NONCONFORMITY.

The Congregational church west of the green originated in or before 1756 when a group of dissenters registered a house for use as a meeting-house. The same group registered another house in 1757 as an Independent meeting, and in 1776 they registered a newly built chapel (fn. 43) which had been opened in that year by Rowland Hill, the evangelical preacher. A burial ground by the chapel was in use 1778-99. In 1801 the chapel got its first settled minister, (fn. 44) whose successor in 1851 claimed a congregation of 200. (fn. 45) There was a resident minister until the end of the 19th century; (fn. 46) in 1968 the church was served by lay preachers and a retired minister. The building, of brick with a double-ridged roof, was given pointed windows apparently in 1849, when the similarly windowed schoolroom was built. (fn. 47)

A meeting-place at Fromebridge Mills was registered in 1820, and a dwelling-house in the parish in 1826. (fn. 48) A meeting-house with a congregation of 50 in 1851 had been in use four or five years. (fn. 49) No other reference to those meetings has been found.

Footnotes