Walpole Old Chapel, as it is now known, is one of the oldest Nonconformist chapels in England, recently described by Historic England as a “historic gem”. It has a fascinating history, which often reflects major changes or events in broader society. From here you can access this history in three different ways, by clicking on the links below.
The Written Record
David Holmes, a local resident, created an excellent ‘brief history’ based on known material in books and journals, and suggesting further reading. We still use his essay as our visitor guide today. You can read and download it by clicking the link below.
A brief history - An essay by David Holmes
The Discovery Project
In 2020 we started a community history ‘Discovery’ project – to find out if there was more history to be unearthed, and to look for the human stories behind the facts. Find out more about this great project, and see some of our emerging findings, by clicking on the links below.
The Friends of Walpole Old Chapel are grateful to the British Broadcasting Corporation for allowing us to use the following archive clip, filmed at the chapel - Discovering English Churches, 1979 If you have any concerns or complaints about how we are using any of this material, please contact the Secretary on info@walpoleoldchapel.org
Alma Gould Dale 1854 – 1930 by Judith Condon
Survey of the Graveyard by Vic Gray and Alison Peet
Walpole Old Chapel Baptisms 1706 to 1837
The Story of James Baldry Saunders: a Conscientious Objector – Christina Van Melzen
Walpole Old Chapel Deed – 1689
Will of Edward Hodierne 1637 – transcript
Methusalah Spalding – From the Chapel to the Noose: A Tragic Tale - by George Howard
The Interactive Timeline
We plan to bring together key events and stories from the written record and the Discovery Project to create an interactive Chapel timeline, which also sits in the context of national events and trends. The static timeline below serves as a placeholder.
