By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 247 
to be used for the object for which they were built. The former 
is most probably an ‘Ancrent Saxon Cuurcu,’—the other is called 
the ‘Grove Mzrtine-Hovss,’ and has some interest as being the 
first non-conformist chapel erected in Bradford. 5 
Tuer Saxon Cuurcu.! 
By this term we designate a very ancient building, standing 
near the north-east end of the Parish Church, which is now used 
for the purposes of a Free-School. The surrounding site is still 
called the ‘Abbey-yard,’ from which we may form a plausible 
conjecture, as intimated in a previous page (12), that the monastery 
founded in this place by St. Aldhelm, at the commencement of the 
eighth century, was erected on that site. Moreover, in opening 
the ground, a few years ago, immediately adjoining the present 
building, for drainage and other purposes, stone coffins were discover- 
ed,—thus identifying the surrounding site as a place of sepulture. 
There are no records believed to be in existence which could throw 
light upon the object and purpose of the building in ancient times. 
When a portion of it was conveyed to Trustees in 1715, as a School- 
house, it was described as—‘a building adjoining to the church- 
yard of Bradford, commonly called the Skull-House,—from the 
fact, most probably, of its having been used as a charnel-house. 
Hemmed in on every side by buildings of one kind or another,— 
on the south-side by a sort of wing added to the original building 
(in which the schoolmaster’s residence now is), and also by another 
building used as a coach-house;—on the north by a large shed, em- 
ployed for the purposes of the neighbouring woollen manufactory ; 
—the design and nature of the building escaped, till a very recent 
date, the notice of Archeologists. The fact, too, of the west front 
being entirely modern work, deceived them as to the nature of the 
whole, and every one considered it, at the first glance, to be a 
production of the eighteenth century. 
Subsequent investigation, however, has convinced us, that, not- 
' For valuable assistance, in drawing up the architectural details of this very 
interesting building, I have been indebted to my friend, Mr. C. E. Davies, 
F.8.A., of Bath. 
