600 children who attended the local Sunday Schools were present at the laying of the stone which was carried out using a silver trowel by William Wilson, the uncle of the Harrison sisters.

The first service was led by Reverend S. Langton of St George's Church, Portobello, and Wadsley's first minister Francis Owen also delivered an address.

In June 1857, the minister was eventually allowed to publish Banns of marriage and carry out all the usual duties when Wadsley became a "new parish".

On Easter day 1884 the church suffered serious damage when a fire destroyed the roof and devastated much of the interior including the pews and organ.

The church did not hold a service again until Christmas Day 1884 and was officially re-opened by William Thomson, Archbishop of York, on 12 February 1885.

In 1917 George Cherry Weaver became minister; his long incumbency of 30 years saw many changes to the church, with electric light installed, pew rents abolished and the churchyard extended.

Victims of the Great Sheffield Flood of 1864 are buried in the graveyard, including members of the Watson, Price, and Atkinson families.

[8] The graveyard contains a large open area with no gravestones; this is the site of the burials of people from the nearby South Yorkshire Asylum (later Middlewood Hospital).

Another grave is that of Dr. T. Allan Taylor who developed the high nickel alloy steel needed for the production of the jet engine by Frank Whittle in the 1930s.