Former Bethel Chapel Sunday School - geograph

The Bethel Chapel (1853) is an independent

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

chapel in Halifax Road, Shelf, Yorkshire. Records compiled in 2007 show that 4,938 people have been buried in the graveyard there since it opened in 1852, including three Elizabeth Taylors and one Isaac Newton.

History

The chapel was built in 1853; it is unknown who was responsible for its construction. Additions to the building were made in 1995, including new washrooms, a kitchen, and an upper floor. Many of the original

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in chu ...

s have been preserved. The chapel was affiliated with the Wesleyan Reform movement from its opening until 1873, when it joined the

United Methodist Free Church United Methodist Free Churches, sometimes called Free Methodists, was an English nonconformist community in the last half of the 19th century. It was formed in 1857 by the amalgamation of the Wesleyan Association (which had in 1836 largely absorbed ...

. It remains an independent Methodist church.

Notable burials

Notable burials include

Joseph Jagger Joseph Hobson Jagger (2 September 1830 – 25 April 1892) was an English textile industry businessman from Yorkshire, who in around 1881 is said to have "broken the bank at Monte Carlo" by identifying and exploiting biases in the wheels of the ...

, the man who in 1881 "broke the bank at Monte Carlo"Here lies the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo.
''Halifax Courier'', 5 April 2007. Retrieved 21 October 2018. and

Edward Hartley Edward Robertshaw Hartley (25 May 1855 – 18 January 1918) was a British socialist politician. Hartley began work in a mill at the age of ten, before becoming a warehouse clerk and then a butcher. He became an active socialist in 1885, in reac ...

, an early socialist politician who retired to Shelf. The cemetery includes at least three war graves from the First World War, including Second Lieutenant A. E. Lord of the Yorkshire Regiment who won the

Military Medal The Military Medal (MM) was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other arms of the armed forces, and to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land. The award ...

and died in 1918.

References

External links

*http://bethelchapelshelf.weebly.com/ Buildings and structures completed in 1853 Methodist churches in West Yorkshire Churches completed in 1853 {{England-church-stub