Meadrow Unitarian Chapel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Meadrow Unitarian Chapel |
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The chapel from the northwest
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Meadrow Unitarian Chapel is a special church in Farncombe, a part of Godalming, Surrey, England. It is also known as Meadrow Chapel or Godalming Unitarian Church. This chapel belongs to the Unitarian faith.
The chapel was first built in 1789. Back then, it was a General Baptist chapel. Godalming was a town where many people did not follow the main Church of England. The chapel's ideas changed over time. By the 1800s, it became known as a Unitarian church.
For many years, the church used a different building nearby for worship. But in the mid-1970s, they moved back into the original 1789 chapel. This old chapel is very important. It is a Grade II listed building because of its history and design.
Contents
Discovering the Chapel's Past
How Godalming's Faith Shaped the Chapel
Godalming is a unique town in Southern England. It grew because of small factories, not just as a market town. In the past, factory workers often followed different Christian groups. These groups were called Nonconformists. They did not belong to the official Church of England.
In the late 1600s, many people in Godalming were Nonconformists. One of the biggest groups was the Baptists. Baptists were very important in west Surrey. Over time, some Baptist groups changed their beliefs. They started to reject the idea of the Trinity. This idea says God is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Churches that rejected this idea became Unitarian.
This change happened in Godalming. Baptist groups had met in homes since the 1600s. A famous preacher named Matthew Caffyn often visited them. By the late 1700s, a group met at William Evershed's house. He also helped start a Unitarian chapel in Billingshurst, which is still used today.
Building a Place of Worship
The group meeting at Evershed's house decided to build their own chapel. In 1783, they agreed to build a meeting house at Meadrow. The chapel was finished and opened in 1789.
It was a simple but nice building. It had a special pool called a baptistery. This was for total-immersion baptism, a Baptist tradition. The first baptism there was in 1809. Over the years, the church slowly became Unitarian. By the mid-1800s, it was fully Unitarian.
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In 1821, a small brick cottage was added to the chapel. Later, in 1870, a new Sunday school building was built closer to the road. This new building was in the Gothic Revival style. For a while, the 1870 building was used as the main chapel, and the old 1789 chapel became the Sunday school. But around 1975, they switched back. The old chapel became the main worship place again. The 1870 building returned to being a school and meeting room.
The church also helped start a free school. This was common for Nonconformist churches in the Victorian era. They believed in helping their communities. A "British school" was built on Bridge Road in 1872. It was later made bigger around 1900. This school building is also now a Grade II listed building.
Understanding the Chapel's Design
The Meadrow Chapel is a listed building. This means it is important for its history and design. It was given Grade II status on May 16, 1975. Grade II buildings are considered "nationally important."
The chapel is made of red-brown brick. The brick is laid in a pattern called English bond. The chapel itself is covered in stucco, which is a type of plaster. The attached cottage still shows its brickwork. Both the chapel and the cottage share a tiled roof.
The front of the chapel has four sections, called bays. The cottage makes up the leftmost bay. There is a small porch in the middle with a pointed roof, called a gable. You can see chimneys on the roof. The chapel has three arched windows. Two of them are tall, reaching almost the full height of the chapel. The third window is smaller and higher up. There is also a door below this smaller window. Another door leads into the cottage.
Inside, the old wooden benches have been moved to the walls. This creates an open space for worship. There is a special balcony, called a gallery, supported by columns. It has wooden panels. The chapel is about 35.5 feet (10.8 m) long and 22 feet (6.7 m) wide. The original baptistery is still there in the floor. It has brick steps leading down into it.
The Chapel's Burial Ground
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The last person was buried at the chapel in 1869. Ten years later, people wrote down all the names and dates from the gravestones.
There are four special underground tombs, called burial vaults, in front of the chapel. These are:
- Henry Portsmouth Elphs (died 1833) and Betty Elphs (died 1834)
- Thomas Pilsley (died 1810), who was the first person buried here, and Ann Pilsley (died 1816)
- John Ellis (died 1824), Mary Ellis (died 1825), and Sarah Ellis (died 1815). John Ellis helped a lot to build the chapel.
- George Knight (died 1843) and Emily Knight (died 1848)
In total, 46 people are buried in the chapel's burial ground. Many families are buried here, like the Ellis family (12 times) and the Cooke family (7 times in one row).
See also
