Independent Chapel Essex Street Bowling Bradford

NEW CONGREGATIONAL CHAPEL AT BOWLING- The foundation stone of a new place of worship, to be erected by the Congregationalists of Bradford, was laid yesterday afternoon by Mr Alderman Brown. The site of the proposed structure is in Essex-street, Bowling, a short distance from a school-room which has been used for many years by the Independents, and where divine service has also  been carried on, formerly by students from Airedale College, and for some months past by the Rev. G. Onions, who will be the pastor of the new chapel. The building will contain a chapel, capable of seating 500 adults, and School and class rooms for 350 to 400 children, with vestries and other apartments. The school-rooms will, for the present, be included within the chapel walls, and sufficient ground will be left for the erection of a new school building hereafter behind the chapel. The chapel is to be 45 feet wide in clear, and have side and end galleries, and will be equally as I complete in its limited size as when enlarged to accommodate 800 persons, Owing to the nature of the ground the front entrances are designed as wings to the main building, so as to economise space within the chapel. The front will, therefore, show an unusually extended elevation. The style of the building is Italian freely and simply treated. The interior will possess features in keeping with the exterior, the constructional timbers, etc., being made to appear as parts of the design. The whole building will be warmed by hot water, and ventilated by an extraction shaft in connection with internal flues in the roof. Messrs. Paull and Ayliffe, of Manchester and Bradford, are the architects, and the contractors are Messrs. Booth, Illingworth, and Son, of Bradford, who have undertaken to complete the building before next November. The Clerk of the works is Mr. Miles Bottomley. [Leeds Mercury 10 February 1864 page 4]

THE NEW INDEPENDENT CHAPEL, BOWLING, was formally opened for public worship on Tuesday, and is on the whole a commodious and elegant building in the Italian style of architecture. Messrs. Paull and Ayliffe, of this town were the architects, and Messrs B. Illingworth and Sons the contractors. The chapel will accommodate 500 persons, with school-room for about 400 children, but the plans are such that it can be easily be enlarged so as to accommodate 800 worshippers. The cost of the erection is £3,300. [Leeds Times 1 April 1865 page 2]

BOWLING:  A new Independent Chapel has been opened at Bowling, near Bradford. It is Romanesque in character. Accommodation has been provided for 500 adults. The cost is £3,000. The architects under whose superintendence the works have been carried out are Messrs Paull and Ayliffe, of Manchester and Bradford; the general contractors are Messrs. Booth Illingworth and Son, of Bradford; the gas piping has been laid by Mr. Schofield, of Bradford; the clerk of works is Mr. Bottomley. [Building News 14 April 1865 page 272

BOWLING (YORKSHIRE) — According to the Bradford Observer, the new Independent chapel in Bowling has been opened for divine service. The style of the building as principally shown in the front elevation to Essex-street, is Romanesque or semi-Norman in character, and the interior is of unpretending appearance. When the whole space enclosed by the main walls of the building is devoted to sittings, the accommodation will be for about 800 adults, and the internal dimensions will be 70 ft. by 45 ft., and 34 ft. high. At present a temporary wall divides the space into two portions, that in the rear being devoted to school purposes. The accommodation now provided in the chapel is for 500 adults, viz. 300 on the ground floor and 200 in the galleries. The pulpit is of the platform kind, and the front is of open iron-work decorated in simple colours and gilding. In front of the pulpit is a communion platform, raised 21 in. above the floor of the chapel, and surrounded by a polished oak handrail and iron standards, decorated in a similar manner to the pulpit iron-work. The floor of the school-room is on a level with the gallery passages and communicates with them. The room is 26 ft. wide and of same length as the width of the chapel, viz., 46 ft. It is boarded on all sides to the height of 4 ft. 6in. from the floor. The ceiling is a continuation of the chapel ceiling, so as to be available without alteration when the chapel is enlarged. The windows, &c. are arranged with a view to adaptation to the future new school-room, space for which has been reserved on the site in the rear of the chapel. Underneath the school-room are three class-rooms, a class-room for infants, a minister's vestry, and all necessary conveniences. These all have an independent communication with the school-room by means of a stone staircase, which has been planned so that it will be equally available for the future school building. The whole of the buildings are heated by Messrs. Longbottom & Co., of Leeds. A shaft for the purpose of ventilation is carried up in the rear of the chapel, into which flues from the chapel and school-room are taken. The architects, under whose superintendence the whole of the works have been carried out, were Messrs. Paul and Ayliffe, of Manchester and Bradford; the general contractors, Messrs. Booth Illingworth & Son, of Bradford. The gas-piping has been laid by Mr. Schofield, of Bradford. The clerk of works was Mr. Bottomley. The entire cost of the building, including the boundary fences and professional charges, amounted to £3,000, besides the cost of the land, which was over £300. [Builder 22 April 1865 page 284]

Reference    Leeds Mercury 10 February 1864 page 4
Reference    Leeds Times 1 April 1865 page 2
Reference    Leeds Mercury 19 April 1869 page 3
Reference    Building News 14 April 1865 page 272
Reference    Builder 22 April 1865 page 284