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 ProtestantNonconformity, 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.
Godalming is an ancient town with mainly industrial origins,[1] which were conducive to the spread of Nonconformism.[2] Attendances at conventicles exceeded those at the parish church, St Peter and St Paul's, where the Anglo-Catholic views of the priest in the late 17th century did not represent the majority of inhabitants, who were "overwhelmingly Puritan in belief and practice". Numerous informal Nonconformist groups developed in and around Godalming at this time.[3]
One such group was Congregationalists, which had a sufficient following by 1730 they acquired land on Hart's Lane and built a chapel.[1][4] The congregation "may be considered ... the lineal representative of the conventicle of the reign of Charles II", which had 700–800 worshippers every Sunday at a time when Godalming's population was 3,000.[1] Hart's Lane, now known as Mint Street, is one of several small streets immediately west of the town centre, characterised by small, unrestored 16th- and 17th-century cottages. (Proposals to demolish these streets and all the buildings in favour of a ring road were made in 1969 but were not acted upon.)[5] The land for the chapel was bought for £20 in January 1729, and construction soon followed.[6] Ebenezer Chapel, as it was called,[4] was put under the charge of the Surrey Congregational Mission in 1799. In the early 19th century it was served by a succession of student pastors from Homerton College, Cambridge. One, John Nelson Goulty, later came to prominence during his 37-year incumbency at Union Chapel, Brighton. During his much shorter stay in Godalming, "the cause considerably revived" and he also preached in the nearby villages of Elstead and Hascombe.[7]
The building was extended at the rear in 1821 as the congregation grew,[4] then in about 1830 it was rebuilt on the same site[2][8] at a cost of £634.[9] By January 1867, though, the congregation had expanded so much that a new chapel was needed,[10] and the trustees decided to sell the Mint Street building. Land at Bridge Street was found and purchased and the new Congregational chapel was quickly built, opening on 28 October 1868.[11] The former chapel was then bought by a group of Wesleyan Methodists for £450,[12] and they converted it into Godalming's first permanent Methodist chapel. (A Methodist group had existed for some years until 1797, and meetings recommenced in 1826 in a hired room; a small chapel was also built at Farncombe, the neighbouring village, in 1840.) As Godalming Wesleyan Chapel it opened in 1869, and the congregation grew steadily.[13] It was in turn replaced by a new church—the Hugh Price Hughes Memorial Chapel (now Godalming United Church)—on Bridge Street, almost opposite the Congregational chapel, in 1903.[2][8][10] The Methodist Church retained the Mint Street building at first and leased it to a Salvation Army congregation, then sold it to them in 1918.[2] Alterations were made in 1930, and the windows were also replaced in the 20th century. In 1990 the building was reported to be "in a state of disrepair",[14] but further alterations were made by 1994.[8] The Salvation Army stopped using the hall with effect from 29 September 2012.[15] A planning application to convert the disused hall into an office was submitted in May 2013 and approved by Waverley Borough Council two months later.[16]
While it was still in use by the Salvation Army, the building was listed at Grade II on 21 August 1990.[14] Such buildings are defined as "nationally important and of special interest".[17] As of February 2001, it was one of 1,548 Grade II listed buildings and 1,661 listed buildings of all grades in the Borough of Waverley,[18] the local government district in which Godalming is situated.[19] It was also licensed for worship in accordance with the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 and had the registration number 39828.[20] It is one of several current and former places of worship in Godalming with listed status: the Quaker meeting house on Mill Street,[21]St Edmund's Roman Catholic Church,[22]Meadrow Unitarian Chapel[23] and the Congregational church on Bridge Street[24] (which superseded the Mint Street building but which is no longer in religious use) are all Grade II-listed, and St Peter and St Paul's parish church has Grade I status.[25]
Architecture
The walls of the building are of Bargate stone rubble.[14] The coarse, light-brown sandstone was quarried locally for many years and was used in many medieval and 19th-century churches.[26] There are brick dressings to the stonework and rusticatedquoins, and the façade is of brick laid in the Flemish bond pattern and painted over. The three-bay façade faces Mint Street and is topped by a gabledpediment with an entablature. There are three bays to the side elevations as well. The entrance is centrally placed with one window (set into an architrave) on each side. The rear and side elevations have arched windows, unlike those at the front which are straight-headed.[14][8] Inside, when inspected in the 1990s, a pulpit stood on the north wall between the windows, and there had been a gallery on the south wall which was replaced with a room on the upper storey.[8]
Jarvis Hall is a former Nonconformist chapel in the village of Steyning, in the Horsham district of the English county of West Sussex. Since its construction in 1835, the Classical-style building has been used by four different Nonconformist Christian denominations: the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, Wesleyan Methodists, the Salvation Army and Plymouth Brethren. The Brethren occupied it last and for the longest time. After about 150 years of religious use, it was sold for residential conversion. English Heritage has listed the former chapel at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
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.
St Edmund's Church is the Roman Catholic parish church of Godalming, a town in the English county of Surrey. It was built in 1906 to the design of Frederick Walters and is a Grade II listed building. The church stands on a "dramatic hillside site" on the corner of Croft Road just off Flambard Way close to the centre of the town.
Meadrow Unitarian Chapel is a Unitarian chapel in the Farncombe area of Godalming, Surrey, England. It is part of the London District and South Eastern Provincial Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, one of 16 districts within the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella organisation for British Unitarians.
Godalming Friends Meeting House is a Friends meeting house in the ancient town of Godalming in the English county of Surrey. One of many Nonconformist places of worship in the town, it dates from 1748 but houses a congregation whose roots go back nearly a century earlier. Decline set in during the 19th century and the meeting house passed out of Quaker use for nearly 60 years, but in 1926 the cause was reactivated and since then an unbroken history of Quaker worship has been maintained. Many improvements were carried out in the 20th century to the simple brick-built meeting house, which is Grade II-listed in view of its architectural and historical importance.
The building formerly known as Godalming Congregational Church was the Congregational chapel serving the ancient town of Godalming, in the English county of Surrey, between 1868 and 1977. It superseded an earlier chapel, which became Godalming's Salvation Army hall, and served a congregation which could trace its origins to the early 18th century. The "imposing suite of buildings", on a major corner site next to the Town Bridge over the River Wey, included a schoolroom and a manse, and the chapel had a landmark spire until just before its closure in 1977. At that time the congregation transferred to the nearby Methodist chapel, which became a joint Methodist and United Reformed church with the name Godalming United Church. The former chapel then became an auction gallery before being converted into a restaurant; then in 2018 the premises were let to the Cotswold Company to be converted into a furniture and home accessories showroom. In 1991 the former chapel was 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.
The Weybridge United Reformed Church situate at Queen's Road, Weybridge, near to its junction with York Road, is a Victorian Grade II Listed church building that is now no longer used as a place of worship.
↑ "Planning Application Record: WA/2013/0833". Waverley planning application WA/2013/0833. Waverley Borough Council. 2015. Archived from the original on 6 October 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2015. Former Salvation Army Hall, Mint Street, Godalming GU7 1HE: Change of Use from former Meeting Hall (Class D1) to Office Use (Class B1)
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.
