PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY.
Bisley
parish had a Presbyterian meeting in the late 17th
century and Baptists and Quakers were also
established by the early 18th century. During the
later 18th and earlier 19th centuries numerous
other meeting-houses and chapels, many of them
Wesleyan or Primitive Methodist, were opened to
serve the growing villages of the south of the parish.
A total of 31 meeting-places were registered
between 1742 and 1844. (fn. 40) George Whitefield
preached at Chalford in 1739 and 1742. (fn. 41)
The oldest nonconformist meeting was that
called France Meeting, which claimed to have been
founded in 1662. (fn. 42) The newly erected Presbyterian
meeting-house at Chalford licensed in 1696 was
evidently for the group (fn. 43) and there were 70
Presbyterians in the meeting in 1735. (fn. 44) By the
1770s it had adopted the designation of Independent. (fn. 45) In 1819 the chapel, which was known as the
Old Vestry, was partly demolished and a substantial
chapel built on a new site at Chalford Hill. (fn. 46) In the
same year Thomas Jones (d. 1820) retired after 38
years as minister. (fn. 47) France Meeting had congregations of up to 350 in 1851. (fn. 48) By 1972 the congrega
tion had declined to c. 6 people and there was no
longer a resident minister. (fn. 49) The remaining part of
the Old Vestry, which was used as a school after
1819, was demolished in 1879; (fn. 50) its burial ground,
south of France Lynch church, survived in 1972.
Richard Champion's house was licensed for
worship by Quakers in 1739, (fn. 51) but only one Quaker
family was recorded in 1750, (fn. 52) and the divisional
Quaker meeting rejected a proposal in 1753 that a
meeting should be re-established at Bisley. (fn. 53)
William Verinder's house was licensed for
worship by Baptists in 1724. (fn. 54) They registered a
house at Avenis Green in 1744, and in 1747
registered a house they had bought at a place called
Coppice Gate, probably at the site of the Copse
chapel, (fn. 55) later called Chalford Tabernacle, on the
road leading up from Valley Corner to France
Lynch. There was a resident Baptist minister by
1753. (fn. 56) The congregation at the Copse, which was
served by James Deane for 50 years until his death
in 1847, (fn. 57) numbered over 200 in 1851, (fn. 58) and in 1874
a large new chapel was built, largely by the efforts of
a prominent member, William Dangerfield, who
also provided a new manse. (fn. 59) In 1882 the chapel was
designated Particular Baptist. (fn. 60) By 1972 the membership of the chapel had fallen to 50 but it still had a
resident full-time minister. (fn. 61) The original building
survived in 1972 south of the new one; it formerly
comprised a small chapel on the south and a manse
adjoining it on the north but later the chapel was
converted to a coach-house and the manse was
rebuilt as a Sunday schoolroom. (fn. 62)
At Eastcombe, where nonconformist meetings
were being held by 1742, (fn. 63) Particular Baptists under
Thomas Williams (d. 1806) (fn. 64) built a chapel in 1801. (fn. 65)
The chapel was later served by Henry Hawkins; he
registered a building at Tunley in 1817 (fn. 66) and also
registered meeting-places in several neighbouring
parishes at the same period. (fn. 67) In 1851 the chapel at
Eastcombe claimed congregations of over 400 (fn. 68) and
a large new chapel was built in 1876. (fn. 69) By 1972 the
congregation had dwindled to c. 12 and the minister
serving it followed another profession on weekdays. (fn. 70) Particular Baptists were also meeting at
Bussage in 1811 (fn. 71) and a meeting-house under the
Eastcombe minister, opened there in 1849, had
congregations of c. 290 in 1851 when a new chapel
was being built. (fn. 72)
The Wesleyan Methodists built a chapel in
Bisley village in 1796 and it had a congregation of
c. 50 in 1851. (fn. 73) A new chapel on a different site,
on the west side of High Street, was built in 1863. (fn. 74)
It had a congregation of c. 9 in 1972. (fn. 75) Oakridge
Wesleyan Methodist church at Oakridge Lynch,
where nonconformist meetings had begun by 1742,
was built in 1797 (fn. 76) and enlarged in 1836; (fn. 77) it had a
congregation of c. 130 in 1851. (fn. 78) It was rebuilt in
1874. (fn. 79) In 1972 the congregation, which had
increased in recent years, comprised 20 adults with a
Sunday school of 22. (fn. 80) A small Wesleyan chapel was
built at Tunley by Henry William Hancox of Tunley
Farm in 1848; (fn. 81) it claimed congregations of up to 65
in 1851 (fn. 82) but had gone out of use by 1972. At Chalford
the Ebenezer Wesleyan chapel was built in 1814 and
had congregations of 100-150 in 1851. (fn. 83) In 1859 a
new chapel, incorporating a schoolroom on the
ground floor, was built on the steep hillside at
Marle Hill in Chalford. (fn. 84) It went out of use in
1963. (fn. 85)
The Primitive Methodist chapel at Chalford Hill
was built in 1823 (fn. 86) and had a congregation of c. 65
in 1851. (fn. 87) In 1972 as the Methodist church for the
Chalford district it had an adult congregation of
c. 45, and there were over 100 children in its youth
organizations; a considerable increase in membership had occurred in the previous few years, mainly
due to the influx of new families into the area. (fn. 88)
Another Primitive Methodist chapel was built in
1840 at Custom Scrubs, where a house had been
registered in 1828; it claimed a congregation of
c. 40 in 1851 (fn. 89) and is said to have been used until
1912. (fn. 90)
Christian Brethren had a meeting-room in the
main street of Chalford by 1882, and by 1901 there
was another at Brown's Hill. (fn. 91) Samuel Hook built a
chapel of the Swedenborgian New Jerusalem
Church adjoining his house Millswood in Chalford
in 1845; it had a congregation of c. 35 in 1851, but
apparently went out of use a few years later. (fn. 92)
Seventh Day Adventists built a meeting-room in
the main street of Chalford in 1952. (fn. 93)