900 Year Celebrations

St Peter's Church - 900 year celebrations logo (1120-2020)The year 2020 marked the 900th anniversary of the first stone church being built on the site in Birstall – although Christianity had existed from before this time on the same spot (see our History section for more details).

We celebrated this important milestone with a year of events and special acts, including:

  • During the autumn of 2019 we planted 900 bulbs in the church grounds due to flower in the spring of 2020
  • We challenged the congregation to carry out 900 acts of kindness (‘pay it forward’) during the twelve months of the celebrations
  • We hoped to give out 900 invitations during the year – although due to the coronavirus pandemic many of our events were sadly cancelled.
Photograph of St Peter's church tower

To put this 900 year timespan into perspective, we’ve put together a timeline of local and world events that the church here in Birstall has been witness to – you may be amazed!

900 year timeline

  1. 1120 First stone church built, dedicated to St Peter and St Paul
  2. 1168 School of Oxford founded (Age of church: 48)
  3. 1199 Richard the Lionheart dies (Age of church: 79)
  4. Rector: Dolfin (1199 – 1216)
  5. 1200 Stone church extended (Age of church: 80)
  6. 1215 Magna Carta signed (Age of church: 95)
  7. Rector: Ralph (1218 – 1219)
  8. Rector: Henry of Horbury (?) (1220 – 1228)
  9. Rector: Richard (1228 – 1268)
  10. 1260 Chartres cathedral consecrated (Age of church: 140)
  11. Rector: Thomas de Bolean (1268 – 1279)
  12. Rector: Thomas de Dalton (1279 – 1287)
  13. Vicar: Ralph de Liversegg (1280 – 1309)
  14. Rector: William de Pickering (1289 – 1309)
  15. 1301 Nostell Priory appointed Rectors of the Parish (Age of church: 181)
  16. Vicar: Richard de Hilegh (1309 – 1341)
  17. 1314 Battle of Bannockburn (Age of church: 194)
  18. Vicar: Henry de Rillington (1341 – 1349)
  19. 1347 Black Death strikes Europe (Age of church: 227)
  20. Vicar: John de Rillington (1349 – 1369)
  21. Vicar: Robert Davy (1368 – 1394)
  22. 1382 John Wycliffe, pre-Reformation religious reformer, and his followers finish translating the Latin Bible into English (Age of church: 262)
  23. 1390 Church rebuild finished (Age of church: 270)
  24. Vicar: Richard de Liversegg (1394 – 1430)
  25. Vicar: Thomas Gudeale (1430 – 1460)
  26. 1431 Joan of Arc executed (Age of church: 311)
  27. 1455 Wars of the Roses began (Age of church: 335)
  28. 1455 Johann Gutenberg completes the first printed Bible (Age of church: 335)
  29. Vicar: Richard Messing (1460 – 1462)
  30. Vicar: John Grene (1462 – 1464)
  31. Vicar: John Southwell (1464 – 1465)
  32. Vicar: John Kent (1465 – 1499)
  33. 1490 Church rebuilt, dedicated to just St Peter (Age of church: 370)
  34. 1492 Christopher Columbus sails to America (Age of church: 372)
  35. Vicar: Hugh Anne (1499 – 1508)
  36. 1498 Da Vinci paints The Last Supper (Age of church: 378)
  37. 1500 Third tier of tower added with four bells (Age of church: 380)
  38. Vicar: John Hawkesworth (1508 – 1516)
  39. Vicar: Richard (Ralph) Holand (1516 – 1520)
  40. 1517 Martin Luther writes Theses (Age of church: 397)
  41. Vicar: Christopher Wilson (1520 – 1532)
  42. Vicar: Geoffrey Downes (1532 – 1535)
  43. 1534 Church in England becomes independent of Rome (Age of church: 414)
  44. Vicar: Arthur Cole (1535 – 1537)
  45. Vicar: Richard Dene (1537 – 1538)
  46. Vicar: William Ermysted (1538 – 1557)
  47. 1539 Every church in England to have a bible in the English language (Age of church: 419)
  48. 1556 Church school founded by William Ermystede (Age of church: 436)
  49. Vicar: William Taylier (1557 – 1564)
  50. 1558 Parish registers begin (Age of church: 438)
  51. Vicar: Nicholas Wilson (1564 – 1585)
  52. 1582 Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar (Age of church: 462)
  53. Vicar: Robert Dickson (1587 – 1614)
  54. 1605 Gunpowder plot (Age of church: 485)
  55. Vicar: Richard Marsh (1614 – 1649)
  56. 1642 Civil War begins (ends in 1651) (Age of church: 522)
  57. During the Commonwealth Period, 1649-1660, there were three ministers known as “intruding”:
  58. Joseph Bodin (1649 – 1651)
  59. Robert Constantine (1651 – 1654)
  60. James Rigby (1655 – 1660)
  61. Then Richard Marsh returned as Vicar until 1662
  62. Vicar: William Broadhead (1662 – 1675)
  63. 1662 Book of Common Prayer published – still the official prayer book of the Church of England (Age of church: 542)
  64. 1666 Great Fire of London (Age of church: 546)
  65. Vicar: Joseph Ashburne (1675 – 1680)
  66. Vicar: Joshua Oldroyd (1680 – 1681)
  67. Vicar: Thomas Hepworth (1681 – 1701)
  68. Vicar: Luke Coates (1701 – 1717)
  69. 1707 United Kingdom of Great Britain formed — England, Wales, and Scotland joined by parliamentary Act of Union(Age of church: 587)
  70. Vicar: Thomas Coleby (1718 – 1768)
  71. 1761 A cutting from the Glastonbury Thorn planted in the churchyard (still alive) (Age of church: 641)
  72. 1764 Clock installed on the church tower (Age of church: 644)
  73. Vicar: John Marsden (1768 – 1774)
  74. Vicar: Henry Walkins (1774 – 1800)
  75. 1781 John Wesley preached in the church (Age of church: 661)
  76. 1789 French revolution (Age of church: 669)
  77. Vicar: William Margetson Heald (1801 – 1836)
  78. 1805 Battle of Trafalgar (Age of church: 685)
  79. 1833 Slavery abolished in the British Empire (Age of church: 713)
  80. Vicar: William Margetson Heald Jnr (1836 – 1875)
  81. 1848 Charlotte Bronte writes Shelley (Birstall Church appears as ‘Briarfields’) (Age of church: 728)
  82. 1865 Dilapidated church razed leaving Norman tower (Age of church: 745)
  83. 1870 Present church built and consecrated by Bishop of Ripon (Age of church: 750)
  84. Vicar: John Kemp (1875 – 1895)
  85. 1879 Electric light invented (Age of church: 759)
  86. 1890 Eiffel Tower erected in Paris (Age of church: 770)
  87. 1893 New clock installed by Potts and Son of Leeds (Age of church: 773)
  88. Vicar: William Romaine Hervey (1895 – 1909)
  89. 1901 Frampton mural added over the main arch (Age of church: 781)
  90. 1901 Queen Victoria dies (Age of church: 781)
  91. 1903 Wright brothers take to the skies (Age of church: 783)
  92. Vicar: Henry Cowper Cradock (1909 – 1915)
  93. 1910 Rood screen added to separate quire from nave (Age of church: 790)
  94. 1914 First World War starts (Age of church: 794)
  95. Vicar: Henry Tavener Robinson (1915 – 1949)
  96. 1918 First World War ends (Age of church: 799)
  97. 1919 Eight bells recast and rehung in memory of Lieutenant Edward Brook Longbottom (Age of church: 799)
  98. 1939 Second World War starts (Age of church: 819)
  99. 1945 Second World War ends (Age of church: 825)
  100. Vicar: Frederick George de Jonquil Patterson (1949 – 1959)
  101. 1952 Elizabeth becomes queen (Age of church: 832)
  102. Vicar: Rudolph A Maddocks (1959 – 1970)
  103. 1969 First moon landing (Age of church: 849)
  104. Vicar: Lawrence Dalton (1971 – 1979)
  105. 1976 Concorde’s first commercial supersonic flight (Age of church: 856)
  106. 1978 Wrought iron porch gates installed after significant vandalism (Age of church: 858)
  107. Vicar: David Cook (1980 – 1983)
  108. Vicar: Kenneth John Davies (1983 – 1991)
  109. 1989 Berlin Wall torn down (Age of church: 869)
  110. 1989 Installation of Dais and Nave Altar (Age of church: 869)
  111. Vicar: Richard Morton Weller (1991 – 1996)
  112. 1991 World Wide Web launched (Age of church: 871)
  113. Vicar: Paul Jeremy Knight (1997 – 2020)
  114. 1997 Rear of the church partitioned to create a kitchen and fellowship area (Age of church: 877)
  115. 2001 9/11 attack on New York and the Pentagon (Age of church: 881)
  116. 2016 Internationally televised vigil held on day of the murder of Jo Cox MP (Age of church: 896)
  117. 2020 900 year anniversary of the first stone church