Building record MDR5465 - Moravian Settlement, The Settlement, Ockbrook

The Moravian Settlement at Ockbrook covers an area of approximately 6 acres. It includes the Moravian Church, Manse, school, private residences, lecture hall etc, built in the 18th century, and is of both historical and architectural interest. All buildings are in daily use. (1) Moravian tenets were introduced here by Benjamin Ingham and Jacob Rogers and in 1739 Rogers commenced preaching in a barn lent by Isaac Frearson on whose land the settlement was subsequently built. The society was formed into a regular congregation in 1750 and the chapel was built in 1751-2. Houses for single brethren and single sisters were opened in 1759 and buildings for boys, and girls, day and boarding schools were subsequently provided. In 1867 the brethren's house was replaced by a Sunday school. The chapel was enlarged to the rear, heightened and refitted in 1875-6. The main buildings of the settlement, of brick with slate roofs, are aligned on sloping ground facing south-east with the chapel near the centre, houses of two and three storeys, to the right which include the former single sisters' house, and to the left the minister's house of three storeys, dating from the mid 18th century, and a range of late 19th-century buildings of Ockbrook girls boarding school. (2, 3)