LAST week’s guest church was St Andrew’s Methodist and United Reformed Church (URC), in Newmarket Street, Skipton, and was correctly identified by Edward Scott, Maureen and Andy Hargrave, and also Philip Winstanley.

It was on September 19, 1914, that the foundation stone of the new Congregational Church on Newmarket Street, was laid. It followed a doubling of church numbers during the latter part of the 19th century. The church is now known as St Andrew’s.

The Rev Oliver Heywood brought congregationalism to the town in about 1650, according to William Harbutt Dawson, author of The History of Independency in Skipton which was published in 1891.

Mr Heywood preached frequently in Craven, but, when he died in 1702, there was a relapse in the movement and the religious condition of the town became woeful in the extreme, said Mr Dawson.

It was at this time that the Independents (the terms Independent and Congregational were interchangeable in the 19th century) began to make their presence felt.

In 1972, the Congregational Church of England and Wales merged with the Presbyterian Church of England to form the United Reformed Church and Skipton voted to join the new denomination.

At about the same time, Skipton’s three Methodist churches – Gargrave Road, Broughton Road and Trinity – established a group to look at the future of Methodism in the town.

In January, 1975, Trinity Methodists withdraw from the scheme, but the other three churches went ahead as planned. The name, St Andrew’s Methodist and United Reformed Church, was adopted. Where is this week’s church, above? news@cravenherald.co.uk