Fulwood Old Chapel is a Unitarian place of worship in the Fulwood district of western

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

. It is a member of the

General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches (GAUFCC or colloquially British Unitarians) is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christians, and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom and Irelan ...

, the

umbrella organisation An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions who work together formally to coordinate activities and/or pool resources. In business, political, and other environments, it provides resources and ofte ...

for British Unitarians. The chapel was built from 1728 to 1729 as a

meeting house A meeting house (meetinghouse, meeting-house) is a building where religious and sometimes public meetings take place. Terminology Nonconformist Protestant denominations distinguish between a * church, which is a body of people who believe in Chr ...

for

English Dissenters English Dissenters or English Separatists were Protestant Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 17th and 18th centuries. A dissenter (from the Latin ''dissentire'', "to disagree") is one who disagrees in opinion, belief and ...

, who had previously met under John Fox at Fullwood Hall. William Ronksley left £400 in his will for the construction of a "large and handsome" chapel, although the construction itself cost only £75.Welcome to Fulwood Old Chapel, Sheffield
/ref> The chapel is the second oldest religious building in south or west Sheffield, after Beauchief Abbey. The single-storey building is constructed of coursed stone and dressed with

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

, and has stone slate roofs. The walls are around two feet thick. The street frontage has four

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed windows, doors being placed between the first and second, and third and fourth, windows. A tablet above the two central windows reads "Built 1729 in pursuance of the last Will of Mr W Roncksley". In 1754, a school room was added; this was extended in 1968 to include a kitchen and toilets, and was again modernised in 2009. It is currently used for a

Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

and social events. Other changes were made in 1959, when a small storm porch was added inside the main entrance. The chapel is now

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. A garden formerly laid outside the chapel, but this was removed in 1929, when the road was widened. At the same time, the early nineteenth century village

stocks Stocks are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law describing ...

were then moved to lie in front of the building, and these are now also Grade II listed.

Samuel Plimsoll Samuel Plimsoll (10 February 1824 – 3 June 1898) was a British politician and social reformer, now best remembered for having devised the Plimsoll line (a line on a ship's hull indicating the maximum safe draught, and therefore the minimum fr ...

is believed to have worshipped at the chapel in the 1860s, and his first daughter may be buried under its floor.

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 53.3622, -1.5466, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Churches completed in 1729 Churches in Sheffield Grade II listed buildings in Sheffield Grade II listed churches in South Yorkshire 18th-century Protestant churches Unitarian chapels in England 1729 establishments in England