England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Wilsden St Matthew

The Parish

The parish of Wilsden lies in the west of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the parish being created in 1826 from the vast area that is Bradford parish. Wilsden lies roughly 5 miles northwest of Bradford and sits a mile north of the B6144 road which connects Bradford through to Haworth. Once a remote pastoral farming area, the coming of the industrial revolution and the mills that were created caused rapid expansion of this once peaceful rural area, Wilsden has grown into a large town spreading for almost one and a half miles down the hill from the B6144 towards the Harden Beck, similarly the townships of Cullingworth and Allerton have grown into substantial villages too. By the early 1820s it was apparent that the vast parish of Bradford needed to be subdivided into smaller units and Wilsden was created as a parish in 1826. Today much of the industry has declined and left the area leaving a legacy of mill villages across this once upland farming area. The Harden Beck drains the parish the short distance to the River Aire at Bingley, from here the Aire heads eastwards through Leeds and York to reach the North Sea though the Humber Estuary. Wilsden is sited at between 160 and 200 metres from north to south in countryside that once was hilly and deeply cut by river valleys, land continues to rise southwards topping out at 300 metres at Dean Head. An area of 2,600 acres was carved from Bradford parish to create Wilsden and whilst the initial population was small by 1831 there were almost 2,700 parishioners within that area. In Domesday times Wilsden was recorded as a holding of King William but was described as "waste" with no listed assets.

The Church

St Matthew's church was demolished in 1962 to make way for a smaller building on the site of what was once the Sunday School. St Matthew's stood beside the B6144 at Harecroft roughly a half mile west of the top of the village. The church was built between 1823 and 1825 from funding granted by the Waterloo thanksgiving fund. It was a typically designed church of its period with nave, chancel and western tower, today the churchyard remains as the only remnant of the church.