Toxteth Unitarian Chapel is in Park Road, Dingle,

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

, England. Since the 1830s it has been known as The Ancient Chapel of Toxteth. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

as a designated Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. and continues to be used as a Unitarian chapel. It is a member of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the

umbrella organisation An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions who work together formally to coordinate activities and/or pool resources. In business, political, and other environments, it provides resources and iden ...

for British Unitarians.

History

In 1611 a group of

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

farmers built a school in Toxteth and appointed Richard Mather, at the age of 15, as its master. He then went to

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The l ...

to continue his education but he was asked to return to Toxteth. By this time the chapel had been built and on 30 November 1618 he preached his first sermon. He subsequently became ordained in the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. However he was suspended from the ministry in 1633 and again in 1634 because of his nonconformist preaching, and in 1635 he emigrated to America. By 1662 the minister of the chapel was a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

named Thomas Crompton and he was joined by another Dissenter, Michael Briscoe. In 1672 both ministers obtained licences under the Royal Declaration of Indulgence and the chapel was enlarged to accommodate Dissenters from central Liverpool. However as more chapels were built, Toxteth chapel was neglected and fell into disrepair. In 1774 it was partly rebuilt. Around this time the majority of the congregation were Unitarian and the others left to form a new congregation. A porch was added in 1841. Unitarian services continue to be held in the chapel every fortnight.

Description

The chapel is built in stone with a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roof. It has two storeys and a western extension with a projecting bay. The windows are round-headed with stone surrounds. At the west end are paired round-headed entrances with a commemorative plaque and three windows above them. At the south end is a small octagonal

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

with louvres and a button

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

. The interior has the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

at the east end, galleries on three sides, and

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in c ...

s throughout. The north and south galleries date from the 17th century and connecting gallery is from the 18th century. Two of the box pews are dated 1650 and 1700. The monuments include a brass dated 1656 and 18th and early 19th century wall tablets. Outside the chapel is a graveyard with a mid-19th-century classical arcade. The organ was built in 1906 by Brindley & Foster. The chapel contains a memorial plaque dedicate to Jeremiah Horrocks, a 17th-century astronomer. Horrocks was the first person to accurately predict the transit of Venus and was a member of the chapel. File:Tercentenary tablet, Ancient Chapel of Toxteth.jpg, Plaque above the door of the Chapel File:Schoolhouse, Ancient Chapel of Toxteth.jpg, The schoolhouse next to the chapel

References

Bibliography * *

External links

The Historic Chapels TrustMather family history
{{Liverpool B&S Churches in Liverpool Grade I listed buildings in Liverpool Unitarian chapels in England Grade I listed churches in Merseyside Churches completed in 1618 Churches completed in 1774 17th-century Protestant churches 1618 establishments in England

History

Description

See also

References

External links