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Description: | 23956
The Baptists first appeared in Spalding in the mid seventeenth century. The first General Baptist meeting house on this site was built in 1689-91. It was destroyed in a town fire in 1715. A new chapel of that date was replaced in 1811 and superseded in 1828 by the present chapel, which was enlarged in 1842 and 1855. Further changes have been made in the mid twentieth century onwards. The adjacent school was built in 1865. {1}{2}{3}{4}
The chapel and Sunday School were visited in 2010. By 1688 the first church included members from Spalding, Haconby and Bourne. The present chapel incorporated the site of the earlier Sunday School and the new Sunday School of 1865 was built on the site of the original burial ground. Monuments from the burial ground, including five headstones, were set in the side wall.The present chapel is built of red brick with red brick dressings and has a hipped roof with a slate covering. The chapel originally faced on to Chapel Lane but the current entrance and main façade are on Swan Street. A raised gable of darker brick, and a modern porch have been added to the Swan Street façade. Above the porch are three bays of flat-headed plastic windows. The original façade is now rendered but the outline of a blocked Venetian window, between two blocked sash windows, can be discerned above the round-arched central doorway. The side elevations of the original chapel have four bays of segmental-headed plastic windows to which a further two bays and the present façade have been added to the rear. The adjacent Baptist School which faces onto Chapel Lane is constructed of red brick with red brick and stone dressings and has a gabled roof with a slate covering. The raised gables have stone copings and kneelers. The pedimental façade has three recessed bays and a stepped cornice with two tiers of openings. The central bay has a blocked round-arched opening which was originally a doorway with stone imposts. Above is a segmental-arched tablet with the description " BAPTIST SCHOOL 1865". In the pediment above is a semi-circular stepped opening with a window with radiating spokes. The rear elevation on Swan Street has a lean-to annexe partially covering an upper tier of four segmental-headed windows and a small lunette in the gable. The side elevations have round-arched windows with radiating spokes in the arches, some of which are blocked. The iron railings survive.{5}{6}{7} | Subjects: | Building | Temporal: | 1828 - 2050 | Source: | Lincolnshire County Council | Identifier: | http://www.lincstothepast.com/Records/Re... | Go to resource |
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