[5114] Bath : Countess of Huntingdon's Chapel

The Vineyards, Bath.

Countess of Huntingdon's Chapel, 1765.

Grade ll* listed.

 

Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, a prominent champion of Methodism, built this chapel and adjoining house to protect residents and visitors from the evils of Bath society. The site was acquired in 1765. It became a preaching platform for George Whitfield (d.1770), the celebrated Calvinistic Methodist, who was her personal chaplain. He opened this chapel for her on 6th October 1765. She lived in the Chapel House from 1765 until her death in 1791.

 

Horace Walpole described the `very neat' interior in a letter to John Chute of 10 October 1766. The gallery was added in 1783: this increased the capacity to 750; the gallery underwent further change early in the C19. In later years the chapel housed the Trinity United Reformed Church; this merged with the Argyle St Chapel in 1981 and in 1983 the building passed to the Bath Preservation Trust in 1983. It was then renovated by Aaron Evans Associates; the Building of Bath Museum established by the Bath Preservation Trust was installed in 1992. The chapel is one of the finest architectural expressions of mid C18 religious enthusiasm.

Done