DEMONSTRATING the non-conformist strength of older Pennine communities, the Lowertown Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School at Oxenhope – opened in 1897 – occupied a commanding position behind its chapel, partly seen on the left.
It housed a central assembly room seating 750, also 14 classrooms and a lecture room, library and reading room, with living quarters for a curator.
The chapel, built in 1891, could seat 700 worshippers. The site is now occupied by sheltered housing and a smaller church.
When the Sunday School was demolished in 1987, a sealed bottle was found beneath the building, containing coins, newspapers and periodicals of 1897, notably the Methodist Recorder, the Methodist Times, Joyful News, the Keighley News and its then rival, the Keighley Herald.
There was also a photograph of the Rev JT Slugg, the minister, which had sparked some good-humoured banter at the laying of foundation stones in 1897.
The bottle was reburied under the present church.
The photograph has been supplied by Mr Kevin Seaton, of Shann Lane, Keighley.
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