In 1764, Methodsit meetings were held at Longscales, a private house. C1811, there were 19 members listed at Wreaks cotton mill.
John Greenwood, who arrived in Birstwith to take over the cotton and corn mills in 1805, attended services at Wesley Chapel in the Allotments. He subscribed £10 a year to the Wesleyan circuit and built a chapel on Darley Road in 1835. However, he never conveyed it to the local society and after his death in 1846, his heir, who was an Anglican, turned the Wesleyans out. Later, in 1855, the building became the village school and a venue for Anglican services until St. James's Church was built in 1857. Jennings "(History of Nidderdale") gives two possible explanations for John's decision not to secure the Wesleyans in their ownership of the chapel. He may have thought that his sons would not interfere with the Wesleyans or he wished to preserve their freedom of action in the matter. The Chapel was demolished by Frederick Greenwood in 1879.
The Wesleyans found a new site, outside the Greenwood Estate at the top of Elton Bank, on land presented to the Society by John Bramley of 'Meg-yate'. The new chapel was built in 1857 to accommodate 120 people and bearing the inscription, 'Rehoboth'. In Hebrew, meaning 'broad places', this is found in three verses of Genesis and also in Chronicles. Perhaps the following is the most relevant to the naming of a chapel:
Genesis 26:22 "And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land."
The chapel is now a private home.
I am indebted to " A Short History of St. James's Church Birstwith" by Geoffrey W. Manock and to Nidderdale Museum for these notes.