Matt Davis visits the Warwickshire–West Midlands borderlands…
Any chapel-crawlers alighting at the lightly-used Lapworth railway station in Warwickshire are probably visiting the famous Umberslade Baptist Church – one of the exemplars of Victorian Birmingham’s Nonconformist confidence, now owned by the Historic Chapels Trust. Before embarking on the long walk to Umberslade, they should do what I did and make a short detour to see Lapworth Community Church – a delightfully intact late Victorian mission room now used by an independent Evangelical church.
Although it is separated from Solihull’s suburbs only by the M42 motorway, and also has the M40 uncomfortably close by, the area around Lapworth is still remarkably rural. It has always been a large parish, and the huge and distinctive parish church of St Mary the Virgin is quite distant from both Lapworth and Kingswood villages. William Lees was a lay reader at the church in the late Victorian era. Before 1886, he started a mission at Kingswood to cater for the area’s working-class population: railway workers, labourers on the canal – the Stratford-upon-Avon and Grand Union Canals meet at Kingswood Junction – and those in service with members of the gentry, whose large estates dominated the area. A house in Station Lane was used for worship until its owner built a hall on to the side of her home in 1886. Soon after this a proper chapel superseded it.
William Lees was associated with the mission until his death in 1907, after which the chapel was promptly renamed ‘Lees Memorial Hall’. Soon afterwards it moved towards an Evangelical position, albeit strictly non-denominational. Accordingly, on 26 November 1909 it was formally registered for worship (still as ‘Lees Memorial Hall’) for a congregation which described itself on its registration certificate as ‘…a Congregation or Assembly of persons worshipping Almighty God purely on the lines of an Evangelical undenominational mission’. Registration for the solemnisation of marriages followed in 1914.
Next to the mission hall was a large house which became a manse in 1921. Full-time ministry was maintained for more than 50 years, but decline set in after World War II and the chapel closed in August 1976. The attractive building’s future was uncertain, and in less architecturally enlightened times (say, 10 years earlier) it could perhaps have faced demolition. Instead the manse was sold in 1978 and the money raised was used to renovate the chapel – because soon after its closure new impetus was provided by the ‘big city’ up the road (or rather, by a group of worshippers in Birmingham’s prosperous southern appendage, Solihull). This is far from the only example of a rural Nonconformist chapel being reinvigorated by a thriving church in a nearby urban area.
Members of a non-denominational fellowship in Solihull decided to restart services at Kingswood in 1977. A minister was appointed, and strong growth was enjoyed. Alignment with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches in 1984 gave what was now known as ‘The Lees Chapel’ the benefits of being part of an informal umbrella network while retaining local autonomy.
The chapel building may be modest in size and scale, but it is a real delight. Positioned on a generous plot between large houses, and with fields opposite, it retains something of the rural character it would have had when built. Red brick is the main material, but good use is made of decorative elements: an elaborate string-course below the gable, human face label-stops above the pointed-arched windows, prominent dentil decoration on the gabled porch, a fleur-de-lis finial, homely dormer windows to the sides, and a lovely carved stone above the double doors. As well as the longstanding name ‘Lees Memorial Hall’, this gives the original name of ‘Kingswood Mission Room’, the date of construction and the text ‘In this place will I give peace’ – a lesser-known Bible quotation, taken from Haggai 2:9 in the Old Testament. In full, that verse is ‘“The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,” says the Lord of hosts. “And in this place I will give peace,” says the Lord of hosts’ (New King James Version). William Lees therefore continues to be commemorated even though a new name, Lapworth Community Church, was adopted in September 2022. It may be a four-mile walk from the chapel to Umberslade – or six if a detour is taken to look at the parish church from which it was founded – but anybody who does happen to be chapel-crawling in this part of Warwickshire should make sure they turn left, not right, out of Lapworth station!
