The Congregational Chapel, also known as the Independent Chapel, is a former Congregational or Independent church in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. It is located on Monks Lane ( SJ 65297 52331 ), now a pedestrian walkway, opposite the Dysart Buildings and immediately north east of St Mary's Church. Built in 1841–42, it is listed at grade II. [1] The chapel closed in the late 20th century, and the building has been converted to residential use.
Early visits from Nonconformist preachers were not welcomed in Nantwich. In 1753, John Wesley was "saluted with curses and hard names", while that same year, George Whitefield was met by angry crowds who tried to drive a bull into his audience, but were foiled when the animal fell into a pit. [2]
A society of Independents was formed in 1780 by Captain Jonathan Scott (1735–1807), who started preaching in a coachmaker's shop on Barker Street with the Reverend William Armitage from Chester. [3] Captain Scott was a prominent independent evangelist who had resigned his commission in the 7th Dragoons in 1769 to focus on missionary work, and was ordained in 1774 or 1776 as a "presbyter or teacher at large". [3] [4] [5] Born in Shrewsbury and then living in Wollerton in Shropshire, Scott went on preaching tours across Shropshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Lancashire and Wales during the 1770s. [3] [4] [5] He is credited with involvement in the foundation of 22 Congregationalist churches. [4] [5] In 1794, Scott moved to Matlock in Derbyshire, but continued to preach in Nantwich every other Sunday. [5] One of the early supporters of the Nantwich society was a local justice of the peace, Samuel Barrow, who donated £50 a year towards establishing a permanent ministry in 1796. The first minister is recorded from this date, and the first Independent chapel was built in 1801 on Church Lane. [3] Scott later settled permanently in Nantwich, marrying Barrow's widow in 1802, and assisting the chapel's ministers until his death five years later. [3] [5]
The Independent congregation reached its height under the ministry of the Reverend J. Simson in 1840–51. A large chapel on Monks Lane was completed in 1842 at a cost of £2,200; the earlier building was retained as a Sunday School. [3] The new chapel seated a congregation of around 700. [6] The several other Nonconformist places of worship in the town in 1850 also included a Wesleyan Methodist Church and a Unitarian Chapel on Hospital Street, a Primitive Methodist Chapel on Welsh Row, a Baptist Chapel on Barker Street, a Friends' Meeting House on Pillory Street, and a Wesleyan Association Chapel on Castle Street. [6] After 1851, the congregation went into substantial decline until at least the 1880s. [3]
An organ was acquired at a cost of just under £400 in 1875. [3] A meeting in May 1884 authorised the construction of a Sunday School building, which was constructed adjacent to the chapel on Monks Lane. A substantial red-brick building with stone dressings flanked by two low square towers, it was not completed until 1903. [7] [8] In 1890, the interior of the chapel was redecorated and new pews were added at a cost of £350. [9]
In the 1970s, the chapel suffered from dry rot. It later closed, and the building has been converted into apartments. [8] [10] The Sunday School remained in use until the 1970s when it was also affected by dry rot; it was subsequently demolished. [8]
The former Congregational Chapel is a two-storey building in red brick with stone dressings. The front façade has three bays topped with a pediment supported by large brick pilasters. The pediment bears a stone plaque inscribed with the date in Roman numerals. [1] [7] There are two doorways to the front, flanked by pilasters, which each have rectangular fanlights and cornices above, supported by corbels. Between the doorways is a central window and the main façade has three windows to the first floor; each has a semi-circular arched head with a keystone decoration. [1] The front face also has a stone string course between the ground and first floors, and a cornice at the level of the pediment.
The side face has four bays; the windows have stone sills and semi-circular arched heads highlighted in brick. The interior (now altered) originally had a circular gallery. [6]
Acton is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Burland and Acton, lying immediately west of the town of Nantwich, in the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The civil parish covered 762 acres (3.08 km2) and also included the small settlement of Dorfold and part of Burford, with an estimated population of 340 in 2006. It is administered jointly with the adjacent civil parishes of Henhull and Edleston. Historically, Acton refers to a township and also to an ancient parish in the Nantwich Hundred covering a wide area to the west of Nantwich. The area is agricultural, with dairy farming the main industry. Around a third of the area falls within the Dorfold Estate. Historically, agriculture was the major employer, but it has now been overtaken by the service industries, with many residents commuting significant distances outside the parish to work.
Minshull Vernon is a hamlet and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The hamlet lies 3 miles (5 km) to the north west of Crewe, south east of Winsford and south west of Middlewich. The parish also includes the small settlements of Bradfield Green, Eardswick, Hoolgrave, Minshull Hill, Walley's Green and Weaver Bank. The total population of the civil parish is somewhat over 200, measured at 391 in the Census 2011. Nearby villages include Church Minshull, Warmingham and Wimboldsley.
Sound is a hamlet and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The hamlet is located 3+1⁄4 miles (5.2 km) to the south west of Nantwich. The civil parish covers 1,089 acres (441 ha) and also includes the small settlements of Newtown and Sound Heath, with a total population at the 2011 Census of 239. Nearby villages include Aston, Ravensmoor and Wrenbury.
Poole is a civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, which lies to the north west of Nantwich and to the west of Crewe. The Shropshire Union Canal runs through the parish. Nearby villages include Acton, Aston juxta Mondrum, Barbridge, Stoke Bank, Rease Heath and Worleston.
The Surrey Chapel (1783–1881) was an independent Methodist and Congregational church established in Blackfriars Road, Southwark, London on 8 June 1783 by the Rev. Rowland Hill. His work was continued in 1833 by the Congregational pastor Rev. James Sherman, and in 1854 by Rev. Newman Hall. The chapel's design attracted great interest, being circular in plan with a domed roof. When built it was set in open fields, but within a few years it became a new industrial area with a vast population characterised by great poverty amidst pockets of wealth. Recently the site itself has been redeveloped as an office block, and Southwark Underground Station has been built opposite.
The Union Chapel, also known as the Union Street Chapel, Elim Free Church, Four Square Gospel Tabernacle or Elim Tabernacle of the Four Square Gospel, is a former chapel in the centre of Brighton, a constituent part of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. After three centuries of religious use by various congregations, the chapel—which had been Brighton's first Nonconformist place of worship—passed into secular use in 1988 when it was converted into a pub. It was redesigned in 1825, at the height of Brighton's Georgian building boom, by at least one of the members of the Wilds–Busby architectural partnership, Brighton's pre-eminent designers and builders of the era, but may retain some 17th-century parts. It has been listed at Grade II in view of its architectural importance.
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.
9 Mill Street is a Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. The present building dates from around 1736 and is a grade II* listed building. Nikolaus Pevsner calls it a "fine, spacious" house, and the English Heritage listing describes it as a "substantial and well-detailed early, C18 Town House, which ... retains much original interior fabric." Formerly a town house, bank and political club, it is currently a restaurant and bar.
Dysart Buildings is a terrace of nine Georgian houses on Monks Lane in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. Dating from 1778 to 1779, the building is listed at grade II*. It is located at 1–9 Monks Lane, now a pedestrian walkway, opposite the former Congregational Chapel and immediately north east of St Mary's Church. Nikolaus Pevsner describes the building as "surprisingly metropolitan".
Crewe Almshouses or Crewe's Almshouses is a terrace of seven former almshouses at the end of Beam Street in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. The present building was erected in 1767 by John Crewe, later first Baron Crewe, and is listed at grade II. It has a central projecting section topped by a pediment, with a stone doorway flanked with Tuscan columns. The present almshouses stand on the site of a 16th-century building, originally the mansion of the Mainwaring family and later the town's House of Correction and workhouse.
The Primitive Methodist Chapel is a former Primitive Methodist church on Welsh Row in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. Built in 1840, it is listed at grade II. The chapel closed in 2001, and the building has been partially converted to residential use.
The Wesleyan Methodist Church, also known as the Wesleyan Chapel, is a former Wesleyan Methodist church on Hospital Street, Nantwich, Cheshire, England. Built in 1808, a new façade was added in 1876. The church then seated over a thousand, and was the largest Nonconformist place of worship in the town in the 1880s. It is listed at grade II. The church closed in 2009, after the congregation moved to the former Methodist schoolrooms opposite.
The Lamb Hotel, now known as Chatterton House, is a former public house in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. It is located on the north side of Hospital Street, at the junction with Church Lane. The present building by Thomas Bower dates from 1861 and is listed at grade II; Nikolaus Pevsner describes it as "decent" and "staid".
The Gateway, or 60–62 Welsh Row, is a Late Georgian former stable entrance in Nantwich, Cheshire, England, dating from the early 19th century. It is located on the north side of Welsh Row, on the junction with Red Lion Lane. It is listed at grade II. Nikolaus Pevsner describes The Gateway as "handsome".
20 High Street is a grade-II-listed Georgian building in Nantwich, Cheshire, England, which dates from the late 18th century. It stands on the west side of the High Street. In the 18th century, the building was used as an inn and a venue for cock-fighting; it later became a private house and subsequently a shop. The site is believed to have been near the town's Norman castle.
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.
Robertsbridge United Reformed Church is a former United Reformed Church place of worship in Robertsbridge, a village in the district of Rother in the English county of East Sussex. Built for Congregational worshippers in 1881 following their secession from a long-established Wesleyan Methodist chapel, it was the third Nonconformist place of worship in the village, whose nearest parish church was in the neighbouring settlement of Salehurst. Like the former Strict Baptist and Methodist chapels in the village, which have both closed, it no longer serves Robertsbridge as a place of worship. Local architect Thomas Elworthy's distinctive design—a "rich" and highly decorated blend of several styles—has divided opinion amongst architectural historians. English Heritage has listed the church at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
The United Reformed Church is a congregation in Stamford, Lincolnshire, based in a late-Georgian building situated on Star Lane.
The former Salvation Army Hall in Godalming, Surrey, England, now an office building known as Aurum House, has been used by three religious groups since its construction c. 1830. The ancient town in the English county of Surrey has a long and diverse history of Protestant Nonconformity, and three Nonconformst denominations are represented: at first it served Congregationalists, but when they built a larger chapel in the town it passed to the Methodist Church. In the 20th century it was occupied by The Salvation Army, but it closed in 2012 and was redeveloped for commercial use. The building has been listed at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
The building formerly known as Park Lane Chapel is a former Strict Baptist chapel in the ancient town of Farnham in Surrey, England. Now a house, it was in religious use for nearly 150 years and housed a congregation whose origins go back to informal meetings in the 1840s. After Nisan Samuel, a Polish Jew, arrived in England and converted to Christianity, he took charge of these ad hoc meetings and formalised them into a Strict Baptist church. After he moved on, the congregation bought land and built a chapel. The small stone and brick building has been listed at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
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