Building record 727/63/1 - Baptist Chapel, Watling Street

Baptist chapel in Watling Street built in 1877. Red brick with yellow brick dressings. Pedimented front with three tall arched bays enclosing two tiers of windows and central doorway.

{1} The Baptist Chapel was erected in 1877. The building is of red brick construction and is now in use as 'Watling Street Christianity Centre'. The building is barn like in construction, but is of an impressive scale and proportions. Film 3, photo 15.

{2} Red brick chapel with yellow brick dressings; the chapel is dated 1877 and was built for the Baptist Church; the main chapel building is of two storeys and three bays. On the frontage there is a large panelled door in the centre flanked by rectangular indows on each side. There are three large arched windows on the first floor and plaques for the date and name of the chapel are in the pediment formed by the gable of the rof. The remainder of the main building is red brick with plain detailing. The windows of the building have border staining (in yellow) to provide decorative detail to the windows, but this is only visible on the exterior.
The interior of the chapel remains relativley complete with numbered pews, a paneeled vestibule and a gallery at the south-west en of the building surviving intact. There are, however, a number of features which have not survived including the original pulpit and organ and some pews. Pews were missing from the south west end of the ground floor indicating that there may originally have been seating in the area which now forms the vestibule. This would indicate that the vestibule was a later insertion, although presumably at a relatively early date. The gallery is accessed by a staircase on the south west wall of the vestibule. There is structural evidence for some of the former pews on the north east corner of the chapel.
The school rooms are physically attached to the rear of the chapel, but are clearly of a different phase. They are constructed of stone with brick dressings. The building is of two storeys, but is of smaller dimensions than the main chapel with a lower roof level. The interior of the building consists of a single room and corridor on the ground floor with access to the upper floor by a staircase on the north-east corner of the building. The large Sunday School room above has a large sliding partition which provides visual access to the main chapel. This partition has now been plastered in on the chapel side.

{5} The Baptist Chapel stands in Sun Yard, leading off Watling Street. To the north-east, adjoining the chapel is a hall. On the north side of Sun Yard is No.40 Watling Street, the Baptist Manse.
The chapel, formerly No.46 Sun Yard, was built in 1877 on the north side of the entrance to Sun Yard. Prior to this in 1855, the land was owned by a Miss Sheppard, but by 1910 the Baptist Trustees owned the chapel.
The 1855 Towcester Rate Book suggests that a frontage house once stood in front of the present chapel building. No other evidence has been found for this property, which would have been demolished in order to build the chapel.
The chapel is constructed throughout in brick, but with considerable variation in the finish from one face to another. The front face is the most ornate, comprising a red brick façade with all quoins stressed in a contrasting yellow stock brick, including window surrounds and three massive arched niches into which the suite of five windows and the central doors are set. The whole is surmounted by a classicising pediment with segmental arch in moulded red brick. The pediment carries the date stone of ‘1877’ above the entablature and the label ‘BAPTIST CHAPEL’ below. The whole frontage rests upon a chamfered plinth of Staffordshire Blue engineering brick. A 6th August 1877 founding commemorative stone is set into the wall plinth on either side of the door beneath the flanking ground floor windows. The sides of the chapel are built more plainly. The roof is of Welsh slate, but is covered in a bitumen waterproofing.
Added to the rear of the chapel is a building which was formerly used as the schoolrooms. It is of coursed limestone and ironstone with all embrasures turned in red brick. It is well-lit by windows, some of which have been blocked.
Details of interior fixtures and fittings given. Plans and photographs.

<1> Ballinger J., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Towcester (Industrial), 3.9 (checked) (Digital archive). SNN100255.

<2> Ballinger J., 2000, Baptist Church, Watling Street, Towcester, (unchecked) (Notes). SNN101360.

<3> SOUTH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE COUNCIL, 2012, South Northamptonshire Council Survey of Significant Historic Buildings, (checked) (Catalogue). SNN108984.

<4> Ballinger J., 2000, Baptist Church, Watling Street, Towcester, (unchecked) (Photographic prints (COL)). SNN101361.

<5> Soden I., 2004, Archaeological Recording of The Baptist Chapel and Manse, Watling Street, Towcester, Northamptonshire, p.7-10 (checked) (Report). SNN105315.

<6> The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1986, Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting-Houses: Northamptonshire & Oxfordshire, p. 148 (Report). SNN2902.

Record last edited

Feb 17 2025 7:16PM