Cross Stone Church

The Chapel of Cross Stone or Crostone takes its name from a fragment of an 11th century cross found in the wall of a barn. In the Township of Stansfield, it was part of the Heptonstall parish, but due to the size of the area covered, a sub chapel or chapel-of-ease was built at Cross Stone about 1450. Although rites were performed at Cross Stone, they were not official until recorded in the Register at Heptonstall. This was true until the liberalizations of the 1800s. The first church at Cross Stone was built in 1527 and pulled down in 1717 and then replaced. The famous Parson William Grimshaw was curate here from 1731 to 1741, before moving to Haworth where he preceded the Rev Patrick Bronte. He was a close friend and colleague of John Wesley during the early days of the non-conformists and became noted for his passionate pulpit oratory. The Rev John Fennel, uncle of Mrs Patrick Bronte, was here from 1819-1841 and the Bronte children stayed on a visit in 1829. From Weaver to Web. The church ceased to be used for worship due to subsidence damage in the 1970s, was formally closed in 1980 and sold in 1988 for residential conversion. Allegedly most of the contents including the Kempe stained glass were lost in transit when a ship sank on its way to a buyer in the USA.