The original St Matthew’s Church was a ‘Waterloo’ Church, one of the many provided from a fund raised in thanksgiving for the 1815 victory. The architect was John Oates who designed several churches for the Waterloo scheme, as well as some public buildings. St Matthew’s was consecrated by the Archbishop of York on November 1st, 1826. The Archbishop rode over to Wilsden from Harewood, where he had spent the previous night and on the same day consecrated St Paul’s, Shipley, an identical building. Before this, Wilsden was part of the large parish of Bradford and the new church was built on the edge of the village because it was originally to serve Wilsden, Allerton and Denholme.
The first vicar was a member of the Wilsden Temperance Society. In 1835 what was described as probably the greatest Temperance Festival in the world, attended by over 3,000 people, was held at St Matthew’s.
As a result of disagreements amongst members of the congregation the new Free Church of England opened in 1869. The St James Free Church built their own building on Wellington Street. This building is now the Conservative Club.
The building of a new churches at Denholme in 1846 and at Allerton in 1879 reduced the size of the parish of Wilsden.
In 1926, when the Bishop of Bradford was preaching at a service to commemorate the centenary of the church, there was a loud crash part way through his sermon. When this was investigated after the service it was discovered that the ceiling of the vestry, where the Bishop had been sitting before the service, had collapsed and he had a narrow escape from injury.
The building had long suffered from damp and eventually became impossible to heat and maintain. It was not used for services from 1957 and demolished in 1962. From 1957 to 1962 the Sunday School on Laneside opposite the church was used. After one more move the new church building in Main Street was dedicated in 1975 and St Matthew’s moved into their current home.
The Laneside graveyard was officially closed for burials in 1974 and maintenance was taken over by Bradford Council in 1975 although there were, by agreement, two final interments in one reserved family plot in 1977 and 1985.
We acknowledge “Temples Various” by Astrid Hansen as the source of information about the history of St Matthew’s and the work by Astrid and John Hansen in recording details of the gravestones.