Ditchling Unitarian Chapel (formerly Ditchling General Baptist Chapel, and also known as The Old Meeting House) is a Unitarian chapel in Ditchling, a village in the English county of East Sussex. A congregation of General Baptists began to meet in the 17th century in the village, which was a local centre for Protestant Nonconformist worship, and by the time the present simple Vernacular-style chapel was constructed in 1740 a large proportion of the population held Baptist beliefs. Along with other General Baptist chapels in Sussex, the congregation moved towards Unitarian views in the mid-18th century; this caused a schism which resulted in a new chapel being formed at nearby Wivelsfield. The character of the Ditchling chapel was wholly Unitarian by 1800, and it has continued under various names since then. People associated with the chapel include William Hale White (the author "Mark Rutherford"), Henry Acton, Adrian Boult—who was married there—and G. K. Chesterton. The chapel is set back from Ditchling's main street and has an adjoining house (built in 1672) and graveyard, all of which contribute to the character of the conservation area which covers the centre of Ditchling village. English Heritage has listed the chapel at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
History
In England, people and ministers who worshipped outside the Church of England but were not part of the Roman Catholic Church were historically known as Dissenters or (Protestant) Nonconformists. Nonconformism became officially recognised after the Act of Uniformity 1662, which removed from their living those Church of England ministers who refused to recognise or abide by the Act's requirements. Many alternative denominations developed, all focused on a person's personal relationship with God rather than on the rites and ceremonies of religious worship as in the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches. This trend was seen throughout Sussex, and by the late 17th century "the all-embracing medieval Church" existed alongside dozens of newly established groups and denominations.
Ditchling was a local centre for Protestant Dissent: 64 residents of the parish declared themselves Nonconformists in a religious census of 1676. In 1724, 25 families out of 80 identified as Anabaptists (a term often used at the time in reference to various Baptist groups). One such group was the General Baptists. First identified by this name in the 17th century, General Baptists believed in unlimited atonement rather than the Calvinist view of salvation for those who have been so destined by God (limited atonement). The movement was popular in Sussex, where radical preacher Matthew Caffyn was influential. A congregation of General Baptists is known to have existed in Ditchling in the late 17th century, because in 1696 some of its members voted at the General Baptist Assembly against its proposal to exclude Caffyn. His unorthodox, rapidly changing beliefs had caused a schism in the Assembly, and its response to his new theology was significant in the development of Unitarianism in the 18th century. Worshippers apparently came to the village from all over Sussex and neighbouring counties: attendance and baptism records identify church members from such distant places as Sevenoaks and Cranbrook (Kent), Charlwood and Godstone (Surrey) and Battle, Walberton, Crawley and Pulborough (Sussex) as well as neighbouring villages such as Keymer, Westmeston and Streat. There was no purpose-built chapel in the 17th century, though: a cottage built in 1672 on a twitten (narrow lane) off East End Lane may have served as the congregation's meeting place. In 1716, the group registered another house in the village as a place of worship. The Jointure, a timber-framed 16th-century building on the site of a Wealden hall house (of which some traces remain), was owned by a family of Dissenters. (In the 20th century it was the home of artist Frank Brangwyn for several decades.)