Building record MDR12862 - Loscoe Baptist Chapel, High Street, Loscoe

The Baptists have a chapel at Loscoe that was built in 1848 at a cost of £476, which was raised by subscription. It is a good brick building that will seat about 400 persons. The old chapel had become too small and dilapidated, and was replaced with the present one on the same site. (1) There is a Baptist Chapel situated here on the 1st edition 25" OS map of c. 1880. (2) The Baptists have a chapel at Loscoe that was built in 1848 at a cost of about £500. The interior is furnished with open benches, and a gallery carried around three sides increases the accommodation. (3) The former Presbyterian Chapel at Loscoe was built in 1722 for a congregation that apparently originated under John Hieron, ejected rector of Breadsall. Heterodox influences later in the 18th century led to a decline in support and the meeting-house came to be shared with, and eventually transferred to, a Baptist church. The first Baptist minister was ordained in 1784. The chapel is a square building of brick with a pyramidal slate roof. In 1848 the walls were heightened and the present east front erected. This east front has terminal pilasters and a moulded cornice, three upper windows and entrances below covered by a recent timber porch. The north and south walls were entirely refenestrated in 1848 and each have two tall round-arched windows, but traces of former openings remain visible. The west wall is partly covered by later buildings. On the front wall, below the centre window, is a small square tablet inscribed 'F.T / 1722' (for Francis Tantum). Centrally above the cornice is another tablet inscribed 'BAPTIST CHAPEL / AD 1848'. (4) It is still in use as a place of worship [2011]. (5)