Whitechapel Church, Cleckheaton

A suggestion, which at present cannot be substantiated, is that Whitechapel church stands on a pack-horse route which followed the line of an old Roman road from York to Chester. This theory originates from the discovery of a large hoard of Roman coins near the present site of Whitcliffe Mount School. Although no archeological evidence was found, it is thought there could have been a Roman station there. It is also possible there was a wooden Saxon place of worship on the site although there is no evidence for this. Cleckheaton is recorded in the Domesday Book, 1086, but there is no record of a church on this site at this time. There has been a place of worship on this site since the Norman…

By 1820 the church was not big enough for its congregation, and was rebuilt. This is the building which we see today. It had box pews and a fine 3 decker pulpit on the south side. These were all cleared 65 years later, when the church was modernised to face east. All that remains of the pulpit is the sounding board, now built into the south east vestry. On 7 January 1839 a great storm caused the bell and part of the belfry to crash through the roof, destroying the organ. The Leeds Mercury recorded it as the fiercest gale in living memory. This bell is mounted and displayed within the church, below the current pulpit. From 1837 to 1886 the Rev. Robert Fetzer Taylor was a much revered…