Summary
Former Congregational Church and attached school room, opened March 1809, re-fronted 1865-1866 in the French Romanesque style, designed by J P Pritchett of York, currently (2023) a King’s Church.
History
Selby as a settlement dates to the Anglo-Saxon period, when it was known as Seletun (old Scandinavian for ‘sallow tree settlement’) and was referred to by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of AD 779. A charter of about 1030 called it Seleby and about 1050 it was Selbi. King Henry I was born in Selby in 1068 and, a year later, Benedict, a French monk from Auxerre, obtained permission from King William to establish an Abbey. The Market Place has existed since the early C14. By the C15, Selby had developed thriving trade links along the East Coast and with the Low Countries. Selby Abbey succumbed to dissolution in 1539, and the core of the building became the parish church in 1618.
Selby’s commercial importance grew dramatically following the opening of the Selby Canal in 1778, becoming a notable inland port; however, after the building of Goole Docks in 1826, it suffered a very rapid decline. The town’s fortunes recovered in 1834, with the opening of the Leeds and Selby Railway, and by the early C20, witnessed a growth in several industries served by the railways and river traffic, including flour milling, malting, oilseed milling and cattle feed production. In 1983, coal production commenced from the Selby Coalfield. Shipbuilding ended ten years later, and coal mining ceased in 2004. Since then, there has been a gradual reduction in the traditional industries, although some remain.
The first stone of the Congregational Chapel was laid on Monday 31 October 1808. It was opened at a service only five months later in March 1809, which was officiated by the preachers Messrs Parsons (Leeds), Taylor (Bradford), and Eccles (Leeds). The building was commonly known as the Bethesda Chapel; Bethesda being Hebrew or Aramaic for ‘house of mercy’ or ‘house of grace’. The rectangular-plan chapel was built gable-on to New Street and, in 1812, galleries were added to increase the seating capacity. As the population of Selby and the congregation grew, a vestry and schoolroom were added in 1842 on the southern side of the chapel. In 1849, the chapel was recorded as having a seating capacity of 450 places; this was eventually increased to 500 seats. In 1865, the architect J P Pritchett of York was instructed to prepare plans for a chapel ‘in the French Romanesque style’. This work was a major renovation and re-fronting of the existing chapel, including the inclusion of a rose window, although the footprint of the building remained the same. The re-fronted chapel was opened in 1866 and was retained for worship by the Congregationalists until 1972 when they were joined by the Presbyterians to form the United Reformed Church. Following the formation of the United Reformed Church, the chapel was renovated, including (in 1977) the removal of the choir stalls and the addition of a new kitchen. By 2009, the chapel was being shared with the King’s Church. In 2012, the United Reformed Church took the decision to vacate the chapel altogether and to share the modern facilities of the Methodist Church at Posterngate, leaving the building entirely for the use of the King's Church. The chapel was formerly listed as: Congregational Chapel and House on South Side, New Lane.
J P Pritchett (1789 to 1868) was an eminent architect and is mentioned in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He designed several important public buildings in York, was architect to the Dean and Chapter of York Minster and, for 50 years, was retained as the surveyor and architect to three successive Earls Fitzwilliam of Wentworth Woodhouse. He was a prominent member of the Congregationalist Church in York and designed several Congregational churches throughout Yorkshire. He has numerous listed buildings to his name including Huddersfield Railway Station, York Minster Song School, Wakefield Library and Newsroom, and York Assembly Rooms.
Details
Former Congregational Church and attached school room, opened March 1809, re-fronted 1865-1866 in the French Romanesque style, designed by J P Pritchett of York, currently (2023) a King’s Church.
MATERIALS: fair-faced polychrome brickwork including yellow stock bricks, ashlar dressing, cement rendered side and rear elevations, and the roofs are clad in Welsh slate with grey ridge tiles.
PLAN: rectangular-plan.
EXTERIOR: the chapel has a two-storey, three-bay main elevation raised on a chamfered and rendered stock brick plinth, and is defined by stock brick piers which project from the front gable, with an attached single-bay school room to the left. The tall gabled central bay is flanked to either side by a lean-to outer bay that forms the aisles. The ground floor is entered by a framed and ledged double door, to each of the outer bays, with elaborate wrought iron hinges, beneath a semi-circular polychrome brick arch supported on carved ashlar colonettes forming the jambs. The base of the colonettes are moulded and the impost stones have been carved to form decorative volutes with a moulded cornice. A stock brick band crosses the width of the building at impost level and forms a sill band beneath a central four-bay arcaded leaded window, which has semi-circular polychrome arches resting on ashlar colonettes. A string course is also formed by a stock brick band above the doors. The central bay is lit by a large plate tracery rose window, set within a circular polychrome brick surround with eight diamond-set leaded panels and an ashlar quatrefoil centre. This window is flanked to each side by foiled oculi windows in similar surrounds that light the aisles. The school room occupies the left-hand bay and has a three-bay arcaded window to the ground floor and a two-bay arcaded window to the first floor. A secondary two-light casement window with a segmental brick arch has been inserted at first-floor level, tight against the brick pier of the south aisle. The gabled roof of the chapel and the semi-hipped roof of the schoolroom have saw-tooth brick cornices with ashlar coping.
