INDEPENDENT CHAPEL.
1840. This new and commodious Congregational Chapel was built and opened for Divine Worship in 1841, under the pastorship of that excellent minister the Rev. James Dawson, who held that increasingly arduous appointment for a period of forty years. The yearly increasing numbers of the members of this Christian Church, after Mr. Dawson had been thoroughly engrafted into his truly earnest and evangelical work, made it necessary that three enlargements of the old chapel were required; for, as the minister’s popularity increased, his chapel became so inconveniently filled that the heads of the connexion took sweet council together, and determined upon erecting a much larger chapel, more suited to their requirements. The present chapel contains about 1,200 sittings, and there is an excellent Sunday school connected with this respectable body of worshippers, instructing in spiritual grace upwards of 400 children. Mr. Dawson only lived three years after the opening of the new chapel to enjoy the spiritual fruits of a long life of affectionate zeal and energy on behalf of those immortal souls committed to his charge. This handsome brick structure cost £3,500, raised by the congregation, and happily is quite free from incumbrance. It is in the recollection of some of the oldest inhabitants that the establishment of this sanctuary arose in consequence of a split or religious disagreement occurring amongst the Unitarian congregation in Wolverhampton Street at that period, which ended in the secession of many of its communion. The Rev. G. M. Fox, B.A., is the present most indefatigable minister.