The United Reformed (formerly Congregational) Church is a congregation in Stamford, Lincolnshire, based in a late-Georgian building situated on Star Lane. [1]
The United Reformed (formerly Congregational) Church is a congregation in Stamford, Lincolnshire, based in a late-Georgian building situated on Star Lane. [1]
The current church stands on land purchased in 1719 following the destruction in 1714 of an earlier, late seventeenth century chapel in nearby St Paul’s Street by a Jacobite mob. [2] The new chapel, constructed in 1720, held 300 worshippers but was itself demolished in 1819 to make way for the present place of worship. Until 1923, when a small seventeenth century building on the west side of Star Lane was demolished, entry to the lane was extremely narrow and the view of the church from the south thus far less obvious than it appears today. [3]
The present church was erected over a few months in 1819 “on a large scale to reflect its increasing respectability” [4] seating 800; it cost £1,800. [2] It was constructed in red brick (a rarity in stone-built Stamford) on an ashlar plinth, four bays long by three wide, with a slate roof. All the windows are arched, the upper ones containing their original Georgian glazing bars, while the lower range contain more recent Victorian fenestration. The church has a classical interior with a gallery around three sides supported by Doric columns, a corniced stucco ceiling and nineteenth century box pews. [2]
The entrance, off a small yard to the ‘right’ of the building is via “a Tudorish gateway” erected in 1862, made from a section of the old Cornmarket arcade that stood in Broad Street in front of Browne's Hospital. [1] [5]
The building’s name was changed following the merger of the Presbyterian Church of England and the Congregational Church in England and Wales in 1972. [1] [6]
The building is a Grade II Listed Building. [7]
The Stamford congregation is part of the East Midlands Synod of the United Reformed Church in England. [8] Services are led by the Minister, The Revd Jane Campbell. A variety of special services are organised, including services on Sunday at 10.45am and 6.30pm. [9] [10]
Stamford URC is part of the Stamford Street Pastors initiative [11] and of the Stamford Churches Together group. [12] The congregation manages the nearby Congregation Hall in Broad Street. [13]
The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2022 it had approximately 40,000 members in 1,284 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers.
Downing Place United Reformed Church, Cambridge is a church in Cambridge, England, that is part of the United Reformed Church. It was formed in 2018 in a merger between St Columba's Church, Cambridge, and Emmanuel Church, Cambridge. The church occupies the former St Columba's building in Downing Place, which is close to a site occupied by Emmanuel's congregation before 1874.
Avenue St. Andrew's is a United Reformed Church in Southampton, England. Part of the church building is Grade II listed.
St Luke's Church is a United Reformed church in the Silverhill suburb of Hastings, a town and borough in East Sussex, England. The congregation was originally independent before taking up Presbyterianism, and worshipped in a private house from its founding in 1853 until a permanent church was provided in 1857; this was one of the oldest Presbyterian places of worship in southeast England. The growth of the community has resulted in several extensions since then, and severe damage caused by the Great Storm of 1987 was quickly repaired—except for the loss of the building's distinctive spire. The church, along with most other Presbyterian congregations, joined the United Reformed Church when that denomination was formed in 1972. It is one of four United Reformed Churches in the borough of Hastings.
Bardon Park Chapel is a 300-year-old Christian meeting house at Bardon, Leicestershire, England. It stands back from the A511 road, between Coalville and Markfield, about 1.3 miles (2.1 km) west of M1 junction 22. At the time of its construction, the meeting house was set within a medieval deer park.
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 Hounsom Memorial Church is a United Reformed place of worship in Hove in the English city of Brighton and Hove. One of six churches of that denomination in the city, it was built in 1938 for the Congregational Church, which became part of the United Reformed Church in 1972. Its name commemorates William Allin Hounsom, a local man and longstanding member of the Congregational church in central Hove, who had wide-ranging business interests and landholdings across Sussex. The red-brick building, one of many local works by Brighton-based architect John Leopold Denman, is embellished with carvings that have been called "quite startling for a Nonconformist church".
Castle Gate Congregational Centre is in Nottingham. It is a Grade II listed building.
Richmond Green United Reformed Church was a church and congregation in Richmond, London from 1877 until 2015.
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 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.
Robertson Street Congregational Church is a former United Reformed church in the centre of Hastings, a seaside town and borough in East Sussex, England. Built in 1885 on the site of an earlier church which had been constructed in 1857, it was designed by Henry Ward (1854–1927), who was responsible for many of the key buildings in the town of Hastings, not least the Town Hall. The building, a "large urban ... church with richly detailed exteriors and interiors", is situated between Robertson Street and Cambridge Road and has a split-level arrangement with part of the gallery occupying a flying freehold over the alleyway adjacent to the entrance on Robertson Street. The church is listed at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
The United Reformed Church is a United Reformed Church in Street, Somerset, England. It was designed by Samuel Pollard and built in 1854–55.
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.
Ote Hall Chapel is a place of worship belonging to the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion—a small Nonconformist Christian denomination—in the village of Wivelsfield in East Sussex, England. The Connexion was established as a small group of Evangelical churches during the 18th-century Evangelical Revival by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, and this chapel is one of the earliest: founded by the Countess herself in 1778 as a daughter church of the original chapel in Brighton, it has been in continuous use since 1780. Historic England has listed the building at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Winchester United Church is a joint United Reformed and Methodist church in the centre of the city of Winchester in the English county of Hampshire. Built between 1852 and 1853 to the Gothic Revival design of architects Poulton and Woodman for a congregation which had its origins nearly 200 years earlier, it is "incongruously set within the northern part of the former county jail", which had recently moved to a new site. Since 1974 the congregation has been a joint United Reformed and Methodist one, as the city's two Methodist chapels closed, the congregations merged and worship was concentrated on the one site. Historic England has designated the church a Grade II listed building for its architectural and historical importance.