Bethel Independent Methodist Chapel
Shelf, Yorkshire
To the casual passerby on the busy main road between Bradford and Halifax, Bethel Chapel, may signify nothing more than a large sombre building with a very large well kept graveyard.
Pepper Hill is the highest Unitarian Chapel in the country at over 1,005 feet above sea level.
It began in May 1858 when Alexander Stradling (1820-1905), a chartist, carpet weaver, lecturer, and Unitarian Sunday School teacher, began to visit the area. He established an educational ‘Mutual Improvement Society’ and Sunday School which later grew into the Chapel. The Chapel building opened on 14th January 1862.
Joseph Hobson Jagger (1830-1892) thought by some to have inspired the Music Hall song ‘The Man who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo’ was born at Pepper Hill. In 1884 he spent some of his fortune on a “knife and fork tea” for his friends which was held at the Chapel.
On the evening of 21st November 1935 the Chapel collapsed during a storm. A cramped wedding was held in the vestry a few weeks later whilst the “friends of the couple waited outside in the snow among the fallen masonry.” The Chapel was re-built and opened again on 19th September 1936. Beautiful new art deco ‘Rising Sun’ windows were installed.
Dave Stewart of the ‘Eurythmics’ 1980’s pop duo attended a wedding at the Chapel in the 1980’s. Sir Paul and Linda McCartney were invited but were apparently unable to attend! In 1995, Pepper Hill merged with its mother church Northgate End Unitarian Chapel which dated back to the seventeenth century. In 2021, Pepper Hill became one of the first places of worship in Halifax to be able to conduct same sex marriages.