Baptist Chapel

Reasons for Designation

The Grace Baptist Chapel at Otley is designated for the following principal reasons: * It has an intact exterior which possesses simple and modest classical detailing. * Interior fixtures and fittings of the early and later C19 date remain including a three-sided gallery with ramped pews. * It is comparable in architectural quality and intactness with other listed Baptist chapels of similar date.

Details

OTLEY

1219/0/10013 CHAPEL ROAD
22-APR-09 Baptist Chapel

II
A Strict Baptist chapel of 1830, incorporating a fragment of the previous chapel of 1800, with later C19 remodelling.

MATERIALS
It is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with a gault brick front and a overhanging hipped slate roof.

PLAN
The chapel is rectangular in plan with a single storey brick addition with hipped roof to the west and remodelled outbuildings to the north-west.

EXTERIOR
The façade facing south has three bays and two end entrances with C20 doors and an eight-over-twelve sash window with late C19 shutters in between. All openings have detailed stone heads. Above are three eight-over-eight sash windows. The north elevation, which incorporates the remaining wall of the chapel of c1800, has a pair of eight-over-twelve sash windows at ground floor and eight-over-eight sash windows at first floor. They are probably of c. 1830 date and replace a pair of larger windows, the blocked openings of which are apparent between the two sets. There is a small inserted C20 window to the right. The four-bay east and west elevations have pairs of sash windows at ground and first floor. The addition on the west elevation has a central four-panelled door flanked by metal-framed casement windows of 20 lights with C19 panelled shutters.

The former stables, converted into a meeting room, lies in the cemetery to the south of the chapel.

INTERIOR
The room attached to the west of the chapel has a boarded cupboard with HL hinge and stairs leading to the north-west gallery above. An off-centre door leads into the chapel. A stepped pulpit of late C19 date is located at the north side, with a smaller C20 lectern to the front, enclosed by a rail comprising turned balusters and a rounded handrail on a timber plinth. The baptistery lies to the front and comprises a brick tank, originally fed by rainwater. The ground floor pews are later C19. On the west, south and east sides, is a panelled gallery supported on slender, round metal columns with ramped pews to the east and west. There are winding stairs at the south-east and south-west corner leading from the small porches at the entrances up to the gallery. The ramped pews on the west gallery appear to be of early C19 date and there are benches and an instructors¿ desk in the south arm where the Sunday school took place. There is a simple cornice, and metal ventilation grilles and at the centre of the ceiling, a large oval recess which may have had a skylight originally. There are three memorials, one on the south wall to the fallen of World War I, and the others to former Ministers, Rev. Edmonds and Rev. Woodgate.

SOURCES
Stell, C. 2002 'Chapels and Meeting House in Eastern England. English Heritage.
www.strictbaptisthistory.org.uk

HISTORY
The formal history of Baptist non-conformity began in England with John Smyth (d. 1612), an ordained Anglican minister, who in 1607 separated from the Established Church and introduced the Baptism of adult believers as the foundation of Church membership. The Strict Baptist church (later known as the Association of Grace Baptist Chapels) split from the main Baptist movement in 1829 following a doctrinal difference of opinion principally concerning the restriction of communion to church members. The establishment of the Strict Baptists took place in Grundisburgh in 1829, some 3 miles to the south-east of Otley and the chapel, originally constructed in 1800, was remodelled in 1830. The earliest chapel was very small, the remnant being the north wall of the current building. The expanding congregation demanded a substantial extension to the building, increasing the size four-fold and necessitating the construction of a new roof. The 1830 chapel had a gallery on all sides, the north arm of which was located behind the pulpit and accommodated the choir. This arm has long since been removed, but the stairs to it remain. The communal room was later attached to the west of the chapel and in the C20 this facility was augmented by the construction of a kitchen in an outbuilding at the north-west corner of the chapel. The two entrance doors on the façade have been replaced, as has the window shutter. Internally part of the gallery was rebuilt in 1868 and the pulpit in use is C20 matching the stepped pulpit to the rear which is later C19 in date.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION
The Grace Baptist Chapel at Otley is designated for the following principal reasons:
* It has an intact exterior which possesses simple and modest classical detailing.
* Interior fixtures and fittings of the early and later C19 date remain including a three-sided gallery with ramped pews.
* It is comparable in architectural quality and intactness with other listed Baptist chapels of similar date.

TM2074355773

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

505718

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Stell, C, An Inventory of Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting-Houses in Eastern England, (2002)

End of official list entry

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