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St. James - Tong Village

The site of St. James has been a place of Christian Worship for close on a thousand years. The church as it stands was built in 1727 by Sir George Tempest of Tong Hall. It replaced an earlier building that had been built in c. 1140 A.D. This Norman Church may have been built by Asulfr, whom we know held possesion of Tong until his death in 1166 A.D. Asulfr was one of those Anglo Scandinavians who succeeded in establishing themselves as Norman Barons after the Norman Conquest. 

One of the sons of Asulfr, Richard de Tang, seems to have been the first to have taken for himself the name of the estate (Tong was in those days spelt eith Tang or Tonge). His descendants continued to hold Tong until 1400 A.D. when they were left with no other male heir, and their daughter married Robert Mirfield. The Mirfield family then held the estate until 1527 when, again through marriage, it passed to the Tempest family, when Eleanor Mirfield married Henry Tempest. 

The Tempest family continued to live at nearby Tong Hall (built in 1702) until 1941. They were the Lords of the Manor of Tong, and they owned most of the village and surrounding farms. They were also the chief benefactors of the church, and many features in the building remind us of their past authority and pre-eminent place here. 

In 1980, during an extensive restoration of the church building, important archaeological discoveries were made which showed that there had been a Saxon church building on the site before the Norman church of 1140. The foundations of this early church were uncovered and its rough shape identified. The archaeologists also found fragments of Roman pottery and a flint barbed and tonged arrowhead from Bronze Age times. This latter confirmed the likelihood of there having being some kind of settlement here for close on 3,000 years. 

For most of its life St. James had been a 'chapelry', and a part of the ancient parish of Birstall. Its incumbents were known as 'perpetual curates'. However the rapid growth in the Tong Street area in the early 19th century led to the granting of parish status in 1867, and a new vicarage was built (now Tong Marriott Hotel). The remoteness of St. James from the Tong Street area made it essential that another church was built in Tong Street for the Christian mission to be more effective. This church, dedicated to St. John, was closed in 1970, after a large area of housing around Dudley Hill was demolished for new roads and industrial development. However, in the meantime, yet another church building, dedicated to St Christopher, had been built to serve the large and growing residential area of Holme Wood. More recently, in 1994, growing concern to have a more effective mission in Tong Street led to a new congregation being formed in the church school of our Parish, St. Johns Church of England First School.

St. Johns - Tong Street

On April 28th, 1857 John Pumbe Tempest and Thomas Plumbe Tempest of Tong Hall conveyed to the Revd. Michael Turner, Vicar of Tong, a close of land in Tong Street, called 'The Intake' for the building of a new church school, that was to be known as 'Tong National School'.

Three years later, in 1860, the building of St. John's Church, Tong Street followed, on a site at the corner of Rook Lane, near the Dudley Hill junction of the A650.  It is not clear why a site closer to the school was not preferred - as the new church was to be unfortunately much too close to both St. John's Bierley and St. John's Bowling. 

Revd. Turner was followed by Revd. Charles Farrow, an energetic young Vicar, who was to remain Vicar of Tong for the next 53 years. It was to be a 'hey-day' for the growth of both the local community in Tong Street and its new churches, as the textile industry became increasingly well established, and provided work for the many new residents who had made Tong Street their home.  The new school and the church were both extended in size during this period.

So important was this new development to the parish that when Charles Farrow died in 1923 the Vicarage was moved from Tong Village (the building is now the Tong Marriott Courtyard Hotel), to the top of Toftshaw Lane, opposite Tong Cemetery. 

The new church retained a close link with the school - with children regularly walking along Tong Street to take part in Christian worship.  Over the years St. John's was to develop in a more 'high church' or Anglo Catholic tradition - in some contrast to its 'mother church' in Tong Village.

Two things seem to have led to the closure of St. John's.  Firstly the building of the Holme Wood estate led to the establishing of St. Christopher's between 1958 and 1968, and meant that this was the main focus for Christian mission and ministry during that period.  Secondly, as Holme Wood was being built, much of Tong Street and Dudley Hill was demolished, causing a substantial drop in population in Tong Street. Whatever the cause, the number of church members continued to decline steeply in the 1960's. 

Eventually, in 1969, a meeting was held in the school to consider the future of the church.  It was attended by only 30 people, and the outcome was that the church recommended to the diocese that the building be declared redundant.  (It was also decided at the time that a bus be provided to transport the Tong Street congregation to St. James Tong for worship on Sundays.)

So the building closed - and after the clocktower had been dismantled, the building was sold for industrial use.  It still remains as such - a reminder of a different past.

In 1994 a remarkable re-birth was to take place.  Recognising that the church needed to re-establish its mission and ministry to the population of Tong Street, a new vision was to lead to St. John's re-emrging. On Saturday September 25th the Bishop of Bradford dedicated the establishing of the new St. John's congregation that was to meet in the school hall.  Over 200 people shared in this joyful celebration - including some who had been members of the old church that had closed over 20 years previously.  Worship began the following day, with 61 people gathering for the first Sunday Service at 11 am. 

During the months that followed, the old School House flat became vacant, and a shared vision of both school and church for establishing a Church and School Centre for Tong Street was captured.  Finance to establish this was eventually found, and the ground floor was re-ordered and extended to provide a small but attractive new community provision. The title the 'Upper Room', that has now become the accepted name, was first adopted because the original plan was to use the first floor of the house.  This was later amended - but the title retained.

Once completed, the new Centre became a home both for Sunday Worship and as a dining area for the school - and for a number of years this was to continue as a happy partnership. However eventually in 1998 Bradford Council was to embark upon a major re-organisation of the schools in the Metropolitan District, and it was decided that St. John's must move from its home in Tong Street to take over the buildings of the closing Broomwood Middle School. This was to a move that also included for the closing of Bierley Church School.

The proposals for such a change were roundly opposed and condemned by a broad cross section of local people and organisations, and local clergy made a trip to Westminster to meet Estelle Morris, the Secretary of State. However it was all to no avail, and eventually the transfer to Bierley took place, with St. John's, as a Grant Maintained School, purchasing the Broomwood site from the Local Authority with a grant from the Secretary of State.  In the meantime however the struggle to retain the benefit of the Upper Room had been successful, and so when the old school buildings were sold to Elim Pentecostal Church, the Upper Room was not included in that sale, as it had been decided that they could be retained for Church and School use in Tong Street.

As the new school would now be a bi-parochial school, serving the parishes of both Bierley and Tong/Holme Wood, a new Trust Deed was established, with Foundation Trustees formed from both parishes.  When this was completed in 2003, the transfer of both the Upper Room and the new St. John's School site took place.

This is now the current position - with the school currently operating as one of the most successful and impressive Primary schools in Bradford, and the Upper Room flourishing as a growing place of faith and community in Tong Street.

St. Christophers - Holme Wood

The establishing of St. Christopher's in the midst of the Holme Wood estate was a process that began in 1958, and was largely completed ten years later when the new church was consecated by the Bishop of Bradford on May 4th, 1968. 

The need for such a church became a real one as Holme Wood - the largest of the new housing estates in Bradford - began to take shape in 1958.  Canon Charles Goodchild, the Vicar of Tong at the time, with the strong backing of Dr. Donald Coggan, Bishop of Bradford (later to become Archbishop of both York and Canterbury), recognised such a need at an early stage.  The provision of the new church was to a part of a huge church building programme in Bradford in the 1960's as many new communities were born in the new housing areas of the city. Although the parish at that time included the Church of St. John at Dudley Hill, there was a firm conviction of the need for a church set in the midst of this new housing area.

There were a number of stages to the process of the birth of St. Christopher's.  The first of these was the need for an immediate presence to be established, as new housing went up quickly, and people moved in.  A 'wooden hut' was obtained in time for Christmas 1958, with the first worship services being held there on Sunday December 21st.  This temporary building was on the site of the present Vicarage, as it was recognised from the start that a more permanent building would be necessary.   However this important early provision was the only real community building on the estate - and was to be a very important place for the thousands of early residents in Holme Wood.

Even as this first building was beginning to function, an architect, Francis Johnson, was engaged to design a new dual purpose building that would serve as both a church and church hall.  After many months of delay the laying of the Foundation Stone for the new Church took place on 24th September 1960 - by which time the population of the estate had grown rapidly.
However this date had to be postponed twice - and it was not until 25th February 1961 that it eventually took place.  Further delays followed, this time due to the Vicar recognising that they were using faulty bricks, but eventually the new building was completed and dedicated on 31st March 1962 - though an electronic organ had to be borrowed for the occasion, as the pipe organ that had been bought could not be installed in time.  By this time Dr. Coggan had been succeeded as Bishop of Bradford by Rt. Revd. Michael Parker. 

The new building comprised the present church hall, choir room and chapel - with the chapel being the sanctuary, and the choir room being the chancel to the church.  The nave was the present church hall, and could be separated off as an area for social activities - thus providing a dual purpose church centre.  The organ was eventually installed in what is now the main kitchen!

Once the new building was in place, the 'wooden hut' was able to be demolished, and space made for the Vicarage.  Up to this point the Vicar and his family had lived at the Vicarage at the end of Toftshaw Lane, on Tong Street.  However a new house was then built, and by 1966 Canon Goodchild and his family had taken up residence there.

Nevertheless the need for a separate place of worship at St. Christopher's for such a large community was clear, and in 1966 the same architect, Francis Johnson, was asked to submit plans for the buildings to be extended to provide this.  He did so in February of that year, and four months later they were duly passed and presented to the Parochial Church Council.  Again there was a process of delay, and it was not to be until January 1967 that the work was put out to tender.  On April 29th 1967 the first brick was laid, and a sheet, bearing the names of those who were present at this ceremony, was embedded in the walls of the new Church.  Work progressed well - this time the organ was moved to its permanent place at the back of the church, and eventually the 4th of May 1968 was decided upon as the date for the consecration of the church. 

Canon Goodchild was to leave shortly after the work was completed, however he had been Vicar during the whole of the 10 year period in which the church of St. Christopher had come into being to serve the people of Holme Wood.

(Copies of the story of the building of St. Christopher's, written by Revd. Alan Kitchen, are available at £1 each - as are also copies of 'That Restless Stream' - a biography of the life of Canon Charles Goodchild, by his wife, Nora Goodchild)