History of St James' Church Dalby on the Isle of Man

This page on the history of our church is being expanded. We begin with its origins.

Bishop Ward Makes Plans for a Church in Dalby

It is thanks to the tireless energy of Bishop William Ward, that we have our church in Dalby. He arrived on the Isle of Man as bishop in 1828, and immediately realised that the Anglican church was unable to accommodate potential worshippers owing to the poor condition of many churches and the absence of churches in some parts of the island. 

At this time, Dalby was considered a remote village. The nearest Anglican church was at Kirk Patrick, but this corner of the island was not without a place of worship, as a Methodist chapel had been established in 1797, 'Dawby Chapel' being part of the Douglas and Castletown circuit. John Wesley had, in fact, come to the village during his second visit to the island in 1781, and his preaching was attended by 'a great crowd'. 

Bishop Ward understood that people in Dalby were able to worship locally, albeit not in the established church, but he also recognised that the children had nowhere suitable nearby where they could be schooled. The bishop could help, and having obtained a government grant to build schoolrooms in villages such as Dalby and Baldwin, he was determined that their design would include a church. How could this be achieved?  His family were the first to find out, as we learn from this story.

'Here was the money for the schoolrooms, but schoolrooms without churches would not content him. How to get the means of building the churches But he "did not suffer his eyes to sleep nor the temples of his head to take any rest" till he had found out the ways and means; and one morning on coming down to breakfast, he told us with a glowing countenance of how in the night he had planned a scheme of annexing a small chapel with sliding doors opening into the schoolroom, which would thus admit a large congregation, and the sacred Offices to be still all performed in a consecrated spot. These little annexed chapels would cost but little, and his great objective would be accomplished of bringing the House of prayer within reach of these poor mountaineers.'

In its report of the opening ceremony, The Mona's Herald related that the chapel itself was 'built by the executors of the late Bishop Ward from the funds of the celebrated Mr Davenport.' 

John Welch - Architect

Born in 1810 in Flintshire, John Welch came to the Isle of Man as assistant to his brother to design King William's College. He worked on the island for much of the 1830s, and was involved in a number of significant projects, such as the Tower of Refuge (1832) commissioned by Sir William Hillary, the House of Industry in Douglas (1834) and the Smelt Memorial in Castletown (1837). 

Welch was clearly well thought of as an architect by Bishop Ward, and was commissioned for work on St Barnabus, Douglas (1832), Kirk Onchan (1833), Kirk Michael (1835) and Kirk Christ Lezayre (1835). It is not surprising, therefore, that Ward turned to John Welch again to design the combined rural schoolrooms and chapels, beginning with St Luke's, Baldwin. Dalby was the last of the three (after Baldwin and Sulby) to be completed in 1839, after Welch had left the island. As well as including the sliding partitions into his design, use was also made of the sloping site at Dalby to provide a basement area, which could be used as accommodation for the schoolmaster. Today, the basement is the Dalby Hub and Shop, a community space that can also be hired by visitors for overnight accommodation.

A feature of the construction of Dalby's new school and chapel was the contribution made by local people in building the chapel and transporting materials.

In 1836, John Welch had published a book anonymously entitled  ‘A Six Days Tour by a Stranger’. The 'stranger's' observations of the Isle of Man were especially complimentary about the buildings designed by John Welch! Rather unfortunately, his observations were less kind about our little village,

 ' … which on account of its total seclusion from all society may be denominated “the fag end of a God-forgotten-world'.

Welch went on to note that Dalby was a good place to see Manx cats, and we also learn from him that Manx was the only language understood by some villagers, which by the1830s was unusual on the island.

Chapel of Ease

It has only been since 2012 that Dalby Church has held equal status with other local churches as part of the Parish of the West Coast. Before then it was a chapel of ease within the parish of Patrick. For almost a century from its opening, Dalby and its church was served by a succession of curates, recently qualified from theological college. On the rear wall of the church is an honours board listing these chaplains - curates to 1935, and from then on the vicars of Patrick. The very first curate was William Kermode. He was only in Dalby for a year, but went on to make a name for himself as a much loved minister in Ramsey and a notable Manx Worthy.

The Official Opening

Sadly, Bishop Ward died a year before St James' Chapel, so it was his successor, James Bowstead, who presided at the opening on Sunday 7th April 1839. The Mona's Herald's brief report of the ceremony, described the chapel as a 'neat and commodious place of worship'. It was . . . 

 'literally crammed with persons from all the neighbouring parts, particularly Peel. There were likewise several respectable individuals from Douglas.' 

Continuing Bishop Ward's Vision

Although the school itself was closed in 1936, the Schoolrooms have since served the community as our church hall. We like to think that Bishop Ward would be heartened to know that over 190 years after coming up with his plan, the two sets of sliding wooden panels are still in place and still in use at Dalby, accommodating church services and diverse events of different sizes, just as he had envisioned.