The Church of the Messiah, Birmingham was a Unitarian place of worship on Broad Street. The impressive

Victorian Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

church was constructed between 1860-1862 and straddled the

Birmingham Canal The BCN Main Line, or Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line is the evolving route of the Birmingham Canal between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in England. The name ''Main Line'' was used to distinguish the main Birmingham to Wolverhampton rout ...

. The congregation pre-dates the building, and has continued following its demolition in 1978. Those who worshipped there include politicians of local and national importance.

History

The foundation of the congregation goes back to 1692 when the first meeting house was built, afterwards known as the Lower Meeting House,

Deritend Deritend is a historic area of Birmingham, England, built around a crossing point of the River Rea. It is first mentioned in 1276. Today Deritend is usually considered to be part of Digbeth. History Deritend was a crossing point of the River R ...

. When the congregation outgrew this in 1732, they moved into a new chapel in Moor Street. By the 1860s this was also too small so a new church was commissioned. The Moor Street chapel was sold to a Roman Catholic congregation, and became St Michael's Church. The new Church of the Messiah was built to designs by the architect

John Jones Bateman John Jones Bateman (1817–1903) was an English architect, active in the town (later city) of Birmingham, where he designed a number of important civic buildings, and nonconformist churches, often in partnership with George Drury. He was the f ...

, the contractors being George Branson and Edwin Gwyther. The foundation stone was laid on 11 August 1860 and the church opened on 1 January 1862, at a cost of £10,000. The site was unusual in that it straddled the

, forming part of the Broad Street canal tunnel. Early members of the congregation included members of the

Martineau family The Martineau family is an intellectual, business and political family, political dynasty associated first with Norwich and later also London and Birmingham, England. The family were prominent Unitarianism, Unitarians; a room in London's Essex ...

who would produce many Birmingham Lord Mayors throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and Samuel Carter.

Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the Cons ...

, and his son

Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasemen ...

, prime minister 1937–1940, attended services in this church. The congregation moved to purpose-built premises at Five Ways in 1973.

Organ

An organ was provided by Nicholson of Worcester in 1862, but by 1882 the congregation had commissioned a new one from William Hill and Son at a cost of £1571. This was rebuilt by Nicholson's in 1923. A specification of the organ can be found on the

National Pipe Organ Register The British Institute of Organ Studies (BIOS) is a British organisation and registered charity which aims to promote study and appreciation of all aspects of the pipe organ. Further, it acts as a lobbying body to raise awareness of organ issue ...

. National Pipe Organ Register
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Ministers

*John Sillitoe, 1692–1704 *Thomas Pickard, 1705–1747 *Samuel Bourn, 1732–1754 *Samuel Blyth, 1747–1791 *William Hawkes, 1754–1780 *

Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...

, 1780–1791 *

John Edwards Johnny Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a U.S. senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004 alongside John Kerry, losing to incumbents George ...

, 1791–1802 * David Jones, 1792–1795 * John Kentish, 1803–1853 *

Joshua Toulmin Joshua Toulmin ( – 23 July 1815) of Taunton, England was a noted theologian and a serial Dissenting minister of Presbyterian (1761–1764), Baptist (1765–1803), and then Unitarian (1804–1815) congregations. Toulmin's sympathy for b ...

, 1804–1815 *James Yates, 1817–1826 *John Reynell Wreford, 1826–1831 * Samuel Bache, 1832–1868 * Henry William Crosskey, 1869–1893 * Lawrence Pearsall Jacks, 1894–1903 *John Worsley Austin, 1903–????

Organists

*John Gilbert Mills, ca. 1923

References

{{BirminghamBuildings Churches in Birmingham, West Midlands Churches completed in 1862 Unitarian chapels in England

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...

1692 establishments in England Buildings and structures demolished in 1978 Demolished buildings and structures in the West Midlands (county)