Baptist Church

The Baptist Church in Castle Donington was built in 1774, and enlarged in 1827. Vestries were added to the left side in 1875, and mid-19th century extensions to the right—originally a Sunday school, minister’s house, and a hall built in 1890—are not of particular architectural interest. The church is constructed of brick with a stone plinth, the front rendered and colourwashed with stone coping to the gable. It has a slate roof. A plaque on the front gable is inscribed: 'General Baptist Chapel, Erected 1774. Enlarged 1827'.

The front of the church has three bays of 20th-century wooden windows, intended to resemble earlier sash windows. These windows have painted stone sills, voussoir heads and triple keyblocks. A double entrance door, positioned off-centre, has a semi-circular fanlight within a rusticated stone surround with a moulded open pediment resting on shaped scroll brackets. The gable’s apex features a lozenge-shaped vent with a matching surround. Late 18th- to early 19th-century memorial slabs to members of the Carr family are attached to the right side, beneath a window. Side and rear walls contain gallery windows with semi-circular heads, and the left side has later brick vestries.

The interior features an early 19th-century gallery on three sides, supported by cast iron columns with acanthus capitals. A panelled balustrade incorporates fluted pilasters and gilded embossed paper ornament. The south wall has a central organ recess with a semi-circular arch supported by piers. The piers and wall frieze also display embossed paper ornament. In front of the organ recess is an altered 19th-century semi-circular pulpit with arcaded panels, set on a cylindrical pier with a foliated capital. The communion rail and steps to the pulpit have cast iron balusters. There is early 19th-century seating in the gallery, and later 19th-century seating below. The ceiling features wooden ribs and some ornamental plaster panels.