They are getting ready to celebrate a special birthday in Elland.
Members of Southgate Methodist Church will this week mark the centenary of the church with a series of events.
And they have invited local people to join them to mark the anniversary.
Church spokesman Andrew Jacobs said: “For the last century the church has been a notable landmark in Elland, and the addition of floodlighting for the millennium greatly enhanced the building.
“The Sunday School, now the Christian Centre, was remodelled in 2008 in a scheme that cost more than £500,000 but the church is more or less as it was in 1915 apart from renovation and decoration, most recently in 2013, and the installation of multi-media equipment.
“The centenary celebrations will take place over this coming weekend, June 6 and 7. On Saturday, the church is open between 10am and 4.00pm for displays of flowers, historical displays and memorabilia, and current activities. A Centenary Brochure detailing the history of the will be on sale along with commeorative mugs
Sunday sees centenary thanksgiving services to which everybody is welcome, particularly those who have or had connections with the church. It is at 10.30am and will be conducted by Rev Dr Roger Walton, chairman of the West Yorkshire Methodist District; after a procession led by the Boys’ Brigade band from the first site of Southgate Church, to the current site”.
The first record of Methodism in Elland area was in June 1761 when the first Methodist preaching house was established in a farm house. The first hundred years of Methodism were turbulent, with differing views about many things, and they led in 1850 to a split from the Wesleyans and the formation of a breakaway Methodist society that initially met in a mill until in 1855 when they built their first Church known as the Central Hall, which still stand today. They became known as Southgate Independent Free Methodists.
The trustees purchased a plot of land in South End in 1889 and plans were drawn up for a church and Sunday School. Unfortunately, the money did not allow the scheme to be completed and only the Sunday School was built.
It was nearly another 20 years before the trustees were in a position to start raising the finance to build the church. The new design was completely different from the original. There was to be an imposing exterior, a centre aisle, a chancel raised from the nave by steps with choir stalls either side and organ chamber behind each side of the choir. There was to be a side pulpit, with only a small balcony at the back; in fact it was very Anglican in design and accommodated 480 people.
The church was opened for public worship amid great rejoicing on Saturday, June 5, 1915.
