Arnesby Baptist Chapel with attached Sunday School and Manse, Arnesby, Leicestershire

Summary

Baptist chapel 1799, with attached early-C19 Sunday school, attached by a C20 link-block to an early-C18 manse.

Description

Baptist chapel 1799, with attached early-C19 Sunday school; attached by a C20 link-block to an early-C18 manse.

MATERIALS: the buildings are all constructed of red brick in Flemish bond under slate roofs.

PLAN: the chapel is square on plan with its principal elevation facing west. A link block is located to its north and connects the chapel to the Sunday school and then to the manse and accommodation to the north, which form a linear range running west-east.

DESCRIPTION

CHAPEL
EXTERIOR: the chapel is a square, symmetrical building under a hipped roof with two entrances on its principal (west) elevation. Each entrance has a double door under a glazed fanlight with moulded stone surround and segmental arch of rubbed brick. Between the two entrances is a double, six-pane casement window under a segmental brick arch and with projecting brick sill. Three further windows of the same design are located on the first floor. The chapel’s east elevation has two double-height multi-pane lancet windows. The south elevation of the chapel has a regular fenestration with three casement windows at both ground and first floor.

INTERIOR: the chapel opens to a small narthex with two further sets of doors to access the nave beyond. The main chapel has a plastered ceiling with central circular design and the walls are half-clad in timber matchboarding. The chapel has a first-floor gallery on all but its east side, where a mid-C20 timber pulpit is located. The gallery is supported by a series of slender Tuscan columns and is panelled. The gallery rail is supported by a series of iron balusters with twisted shafts and split heads. Stairs are located at the north-west and south-west corners of the building, giving access the gallery above. Timber pews with simple curved ends are located in the main nave and under the northern and southern gallery. Stepped pews are also retained within the gallery spaces at first-floor level.

SUNDAY SCHOOL
EXTERIOR: located to the north of the chapel is the attached Sunday school which is partially obscured on its west elevation by a C20 single-storey link block. The east elevation contains the building’s principal entrance and matches those of the chapel though with a single timber door. The building also has a hipped roof, and has a dentilled cornice and a brick chimney stack on its north elevation. A C19 twelve-pane window is located on the ground floor to the right (north) of the entrance; the brick segmental arch appears to have been renewed in the C21 and the brick sill has been replaced with concrete. A matching window is also located on the first floor though retaining its brick sill.

INTERIOR: the Sunday school is connected to the chapel at first-floor level via the northern gallery, with a central doorway and three steps down to access the school. The first floor of the Sunday school features some C19 joinery with built-in cupboards at both the room’s northern and southern end.

MANSE AND LINK BLOCK
EXTERIOR: to the north-west of the chapel is a range of buildings with the early-C18 three-bay manse at its centre, although this was altered in the C19. The manse has two brick stacks at the building’s former gable ends. On both storeys of the southern elevation the building has two large C19 windows, each with nine panes and brick sills.

To the east of the manse is a two-storey three-bay C19 brick extension which abuts the C20 single-storey brick link building to its south, connecting the chapel to the manse and Sunday school and now housing the chapel’s vestry. The link building has an entrance door with canopy at the north end of its west elevation and a single casement window to the south. The C19 extension has a hipped roof with a single casement window on the first floor of the south elevation. The northern elevation of the earlier building has a regular fenestration with two small casements at both ground and first-floor level, with patio doors at the centre. The C19 addition has a squat brick stack and additional casement to the first floor.

INTERIOR: the manse and C19 extension are arranged as a series of reception rooms; all fire surrounds have been removed or replaced in the C20, but C19 skirting boards and picture rails have been retained.

History

In 1702 a single-storey Baptist chapel was built in Arnesby, constructed to serve a small congregation which had formed in the neighbouring parish of Kilby. The chapel was attached to an existing manse, on land gifted by pastor Benjamin Winckles. Successions of pastors were installed on probation in the following years until 1753 when Robert Hall the elder was appointed. During his time as minister in 1764, his son Robert Hall the younger was born; he went on to be a well-known preacher.

In 1799 a new chapel was constructed to the south-east. The original single-storey chapel became a stable to the manse. Congregation numbers continued to grow into the C19 with around 400 people attending worship in 1829. In the early-C19 a Sunday school was constructed connected to the chapel on its northern elevation.

In the C19 the manse was extended to the east to provide additional accommodation. Alterations were also made to the earlier range at that time with new windows installed.

Attendance numbers dwindled into the C20 with a congregation of 49 recorded by 1911. By the late-C20 the manse had partly been converted into a Christian Centre, with some accommodation retained for the resident pastor. The chapel saw a period of internal renovation in the mid-C20 with a new organ by Ernest Walklet and Sons installed on the first-floor western gallery. A new pulpit was also installed, and the ground floor walls of the chapel half-clad in timber. An additional single-storey link building was constructed to connect the chapel to the Sunday school and manse.

In 2001 the original single-storey 1702 chapel which had in later years been in use as a garage, was demolished. The building was replaced by a two-storey, three-bay range in the early-C21; this later range is excluded from the listing.

Reasons for Listing

Arnesby Baptist Chapel and manse, a late-C18 chapel with attached earlier manse and C19 Sunday school, is listed for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an elegant and relatively-early Baptist chapel, erected in the late-C18 with earlier manse and later attached Sunday school;
* the chapel retains much of its late-C18 fittings including its first-floor gallery despite a series of internal renovations in the mid-C20.

Historic interest:

* the chapel is associated with the renowned preacher Robert Hall the younger (1764-1831) who was an influential figure of the Baptist church in the early-C19.

Group value:

* together the early-C18 manse, late-C18 chapel and C19 Sunday school form a strong group and the development

External Links

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