Building record 4481/2 - Brassey Green Baptist Chapel

<1> Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME), 1994, An Inventory of Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting Houses in the North of England, Cheshire Number 136 (Book). SCH4548.

Baptist Chapel. A strong Baptist element appears to have existed in this district in the late seventeenth century and the registration of the house of Edward Allen in January 1692 may have been for a Baptist congregation. The first meeting-house on this site is said to have been built around 1700 by Thomas Walley, the building continuing the private property of his descendants. The present chapel may date from c.1742 and be the 'new erected building at Bresne Green in Tirreton' registered January 1743. The Particular Baptist Church survived with difficulty in the late eighteenth century until, under the long ministry of Cornelius Gregory, a General Baptist society was formed in 1817, after which the principle centre of activity passed to Tarporley [CHER 4480/0/0].

The meeting house, standing on a secluded site, has walls of early eighteenth century brickwork; the roof was covered in slate in the nineteenth century. The principle part of the building is of two bays with gabled end walls clasping brick buttresses at the corners and a flat buttress centrally on the North side. The entrance at the West end has a segmental-arched head and in the gable above is a circular opening covered by a modern external shutter. Two segmental-arched windows in the North wall (formerly with leaded lights in eighteenth century frames), one in the South wall and two windows at the East end which formerly flanked the pulpit have been partly blocked in brickwork in recent years. A two-storeyed cottage adjoins at the East end of the South side. The interior (20.5 foot by 16.5 foot) has been subdivided.

<2> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT 401/2 c.1840 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

The chapel and attached house are depicted on this map

<3> Historic England, 2011, The National Heritage List for England, 1471781 (Web Site). SCH6528.

History
Baptist beliefs have been held in the Brassey Green area since the English Civil Wars. Religious intolerance resulted in The Five Mile Act of 1665, with Baptist Ministers being ejected and small groups of worshipers having to gather in private houses or buildings, at least five miles from any Anglican church. In 1669, Bishop Wilkins, attempted to establish an understanding of dissent in his diocese and found that 'Baptists were in great numbers at Tarporley and Bressie Green'. Following the passing of the Toleration Act of 1689, Edward Allen registered his house 'at Brassie Green in Tiverton' for worship, in accordance with the terms of the act.

It is unclear when the chapel was built, but it is considered to have been after 1715, when an unofficial census of dissenting interest recorded only three Baptist chapels in Cheshire: Hill Cliffe (re-built), Nantwich (demolished), and Warford (listed Grade II*, National Heritage List for England (NHLE): 1329677). The chapel was registered at the Court of Quarter Sessions - 11 January 1742 as the 'New Erected Building' at 'Brescie Green in Tiverton' and in the same year, Thomas Walley of Rhode Street bequeathed a pre-existing ‘Chappel and land at Brassie Green’ purchased off the Reverend Mr Josiah Thompson and Mrs Sarah Travers. It is thought that the Reverend Thompson and Mrs Travers were benefactors from out of the county who funded the building of the chapel, with a view to Thomas Walley purchasing it upon completion. It stands in a sub-rectangular graveyard, with burial stones dating from the 1770s to the 1970s, and occupies an isolated rural site influenced by the Five Mile Act.

It is unclear when the vestry extension was built, but it is present on the 1840 Tithe Map and it may have been built as the minister’s accommodation; an archive photograph shows a chimney in the roof of the extension. It is unknown whether the building had a permanent baptistry; however, it is known that a temporary one was erected in the churchyard at one time. Following 1866, attendances dropped off at Brassey Green, and by the end of the nineteenth century the chapel was only used for funeral services and an annual anniversary service. The dependents of Thomas Walley finally gave up ownership during the twentieth century and it fell into disrepair; however, a programme of restoration took place between 1983 and 1884, including the insertion of a partition wall, allowing space for a kitchen. The chapel is no longer used for worship (2020), but is still used occasionally by the Scouts and other youth groups.

Details
Baptist chapel pre-dating 1742, with a secondary vestry and late twentieth century alterations.

MATERIALS: plain red brick, with some minor infill. It has a gabled Welsh slate roof, with a lower secondary gabled slate roof over the vestry that merges with the southern slope of the roof. The gable ends of both roofs have plain timber barge boards.

PLAN: a single-storey L-plan structure, with the rectangular main body of the chapel roughly aligned east to west, and a small single-storey vestry built against the south elevation.

EXTERIOR: the main entrance is situated in the west gable, and has a segmental brick arch lintel, an ashlar stone doorstep and is closed by double timber board doors. A leaded oculus window is set within the apex of the gable, above the doorway. The corners of the chapel are formed by projecting brick pilasters that wrap around two sides, with simple capitals and friezes formed by projecting brickwork courses. A similar projecting pilaster divides the north elevation into two-bays, each bay with a window opening beneath a segmental brick arch lintel, fitted with a late-C20 eight-light timber casement, which has an inward opening bottom-hung top panel, and is protected by a wire-mesh screen. A brick architrave, formed by projecting courses of brickwork, runs beneath the soffit of the roof on either side of the chapel, and plastic rainwater goods are supported on a timber soffit board. A single window of an identical design exists in the south elevation and two similar 6-light windows are set in the east gable. The vestry is built against the eastern end of the south elevation, with a south facing gable wall; it has some patched brickwork, with secondary ladies' and gentlemen's lavatory doors, flanked by small square windows, set beneath concrete lintels. The rear door is situated in the east elevation of the vestry; it has a segmental brick arch lintel and butts up against the south-east corner pilaster of the chapel.

INTERIOR: the rectangular-plan auditorium is entered direct from the doorway in the west gable; it has unadorned painted plaster walls fitted with plain un-painted timber skirting boards, and has a C19 black and red quarry-tile floor. The roof structure is obscured by a plaster ceiling; although the base of a centrally placed, principal rafter truss, with raking struts and a tie beam, rests on projecting side piers. The original auditorium space has been divided by a transverse partition wall, forming a kitchen at the eastern end; it is entered from the auditorium by a doorway on the right-hand side. The kitchen is fitted with C20 kitchen units, with plain white tile splash-backs and a modern tiled floor. The southern end of the room extends into the vestry extension, with the rear door in the east wall and the rear wall of the externally accessed lavatories projecting back into the room, with storage space over within the slope of the roof.

<4> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Land Line and Master Map Vector Maps, 12/02/2021 (Maps and Plans). SCH4491.