“John Wesley preached in Cragg Vale, which has a long Methodist tradition, though now much less pronounced than it once was.”

St John The Baptist in The Wilderness is Cragg Vale’s only Protestant church, it is in the benefice if Erringden and the diocese of Wakefield. It is situated in the centre of the village at Marshaw Bridge, close by The Hinchliffe country restaurant, bar and inn, and a half mile walk from the Robin Hood Inn. The old stone bridge outside the church is cut by the Greenwich Meridian. Click on the following link to jump to personnel and contact details for the church - Church Personnel.

The churchyard is the final resting place of many of the Hinchliffe family, major mill owners and local big wigs, as well as a wide range of other notable local families.

The church has an adjacent Sunday School complex that is now used as a visitor residential centre, a community centre and our local theatre venue for the annual Cragg Pantomime. It has a new name as the St John’s Centre.

The church itself is supported by a small dedicated community of locals who help provide a wide range of community activities and events.

The setting is a rural idyll, as you can see from the photograph by Tony Green (click for his website) above. The Elphin Brook runs under the bridge in front of the church, and on down to the village of Mytholmroyd below, where it joins the river Calder.

The vicar of St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness is the Reverend James Allison B.A. BSc. He can be contacted on 01422-883130. The assistant curate is the Reverend Sandy Maude, contact 01422-355856.

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