PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY.
Dissent
was not strong in Shoreham before the 19th century.
In 1672 John Jeffreys's house in New Shoreham was
licensed for Presbyterian worship. (fn. 9) In 1676 only
one nonconformist was recorded in Old Shoreham
and none in New Shoreham, (fn. 10) but in that year the
house of Joan Apps of New Shoreham was said to be
a meeting-place for Quakers. (fn. 11) Although in 1690
George Whitmarsh, the Congregationalist, was
preaching occasionally in the town (fn. 12) and although
the Presbyterians registered houses for worship in
1694, 1714, and 1720, and the Quakers one in
1719, (fn. 13) there were said to be only three families of
dissenters in Shoreham in 1724. (fn. 14)
The Baptists registered a house at New Shoreham
for worship in 1785. (fn. 15) The congregation, which was
not recorded in 1851 and may have lapsed, (fn. 16) met in
various places before a new chapel was built in
Western Road in 1870. That chapel was overcrowded and was replaced by another, apparently
on the same site, in 1880. (fn. 17) Shoreham-by-Sea
Baptist church, with a Sunday school beside it, a
settled minister, and 250 sittings, had nearly 160
members in 1976. (fn. 18) The Providence Strict Baptist
chapel, begun in 1866 in a house in Ship Street,
was transferred in 1867 to a small stuccoed building
in John Street (fn. 19) which was still in active use in 1976.
Shoreham Congregational church, of the Countess
of Huntingdon's Connexion, was originally founded
in 1800 when an Independent chapel was registered.
A house near by was also registered by Independents
in 1811. (fn. 20) In 1851 the chapel was called the Protestant free church, and claimed to be episcopalian,
having been enlarged in 1850 to take people who
would no longer worship in the parish church
because of the Puseyism there. With over 400
sittings it had attendances of 161 excluding children
in the morning and 347 in the evening on Census
Sunday. (fn. 21) The original chapel, in Church Street or
Star Lane as it was sometimes called, was replaced
in 1908 by a new one begun in 1903 at the junction of
Buckingham and Gordon roads. The new chapel or
church was still being built in 1921 and was
enlarged in the 1950s. (fn. 22)
A Wesleyan chapel was built in New Road in
1829. On Census Sunday, 1851, when it had 200
sittings, the morning congregation numbered 87
excluding children and the evening one 103. (fn. 23) A
subsidiary chapel in Brighton Road was registered
from 1854 to 1866 and another, at an unknown
address, from 1860 to 1876. The chapel in New
Road was replaced in 1900 by the church in Brunswick Road, (fn. 24) a brick building in active use in 1976,
in the Worthing circuit and having 275 sittings. (fn. 25)
The Primitive Methodists may have been one of
the groups which established meeting-places in the
town as it expanded in the second quarter of the
19th century. By 1851 they were using a room
holding 60 people in a house in New Shoreham: the
congregation, numbering 35 in the afternoon and
45 in the evening of Census Sunday, was served
from Brighton. (fn. 26) In 1861 they registered various
buildings for worship, including one in the Street,
Old Shoreham, which remained registered until
1896. Another building registered in 1861 was
probably the chapel in West Street which was later
held under a deed of that year. (fn. 27) It appears to have
been the stuccoed Gothic building of the earlier
19th century which housed the Shoreham Club in
1976. In 1879 the Primitive Methodists opened a
chapel in High Street, east of the town hall, which
closed shortly before 1935. (fn. 28)
Groups of unknown denominations looking
towards Brighton registered a room for worship in
1826, a house in Church Street in 1849, and a house
in East Street in 1850. (fn. 29) Part of a house in Middle
Street, registered in 1826, may have been the origin
of the Middle Street Hall, registered from 1875
until 1896. (fn. 30) The Brethren were meeting in 1905
in the town hall, (fn. 31) where a group recorded in 1841
was worshipping in 1842; (fn. 32) from 1920 to 1925 or
earlier they used a hall in Middle Street, (fn. 33) perhaps
the Middle Street Hall, and they are not recorded
thereafter.
The Latter Day Saints established a meeting in
White Lion (later West) Street in 1851, when on
Census Sunday they had a congregation of 18 at
both afternoon and evening service, with a minister
from Brighton. (fn. 34) Nothing later has been found
about them. The Salvation Army held meetings in
the corn stores in West Street, perhaps the stuccoed
chapel there, from 1882 until 1896 or earlier. In
1901 they registered the former Wesleyan chapel in
New Road as their barracks, but had surrendered
it by 1921. (fn. 35) The National Spiritualist Church used a
building in Southdown Road in 1937, moved in
1938 to High Street, and in 1948 to Windlesham
Gardens, (fn. 36) where it remained in 1976.