Regular readers will know that I am trying to assemble a accurate database of all the nineteenth century places of worship in Bradford. The Local Studies Library has this plan of 1876 which was produced by Shipley Local Board, effectively the town council, and the Providence Chapel trustees.

The plan shows the Providence Chapel and its graveyard, together with a school on the opposite side of Otley Road. Establishing its location near Baildon Bridge is simple; a detail from a later OS map provides the bigger picture.

Neither plan provides a denomination but Donald Raine, in his 1991 pamphlet Wesleyan Methodism in Bradford: a scrapbook, writes that in 1906 Providence Chapel was part of the Wesleyan Methodist Windhill circuit. Clearly a place of worship must have been on this site from c.1800. In the 1851 census of places of worship there is this entry:

Providence Chapel, Shipley  WM   1804  Informant: Wm Hudson

I have been told that the chapel was rebuilt in 1853, and finally demolished in 1959. This closure date ensures that some local people, now aged 75 or over, may have actually worshipped at the chapel or attended the Sunday School.

The land for the chapel was, I have been told, given by the Denby family who owned Providence and Wellcroft Mills.  I have located two images that evidently show the building.

I am very grateful to Tish Lawson and Ken Kenzie for their assistance with my project. But I am still open to make mistakes in identification which will be entirely my fault.