The Society usually arranges three visits for its members each year. The visits take us to various parts of the UK to explore present and former places of worship, of a wide range of denominations. Each visit is organised by someone who knows the locality well, and coach transport is provided when appropriate. The visits provide an ideal opportunity to meet other members and, where possible, each ends with a chapel tea. The programme of visits is arranged by our Hon. Visits Secretary (John Anderson).
Notes for those considering organising a visit are available: Visits Brief for Organisers
Upcoming events for 2026
2026 Summer Visit: this will be a trip to the south London town of Sutton, centre of the Borough of that name and better known as a commercial and shopping destination – but with a remarkable range of religious buildings to enjoy. Matt Davis will be your guide on Saturday 18 July; a booking form is here.
2026 Autumn Visit: we will visit Chester for a tour of the city’s chapels, including (it is hoped) one or more of the surviving Welsh-speaking chapels. Roger Holden will lead the trip on 26 September. Download the booking form here.
Recent Visits by the Chapels Society
See the ‘Visit Notes’ page under ‘Events’ for detailed notes of these trips.
2026 Spring Visit: Ted Royle expertly guided a large group around a great many chapels in Warwickshire spa town of Royal Leamington Spa: the United Reformed and Roman Catholic churches in the suburb of Lillington – the latter one of Britain’s best and most significant 1960s churches – and Baptist, Methodist/URC, Seventh-day Adventist, Salvation Army, Roman Catholic and Methodist churches in the town centre.
2025 Autumn Visit: Stephen Rapkin took us round the charming north Essex market town of Saffron Walden, filled with chapels and meeting-houses past and present. Visits were made to the Quaker, Baptist, former [Wesleyan] Methodist (now Evangelical), Roman Catholic, and United Reformed churches, the last three of which are listed buildings.
2025 Summer Visit: Martin Wellings organised a tour of chapels in the Lincolnshire market town of Grantham. Our guide for the day was Dr John Manterfield of Grantham Civic Society, who described the town’s civic, cultural and religious history in lively detail as we visited Christ Church [Wesleyan] Methodist and United Reformed Church and the former Congregational (later United Reformed) chapel, now home to a Pentecostal congregation.
2025 Spring Visit: Matt Davis led a full-day walking tour of the historic town and resort of Hastings, taking in the ornate Roman Catholic parish church, the suburban United Reformed church at Clive Vale, the Salvation Army citadel, the Quaker and Unitarian meeting-houses, and the exceptional former United Reformed (now Independent Pentecostal) church at Robertson Street. Many others were viewed from the outside on a hot and sunny day.
2024 Autumn Visit: Gerard Charmley took members round the fascinating, (mostly) stone-built churches, chapels and meeting-houses of Barnsley for the day. The 1960s Quaker meeting house and Baptist church, with its fine interior, contrasted with the grandeur of the town’s main Methodist (formerly Primitive Methodist) chapel and the soaring Roman Catholic church. Many other chapels were seen in passing – some taken over by thriving Evangelical and Pentecostal groups (which have also moved into former warehouses and the town-centre Yorkshire Bank branch, as we noticed!).
2024 Summer Visit: Martin Wellings took members on a gentle walking tour of the Hampstead Garden Suburb and Golders Green areas of North London, visiting four fine places of worship from the first quarter of the 20th century: the famous Grade I-listed Hampstead Garden Suburb Free Church, plus churches of the Roman Catholics, Unitarians and the joint [Wesleyan] Methodist and United Reformed chapel in Golders Green.
2024 Spring Visit: Roger Holden led a full-day coach tour of The Wirral, travelling from Port Sunlight to Wallasey to visit United Reformed churches past and present, two Friends Meeting Houses, and two Roman Catholic churches designed by the F.X. Velarde partnership – including that architect’s masterpiece at Wallasey.
2023 Autumn Visit: Matt Davis conducted a full-day walking tour of Salisbury, visiting a wide range of historic and architecturally important chapels and meeting houses. The city’s Baptist, [Wesleyan] Methodist, Roman Catholic, Salvation Army, Quaker and Reformed Evangelical places of worship were visited, and many others past and present were seen.
2023 Summer Visit: Gerard Charmley took members on a half-day walking tour of Dewsbury and Batley following the Society’s Annual General Meeting and Lecture, encompassing a Baptist chapel and three Methodist chapels: two of Wesleyan origin, including one now shared by the United Reformed Church, and one Independent Methodist.
2023 Spring Visit: John Anderson led a full-day tour of five chapels and meeting-houses in the historic town of Banbury and, by coach, villages in north-west Oxfordshire and south-east Warwickshire, taking in [Wesleyan] Methodist, Roman Catholic, Baptist and two Quaker places of worship.
2022 Autumn Visit: Matt Davis led a full-day walking tour of central Brighton, visiting Evangelical, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, [Wesleyan] Methodist, Unitarian and Strict Baptist places of worship.
2022 Summer Visit: following the Society’s Annual General Meeting and the annual Andrew Worth Memorial Lecture (by Clyde Binfield), Bill Jacob led a tour of chapels and churches in west central London, featuring one [Wesleyan] Methodist, one Baptist and two Roman Catholic churches.
2022 Spring Visit: John Anderson took members on a visit to chapels and meeting-houses in south Cheshire, using the historic town of Congleton as a base. Chapels of the United Reformed Church, Unitarians, Baptists were visited, plus two contrasting Methodist churches.
2021 Autumn Visit: A trip to Sale and Altrincham, led by Roger Holden, took members to see Quaker, Unitarian, Roman Catholic and Baptist buildings and a former Congregational chapel now used by a non-denominational Christian fellowship.
Recent Conferences
2024 Day Conference: A joint conference with the Ecclesiological Society, Competing Churches and Chapels, 1829–1939, on 28 September 2024 at the St Albans Centre, London EC1.
A full-day series of lectures on inter- and intra-denominational competition in the planning and construction of churches, chapels and meeting-houses during the unprecedented period of growth between the late Georgian era and the Second World War. Lectures were by Paul Barnwell (University of Oxford), Clyde Binfield (University of Sheffield), Stephen Withnell (University of Oxford), Niamh NicGhabhann (University of Limerick) and Clare Price (Church of England). Aspects of religious growth and competition in England, Wales and Ireland, and in the Church of England, Roman Catholic Church and various Nonconformist denominations, were covered.
The lectures were published as a fully illustrated journal by the Eccesiological Society in March 2026 with the title Competing Churches and Chapels, 1829–1939. The volume was posted free to all Chapels Society members.
2022 Day Conference: Communities of Dissent 1850–1914 on 30 April 2022 at Harris Manchester College, Oxford.
A full-day conference was held Harris Manchester College, Oxford, with lectures, a tour of the college and its chapel, lunch and a panel and audience discussion of what more we can do now to record, make known, save, conserve, and repurpose chapels and their wider history. Lectures were by our own Kate Tiller [who gave the Stell lecture in Oxford in 2017], with an overview of the subject; Frances Richardson, on chapel culture in north-west Wales; and Gary Crossley, on the Cornish experience of religious dissent.
The lectures, accompanying illustrations and additional research material were published as a Chapels Society Journal (volume 4) in May 2023. See the ‘Publications’ section for more details.