Rehoboth Chapel, Pell Green facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Rehoboth Chapel |
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The former chapel from the southeast
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| 51°04′26″N 0°20′50″E / 51.0738°N 0.3472°E | |
| Location | Cousley Wood Road, Pell Green, Wadhurst, East Sussex TN5 6EF |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Denomination | Baptist |
| History | |
| Status | Former chapel |
| Founded | 1818 |
| Founder(s) | Thomas Kemp |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Residential conversion |
| Heritage designation | Grade II |
| Designated | 12 April 1978 |
| Style | Vernacular |
| Completed | 1824 |
| Closed | 1980s |
Rehoboth Chapel used to be a chapel for a group called Strict Baptists. It is located in a small village called Pell Green, in East Sussex, England. Pell Green is near the town of Wadhurst.
The chapel was built in 1824. It replaced an older meeting place for local Baptists. People used it for religious services until the late 1900s. The building is covered in wooden boards, like many old buildings. Today, it is no longer a chapel but a house. Rehoboth Chapel is a Grade II listed building, which means it's an important historical building.
Chapel's Story
Pell Green is a tiny village about 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles) northeast of Wadhurst. In the early 1800s, a group of Strict Baptists started meeting there. This was common in Sussex, a county with many different Christian groups.
Their first meetings in Pell Green began in 1818. Six years later, in 1824, a man named Thomas Kemp built a new chapel. He built it right next to a small house. The chapel became very popular. It needed more space soon after it was built. So, additions were made in 1828, 1831, and 1841.
Special Memorials and Baptisms
Over the years, many special memorials were put inside the chapel. These were very important features of the building. The oldest one was from 1836. It remembered a local woman and later included other family members. In 1844, a memorial for a member of the Kemp family was placed on the south wall. More names were added to it later.
Most of these memorials were wooden boards with names painted on them. There were also some stone slabs and headstones. People were baptized by being fully dipped in a nearby stream. This is called Immersion baptism.
Changes Over Time
In 1851, a survey of religious places in Sussex was done. It showed that "Rehoboth Calvinistic Baptist Chapel" had 500 seats. All of these seats were free. About 235 people attended the morning service, and 300 came to the afternoon service.
However, fewer people attended in the 1900s. By 1986, people suggested changing the chapel into a house. This happened soon after. The building is still used as a home today. Some parts of the building have changed, like the removal of old wooden shutters on the south-facing windows. The chapel officially stopped being a place for marriages in March 1980.
Rehoboth Chapel became a Grade II listed building on April 12, 1978. This means it is protected because of its special history and design.
Building's Design
The chapel is a single-story building. Its walls are covered with wooden boards, and it has a wooden frame. The roof is covered with slate tiles and has eaves (the parts that hang over the walls). You can see the building's construction date, 1824, on a stone outside.
The original part of the chapel had three sections, called bays. From east to west, it had a large round-arched window, a doorway with a straight hood mould (a decorative frame), and another window like the first. The newest section, on the west side, has a similar window and a small door. The windows are sash windows, which means they slide up and down. They used to have wooden shutters.
Inside, the building was mostly made of wood. There was a gallery (a raised seating area) on three sides. Wooden columns with fancy designs held up this gallery. Three large wooden posts, called king posts, supported the roof. Two were in the original part, and one was in the newer western section. Five iron columns on the north side also helped support the western part. Underneath the chapel, there are seven burial vaults with brick walls. These are like small underground rooms where people were buried.
See also
