Mill Hill Chapel

Last updated

Mill Hill Chapel
Mill Hill Unitarian Chapel
Mill Hill Unitarian Chapel, City Square, Leeds - DSC07730.JPG
Location map United Kingdom Leeds Central.png
Red pog.svg
Mill Hill Chapel
Location in Leeds
53°47′48.15″N1°32′47.93″W / 53.7967083°N 1.5466472°W / 53.7967083; -1.5466472
OS grid reference SE 29960 33473
Location Leeds City Square, West Yorkshire
CountryEngland
Denomination Unitarianism
Previous denomination Presbyterianism
Membership27 (2017)
Website millhillchapel.org
Architecture
Functional statusActive
Heritage designationII*
Designated26 September 1963
Architect(s) Henry Bowman and J. S. Crowther
Architectural type Church (building)
Style Dissenting Gothic
Specifications
Capacity120
Administration
DistrictThe Yorkshire Union Of Unitarian And Free Christian Churches
Clergy
Minister(s) Rev'd Jo James

Mill Hill Chapel is a Unitarian church in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is a member of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella organisation for British Unitarians. [1] The building, which stands in the centre of the city on City Square, was granted Grade II* listed status in 1963. [2] [3]

Contents

History

As early as 1674, only a dozen years after the Great Ejection, the Dissenters in Leeds had built a chapel on the main town square. One of the founders was the father of the historian Ralph Thoresby who guided the chapel toward the Dissenter movement which, at Mill Hill Chapel, would become Unitarianism. [3]

18th century

Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds - 18th century Mill Hill Chapel 18th-Century.jpg
Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds – 18th century

During the late 18th century, Mill Hill's sister chapel was the Independent Congregationalist Call Lane Chapel, Leeds. Many of Leeds's leading families such as George William Oates at Low Hall, Potternewton and the Dixon family of Gledhow Hall were heavily involved with both churches at this time. Some local gentry, such as Hans Busk, even "maintained a private Unitarian chaplain" or "Preaching Room" on their own estates. [4] [5]

From the late 18th century, Mill Hill Chapel continued to "penetrate county society" [6] with prominent politicians, industrialists and merchants such as the Lupton family – who were also committed to the Call Lane Chapel – being its strongest supporters. [7] [8]

19th and early 20th centuries

The Kitson family were also deeply involved in the chapel. William Morris designed a window to Ann Kitson, who died in 1865. Her son James Kitson, 1st Baron Airedale, paid for the extension of the vestry in 1897. After James's death, Archibald Keightley Nicholson created a window in his name, representing the continuation of Christianity. [9]

The Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society drew many of its supporters from the chapel. "There was a careful consciousness of middle-class identity and independence...which combined easily with the utilitarian and scientific interests" of the Mill Hill congregation. [10] Mill Hill Chapel became known punningly as "the mayors' nest", as so many mayors and later lord mayors belonged to it. [11] There are memorials to, for example, Francis Garbutt (1847) and John Darnton Luccock (1864).

The church guidebook describes the early twentieth century as "a small but politically active and very influential congregation led by the Revd Charles Hargrove and Sir James Kitson". [12] A notable member of the congregation prior to the First World War was Jogendra Nath Sen, who came to study Electrical Engineering at the University of Leeds. He volunteered to fight in September 1914 and joined the Leeds Pals. [13]

21st century

A plaque outside the church observes that the chapel was the first place of worship in Leeds city centre to conduct a same-sex wedding. [14]

Architecture

Mill Hill Chapel sits on the east side of Leeds City Square, in the centre of one of England's most populous, and at the time of its construction most prosperous, cities. Its architects Henry Bowman and J. S. Crowther designed it in 1848 in the Dissenting Gothic style. The nave still has the original Victorian pews. [2] The architectural sculpture was executed by Robert Mawer. [15] [16]

Leeds Civic Trust recognised its importance in the city with a Blue Plaque.

Leeds' Mill Hill Chapel Blue Plaque Leeds MillHillChapel BluePlaque.jpg
Leeds' Mill Hill Chapel Blue Plaque

Ministers

Minister Richard Stretton MA (oxon) began his ministry at Mill Hill in 1672. In 1694 Timothy Manlove, who practised as a physician, was invited to be the minister.

The chapel belonged to the tradition of English Dissent and the congregation maintained links with English Presbyterianism until the beginning of the eighteenth century, "but it took a dramatic turn in the direction of heterodoxy with the appointment of Thomas Walker (died 1763) in 1748". He was the uncle-guardian of George Walker, mathematician and activist, who merited inclusion in the Dictionary of National Biography . Joseph Priestley considered Thomas Walker heretical. Many of Walker's sermons were recorded by Joseph Ryder (1695–1768), whose extensive diaries (of 5,000 sermons across Yorkshire) were inherited by his relative Olive Lupton, née Rider (1753–1803). [17]

Joseph Priestley was its minister from 1767 to 1773, and guided the chapel towards Unitarianism. Priestley recommended as his successor William Wood, who was involved in efforts to remedy the political and educational disabilities of Nonconformists under the Test Acts. In addition, during his years there until his death in 1808, he developed considerable expertise as a botanist. His son George William Wood was born there.

Rev Charles Wicksteed was minister for a generation, from 1835 to 1854, and wrote a history of the chapel after he retired. During his time in Leeds, he was president of the Phil and Lit learned society, or, to give it its formal title, the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, from 1851 to 1854. [10] [18] He co-founded the Leeds Education Society, [19] a precursor to the National Education League. The minister was influential nationally too, jointly editing the Prospective Review for ten years, "the influential voice of the ‘new school’ of English Unitarianism, as against the older tradition of eighteenth-century Priestleyanism" [20] and shaping "the adoption of neo-Gothic architecture" in the new chapels that were being built - what is now called Dissenting Gothic. [21]

From 1855 the minister was Thomas Hincks, [22] a naturalist known for his work on zoophytes and bryozoa. He lost his voice and had to resign in 1869. [23] He devoted his retirement to his scientific work and in 1872 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. [24]

See also

Related Research Articles

Unitarianism is a Nontrinitarian branch of Christianity. Unitarian Christians affirm the unitary nature of God as the singular and unique creator of the universe, believe that Jesus Christ was inspired by God in his moral teachings and that he is the savior of humankind, but he is not comparable or equal to God himself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Priestley</span> English chemist, theologian, educator, and political theorist (1733–1804)

Joseph Priestley was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted experiments in electricity and other areas of science. He was a close friend of, and worked in close association with Benjamin Franklin involving electricity experiments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Price</span> British philosopher, preacher and mathematician (1723–1791)

Richard Price was a Welsh moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer, pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the French and American Revolutions. He was well-connected and fostered communication between many people, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, Mirabeau and the Marquis de Condorcet. According to the historian John Davies, Price was "the greatest Welsh thinker of all time".

The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christians, and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was formed in 1928, with denominational roots going back to the Great Ejection of 1662. Its headquarters is Essex Hall in central London, on the site of the first avowedly Unitarian chapel in England, set up in 1774.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Wicksteed</span>

Philip Henry Wicksteed is known primarily as an economist. He was also a Georgist, Unitarian theologian, classicist, medievalist, and literary critic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chapeltown, Leeds</span> Suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

Chapeltown is a suburb of north-east Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It is part of the Leeds City Council Ward of Chapel Allerton. It is approximately one mile north of Leeds city centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Kitson, 1st Baron Airedale</span> British peer and politician

James Kitson, 1st Baron Airedale, PC, DSc, was an industrialist, locomotive builder, Liberal Party politician and a Member of Parliament for the Holme Valley. He was known as Sir James Kitson from 1886, until he was elevated to the peerage in 1907. Lord Airedale was a prominent Unitarian in Leeds, Yorkshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potternewton</span> Suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England

Potternewton is a suburb and parish between Chapeltown and Chapel Allerton in north-east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is in the Chapel Allerton ward of Leeds City Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warrington Academy</span> Dissenting academy in Warrington, Lancashire, England

Warrington Academy, active as a teaching establishment from 1756 to 1782, was a prominent dissenting academy, that is, a school or college set up by those who dissented from the established Church of England. It was located in Warrington, a town about half-way between the rapidly industrialising Manchester and the burgeoning Atlantic port of Liverpool. Formally dissolved in 1786, the funds then remaining were applied to the founding of Manchester New College in Manchester, which was effectively the Warrington Academy's successor, and in time this led to the formation of Harris Manchester College, Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Priestley and Dissent</span> British clergyman and intellectual of the late 18th century

Joseph Priestley was a British natural philosopher, political theorist, clergyman, theologian, and educator. He was one of the most influential Dissenters of the late 18th-century.

William Wood was an English Unitarian minister and botanist who was involved in efforts to remedy the political and educational disabilities of Nonconformists under the Test Acts.

<i>Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion</i>

The Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion, written by 18th-century English Dissenting minister and polymath Joseph Priestley, is a three-volume work designed for religious education published by Joseph Johnson between 1772 and 1774. Its central argument is that revelation and natural law must coincide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New College at Hackney</span>

The New College at Hackney was a dissenting academy set up in Hackney in April 1786 by the social and political reformer Richard Price and others; Hackney at that time was a village on the outskirts of London, by Unitarians. It was in existence from 1786 to 1796. The writer William Hazlitt was among its pupils, sent aged 15 to prepare for the Unitarian ministry, and some of the best-known Dissenting intellectuals spent time on its staff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arnold Lupton</span> British politician and mining engineer

Arnold Lupton was a British Liberal Party Member of Parliament, academic, anti-vaccinationist, mining engineer and a managing director (collieries). He was jailed for pacifist activity during the First World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Essex Street Chapel</span> Early Unitarian church premises

Essex Street Chapel, also known as Essex Church, is a Unitarian place of worship in London. It was the first church in England set up with this doctrine, and was established when Dissenters still faced legal threat. As the birthplace of British Unitarianism, Essex Street has particularly been associated with social reformers and theologians. The congregation moved west in the 19th century, allowing the building to be turned into the headquarters for the British and Foreign Unitarian Association and the Sunday School Association. These evolved into the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella organisation for British Unitarianism, which is still based on the same site, in an office building called Essex Hall. This article deals with the buildings, the history, and the current church, based in Kensington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middleton family</span> Family of Catherine, Princess of Wales

The Middleton family has been related to the British royal family by marriage since the wedding of Catherine Middleton and Prince William in April 2011, when she became the Duchess of Cambridge. The couple has three children, George, Charlotte and Louis. Tracing their origins back to the Tudor era, the Middleton family of Yorkshire of the late 18th century were recorded as owning property of the Rectory Manor of Wakefield. The land passed down to solicitor William Middleton who established the family law firm in Leeds which spanned five generations. Some members of the firm inherited woollen mills after the First World War. By the turn of the 20th century, the Middleton family had married into the British nobility and, by the 1920s, the family were playing host to the British royal family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lupton family</span> Prominent English 16th century family

The Lupton family in Yorkshire achieved prominence in ecclesiastical and academic circles in England in the Tudor era through the fame of Roger Lupton, provost of Eton College and chaplain to Henry VII and Henry VIII. By the Georgian era, the family was established as merchants and ministers in Leeds. Described in the city's archives as "landed gentry, a political and business dynasty", they had become successful woollen cloth merchants and manufacturers who flourished during the Industrial Revolution and traded throughout northern Europe, the Americas and Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Lupton</span> English educator

Frances Elizabeth Lupton was an Englishwoman of the Victorian era who worked to open up educational opportunities for women. She married into the politically active Lupton family of Leeds, where she co-founded Leeds Girls' High School in 1876 and was the Leeds representative of the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women.

Charles Wicksteed (1810–1885) was a Unitarian minister, part of the tradition of English Dissenters.

Hope Street Chapel was a Unitarian place of worship in Liverpool, England. It stood on Hope Street next to the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, about halfway between the Anglican and Catholic Cathedrals. The congregation had previously been based in Paradise Street and before that in Kaye Street. The church was opened in 1849, and demolished in 1962.

References

  1. ↑ "Districts | Unitarians". www.unitarian.org.uk. Retrieved 21 November 2018.
  2. 1 2 Historic England. "Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds (1375430)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  3. 1 2 "Our History". Mill Hill Unitarian Chapel Leeds. Archived from the original on 24 July 2013. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  4. ↑ Haakonssen, K. (2006). Enlightenment and Religion: Rational Dissent in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Cambridge University Press. pp. 50, 150. ISBN   9780521029872 . Retrieved 21 July 2020. A list of Call Lane trustees can be found in the papers of William Lupton and Co at Brotherton Library, University of Leeds....even maintained a private Unitarian chaplain
  5. ↑ Wolffe, J. (2000). Yorkshire Returns of the 1851 Census of Religious Worship: West Riding (North). Borthwick Publications. p. 150. ISBN   9781904497103 . Retrieved 21 July 2020. Potter Newton - Potternewton Preaching Room (Independent or Congregational) Erected – Altered into a Preaching Room 1847
  6. ↑ Haakonssen, K. (2006). Enlightenment and Religion: Rational Dissent in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Cambridge University Press. p. 150. ISBN   9780521029872 . Retrieved 21 July 2020. ...penetrate county society
  7. ↑ Haakonssen, K. (2006). Enlightenment and Religion: Rational Dissent in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Cambridge University Press. pp. 50, 150. ISBN   9780521029872 . Retrieved 21 July 2020. A list of Call Lane trustees can be found in the papers of William Lupton [1777–1828] and Co at Brotherton Library, University of Leeds....
  8. ↑ Wilson, R. (1971). The Gentlemen Merchants of Leeds. Manchester University Press. p. 187. Retrieved 25 August 2021. Darntons, Luptons,...none of them were considered to be ...substantial enough to be elected trustees [of the Mill Hill Chapel] before the 1790s...
  9. ↑ Memorial Window to the Late Lord Airedale. Report of the Proceedings at the Unveiling Ceremony ... Together with a Description of the Window. 8 page booklet published by the chapel.
  10. 1 2 Fraser 1980, p. 212.
  11. ↑ Fraser 1980, p. 287.
  12. ↑ 1989 Mill Hill Chapel Guidebook, cited in British Listed Buildings
  13. ↑ Leeds Pals Volunteer Researchers (13 November 2018). The Leeds Pals: A Handbook for Researchers. The History Press. ISBN   978-0750989794.
  14. ↑ Leeds Civic Trust, Rainbow Plaque 4 – The Iconic Mill Hill Chapel, published 7 August 2018, accessed 26 May 2023
  15. ↑ "The late Mr Mawer" . Leeds Times. 18 November 1854. p. 5.
  16. ↑ "Deaths" . Leeds Times. 18 November 1854. p. 8.
  17. ↑ Kadane, Matthew. “Anti-Trinitarianism and the Republican Tradition in Enlightenment Britain.” Republics of Letters: A Journal for the Study of Knowledge, Politics, and the Arts 2, no. 1 (15 December 2010): http://rofl.stanford.edu/node/68. See also Kadane's book on the diaries, The Watchful Clothier:The Life of an Eighteenth-Century Protestant Capitalist.
  18. ↑ "History". The Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society. Archived from the original on 2 October 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2009.
  19. ↑ Fraser 1980, p. 231.
  20. ↑ Webb, R. K. (23 September 2004). "Wicksteed, Charles" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49463 . Retrieved 21 November 2018.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  21. ↑ The Unitarian Heritage: An Architectural Survey.1986 page 74. Available on the website of British Unitarians here Archived 4 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine .
  22. ↑ Fraser 1980, p. 251.
  23. ↑ Calder, Dale R. (October 2009). "The Reverend Thomas Hincks FRS (1818–1899): taxonomist of Bryozoa and Hydrozoa". Arch Nat Hist. England. 36 (2): 189–217. doi:10.3366/e0260954109000941. ISSN   0260-9541. PMID   20014505.
  24. ↑ Cornelius, Paul F. S. (23 September 2004). "Hincks, Thomas" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13337 . Retrieved 21 November 2018.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Sources

Fraser, Derek (1980). A History of Modern Leeds. Manchester University Press.

Further reading

53°47′48″N1°32′48″W / 53.7967°N 1.5466°W / 53.7967; -1.5466
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.