In Memoriam: gordonplumb
Barton upon Humber, interior of former United Reformed Chapel, 1806
The chapel is built in an undemonstrative Georgian style, well-proportioned with restrained detailing, reflecting the temperate values of the Independent congregation in the early C19; The interior has surprisingly delicate plasterwork decoration and, most significantly, an almost intact galleried interior with a full set of original panelled and numbered box pews. This is the oldest surviving Independent chapel in Lincolnshire with its original seating intact, and a rare example nationally of a remarkably well-preserved non-conformist chapel of this period.
The chapel and adjoining manse was erected by the Barton Independent congregation in 1806. There was a considerable growth in the number of dissenting congregations during this period: out of the 1,961 licences granted by the Lincoln Diocese between 1740 and 1844, nearly half were for Independents or Protestant Dissenters. In Lincolnshire, the Independents grew from one or two congregations described as Presbyterian or Independent in the early C18 to having 38 places of worship by 1851. The Barton Independents were the oldest dissenting congregation in the town. Their earliest recorded place of worship was a house in King Street and they met at several locations before the Providence Chapel, as it was then called, was established in 1806. The Independents were the first dissenting group in Barton to build a chapel and have a burial ground solely for their own use. This has now been cleared of above ground memorials with the exception of two tombstones which survive in situ, one of which bears an inscription to the Rev. John Winterbottom (the Chapel's second Pastor), his wife, Ann, and their daughter Sarah Ann. Several headstones are stacked up nearby.
During the ministry of James Hoyle between 1859 and 1864 the chapel was refurbished, involving the addition of the entrance porch, the re-slating of the roof, and the installation of the pulpit and communion rail. The extension for the organ chamber and vestry/meeting room was built before 1887 when it is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map, and the chapel windows were re-glazed in 1898. The Sunday School to the north-east of the chapel was built between 1865 and 1873 during a time when the Nonconformist and Anglican churches in the town were developing their Sunday and Day Schools. The school was converted into domestic use in the early 1990s. In 1972 the Barton Congregational Church was incorporated into the United Reformed Church and closed in 1991.
Barton upon Humber, interior of former United Reformed Chapel, 1806
The chapel is built in an undemonstrative Georgian style, well-proportioned with restrained detailing, reflecting the temperate values of the Independent congregation in the early C19; The interior has surprisingly delicate plasterwork decoration and, most significantly, an almost intact galleried interior with a full set of original panelled and numbered box pews. This is the oldest surviving Independent chapel in Lincolnshire with its original seating intact, and a rare example nationally of a remarkably well-preserved non-conformist chapel of this period.
The chapel and adjoining manse was erected by the Barton Independent congregation in 1806. There was a considerable growth in the number of dissenting congregations during this period: out of the 1,961 licences granted by the Lincoln Diocese between 1740 and 1844, nearly half were for Independents or Protestant Dissenters. In Lincolnshire, the Independents grew from one or two congregations described as Presbyterian or Independent in the early C18 to having 38 places of worship by 1851. The Barton Independents were the oldest dissenting congregation in the town. Their earliest recorded place of worship was a house in King Street and they met at several locations before the Providence Chapel, as it was then called, was established in 1806. The Independents were the first dissenting group in Barton to build a chapel and have a burial ground solely for their own use. This has now been cleared of above ground memorials with the exception of two tombstones which survive in situ, one of which bears an inscription to the Rev. John Winterbottom (the Chapel's second Pastor), his wife, Ann, and their daughter Sarah Ann. Several headstones are stacked up nearby.
During the ministry of James Hoyle between 1859 and 1864 the chapel was refurbished, involving the addition of the entrance porch, the re-slating of the roof, and the installation of the pulpit and communion rail. The extension for the organ chamber and vestry/meeting room was built before 1887 when it is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map, and the chapel windows were re-glazed in 1898. The Sunday School to the north-east of the chapel was built between 1865 and 1873 during a time when the Nonconformist and Anglican churches in the town were developing their Sunday and Day Schools. The school was converted into domestic use in the early 1990s. In 1972 the Barton Congregational Church was incorporated into the United Reformed Church and closed in 1991.