12th November 2013
The Ilkley Wesleyan Assembly Hall and Sunday School in Ilkely was built in 1903 in the Arts and Crafts style.
The building was conceived of by the Rev Dr Bowman Stephenson, (a founder of the National Children’s Homes and a minister in Ilkley), with the support of local people such as businessmen Sidney Kellett and JT Jackson.
During the First World War, the building was a social centre for wounded soldiers and Belgian evacuees and, again, through the Second World War, it was used for evacuees. After the war, the building then resumed its use as an Assembly hall and Sunday School.
By the 1960s, the chapel was badly in need of renovation and eventually, in 1987, the hall was developed into ten residences and renamed Chapel House. It still retains the lovely dressed stone-work, stone-mullioned windows, stained glass and characteristic row of horizontal windows.
Posted in News by Laura