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The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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The Congregational Church is the oldest sect in the Nonconformist church, tracing their origins back to the days of Queen Elizabeth I. Their beliefs brought them into conflict with the Church of England, naturally, and their followers fled first to Holland and then to Scotland, where they were imprisoned. They eventually returned to Holland from where they were amongst the Pilgrims who set sail for the New World in 1620 aboard the "Mayflower". But the biggest event in their creation happened on August 24th 1662, St Bartholomew's Day, when 1,909 ministers were ejected from their churches for refusing to conform with the policies of the Church of England. One such person was the vicar of Plymouth's St Andrew's Church, the Reverend George Hughes. Along with two others of note, the Reverends Thomas Martyn and Abraham Cheare, he was imprisoned on Drake's Island. The effect of this ejection was to create a number of small congregations of puritans whose members were forced to worship in secret. The Conventicle Act of 1664 made it illegal for more than five people, in addition to the family of the house in question, together for religious meetings not in accordance with the prayer book. This persecution continued until 1689, when the passing of the Toleration Act allowed dissenting ministers to preach a and administer the sacraments, albeit under certain conditions. Slowly these congregations came out of hiding and built themselves places in which to hold their services but they were small and usually hidden from general view. With the exception of the Baptist chapel, he oldest of Plymouth's such places was the Batter Street Congregational Chapel, erected in 1704. Forty years later Mr Andrew Kinsman, the son of a grocer at Tavistock, set up business in Breton Side, Plymouth, and formed a small congregation. He built the Tabernacle in the back garden of his shop. In 1751 Kinsman started to spread the Word at Plymouth Dock by securing a room in a house in Queen Street in which to hold meetings. This became known as the Lower Room a few years later when a new chapel, which became the Higher Room, was erected in Granby Street. This was the first dissenting chapel to be erected in what was to become Devonport. Kinsman moved to Devonport in 1771. From the Batter Street Congregational Chapel was born, in 1787, the Emma Place Congregational Chapel at Stonehouse. When he Reverend Andrew Kinsman died in February 1793 there was a dispute between his eldest son and the congregation at the Tabernacle about the ownership of the building. As a result the worshippers were prevented from using the building and dispersed to the other Congregational Chapels around the Three Towns. In 1797 they came together once again and arranged to build the New Tabernacle in Norley Lane. In 1798, a former Congregational Chapel at Plympton was given new life courtesy of the the Batter Street congregation. When Mr George Whitefield visited Plymouth Dock in 1746 he preached in what was known as the Higher Room in Granby Street. In 1801 those premises were replaced by the brand new Princes Street Congregational Chapel. Following the formation of the Congregational Union of England and Wales in 1833, the Corpus Christi Congregational Chapel was opened in Stonehouse in 1835 and the Courtenay Street Congregational Chapel was opened in 1848. Formally this was known as the Union Chapel. Also in 1848 Mr Samuel Hobbs, a 27-years-old local tradesman, built the Siloam Congregational Chapel in Stonehouse. In 1856 the Wycliffe Congregational Chapel in Albert Road, Devonport, was opened. The Norley Chapel expanded to such an extent that in 1860 it was decided to erect a new spacious building and a site was acquired just below Drake's Reservoir on the road to Tavistock. Opened on September 22nd 1864, this building was given the name of the Sherwell Congregational Chapel. To the north of Plymouth, at Derriford, existed a small chapel known as the Down House Mission. It is not known when it was built but it might have been as early as 1870. At some point after 1895 it became the Derriford Congregational Chapel. Plymouth was expanding to the east as well as the north and in 1886 the Laira Congregational Chapel was opened in Old Laira Road. The old building was replaced with a new one in 1935. A small congregation was formed in 1928 at Plymstock and they met in the Foresters' Hall at Pomphlett. A chapel was erected for them at Randwick in 1929. In 1932 the Princes Street Congregational Chapel in the centre of Devonport was closed down following the realisation that it was badly placed to servce the population of the newer areas to the north. It was replaced the following year by the Whitefield Congregational Chapel in St Levan Road. The Pilgrim Congregational Chapel in St Levan Road, Devonport, owes its existence to the wartime destruction of both the Whitefield, also in St Levan Road, and the Wycliffe in Albert Road. It was decided to combine them into a new chapel and a temporary Nissen hut opened in 1950. Plymstock after the end of the Second World War was a rapidly expanding community and this put pressure on the space available at the Randwick Congregational Chapel. In 1949 the War Damage Compensation received for the destruction of Norley enabled them to erect a new and larger chapel to be known as the Norley Memorial Congregational Chapel. It was opened in 1955. A site was purchased at Honicknowle by the Free Church Federal Council in 1953 upon which the Honicknowle Congregational Chapel was built. It was opened in 1957. The temporary building at St Levan Road was demolished in 1957 and two years later the permanent Pilgrim Congregational Chapel was opened. In 1972 the Congregationalists joined forces with the Presbyterian Church of England and became the United Reform Church.
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