Building record MDR11804 - General Baptist Chapel, Station Road, Long Eaton

The 1st ed. 25" OS map c.1880 shows a Baptist Chapel on Station Street, Long Eaton. (1) The chapel is still in use at the beginning of the 20th century with the adjacent building now being shown as a Sunday school. (2) The General Baptist Chapel, in Station Road, is a neat structure of brick and stone, erected in 1890, to accommodate 450. (3) Baptists commenced services behind the High Street on the east side. The first chapel in "Tyburn" Lane opened 1864, the one on Station Road c. 1880 by Reverend J Clifford of London and Clumber Street followed in 1895. (4) Long Eaton's Baptists were an offshoot of the Sawley Baptist Church, the oldest established nonconformist organisation in the locality. In 1861 seven Long Eaton members of this chapel decided to set up a Long Eaton branch. This was originally a first floor workshop behind 58 High Street (demolished 1977), but in 1864 a chapel was built in Station Street. In spite of an addition to the rear, which included a baptistery, the chapel was too small and the land between the chapel and the railway was acquired. The new chapel was built here and opened by Dr Clifford in 1880 and, with alterations completed in 1955 remains in use today. The old chapel [visible on the 1st and 2nd ed. OS maps as the Sunday school] was demolished to make way for the large two-storey schoolrooms completed in 1908 [seen on the 3rd ed. OS map]. (5) Examination of modern maps show that the chapel is still in use by Baptists and that it has retained much of its original layout. The Sunday school has now been joined to the church and is marked as a hall. (6)