Building record 727/63/2 - Baptist Chapel Manse

{1} There are two buildings associated with the Baptist Chapel. The manse house is a two storey red brick cottage immediately to the west of the chapel. This building is still in use as the manse.

{4} 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. No.40 was owned by the Earl of Pomfret in 1855 and Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh in 1910.
The former Manse is of two storeys, brick and stone built with a modern ceramic pantile roof. The front and rear facades are of brick, while the single visible gable end is of rough-hewn coursed limestone. Subtle colour and coursing changes to the gable suggest that the roof line has been raised. Each gable end is surmounted by a brick chimney-stack. The windows are all wooden casement types with ogee-profile mullions. The front door is panelled and partly glazed, within an affixed pedimented wooden surround.
Some detail of the interior is given, although it was fully decorated prior to its sale and therefore opportunity for recording historic fabric was limited.
The modern kitchen range and cloakroom to the rear was not recorded.
The building which became the Manse may have been built as early as c.1848, but it appears to have originally been Built as a partly timber-framed building of one storey. Its former roofline is fossilised within the later fabric which was characterised by the addition of the first floor. The most likely time at which such a conversion may have taken place is following its acquisition after 1877 for use as the chapel Manse.

<1> Ballinger J., 2000, Baptist Church, Watling Street, Towcester, (unchecked) (Notes). SNN101360.

<2> SOUTH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE COUNCIL, 2012, South Northamptonshire Council Survey of Significant Historic Buildings, (checked) (Catalogue). SNN108984.

<3> Ballinger J., 2000, Baptist Church, Watling Street, Towcester, (unchecked) (Photographic prints (COL)). SNN101361.

<4> Soden I., 2004, Archaeological Recording of The Baptist Chapel and Manse, Watling Street, Towcester, Northamptonshire, p.10-12 (checked) (Report). SNN105315.

Record last edited

Nov 9 2016 1:04PM