PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY
Leicester has been a flourishing centre of nonconformity since the 17th century, although the
origins of dissent in the borough are hard to trace.
Public opinion in the town during the Civil War was
very largely parliamentarian and puritan, (fn. 1) and it is
clear that when George Fox paid his first visit to
Leicester in 1648 he found a very considerable body
of supporters. (fn. 2) On that occasion he took part in a
theological discussion with the Vicar of St. Martin's
and made a number of conversions. In 1631 the corporation had complained that 'papists, nonconformists, and sectaries' were being sheltered in the
Newarke liberty. (fn. 3) Three years later a James
Bottomley was accused, in Laud's metropolitical
visitation, of preaching dissenting views in All
Saints' parish. (fn. 4) The year following Fox's visit saw
the convictions of Samuel Otes and Ralph London
for the public avowal of their opinions against infant
baptism. (fn. 5) In 1659 Humphrey Woolrich of Newcastle
produced a tract, A further testimony to truth; or some
earnest groans for a righteous settlement by some baptized congregations in Leicester. (fn. 6) It is not possible to
tell how meetings were organized, if at all, at this
date, and no information is available on this point
until 1669, when there were three meeting houses in
the borough, all in St. Margaret's parish. (fn. 7) About 40
'inferior' persons were stated to belong to two Anabaptist meetings and about the same number to a
Quaker meeting. The same teachers and preachers
were apparently working for both sects. (fn. 8) William
Judge, William Wells the younger, John Mugg,
William Christian and a man from Kilby called
Farmer were licensed to preach as Baptists, and
Mugg, Christian, and Farmer were licensed as
Quakers. In 1672 the house of Richard Coleman was
licensed as a Baptist meeting place. Coleman had
been a member of the Common Hall before the
Restoration, and does not appear in the hall lists
after 1660, although he was steward of the fair in
1661–2. (fn. 9) In 1671 and 1682 the borough authorities
descended upon two conventicles of dissenters and
there was considerable discussion by the magistrates
whether a supposed conventicle could be condemned
when, as on the first occasion, the constable had
heard no praying or preaching, but had broken in on
suspicion alone. (fn. 10) The visit of John Bunyan to Leicester in 1672 furnishes further information about
the Leicester nonconformists. He had a licence to
preach in the town as a Congregationalist, presumably to his Baptist friends, although the titles for
sects are so loosely used at this date that they can
have little real meaning. Tradition has it that he
preached at a house or chapel on the site of the present Friar Lane meeting, (fn. 11) although there is no
evidence that the Baptists had a place of worship in
St. Martin's parish at this date.
Baptists
The General Baptist chapel in Friar Lane claims
to date from 1651, (fn. 12) although a recent history of the
chapel points out that the greatest likelihood is that
the congregation of Baptists, which undoubtedly
existed in the town at this date, met in a different
place each Sunday. (fn. 13) That there was no meeting
place in St. Martin's parish as late as 1669 is indicated by the episcopal returns of that year. The
names of the early leaders of the sect were Conyers
Congrave and Thomas Rogers. About 1656 two
Baptist missionaries were sent to Leicester from the
conventicle at Fenstanton. In 1676 there were twelve
dissenters in St. Martin's parish, but their denomination is not mentioned, (fn. 14) and it is not until
1709 that there is a specific reference to Baptists in
the parish. (fn. 15) In that year it was reported that Thomas
Davye and a man named Stanton (fn. 16) were preaching
on Sundays in a house which was probably the Friar
Lane meeting. The chapel itself is not mentioned
until 1719 when its trust deeds were drawn up, very
shortly after a permanent chapel had been built. (fn. 17)
A piece of ground which lay between the chapel and
two nearby cottages was to be used as a burial
ground. This early chapel was behind the main
frontage of Friar Lane, down a passage, so that it
was completely hidden from the street. The meeting
remained small and obscure until about 1780, although there were as many as 43 members in 1750.
In 1783, with the appointment of John Deacon as
minister, the meeting suddenly revived, and its subsequent history is that of a lively and vigorous chapel.
Deacon was a member of the Baptist New Connexion
at Barton in the Beans, and under his leadership
membership increased so strikingly that a new and
enlarged chapel had to be built. In 1805 the houses
which hid the building from the street were pulled
down, and the chapel itself was again enlarged in
1818, to provide a total accommodation for 1,000
persons. Three years later John Deacon's long
ministry of nearly 40 years ended with his death.
His epitaph, by Robert Hall, is on the north wall of
the chapel. He was succeeded by no less eminent and
successful a minister. Under Samuel Wigg, the work
of conversion went on steadily in Leicester itself and
in neighbouring villages, and the first marriage was
celebrated in the chapel in 1837. Further restoration
and extension was undertaken in 1841, and the
chapel site was further opened up with the purchase
and demolition in 1856 of the 'Queen's Head', an
adjoining public house. Samuel Wigg died in 1861.
Under his successor, James Pike, the chapel was
completely rebuilt in brick, to the design of Thomas
Carter, in 1865. The Sunday school had been
opened in 1796.
At the end of the last century a large body of the
congregation, with eight out of the ten deacons,
seceded to form a separate church at the Memorial
Hall in New Walk, because of the unpopularity of
the then minister. After a break of six years, the two
branches were reunited in 1891, soon after the sudden resignation of the minister in question. The
ministry of James Bishop, between 1912 and 1922,
ensured the continued vigour of the Friar Lane
chapel, at a time when it was'threatened with the loss
of many members, as more and more people went
to live away from the centre of the town.
Two permanent secessions from Friar Lane led to
the formation in 1794 of the meeting in Archdeacon
Lane, (fn. 18) and in 1823 of that in Dover Street. (fn. 19) These
splits were both occasioned by disagreements with
the minister over some point of organization, and
there was little or no friction between the chapels
once they had separated. Archdeacon Lane chapel
was built in 1836 and closed shortly after 1936. (fn. 20) The
Dover Street chapel was purchased in 1922 by
the Independent Order of Rechabites, having been
closed by the Baptists in 1919. (fn. 21) In 1955 it was being
used as a theatre. Carley Street chapel was built in
1823 or 1824, and closed in 1864, but was reopened
in 1876 by the combined efforts of the three other
chapels. It was enlarged in 1882. (fn. 22)
The chapel in Harvey Lane, belonging to the
Particular Baptists, is especially associated with the
names of William Carey (1761–1834), the founder of
the Baptist Missionary Society and its first missionary, and of Robert Hall (1764–1831), the noted
preacher. The date of the foundation of Harvey Lane
chapel is unknown, but it was probably in existence
from about 1750, when a sect of Particular Baptists
retired from the Friar Lane chapel. (fn. 23) After the
erection of the chapel in Belvoir Street, this chapel,
never a very large one, was used as a school and a
mission chapel, and in 1863 it was rented from the
Baptists by a congregation of Independents. It was
reopened by the Baptists in the following year. The
chapel was destroyed by fire in 1921, having again
recently been made into a mission chapel, this time
for the Victoria Baptist church. The work there was
abandoned in 1932. The chapel had been rebuilt as
a Memorial Hall in 1924, (fn. 24) but was sold and in 1955
was being used as offices. William Carey's cottage
stands opposite the former chapel. (fn. 25)
Both General and Particular Baptists founded
many other chapels in Leicester and from the 17th
to the 19th centuries they formed the largest body
of dissenters in the borough. In St. Leonard's parish,
the chapel in Abbey Gate was opened as a mission
in 1882. (fn. 26) There were once four chapels in All
Saints' parish: Burgess Street (before 1843, probably
closed by 1848), Vine Street (before 1843, sold to
the Primitive Methodists in 1861), Soar Lane, a
branch of Archdeacon Lane (before 1843, being
used by the Quakers in 1848), and the Strict Baptist
chapel in St. Peter's Lane, known as the Ebenezer
chapel and built in 1803. (fn. 27) In St. Mary's parish the
former 'Christian' chapel in Newarke Street, built in
1835, was taken over by the Baptists and was destroyed in an air raid in November 1940. (fn. 28) The large
Victoria Baptist church at the corner of London and
University Roads was built in 1867 at a time when
the suburban development was proceeding apace. (fn. 29)
The Robert Hall Memorial chapel was built by the
architect Walter Brand in 1901. (fn. 30) The chapel in
Thorpe Street was founded in 1868, as a branch of
the Charles Street chapel, but was never regularly
served, and by 1877 had become a Sunday school. (fn. 31)
The chapel itself had been built for another purpose
in 1854. In St. Margaret's parish the oldest chapel is
that in Upper Charles Street, built in 1830 and
united with the Belvoir Street chapel to form the
United Baptist chapel in 1938. (fn. 32) Belvoir Street
chapel was built in 1845, by the architect Joseph
Hansom, and was named the 'Pork Pie' chapel from
its shape. (fn. 33) It was scheduled for preservation in
1950, purchased by the corporation, (fn. 34) and became
an Adult Education centre. Other chapels are those
in Melton Street (from about 1860 to about 1870),
Navigation Street (also in existence about 1864–70),
Trinity chapel in Alfred Street (built by a Mr.
Harrison in 1840 and closed about 1890), Erskine
Street (built for a congregation from Alfred Street
in 1873), (fn. 35) the Tabernacle in Belgrave Gate (1869,
closed 1921), and Carey Hall in Catherine Street
(1897, designed by A. E. Sawday). (fn. 36) The Archdeacon
Lane Memorial church was opened in Buckminster
Road in 1939. (fn. 37) A new Baptist church was being
built in 1955 for the Stocking Farm Estate.
The Evangelical Free Church, Melbourne Hall,
was built in 1881 for the ministry of the Revd. F. B.
Meyer, formerly the minister of Victoria Baptist
church, from which he resigned in 1878. (fn. 38) He began
preaching independently after his resignation, holding large meetings in the museum and other lecture
halls. A large sum was raised by his very considerable body of followers for the building of a permanent church. Melbourne Hall was designed by
Joseph Goddard; the Sunday schools were added in
1884 (fn. 39) Although independent the church is affiliated
to the Baptist Union. (fn. 40)
Methodists
The earliest Methodist church was that in Millstone Lane, founded in 1753 and closed about 1865, (fn. 41)
when its place had largely been taken by the newer
chapel in Bishop Street, built in 1815. (fn. 42) The
foundation of the Millstone Lane chapel was probably the direct outcome of John Wesley's visit to
Leicester in 1753, when he preached to a 'serious
and attentive' audience in Butt Close, near St.
Margaret's church, on 8 June. (fn. 43) When he next visited
Leicester in 1757, (fn. 44) the Millstone Lane meeting had
been established under the care and guidance of
John Brandon and the protection of William Lewis,
a Presbyterian hosier, who owned the barn in Millstone Lane which was used for services. (fn. 45) By 1768
a chapel had replaced the barn, and this was rebuilt
and enlarged in 1878, when the movement was well
established and Leicester had been placed at the
head of a circuit of ministers in the Midlands. (fn. 46)
A house in Southgate Street was appropriated for
the use of the ministers in 1793. (fn. 47) Wesley last
preached in Leicester in 1793, but he paid another
visit to the town in 1794.
Many other Wesleyan chapels were built in the
19th century: King Richard's Road (1880, by A. E.
Sawday), (fn. 48) Aylestone Road (1874, sold to be a
furniture repository in 1953), Northgate Street
(1885, (fn. 49) closed about 1935), Humberstone Road
(1863, by F. W. Ordish), (fn. 50) Saxby Street (1873, by
A. E. Sawday, purchased by Leicester Corporation
in 1953 for use as an infant school), (fn. 51) Wesley Hall
in Mere Road (1901), Newarke Street (about 1864,
closed about 1870), Metcalfe Street (about 1860,
closed by 1870, when an infant school was being held
in the building), and a chapel in Alexander Street,
which was in existence before 1837 when it was sold
to the Primitive Methodists.
Of the other branches of Methodism the Primitive
Methodists had the largest number of chapels in
the borough. The first Primitive Methodist sermon
heard in Leicester was preached by John Benton in
1818, (fn. 52) and in the same year the chapel in York
Street, off Welford Road, was built. This was closed
about 1875, but in the interval other chapels had
been built: these included George Street (1819,
closed about 1883), and the chapel in Alexander Street
which was purchased from the Wesleyans in 1837
(closed 1873). Other chapels were opened in Belgrave
Gate (1882, built to replace George Street, sold to
Leicester Co-operative Society in 1937), (fn. 53) Catherine
Street (1888), (fn. 54) St. Nicholas Street (built to replace
Alexander Street, (fn. 55) closed 1898), Hinckley Road
(1898), Crown Street (1883), Curzon Street (1859),
Gladstone Street (about 1864, closed about 1885),
Humberstone Road (1881), (fn. 56) Chandos Street (about
1879, closed about 1887), Fosse Road North (1898,
the former St. Nicholas Street chapel re-erected
on this new site), (fn. 57) Melbourne Road (Highfields
chapel, 1884), (fn. 58) Peel Street (purchased from the
Congregationalists about 1873, closed about 1879),
and Vine Street (purchased 1861, closed about 1900).
A new chapel is to be built (1955) in Edgehill Road,
partly with money raised by the sale of the former
Belgrave Gate chapel.
The Methodists of the New Connexion had a
chapel (St. Paul's) near the railway station in London Road, built in 1861 and closed in 1890. The
building was then taken down and re-erected for
other purposes in Rolleston Street, where in 1955
it formed part of a thread mill. A new St. Paul's
chapel was built in Melbourne Road to replace that
in London Road. The New Connexion also had
chapels in Belgrave Gate (1864, (fn. 59) closed by 1870)
and Granby Street (in existence before 1801, when
it was sold to the Congregationalists). The Methodists of the Wesley Association had a chapel in Lower
Hill Street (built 1833, demolished 1930). (fn. 60) After 1907
the New Connexion and Association Methodists
became part of the United Methodist Church and
in Leicester used the Melbourne Road chapel.
There was formerly an Independent Methodist
chapel in Denman Street (opened before 1843,
closed about 1864).
Presbyterians (Unitarian)
In 1672 Gabriel Major and Timothy Wood were
licensed to preach as Presbyterians in their houses in
Leicester, and two further houses were licensed as
meeting places for the sect, one belonging to William
Billers and the other to George Long. (fn. 61) In the same
year Nicholas Kestyn or Kestian, a minister who had
been ejected from Gumley under the Act of Uniformity, received a licence to preach as a Congregationalist, and it is his name which is most closely
associated with the foundation of the Presbyterian
(later Unitarian) meeting in Leicester. (fn. 62) In 1680 the
Presbyterians occupied a barn near the present
Infirmary Square. (fn. 63) Two years later the Congregationalists (or Independents) were reported to be
holding services in a barn in Millstone Lane. (fn. 64) There
was a close connexion between the two sects by
1692, for in that year Edmund Spencer was the
preacher to both congregations. (fn. 65) He had married in
1667 Elizabeth, daughter of Nicholas Kestyn, and
was then already living in St. Martin's parish, although there was no meeting place in the parish as
early as that. In 1692 it was stated that he received
a salary of £30 a year, probably contributed by the
congregation. By the year 1704 the two sects had
become one, based at the chapel near Infirmary
Square. This rapidly became too small to house the
growing congregation, and in 1708 the foundation
stone of the chapel in Butt Close was laid. This
chapel, known as the Great Meeting, is a brick and
stucco building of two stories, with four front windows in moulded stone frames. The ceiling of
moulded plaster was added in 1786 and the chapel
was altered inside several times, the last occasion
being in 1866, when the galleries were rebuilt and
the whole chapel refurnished. Much of the original
simplicity of design has been lost. The organ was
erected in 1800. The front has not been changed
except for the addition of a modern vestibule. In
1866 a chancel was added at the rear. There are a
number of beautifully carved grave stones of Swithland slate in the neighbouring burial ground. (fn. 66)
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the Great
Meeting was one of the main centres of the demand
for parliamentary reform. The first seven mayors of
the reformed borough after 1835 were members of
this congregation, as was one of the members for the
borough, Thomas Pares. (fn. 67)
It has been said that the Great Meeting school was
opened on 15 July 1726 but the first recorded reference to a school-teacher is in 1736. (fn. 68) The permanent
school building dates from 1813, and was enlarged
in 1859, but the school itself was closed shortly after
the Education Act was passed in 1870. In 1955 the
school building, next to the chapel, was being used
only for the Sunday school, established in 1783. (fn. 69)
In 1738 a house for the minister was built in High
Cross Street opposite All Saints' church, but it was
sold in 1868. (fn. 70) John Burgess, a member of the congregation who died in 1799, gave a house in Churchgate to be used by the ministers, but this was usually
leased, and it too was sold in 1874. (fn. 71)
Although the Great Meeting is now Unitarian, it
only became so at the beginning of the last century,
the trust deeds of the chapel not placing any con
dition on the religious views of the congregation. (fn. 72)
Another Unitarian chapel was built in Wellington
Street about 1876, but it was closed in 1901, when a
chapel in Narborough Road was opened.
Quakers
George Fox, as has been noted, found Quakers in
Leicester when he visited the town in 1684, and there
has been a meeting there ever since, although never
a very large one. Among the borough records are
two letters of about 1655 from Quaker prisoners in
the town gaol, one apparently having been sent there
for refusing to take off his hat in the presence of a
magistrate. (fn. 73) In or about 1669, Samuel Brown's petition to be licensed as an apothecary was refused
because he was a Quaker, (fn. 74) although in 1699 another
Quaker, Joseph Smith, was admitted to the freedom
of the borough. (fn. 75) There were said to be thirteen
Quakers living in St. Martin's parish in 1709. (fn. 76)
A meeting house was built in 1680–1 and was still in
existence in 1770, for it was enlarged or rebuilt in
that year. (fn. 77) In 1877 a new meeting house was built
in Prebend Street (closed in 1956). By 1848 the
former Baptist Chapel in Soar Lane had been taken
over by the Quakers as an adult school and mission
chapel, but this was abandoned about 1895. In 1791
it was said that the Quakers of Leicester maintained
'more of the original simplicity of dress and manners
characteristic of their body, than was to be seen in
other towns'. (fn. 78) When the Quakers of St. Martin's
parish refused to pay church rates it was agreed that
they should pay twice as much poor rate as the
members of the church. (fn. 79)
Congregationalists
The Congregational chapel in Bond Street was
founded in 1800, partly by a secession of those members of the Great Meeting who did not welcome the
advance towards Unitarianism being made by the
meeting at that time. (fn. 80) Their first chapel was in
Granby Street, on the site of the subsequent Charles
Street Baptist school. This chapel was purchased
in 1801 from the Kilhamites or New Connexion
Methodists. The Bond Street chapel was built in
1803 and enlarged in 1821 and 1864. (fn. 81) A second
chapel in Gallowtree Gate was built in 1823 and
underwent considerable alterations during the last
century before it was closed in 1921, together with
the attached Sunday school. The building was demolished in 1927. (fn. 82) Chapel Yard, on the West side
of the street, is the only surviving indication of its
existence. A Congregational chapel in London Road
was built in 1858; (fn. 83) one in Oxford Street, replacing
an earlier building of about 1815, was built in 1863; (fn. 84)
one in Willow Street was opened about 1873 and
closed about 1936; and the Union church in
Humberstone Road at the corner of Newby Street
was built in 1880. (fn. 85) The Wycliffe church in College
Street was acquired from the Collegiate School in
1866: the original Gothic building, erected in 1835,
was designed by a Sheffield architect named Weightman or Whiteman. The church was bought by the
Leicester Education Committee in 1954, but in 1955
was still used for services on Sundays. (fn. 86)
Presbyterian Church Of England
The Presbyterian church of St. Stephen used to
stand on the site of the former Wyvern Hotel near
London Road railway station and was built in 1869.
In 1893 the church was sold and demolished and a
new building was erected at the corner of New Walk
and De Montfort Street. The architect was A. R. G.
Fenning. (fn. 87)
Salvation Army
The 22nd opening of the Christian Mission (later
the Salvation Army) took place in February 1877.
The first hall was in Foundry Lane, but the headquarters were afterwards moved first to Watling
Street and then to Bread Street. The present hall in
Kildare Street was opened in 1935. There were five
corps of the Salvation Army in Leicester in 1956.
The divisional headquarters was in Halford Street. (fn. 88)
Christian Science
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, at Leicester
was established in 1911, when the first services were
held in a private house in the town. The church has
been variously housed in Welford Road, Avenue
Road, and Dover Street. In 1935 a building in
Granville Road was purchased, but owing to the
outbreak of war the rebuilding which was necessary
to make the new auditorium was postponed until
after the war. It was completed in 1952 and dedicated
in 1956. (fn. 89)