Salendine Nook Baptist Chapel

MOOR HILL ROAD 1. Salendine Nook 5113 Salendine Nook Baptist Chapel SE 1017 26/953 II 2. 1843. The parent Baptist Chapel of Huddersfield. (Out of 18, 16 Baptist Chapels in Huddersfield are daughter communities, and 1 is a grand-daughter). Ashlar. Pitched slate roof. 2 storeys and basement. Front surmounted by pediment with oculus in plain raised surround with shaped apron beneath, inscribed "Particular Baptist Chapel Rebuilt 1843" (the apron was apparently added in 1893). 3 round- arched sashes with glazing bars, plain imposts and keystones (central window Venetian). Sides have 4 ranges of round-arched sashes with glazing bars: south side has a 2-bay extension of 1893, full height. Ground floor has one-storey ante-chapel of 1893, hammer-dressed stone, with ashlar dressings, cornice with parapet, breaking forward in centre and with balustrade. Frontispiece has 2 doors with semi-circular fanlights in hollow chamfered surrounds, moulded keystones, carved spandrels and fluted pilasters with composite capitals. Round-arched side lights with moulded surrounds, keystones, and sunk moulded aprons. Moulded sill band. Interior: Segmentally vaulted and coffered plaster ceiling. Galleries on iron columns with elaborate capitals. Very elaborate pulpit, and furniture over baptistery. Pedimented and pilastered organ. History: The principal leaders of the Baptist community in Huddersfield were the Morton family, potters at Salendine Nook since the late C16. In 1689, on the passing of the Toleration Act, a Morton registered his house as a place of Protestant Dissent. In 1691 Lindley was recorded as being one of the 20 meeting places of the Great Rossendale Confederacy, and this therefore probably meant Salendine Nook. If so it probably remained within the Confederacy until the founding of the Independant Chapel in 1743. In 1739 a Chapel was built on land belonging to Joseph Morton (ie here), which in 1742 was transferred to 5 trustees (including Joseph Morton). In 1743 the Committee was organised as an Independent Baptist Chapel, and Henry Clayton, who had been preaching regularly in the area since 1731, became the first minister. In 1803 the Chapel was rebuilt and again in 1843. In 1893 it was enlarged. Churchyard contains some fine, mostly mid C19, tombs (including some early C19 box tombs) and some good neo-classical obelisks and pillars.

Listing NGR: SE1060017870