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In common with other
northern industrial towns the population of Bradford increased hugely during the nineteenth century. In the first
half it increased from 7,000 to 107,000 even before its incorporation as a
borough. The year 1997 marks the centenary of Bradford receiving its city charter.
This century had scarcely dawned when a commission of the diocese of Ripon
recommended that in an area running from the north- west of the city centre
which already contained half a score of Anglican churches, another should
be added.
A priest by the name of
The Revd Arthur Goodwin was sent in as a "Living
Agent" and he rented a property, gathering round him a group of
people. As a student in Edinburgh,
I remember the diocese of Glasgow & Galloway sending Fr George
Sessford to rent a house in Cambuslang under similar conditions.
The group which
gathered round the priest outgrew the house and it was about to move into a
mill canteen when a former private school building came on the market.
Furnishings were begged, borrowed and bought to convert the schoolroom into
a place of worship and it became known as "The Upper Room".
A portion of land on
the opposite side of Toller
Lane was then
given by the Ackroyd family as a site for a church, vicarage and
schoolroom. An "Iron Church" was erected, later to become the hall, and from
there the work was put in hand for the handsome Romanesque building to be
consecrated as St
Chad's on the 27th September 1913.
As was so often the
case, sound Tractarian teaching characterised those early years. The
"bells and smells" were introduced by Fr Ham in the
1920s.
There are many stories
encapsulated in the life of St Chad's over its short history and none
more fascinating than that of Father James Benson. He grew up here and then
moved with his family to Australia,
where all but himself were drowned in a tragic accident. Devastated and now
alone, he considered joining the Mirfield community, but eventually settled
for the Australian Board of Mission. After completing his training at St John's College, Armidale, New South Wales, James was ordained and then
sent by the Board to Gona in New Guinea. Here he built a Church community which included a
mission hospital. Members had to take to the jungle when the Japanese
landed, many being captured and shot. Fr Benson spent the rest
of the war in prisoner-of-war camps but after the harrowing experience of
the wartime years, returned to rebuild the Mission Station.
Another vocation of
that time carried Fr Sidney Holgate from St Chad's into the Society of the Sacred
Mission of Fr Kelly's day. He then spent most of his priestly
religious life in Moderpoort, South Africa, returning during his
pensionable years just before SSM moved its home to Milton Keynes. Here he continued the work he
loved as parish priest at Willen, but the Society owned a little house on
the fringe of St
Chad's parish where his sister lived.
He would frequently resort here to the great benefit of his home
congregation and the delight of its priest in the warmth and humour of his
friendship.
The actress, Billie
Whitelaw was Confirmed from here, arriving as an evacuee during the second
world war. Also in the registers is the marriage of Colin Winter who later,
as Bishop of Namibia, was thrown out by the then Government of South Africa
for his opposition to apartheid. Before that a nurse from St Chad's, Sister Margaret Holmes, went out
to work with him at the Jane Furze Hospital.
Among the eight priests
to serve St Chad's over the nine decades of its
life there have only been two families at the Vicarage. The one besides the
present occupants belonged to Fr Sanderson, whose son Peter, a
little lad at the time, became a priest.
The building which had
served as the church prior to 1913 continued as the parish hall until it
was destroyed by fire at Michaelmass 1972. The fire only just impinged on
the present lovely church building affecting leadwork and glass. While the
firemen were concerned to stop the fire spreading to the church the old
hall was completely destroyed. Within eighteen months it was replaced by a
more modest structure which was eventually succeeded by a stone-built hall,
more in keeping with the surroundings. In fact it was only in 1991 that the
intention of those who gave the land was eventually fulfilled, for the
Bradford Diocese felt the time was right to erect a new vicarage and thus
church, hall and vicarage now occupy the same site to form a useful church
plant.
The Parish
Community.
The parish has changed
vastly over the years of the church. What were the homes of the well-to-do
manufacturers are now bedsits. Most of the woollen mills have gone and
those that are left employ only a small workforce. There are light
industrial estates where rows of workers' houses used to stand. Our most
forward-looking industry is the Seabrook potato crisp factory. Sir Kenneth
Morrison built the first headquarters of his super-market chain in our
parish.
Most significant is the
change in population over the past three decades. When we arrived
twenty-eight years ago a third of the people in the parish were of Asian
origin. That proportion has now more than doubled and those of the former
indigenous population are the poorer and more disadvantaged members of the
community. There are many callers at the vicarage door requesting help of
one kind or another.
Among all this St Chad's is a miracle of survival. That
there is a church to serve the local community is due in no small part to
those who are willing to travel in so that Mass can be celebrated at least
once a day and twice on Sunday. The core of fifty or so worshippers are
sacrificial in their support for both the worshipping life and the care in
the community stemming from that.
St Chad's is both a Church Union and a
Forward in Faith parish. Some would say it is a bit old fashioned, for the
English Missal and Book of Common Prayer are still used here. There is
nothing stiff and starchy about what goes on however for there is a certain
inventiveness and hilarity which goes with the catholic character and
enables us to cope with the unusual and the contingencies that occur in
such a setting. St Chad's cherishes its associations with
the Additional Curates Society and with the late Bishop Keith Benzies'
diocese of Antsiranana, Madagascar. Since taking the three
resolutions in 1993 the parish has had wonderful pastoral care from Bishop
John of Beverley, the Northern Provincial Episcopal Visitor and from his
successor, Bishop Martyn. In the insecurities of today's world and a
changing Church there is so much substance in all that has happened in the
life of St
Chad's that
we feel the care of Almighty God will sustain us in hope for all that the
future might hold.
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