Building record 1681/0/44 - Brigstock United Reform Church

Congregational chapel in Mill Lane built in 1797-8, with a gallery built in 1804, and a large vestry with schoolroom above added in 1819. Stone walls and a slate roof with half-hip to the rear.

{1} The congregation, which originated in the mid 18th century, was gathered into church order in 1778. Meetings were first held in a small rented building but in 1797 the church 'built a shell, the walls of stone, and covered with slate' followed by an appeal for assitance to finish the inside which was ready for use in 1798. A gallery was built c1804 and in 1819 a large vestry with a schoolroom above was erected alongside the chapel, with shutters opening to the chapel, 'to accommodate the young and poor'. During the ministry of David Aitken (1876-85), the chapel was enlarged to the front, partly refenestrated and refitted. The chapel has stone walls and a slate roof with half-hip to the rear. The original building has been to the SE and two tall round-arched windows in each side wall are of the date of enlargement, but the blocking of an upper window is distinguishable at the far end of the NE side. The front is gabled and has a window of three lights above the entrance. The vestry and schoolroom wing of 1819 stands against the SW side of the chapel and has a half-hipped roof. In the burial-ground to the SE are a few reset head-stones of the 19th-century and later, including some of slate.
Inscriptions: on SW wall of chapel, square tablet with moulded cornice, inscribed in a lozenge 'Built 1797'; on the SE front of schoolroom, similar tablet 'Built 1819'.

<1> The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1986, Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting-Houses: Northamptonshire & Oxfordshire, p.136 (Report). SNN2902.

Record last edited

Feb 5 2025 7:35PM