Baptist Chapel (Also known as Mission Hall) The Endway, Althorne

The deeds to the site date back to around 1791 when there was a small dwelling on the site owned by a person with the surname of Anderson.

The Baptist Church purchased the site in 1834, and a small chapel was built.

The building measured fifteen by thirty feet, the walls were nine inch Essex red brick, with a slate roof, it had a boarded floor and a vaulted tongue and groove boarded ceiling, there was a free standing cast iron stove in the middle of the back wall. The interior walls were plastered with the bottom third covered in panelling. The front windows were arched and glazed with obscure glass; the two small gable end windows had stained glass. There was a small raised platform at the West end of the room, and an oil lamp hung from the ceiling. Access to the building was through a single door in the centre of the East wall.

Photograph showing the Baptist Chapel and the attached Chapel Cottage

(Photograph dates from before 1927 when the council houses were built opposite side of the road.)

Leslie Powl remembers having Sunday School lessons in the Chapel as a small boy, and redecorating the interior with his father Robert in the late 1940’s. 

Parish Council meetings were held in the Chapel from December 1894 until November 1904, after which, for a short period, meetings were held in ‘High View House’ Upper Althorne until October 1905. In January 1906 the council meetings transferred to the Parish Rooms, Upper Althorne.

The Baptist Chapel was sold in the early to mid fifties, was subsequently converted into a house, and renamed Chestnut Cottage. The accommodation comprised of two bedrooms, a central lounge, a kitchen and a bathroom all within a space of fifteen by thirty feet!

Photograph showing Baptist Chapel after conversion to Chestnut Cottage

The small-boarded building adjacent to the Chapel was known as Chapel Cottage, it was rented by Robert Powl in the 1920’s and his son George was born there in 1925.

Chapel Cottage was demolished when the Chapel was converted into a house.

The Baptist Chapel was demolished in 2007 due to subsidence and excessive damp, and a new house was built on the site. The foundations as such of the Chapel were discovered to be only three courses of bricks below ground level set on the bare soil.

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Last modified: May 05, 2010