If you would like to contact the Chapels Society please use the details below or fill in our contact form.
Write: Revd Dr Martin Wellings, Hon Secretary, The Chapels Society, c/o 31 Long Lane, Finchley, London, N3 2PS
Email: chapelssociety@gmail.com
For publications orders please contact Matt Davis (Hon Editor) directly using chapels.publications@gmail.com.
A functioning ‘Tin Tabernacle’ in my neighbourhood (Old Heath, Colchester, Essex) is planned for demolition.
Given the rarity of these buildings, could you offer any advice or action to counter the possibility? The building has not been listed.
Kind regards
Barbara Aitken
I was most interested to come across your website whilst researching into the history of my husband’s 4 x Gt Grandfather John Hitchcock 1732-1800. I believe that he was one of the founders of the Wattisham Particular Baptist Chapel in Wattisham Suffolk and I wonder if you have any further information about him or the Chapel.
With kind regards
Judy Hitchcock
Hello The Chapels Society
I would be most grateful for some advice, if at all possible. I am a mature student doing a postgraduate MSt degree in the History of Design. I have just started the course and for my first piece of work I am looking at the misleadingly named ‘tin tabernacles’. Specifically, I am interested in how the materials and techniques of production used in making tin tabernacles affected their consumption.
There are a few books available on what these buildings were made of, and the techniques of their manufacture and construction but I am finding difficulty locating an example where not only is the date and manufacturer known but there is also some information regarding the use of the church during its period of active service. Ideally I would like to know what its users thought about the property and any paperwork associated with the day to day operation of the church could give some clues.
Your organisation was recommended in Ian Smith’s book ‘Tin Tabernacles’ and I wondered if you were aware of any such buildings that were well documented, not only in terms of the date of construction and the manufacturer, and also regarding the actual use of the ‘tabernacle’ whilst it was in service. I am based in Gloucestershire but would be happy to travel if you were aware of any ‘suitable candidates’.
This is a piece of work that I have to undertake in November and any help that you can give me would be much appreciated.
Thank you for your assistance
Regards
Philip
PS I see that there are some articles about tin tabernacles in your Newsletters (numbers 13,14,29 and 40) but these don’t seem to be available online like later newsletters or am I missing something?
Alan Greening Conservation-Accredited Architect
I am researching a con-conformist chapel in Reydon, Suffolk,located at Mount Pleasant, but can find little information other than one historic photograph.
I wonder if you may have some details.
The building is a timber-tabernacle, probably provided by Boultona dn Paul of Norwich.
regards
Alan
I am chairman of the LIphook Heritage Centre(run by volunteers) and we are trying to gather information on a tin church wh ich existed in our village until late 1960s. It also was used as a classroom for the ad jacent girls school. Have you any ideas where we can search for any details, please.
I’ve sent a reply to the Liphook Heritage Centre email address; my research suggests it was an Anglican mission chapel founded circa 1899 by the Rector of Bramshott.
Greetings: As an American architectural historian working on what was, at the outset, a Methodist innovation called the “Akron Plan”, I’ve searched for examples in other places in the English-speaking world. Without much success, I might add, among historians of architecture in Britain. Until this morning when I ran across the works of two 19th century architects who seem to have understood exactly what interests me: Messrs James Cubitt and Thomas Lewis Banks, each of whom seem to have designed several building which show an awareness of what was happening here in the U.S. I’d appreciate corresponding with others in your Society on the topic. It will probably help if I explain what we mean here by the phrase Akron Plan, which was an aspect of the Social Gospel. Hope to hear from some of your members.
Thank you Ronald (belatedly – apologies!). I invite Chapels Society members and others to respond accordingly. James Cubitt was quite prolific and probably best known for Union Chapel, Islington.
Please check your webpage link to the Historic Chapels Trust.
Thank you for spotting that; now updated to the correct link.