to be invaluable. We are grateful to all our financial contributors and the congregational community of St Mary’s who have contributed some £30,000 to the project as a whole.”