The Unitarian Heritage an Architectural Survey of Chapels and Churches in the Unitarian Tradition in the British Isles

UNITARIP The Unitarian Heritage An Architectural Survey of Chapels and Churches in the Unitarian tradition in the British Isles. Consultant: H.1. McLachlan Text and Research: G~ahamHague Text and Book Design: Judy Hague Financial Manager: Peter Godfrey O Unitarian Heritage 1986. ISBN: Q 9511081 O 7 Disrributur. Rev P B. Codfrey, 62 Hastlngs Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshirc. S7 2GU. Typeset by Sheaf Graphics, 100 Wellington Street, Sheffield si 4HE Printed in England. The production of this book would have been impossible without the generous help and hospitality of numerous people: the caretakers, secretaries and ministers oi chapels, and those now occupying disused chapels; the staff of public libraries and archives in many towns and cities; the bus and train dr~verswho enabled us to visit nearly every building. We would like to record grateful thanks to the staff of Dx Williams's Library and the National Monument Record for their always courteous help; Annette Percy for providing the typescript; Charrnian Laccy for reading and advising on the scnpt; and to the North Shore Unitarian Veatch Program, and District Associations in the British Isles for their generous financial help. Sla~rmsa.Burv St Edmunds. Unirarjan Chapel. 5 Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: The Puritans before 1662 2: The Growth of Dissent 1662-1750 Gazetteer 1662-1750 3: New Status, New Identity, New Technology 1750-1 840 Gazetteer 1750-18411 4: The Gothic Age 1840-1918 Gazetteer 1840-1918 5: Decay, Destruction and Renewal 1918-1984 Top photogruph c. 1900 cf Bessels Green Old Meeting House (1716). Gazetteer 1918-1984 Below. engravmg of 1785 91 Slockron-on-Tees,meeung-house on nghr 6: The Unitarian Chapels of Wales Gazetteer 7: The Unitarian Chapels of Scotland by Andrew Hi11 Gazetteer 8: Chapels of the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland by John McLachlan Gazetteer Maps and Plans Bibliography Index Chapters I to 8 are each composcd a/ an introduction, an alp~ab~t~ca. gazcrtear md o lrst of disused and demolished chapcls. The names and addresses of chapels are gwen as shey appear in the Directory of rhe Gcnuai Asssm bly of Un1 tarian and Free Chn'siian Churches AI1 quotations, unless otherwise stated, are from ~ndiv~duolchapel hrsloncs. A corologue m be consuIted at Dr M'iil~oms'sLbrary, Cordon Square, London Older chapels have been affected by alterations to their environment. Dissenting chapels occupied a distinctive place in the communityj some were built behind the street facade and approached by an alleway, thus concealing the extent of their premises [Kendal is a gmd example). Othms are more openly sited m a graveyard facing the street; yet others on the periphery of the community, alongside the boundary walls. Modem re-planning of urban centres and the development of road systems has completely destroyed the environment of some of these chapels, for example, Boston, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Dover. Attempts have been made at Mansfield and Dudley to incorporate the eighteenth century chapels into new developments; such an opportunity was magically missed at Oldbury. The environment of the fine chapel at Ipswich has been drastically altered. Other alterations include the turning back-t~-front of chapels where the thoroughfare changes, chapels once deep in the country (sometimes buiIt as a result of the Five-Mile Act of 1665) are now surrounded by suburbs. No house of worship, however simple, can be alrpreciated w~thoutsome knowledge of the kliefs and customs of the cowegation whose home it is. Albeit briefly, an outllne of the development of Unitarianism must illuminate the description of bnck, stone and mortar. From the seventeenth century onwards vmious strands of belief Above MansJ~eldUrntarion Chop1 have con~ibutedtheir quota to what is now an organised 11 701) seen jrom entxy in StockweII dmommation. Unitarianism only became legal in 1813 with the Garc. The old pxsonage is on ngh t BeInw plon of l816 show~ng passlng of the Trinity Act. The existing Unitarian chapels owe Rosslyn Chapd. Hompsread, JI~ much to the English Presbyre~ians,something else to the General grounds of he house of Edward Baptlsts and, in the nineteenth century, to the Methodist Carlrle. [Chopd rebuilt 1862 ) Unitmlans, Universdists and Christian Brethren. These grwps all contr~butedtheir individual strands of belief. The Unitarian Introduction This survey bring together for the first time those chapels of strand, or~inatingin various parts of Europe at the time of the architectural interest within the British Isles that belong, or have Reformation, developed into an organised denomination via a belonged, to the Unitarian and allied denominations. The majority movement of thought within the Church of England and the are still used as Unitarian places of worship; some have passed to dlssentiqg churches, and a liberalising of theology contributed by other denominations m are in secular use; some demolished teachers in the Dissenting Academes. The first avowedly buildhs of interest have also been included. Where a conmelration-" Unitarran congregation of 1774 grew out of a protest by Theophilus has been housed in more than one building, the succession of Llndsey, vicar of Catterick, against the imposition of the creeds of buildings will be noted. the Church of England as a test of orthodoxy. In the nineteenth The reasons for demolition or reconsmction are various. In the century the writings and teachings of Jarnes Martineau and earlier period, dissenters suffered persecution; Dr. Priestley's Americans like W. E. Charming, R. W. Emerson and Theodore experience in Birmingham in 1781 when his New Meeting was Parker con~ibutedto Unitarian development and consolidation. burned by the mob, and the harassment of the dissenters of Certain basic religious attitudes were typical; an early, and to Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1694 are cases in point. Often, however, some extent continuing,reliance on a rational interpretatlon of the the meeting-house became too small or old-fashioned and was Scriptures, a belief in human reason as a guide in the search for pulled down and rebuilt in Gothic style to accommodate a larger truth, and an acceptance of the individual's right to believe in his congregation. Sometimes a congregation split over theological own wav. differences. During the Second World War 13 chapels were The many different strains within the one tradition are reflected Top: The Old Meeting House, destroyed by bombs; at least 15 chapels have been demolished due in the budding$. Preaching occupied an important position in D~lchling.Sussex 11 '40). to local authority developments; a number of others have been Above Un~lanonMeerfng House nonconformity, thus the pulpit is a central feature in early dissent. Fromljnnham ,, ,, seen Ihmvnl; voluntariEy demolished by their congregations in order to rebuild hbl, except fw the important hold that Communion had among gop fro& Morkcr Square. in a form more appropriate to twentieth century needs. dlssmtas, was minimal. h General Baptist churches totd 8 immersion was practiced, making necessary the pmvision d enthusiasm wlth which James Mattineau, doyen of Victorian baptistnes. EspecialIy in the North-West, day-schoois were Unitarians, embraced the Gothic style. The last forty years has attached to Unitarian chapels, reflectmg the Unitarian bellef in the seen the demolition of many of these buildings. But much thought importance of education and democrat~cself-improvement. went into the design and planning of new churches, and the It is estimated that neluly 1,000 meeting houses were erected conversion of older buildmgs whose orientation reverted to the between the Toleration Act of 1689 and 1710. Of this enormous East end and whosepews were 'turned' to face the narrow end. The number, most have long slnce returned to dust; a few belong to the increased acceptance of ritual and litany - anathema to the earlier Bapt~stsand Soclety of Fr~ends,and more became Congregational Puritans - did not mean that the basic Unitarian tenets of Some 21 chapels from these early years axe now Unitarian, and the scholarship, reason and individual responsibility had been lost. 1 remainder - how many we are only now beginning to dlscovex - The Eoth~cidiom was still used to emphasise the role of the 1 are stdl in use as secular budding5 of one son or another. preacher, as well as bringing the organ and choir into great= , The simplicity of the early meetmg-house 1s an important factor prominence. Building for educat~onaland social functions - in its survival. It was solidly built, though far from costly (Ipswich always important for Unitarians - continued apace. Many of the Meeting House, one of the best, cost E398 m 1700). Their modest later Victorian chapels, and indeed up to the First World War,have s~zeand simplicity of deslgn reflects therr funct~onas both an open, single-space design reminiscent of the Friars' buildings of preaching-house and rneetlng-place and 1s in mute contrast to the the later Middle Ages, and thelr function as preaching houses was Unitarian chapels of the nineteenth century Gothic revival, whose of course similar. ?!.. <), - decay is an awful warning of the frailty of bricks and mortar. Throughout the Victorian age that are fine examples of newly- The large proportion of early chapels of architectural merit U h bang red with aesthetic dkmulktion in 1 wh~chare now Unitarian has been explained by Martin Briggs as Garcon, ,. m- Unitarian churches; Todmorden, Monton, Ullct Road, - due to their predecessors (the Presbyterians) bmg 'the most Liverpool, and Flowery Field and Gee Cross in Hyde were built by r inteIlectual of the thee denominations (Baptist, Independent and men iike the Fieldens, the Ashtons, Sir John Brunner, Sir Henry Presbyterian) and the most rnclined to approve and attain to Tate, and Richard Peacock. dign~tyof architectural design and beauty of internal fittings'.

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