Lower Chapel

SD 62 SE DARWEN CHAPELS

4/15 Lower Chapel - GV II

Congregational chapel, 1719, improved 1753, rebuilt and enlarged 1853 and 1883. Coursed sandstone rubble with quoins, slate roof with stone gable copings and kneelers. Rectangular 5-bay plan, with some later additions on north side and at west end. Two storeys, in domestic vernacular style. Entrance in east gable wall, which is later C19 and has in the centre a single storey porch with roof gabled in the centre monopitched at each side, above this three 5-light windows, and incorporates datestones of 1719, 1753, 1853 and 1883. South wall has raised doorway at east end, and five 3-light mullioned windows on each floor: those below have chamfered surrounds and chamfered mullions, those above have thin flush mullions (walls raised 1853). North wall has similar windows, some at ground floor obscured or replaced by small outbuildings; west gable wall is partly covered by overlapping extension of 2 lower storeys which has a door at ground floor and 2 ogival-headed windows above. Interior altered. History: originally built by Nonconformist congregation which had disputed ownership of old parochial chapel, and erected by their own labour. (References: Abram History of Blackburn: Shaw Darwen and its [People),

Listing NGR: SD6943323147