Bethel Baptist Chapel is a Strict Baptist place of worship in the village of Wivelsfield in East Sussex, England. The cause was founded in 1763 by members of a chapel at nearby Ditchling; Henry Booker and other worshippers seceded and began to meet at Wivelsfield after hearing a sermon by George Whitefield. Although some members of the new church soon returned to the Ditchling congregation, the cause thrived under Booker's leadership, and the present chapel—a building of "quiet and unassuming elegance"[1] set in its own graveyard—was erected in 1780. It has served the Strict Baptist community continuously since then, and members founded other chapels elsewhere in Sussex during the 18th and 19th centuries. The chapel is a Grade II Listed building.
Ditchling, a village near Lewes, also supported several chapels in addition to the Anglican parish church,[5] whose vicar said in 1780 that "this place is noted for Dissenters of almost all denominations".[6] A General Baptist chapel was founded there in the 1730s, and served worshippers from villages across central Sussex and beyond.[7] The son of Matthew Caffyn was associated with the chapel, as was William Evershed, who later founded the General Baptist Chapel at Billingshurst.[8]
The ecclesiology of many General Baptist chapels in the area changed during the late 18th century: several congregations developed Unitarian views (following the lead of Matthew Caffyn senior and his son, who founded a chapel at Horsham and oversaw its transition to Unitarianism).[2] These changes were not always supported by a chapel's entire congregation, and the changes at Ditchling led to a secession by some members and the founding of a new chapel at Wivelsfield. In 1755, Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon moved to Brighton,[9] then a small but increasingly popular seaside resort. She held Calvinistic beliefs, and invited preachers such as George Whitefield to speak at her house. Soon after, she built a chapel in the grounds. In 1762, Henry Booker—a bricklayer from Ditchling and a member of (and occasional preacher at) the Ditchling General Baptist Chapel—travelled to Brighton to hear Whitefield preaching, on the recommendation of a friend.[10][11] Whitefield's words had such influence on Booker that he underwent a spiritual conversion and embraced Calvinist doctrines. These did not agree with the principles of the Ditchling chapel, which by the 1760s was mostly Unitarian in character, and Booker was presented in front of 15 General Baptist ministers and asked to justify his beliefs.[12] No longer believing "the Ditchling community to be a true Christian Church", he stated he would "tear the church to pieces",[11] and on 20 October 1762 he was dismissed from the church.[11][12] Almost immediately, Booker moved to nearby Wivelsfield—taking several members of the Ditchling congregation with him—and together with some Baptist friends in the village he registered a house, Fanners, as a place of worship.[11][13] In 1763, it was constituted[note 1] as a Particular Baptist chapel, and John Simmonds became its first pastor in 1764. He had been a minister at the Ditchling chapel since 1762,[15] but he too had been dismissed: it was stated in 1764 that "this Church[note 2] hath sett very unesey under the Hearing of Our Friend John Simmonds ... [we do] not approve of him in the office of the Ministry".[15][16][17]
The name bethel chapel and the date 1780 are shown above the chapel entrance.
Another split occurred in 1765, when Simmonds and Booker had a disagreement and more than half the congregation left the chapel, following Simmonds who had returned to his original General Baptist beliefs.[15] In 1768, Henry Booker became the full-time pastor, and meetings moved to his house at Bankside Farm.[18] Two years earlier, he had offered assistance to a group of Particular Baptists in Brighton, and had allowed some members of the Wivelsfield congregation to leave and help form a church—the Salem Baptist Chapel—in the seaside town. (The first building was erected in 1787, and a replacement chapel of 1864 stood until 1974).[19][20][21]
The Wivelsfield congregation became part of the Kent and Sussex Baptist Association in 1779. The following year, a chapel was built on land next to Bankside Farm.[14][18] At that time it was called Wivelsfield Baptist Meeting House,[22] but the name Bethel Chapel was soon adopted. Booker died in 1799,[22] and the chapel was served intermittently by pastors in the next few decades: John Sarjent led the congregation from 1802 until about 1813, and William Coppard served between 1816 and 1818.[23] The chapel thrived at first—an extension had to be built during Sarjent's pastorate[22]—but numbers fell after Coppard's death and the chapel shut for several years.[24] Baptisms were irregular as well: eight people were baptised in the chapel's first year, but in the next 22 years only three more members were received.[18]
The chapel reopened in 1837, and Thomas Baldock's 33-year pastorate from 1840 reinvigorated the cause. He moved to Wivelsfield from Wadhurst, another East Sussex village with a strong Baptist heritage, and many members of his family followed.[18][24] The Baldocks have remained important in village life ever since.[25] Bethel Chapel has had little alteration since it was built. The burial ground surrounding it was opened in 1780, and a house was built on to one side of the chapel at the same time. It originally housed the pastor but is now used as a baptistery and hall. A door leads to a flat-roofed extension built in 1977.[18]
Bethel Baptist Chapel was designated a Grade II Listed building on 3 February 1977.[26] The attached baptistery was also protected with Grade II listed status on the same day.[27] It is one of three places of worship in Wivelsfield village: St Peter and St John's Church, the Anglican parish church, has much 13th- and 14th-century work and is listed at the higher Grade II*, and the Grade II-listed Ote Hall Congregational Chapel was founded by the Countess of Huntingdon in 1778, by which time she had moved to the village and founded her own Calvinist denomination (the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion).[28][29][30][31]
As well as the Salem Chapel in Bond Street, Brighton, another chapel in the town was associated with the Wivelsfield cause. George Virgo, the pastor at Wivelsfield from 1874 until 1903,[23] founded a Strict Baptist chapel at Mighell Street in the Carlton Hill area. Co-founder Thomas Boxall was the first pastor from July 1878 until 1893, and Virgo himself took over in that year—leading the chapel as well as undertaking his work at Wivelsfield. Virgo died in 1903,[32] but the chapel was still linked to Wivelsfield until it failed between 1907 and 1910.[33][34] For about ten years after that it was used as the church hall of the nearby St John the Evangelist's Church;[35] then in 1921 it was bought by a Spiritualist congregation who established Brighton National Spiritualist Church in the building. The chapel was compulsorily purchased in 1961, and four years later the congregation moved into the present Brighton and Hove National Spiritualist Church on nearby Edward Street.[36]
Bethel Chapel is a plain, simple Vernacular building which has been extended several times.[38] It has been described as "a quaint and interesting place"[22] with a "quiet and unassuming elegance".[1] The building is of mixed height, mostly two storeys, and is L-shaped. The endmost bay is faced with weatherboarding.[26] The hipped roof is laid with tiles.[26][38] The earliest part of the chapel is the northern section and the attached cottage at the west end; the two parts formed a modest rectangle. An 18+1⁄2-foot (5.6m) extension in the 19th century brought the chapel's internal dimensions up to 35+1⁄4 by 22+1⁄2 feet (10.7m ×6.9m) and also lengthened the cottage.[38] Of the three surviving entrances, the main, cambered-arched doorway is aligned to the left and has an original panelled wooden door, and the other two have straight-headed doorways with simple wooden doors. Remains of another entrance are still visible.[26][38] Above the main door is a datestone showing the year 1780.[note 3][38] There is a four-window range consisting of tripartite casements.[26]
Inside, a wooden gallery runs round the north end. A clock made in Lewes by Thomas Harben is mounted on the front, which is also panelled. The gallery is lit by windows above the main entrance. The benches have open backs and are original, but the seats at ground-floor level were replaced in the 19th century: surplus benches were removed to the chapel from the Ebenezer Chapel in Brighton. A plaster cornice with decorative moulding is also visible inside. The pulpit, also with decorative mouldings, was installed in the early 19th century.[38]
Memorials include monuments in the graveyard commemorating Henry Booker (d. 1799) and his wife Sarah (d. 1779), and inside the chapel an oil painting of Booker, with the legend "First preacher of the Gospel at Bethel Chapel, Wivelsfield, Sussex, 1780, died 22 May 1799 aged 69".[38]
Wivelsfield village and the larger adjacent village of Wivelsfield Green are the core of the civil parish of Wivelsfield in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The villages are 9.3 miles (15.0 km) north of the city of Brighton and Hove.
Zion Chapel is a former Strict Baptist place of worship in the village of Newick in Lewes District, one of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex. The tiny building was opened for worship in 1834 in a part of Sussex which was a hotbed of Protestant Nonconformism, and remained as one of three places of worship in the small Wealden village until 2001, when it was sold for conversion to houses. The chapel is protected as a Grade II listed building.
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.
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.
The former Central Methodist Church was until 2018 the main Methodist place of worship in Eastbourne, a town and borough in the English county of East Sussex. The large town-centre building, with attached schoolrooms and ancillary buildings, was the successor to earlier Methodist places of worship in the area. Soldiers brought the denomination to the area in 1803, when an isolated collection of clifftop villages stood where the 19th-century resort town of Eastbourne developed. A society they formed in that year to encourage Methodism's growth and outreach survives. Local Methodist worshipper and historian Carlos Crisford designed the lavish church in 1907, and it has been used for worship ever since—even as several other Methodist churches in the town and surrounding villages have declined and closed. For several years until 2013, it also housed a Baptist congregation displaced from their own church building. Central Methodist Church is a Grade II listed building.
Madina Mosque is a mosque in the centre of Horsham, an ancient market town in the English county of West Sussex. It has served the Muslim community of the town and the surrounding district of Horsham since 2008. The plain stuccoed building in which it is housed was originally a Baptist chapel—one of several in the town, which has a long history of Nonconformist Christian worship. The former Jireh Independent Chapel was in commercial use until Muslims acquired it after a lengthy search for a permanent space. The organization, 'Muslims in Britain' classify the Madina Mosque as, "Deobandi".
Bethel Strict Baptist Chapel is a former place of worship for Strict Baptists in Robertsbridge, a village in the district of Rother in the English county of East Sussex. Partly hidden behind ancient buildings on the village High Street, the simple brick chapel was erected in 1842 on the initiative of James Weller, a "somewhat remarkable man" whose preaching had attracted large audiences across Kent and East Sussex in the previous decade. The Strict Baptist cause was historically strong in East Sussex, and Protestant Nonconformism thrived in Robertsbridge, which was distant from the nearest Anglican parish church. The chapel closed in about 1999 and permission was granted for its conversion into a house. English Heritage has designated it a Grade II Listed building.
Ditchling Unitarian Chapel is a Unitarian chapel in Ditchling, a village in the English county of East Sussex. A congregation of General Baptists began to meet in the 17th century in the village, which was a local centre for Protestant Nonconformist worship, and by the time the present simple Vernacular-style chapel was constructed in 1740 a large proportion of the population held Baptist beliefs. Along with other General Baptist chapels in Sussex, the congregation moved towards Unitarian views in the mid-18th century; this caused a schism which resulted in a new chapel being formed at nearby Wivelsfield. The character of the Ditchling chapel was wholly Unitarian by 1800, and it has continued under various names since then. People associated with the chapel include William Hale White, Henry Acton, Adrian Boult—who was married there—and G. K. Chesterton. The chapel is set back from Ditchling's main street and has an adjoining house and graveyard, all of which contribute to the character of the conservation area which covers the centre of Ditchling village. English Heritage has listed the chapel at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Zoar Strict Baptist Chapel is a Strict Baptist place of worship in the hamlet of Lower Dicker in the English county of East Sussex. Founded in 1837 and originally known as The Dicker Chapel, the "large and impressive" Classical/Georgian-style building stands back from a main road in a rural part of East Sussex. The 800-capacity building included a schoolroom and stables when built, and various links exist between people and pastors associated with the chapel and other Strict Baptist and Calvinistic causes in the county, which is "particularly well endowed with [such] chapels".
Five Ash Down Independent Chapel is an independent Evangelical church in the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition in the hamlet of Five Ash Down, East Sussex, England. Founded in 1773 in the house of a local man, Thomas Dicker senior, the cause developed so rapidly that a church was founded and a permanent building erected for the congregation 11 years later. The church was run along Calvinistic lines at first, in common with many new chapels in late 18th-century Sussex, and an early group of seceders from the congregation founded a chapel in nearby Uckfield which was run in accordance with Baptist theology. The Five Ash Down chapel has been described as "the parent of many other places [of worship] both Baptist and Independent" across Sussex, and it has continued into the 21st century—now as a small Evangelical fellowship but still worshipping in the original chapel, whose present appearance is a result of expansion and refronting during the Victorian era.
Uckfield Baptist Church is a Baptist congregation based in the town of Uckfield in East Sussex, England. Although services now take place in a school, the cause—founded in 1785 by seceders from the nearby Five Ash Down Independent Chapel—had its own chapel from 1789 until 2005, when the building closed and was sold for residential conversion. The "simple brick chapel" was rebuilt in 1874 and has been listed at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
Brighton and Hove National Spiritualist Church, known until 2019 as Brighton National Spiritualist Church, is a Spiritualist place of worship in the Carlton Hill area of Brighton, part of the English seaside city of Brighton and Hove. Since its amalgamation with another church in the city in November 2019, it has been one of England's largest Spiritualist churches.
Montpelier Place Baptist Church, originally known as the Baptist Tabernacle, is a former Baptist church in the Montpelier area of Brighton, part of the English seaside city of Brighton and Hove. It opened in 1967 to replace a 140-year predecessor on West Street in central Brighton, but was closed in 2012 and demolished over the 2017–2018 Christmas and New Year period. Houses and flats now occupy the site; the development was completed in December 2019.
Galeed Strict Baptist Chapel is a Strict Baptist place of worship in the North Laine area of Brighton, part of the English seaside city of Brighton and Hove. It was built in 1868 in an "austere Neoclassical" style for members of a newly formed church who had been worshipping in a hired building nearby since seceding from another chapel elsewhere in Brighton in 1867 as a result of doctrinal differences. The chapel, which has changed little since it opened, remains in use by Gospel Standard Strict Baptists and is the only such place of worship remaining in the city. It is situated in a conservation area and is a locally listed building. People associated with Galeed Chapel include the founders of the Evangelical Library and the Gospel Standard Baptist Library, several editors of the Gospel Standard magazine, and the author of a definitive history of the Strict Baptist movement. Regular services are held on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
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Chambers, Ralph (1953). The Strict Baptist Chapels of England: Sussex. Vol.2. Thornton Heath: Ralph Chambers.
Cheal, Henry (1901). The History of Ditchling in the County of Sussex. Lewes: Lewes & South Counties Press Ltd (facsimile published 2004 by Country Books, Bakewell). ISBN1-898941-89-0.
Collis, Rose (2010). The New Encyclopaedia of Brighton. (based on the original by Tim Carder) (1sted.). Brighton: Brighton & Hove Libraries. ISBN978-0-9564664-0-2.
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