Few people in Kirkheaton could have imagined how their lives would change when Henry VIII broke away from Rome in 1537. In the space of just 11 years between 1547 and 1558 most of the villagers would be forced to change their religion three times and each time within a day. This was because England’s religion was determined by its monarch. Henry VIII was a Catholic but his son Edward VI was raised as a Protestant. Thus on 28^th January 1547, the day Henry VIII died, England became a Protestant country. If people tried to hang on to their Catholic faith and did not attend the parish church on Sundays, they were fined. Kirkheaton’s villagers already lost 7-10% of their income in tax so the possibility of losing a further 20% of it to a fine would have forced almost all of them to change their faith. Even more severe penalties were used for those people who continually refused to change. In the reign of the Catholic queen Mary I at least 280 people were burnt at the stake.

The religious turmoil unleashed by the Tudor kings and queens also had a profound effect on St. John’s, Kirkheaton’s parish church, and its priests. When Henry VIII was the patron of the parish church, its interior would have been very different from what we see today. Catholic churches were far more highly decorated. Lit up by candles, they often had frescoes on the walls; the stars and heaven painted on the ceiling; stained glass windows; pictures of saints and statues of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. All these things were to disappear when a church became Protestant. The interior of a Protestant church was plain and simple, almost austere and with a completely different feel. To the villagers it was probably much less welcoming.

The religious changes also threw the clergy into turmoil. Kirkheaton would have provided a good living for its parish priest, but they too came and went like the ruling monarchs. It led to some strange goings on. John Pullayn applied unsuccessfully to be Kirkheaton’s Protestant priest in 1552 but was successful two years later when he applied to become the village’s Catholic priest. The religious changes affected the clergy in other ways, for example, a Protestant priest could marry and start a family when his Catholic counterpart could not and had to remain celibate.

As the parish priests chopped and changed, so too did their vestments and the conduct of church services. Perhaps bewildering at times for the villagers (see the table above) some of the changes would prove to be for the better. Having the Bible and prayers in English meant Kirkheaton’s villagers could now understand what was being said in a church service, whilst the addition of stools and pews after 1559 meant they did not have to stand throughout.

The religious turmoil unleashed by Henry VIII would last for 150 years. For the villagers it was probably at its worst from 1644-1659 during the time of Oliver Cromwell. The Puritan’s restrictions on daily life saw Christmas abolished, drinking, football and makeup banned, and first names drawn from lines in the Bible or prayers, e.g., Lead Me Not Into Temptation Smith, The Lord Is My Shepherd Andrews or Trust In The Lord Perkins. The Puritan’s preoccupation with witchcraft also saw more people charged with this capital offence in West Yorkshire than any other region.

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