Historic Burnley church to close after 200 years of worship

The majority of members of Burnley and Nelson UR Church will go on to worship at Sion Baptist Church and others to Cliviger Independent Methodist Church following the closure.

Member Colin Wills said: “The members want to say thank you to God and all of you, especially ministers, elders, members, and adherents, who have been to our church and helped and supported it in any way during its 204 years history.

“At the end of the 19th Century, the beginning and middle of the 20th Century, the church went into the poorest areas of the town, near the church where there were a lot of people, especially children, living in squalor.

"One of our members told us many times, before he passed away over 30 years ago aged 100, that Bethesda Chapel rounded up the children, took them to church to feed them and play games.

"The church made similar responses during both world wars. Throughout the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine our church has given a variety of goods to local food banks, especially at churches.”The members of Burnley and Nelson United Reformed Church through local mosques donated items, particularly clothes for refugees at home and abroad.

The latest reincarnation of the church came in 2015 with the closure of the former Brunswick Street Church in Nelson when members joined with Burnley United Reformed Church to form a new fellowship at their Bethesda Street site.