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St Paul’s Church was designed by local architect William Wallen in the 1840s, William Wallen was the son of famous London architect John Wallen. William moved to Huddersfield to set up his architecture firm in the town centre. He designed the George Hotel of which it's Italianate façade is said to have influenced architectural style in Huddersfield town centre in the years that followed. He also submitted several designs for a tower on castle hill that the council rejected, decades before Victoria Tower was built to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Wallen was committed to Bootham lunatic asylum in 1853.
St Pauls hall was built in 1853 as the village school opening 27th October that year.
When Shepley Primary School was built, the building was used as a Sunday School before becoming a community space. Over the years it has hosted everything from horticultural shows and tea dances to drama productions and local society meetings. Today, it’s home to Rebel Theatre School, Beavers and Cubs, singers, dancers, pilates, and martial arts classes.
William Wallen's signature
29 October 1853
Huddersfield Chronicle
🌍 From Shepley to China, 1864
In 1864, villagers gathered at St Paul’s National School (today’s Church Hall) for the Church Missionary Society’s annual meeting. Guest speaker Rev. T. S. Fleming, recently returned from China, had made the then-extraordinary journey by sea - navigating around the Cape of Good Hope (at Africa’s southern tip, near modern Cape Town) in a voyage of months, relying largely on sail with occasional steam power near coaling ports. His stories would have brought a distant, very different world to our small Yorkshire village - through accounts of education, care, translation, and community work in mission fields far beyond anything local people would ever see.
07 May 1870
Politics in Victorian Shepley - villagers crammed into the hall to hear fiery debate on schools, voting rights, and rents, lightened with witty tales of parish life. Most Shepley residents at this time couldn't vote - only certain men with property or steady tenancy qualified. Working farm labourers and all women were excluded!
Batley Reporter and Guardian
11 March 1876
30 children at St Paul’s School had their freehand drawings sent to South Kensington for judging at what is now the V&A Museum.
Huddersfield Chronicle
Rev J N Hewlett mentioned in the above article
06 February 1892
Huddersfield Daily Examiner
1894
Huddersfield Daily Examiner
🚑 Shepley’s St John Ambulance Meeting,
In 1894, villagers gathered at St Paul’s School (now the Church Hall) for the annual meeting of the St John Ambulance Association, Shepley and District. Throughout the year, locals had attended evening first-aid classes led by Dr Alister Macgregor of Honley, learning how to treat fractures, bleeding, and sudden illness — vital skills for mill workers, quarrymen, and railway staff in a village where accidents were common. St John Ambulance training had been spreading across Britain since the 1870s, making Shepley part of a nationwide movement to equip ordinary people with life-saving knowledge.
24 April 1897
Huddersfield Daily Examiner
20 October 1900
Huddersfield Chronicle
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