The present Angmering Baptist Church and its predecessor building, known as Church of Christ, are respectively the current and former Baptist places of worship in Angmering, a village in the Arun district of West Sussex, England. Baptist worship in the area can be traced back to 1846, when the "strangely towered"[1] Church of Christ was founded and built. After the Gothic-style chapel became unsuitable for modern requirements, the congregation acquired a nearby barn and converted it into a new church, after which the old building was sold for residential conversion. The church has been designated a Grade II listed building.
The village of Angmering developed at the heart of a large inland parish near the ancient town of Arundel. The Dukes of Norfolk, owners of Arundel Castle, also held Angmering Park—"a richly wooded demesne of great beauty".[2] The parish had three medieval churches, but only St Margaret's Church (originally the church of West Angmering) survives; those at East Angmering and Barpham had fallen into dereliction by the 16th century.[3] A railway station served the village from 1846.[4]
ProtestantNonconformism thrived in Sussex from the 17th century. Although denominations and movements such as Strict Baptists, General Baptists, Presbyterians, Quakers, Methodists and the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion were particularly successful in East Sussex, many congregations and chapels were also founded in the west of the county, which was also a stronghold of Roman Catholicism.[1] In particular, the town of Worthing, near Angmering, had several Nonconformist places of worship by the mid-19th century.[5] George Robert Paul, a Worthing resident and the son of Sir John Dean Paul, 1st Baronet,[6] founded a church with the name Church of Christ at the south end of Angmering village in 1846.[7] Despite its name—suggestive of a link to the Restoration Movement—it was Baptist from the beginning.[8] Paul was both its superintendent and its owner, and the chapel's first minister John Adams was also based in Worthing.[6][7][9] The building was registered for public worship on 7 January 1847.[6]
Paul still owned the chapel himself as a proprietary chapel until 1906, when a group of 14 trustees bought it for £325.[6][9] The alternative name Angmering Chapel was also used later.[7] The connection with Worthing, which had lapsed, resumed in 1923 when the chapel began to be served as a "preaching station" by ministers from Worthing's Christchurch Road Baptist Church,[7][9] which opened in 1881 and helped to establish or administer several Baptist chapels in the area.[5] This arrangement continued until 1966.[9]
By the 1960s, the building was no longer suitable for the requirements of modern worship as access was poor and there were few facilities. In 1967, Sir Herbert Janes, an Angmering resident who had founded and headed a civil engineering firm, helped find a site for a new church. A disused barn near the old chapel was available. Janes helped to pay for its purchase and conversion into a place of worship.[6] Like the original chapel, this had a capacity of 150.[9] The first service at the new Angmering Baptist Church was held on 4 July 1970.[6] Its membership was recorded as 87 in 1985.[9] Extensions were added in 1984 (a church hall), 1994 (to the church building itself) and 2005 (a new entrance).[6] The former chapel was sold for restoration and conversion into two houses; the former graveyard forms the garden of one of them, and the headstones were moved to the new church.[6][8][9]
Under the name The Former Baptist Church, the former Church of Christ building was designated a Grade II listed building on 20 September 1984.[12]
The present Angmering Baptist Church was licensed for worship in accordance with the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 on 21 July 1970 and has the registration number 72227.[13] On the same date it was licensed for solemnising marriages according to the terms of the Marriage Act 1949, and the old chapel's licence was simultaneously cancelled.[14]
Architecture
The old chapel is a "strangely towered"[1]Gothic Revival building of flint with red-brick quoins and window surrounds.[8] Its most distinctive feature is the tall four-storey rectangular tower at the west end[8][9]—an unusual architectural feature for a Baptist chapel.[1] The tower has one pointed-arched lancet window on each storey and a pyramid-shaped slate spire.[7][8][12] The rest of the roof is also laid with slate.[12]
The body of the building is a single storey high. Its two casement windows are set in brick-dressed pointed arches.[12] The entrance is set in a gabled porch. An extension built in the late 19th century stands on the northwest side.[12] The chapel stands on high ground overlooking the adjacent road, and is only accessible by steps from the road.[6][9]
Ebenezer Particular Baptist Chapel is a former Strict Baptist place of worship in Hastings, East Sussex, England. Founded in 1817 by members of the congregation of an older Baptist chapel in the ancient town, it was extended several times in the 19th century as attendances grew during Hastings' period of rapid growth as a seaside resort. It was closed and converted into a house in the late 20th century, but still stands in a prominent position in Hastings Old Town. English Heritage has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Rehoboth Chapel is a former Strict Baptist place of worship in the hamlet of Pell Green in East Sussex, England. Pell Green is in the parish of Wadhurst in Wealden, one of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex, and stands on the road between the market town of Wadhurst and the village of Lamberhurst in the county of Kent. Built in 1824 to replace an earlier meeting place for local Baptists, it continued in religious use until the late 20th century. The weatherboarded building—now a house—is of a similar design to another Baptist chapel at nearby Shover's Green. The building is Grade II listed.
Shover's Green Baptist Chapel is a former Strict Baptist place of worship in the hamlet of Shover's Green in East Sussex, England. Shover's Green is in Wealden, one of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex, and stands on the road between the market town of Wadhurst and the village of Ticehurst in the neighbouring district of Rother. Founded by Strict Baptists from nearby Burwash in 1816, the chapel—one of three Baptist places of worship in Wadhurst parish—continued to serve the community until the 1970s, when it was sold for conversion to a house. Its design is similar to that of the nearby Rehoboth Chapel at Pell Green. The chapel is protected as a Grade II Listed building.
Providence Chapel is a former independent Calvinistic place of worship in the village of Hadlow Down in Wealden, one of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex. Although built in 1849, the chapel can trace its origins to the founding in 1824 of an Independent place of worship in the village. The new building was in religious use for nearly 150 years, but storm damage led to its closure and conversion into a private dwelling in 1993—although its former graveyard survives. The chapel is a Grade II Listed building.
Rye Particular Baptist Chapel is a former Strict Baptist place of worship in Rye, an ancient hilltop town in Rother, one of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex. Built in the 18th century on the site of a decaying Quaker meeting house, it served Baptists in the town for many years until a new chapel was constructed nearby. The chapel is a Grade II Listed building.
Southover General Baptist Chapel is a former Baptist place of worship in the ancient village of Southover, now part of the town and district of Lewes, one of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex. Founded in 1741 as the first Baptist place of worship in the area, it attracted a congregation of General Baptists whose theological views gradually moved towards Unitarianism. This led to their union with the members of the nearby Westgate Chapel, after which the flint and brick building housed other congregations and secular groups before its conversion to a house. The building is protected as a Grade II by English Heritage.
Billingshurst Unitarian Chapel is a place of worship in Billingshurst in the English county of West Sussex. The cottage-like building was erected in 1754 for General Baptists, hence its original name of the Billingshurst General Baptist Chapel, but the congregation moved towards Unitarian beliefs in the 19th century, and still maintain these. It is a member of General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella body for British Unitarians.
St Leonard's Baptist Church is the Baptist place of worship serving St Leonards-on-Sea, a town and seaside resort which is part of the Borough of Hastings in East Sussex, England. The elaborate building was designed by the architectural firm of Thomas Elworthy, responsible for many churches in late-Victorian era Sussex, and serves the residential hinterland of St Leonards-on-Sea—an area which grew rapidly after its early 19th-century founding by James Burton. English Heritage has listed the church at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Littlehampton Friends Meeting House is a Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) place of worship in the town of Littlehampton, part of the Arun district of West Sussex, England. A Quaker community has worshipped in the seaside town since the 1960s, when they acquired a former Penny School building constructed in the early 19th century. The L-shaped, flint-faced structure, consisting of schoolrooms and a schoolmaster's house, has been converted into a place of worship at which weekly meetings take place. The house is a Grade II Listed building.
Trinity Congregational Church, later known as Union Chapel, is a former place of worship for Congregationalists and Independent Christians in Arundel, an ancient town in the Arun district of West Sussex, England. Protestant Nonconformism has always been strong in the town, and the chapel's founding congregation emerged in the 1780s. After worshipping elsewhere in the town, they founded the present building in the 1830s and remained for many years. Former pastors included the poet George MacDonald. Robert Abraham's distinctive neo-Norman/Romanesque Revival building was converted into a market in the 1980s and has been renamed Nineveh House. The church is a Grade II Listed building.
Horsham Unitarian Church is a Unitarian chapel in Horsham in the English county of West Sussex. It was founded in 1719 to serve the large Baptist population of the ancient market town of Horsham—home of radical preacher Matthew Caffyn—and the surrounding area. The chapel's congregation moved towards Unitarian beliefs in the 19th century, but the simple brick building continued to serve worshippers drawn from a wide area of Sussex. It is one of several places of worship which continue to represent Horsham's centuries-old tradition of Protestant Nonconformism, and is the town's second oldest surviving religious building—only St Mary's, the parish church, predates it. English Heritage has listed the chapel at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Yapton Free Church is an Evangelical church in the village of Yapton in West Sussex, England. The "pretty flint building" dates from 1861, when it was built for a group of Congregational worshippers who had been active in the area for several years. Growth in membership during the 20th century meant that by the 1990s some services and activities were held in larger premises elsewhere, but the chapel remains registered as a place of worship. The church is denominationally independent but is associated with a worldwide cross-denomination network of churches called Partners in Harvest. The church building has been listed at Grade II by Historic England for its architectural and historical importance.
Black, Adam; Black, Charles (2000) [1861]. Black's 1861 Guide to Sussex (Facsimile of original publication). Black's Guides: South-Eastern Counties of England. Bakewell: Country Books. ISBN1-898941-21-1.
Body, Geoffrey (1984). Railways of the Southern Region. PSL Field Guides. Cambridge: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN0-85059-664-5.
Elleray, D. Robert (2004). Sussex Places of Worship. Worthing: Optimus Books. ISBN0-9533132-7-1.
Lewis, C.P., ed. (2009). A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 5 Part 2. Littlehampton and District (Arundel Rape, South-Eastern Part, comprising Poling Hundred). Victoria County History. Vol.5 (ii). Woodbridge: Boydell Press. ISBN978-1-904356-19-6.
Stell, Christopher (2002). Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting-houses in Eastern England. Swindon: English Heritage. ISBN1-873592-50-7.
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