St Peter’s Church
St Peter’s Church Sowerby, was built in 1762 to replace an older building that was becoming too small and in need of many repairs.
Parts of the old building which was demolished about 1765 still remain, built into a structure at Field House. This belfry and east window probably date back to 1622, or before, when it was decided on 25th May 1622, to tax Blackwood, Sowerby; and Westfield, £40 each towards enlarging, re-edifying, and beautifying the chapel at Sowerby Town
It is certain that that the church was in existence before 30th December 1592, when the will of Robert Wade, of Sowerby gave £4 yearly out of his lands, to be distributed to the poor of Sowerby, by the Minister for the time being.” It is also reasonable to suppose that in 1622 the Church must have been a moderately old one, or it would not have been found necessary to enlarge and rebuild it so soon.
A deposition extracted from the Dod MSS, states that on the 1st July 1580, “Edward Firth, late of Toothill, born at Ryponden, of the age of 93 years, saith that he hath seen Sowerby Church and Ryboden Chapel to build”.
One Adam Morris is said to have been a curate in Sowerby in 1572, and the probability is that the church had not been in existence many years before that date, because in the first license for the celebration of masses and other divine offices in St Mary Chapel, Luddenden, it is stated that the inhabitants of Midgley, Sowerby and Warley erected at their own expense a chapel in the vale of Luddenden. The license is dated 1496. It is not likely that a church had been erected at Sowerby at that time, or its inhabitants would not have shared with Warley and Midgley the expense of building a chapel in Luddenden. Therefore, Sowerby Church would be erected about the middle of the Sixteenth Century. In 1583 Adam Morris left Sowerby, going as chaplain to a regiment in Ireland. He was buried at Halifax, September 24th 1591.