TOWN HALL \ Hope Chapel
Hope Baptist Chapel - The Future
Where we are now
Hebden Bridge Community Association (HBCA) was asked to assist Hope Chapel CIO (the charity formed by members of the church) and the Yorkshire Baptist Association in the management of Hope Chapel in Hebden Bridge in spring 2024, and we have been managing the building ever since. The Chapel is owned by the Yorkshire Baptist Association (YBA).
The Chapel was built in 1857, is Grade II listed and stands as both a historically and visually significant building in Hebden Bridge, especially given its prominent position on the main road through town opposite Hebden Bridge Picture House. Our involvement and interest in Hope Chapel is underpinned by one of our charitable objects "the preservation of buildings or sites of historic or architectural importance" in Hebden Bridge and because of the Chapel’s significance as a home for community activity carefully built by church members over the last 15+ years.
HBCA’s goal throughout has been to work out whether it is possible to make the Chapel financially viable, and how to solve issues with the fabric of the building (like the antiquated heating system, and the twelve 6 metre-high wooden window frames, each with 50+ panes of glass) and if they can be resolved, to find a way forward with YBA to manage the building in the long-term.
We originally thought that this could be through a long lease, but it is now clear that the only available option -if we are to proceed - would be to buy Hope Baptist Chapel.
We have been running a questionnaire for the past 3 months seeking comments and thoughts from the community on this project. The questionnaire closed on 12th June. We will publish a full summary of all the 250+ responses we have received soon.
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to respond.
If you want to get a flavour of how other people have responded, we summarised questionnaire responses received up to 8th April - click to have a look.
What happens next
We are working to a short timetable of the end of June 2026 to gather enough information for HBCA’s Board to decide whether taking the next step is possible. That step would be committing to the pursuit of a purchase over a timeframe likely to be a further 6 to 12months.
This is not a straightforward project.
HBCA does not have enough reserves to buy the Chapel outright. At the time of writing the most likely way a purchase could be completed would be a community share issue. Locally, there have been recent successful share issues of this sort, for example by Calder Valley Community Land Trust, Heptonstall Community Assets and another is being publicly discussed for the Hare & Hounds pub in Old Town.
There are many uncertainties which HBCA is working through. The most significant are how the project could be delivered in a way that does not risk financial or other impact on the Association, reaching an agreement with YBA on a purchase price and the need to secure sufficient funds to start to tackle the Chapel’s windows as early as possible. In addition, there is the core question of the community’s response which is why we launched the questionnaire.
Our goal, as it has been from the start of our involvement, is to ensure that the current community uses can continue, “business-as-usual”, but we also need to find a way ahead to make the Chapel financially sustainable.
Most of the conversations we have had to date revolve around music, building on the work and activities of current users of the Chapel: Hebden Bridge Underground (a recording studio and band practice space) and Hebden Bridge Junior (Brass) Band amongst others. From these, and other music-focussed users, we can see the Chapel as being a place where you can learn how to play, practice, stage, perform and record music. But there is more potential and we have welcomed the community’s thoughts on this through the questionnaire responses.
We are well aware of the importance of musical performance in many other local venues and we will be offering conversations with our friends at The Trades Club, Wainsgate Chapel, The Birchcliffe Centre, Wadsworth Community Centre and others to listen to their thoughts.
