Ebenezer Baptist Chapel is a Reformed

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

and

Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

church, located at the southern end of Broad Street at Chapel Hill, overlooking the western arm of Manor Road in

Newquay Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

. It is one of the oldest religious building in Newquay, and was founded in 1822 as Ebenezer Baptist Chapel. In 1852 The Methodists opened the Wesley Methodist Chapel which was on the same road nearby.

History

Before the chapel was built the Particular or Strict Baptists formed themselves into a community and met for worship in the old malthouse opposite Primrose House on Beach Road. They had regular Sunday supply of preachers from Plymouth,

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...

, and

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...

. The first chapel built in 1822 was crowned with a

thatched roof Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

. This was eventually removed and a

slate roof Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock ...

put on. The slate was quarried from the cliffs on the Newquay side of Glendorgal Point, and Thomas Osborne was the mason who slated the roof. In 1856 the Rev. John Bath took charge of the church, and continued to minister there for over twenty years. The worshippers at Ebenezer were Strict and Particular, or Calvinistic Baptists. When the accommodation became inadequate and according to Ennor the building was in need of replacing, it was decided to build another chapel. The old chapel was demolished and a larger chapel was erected by Ennor and reopened on 9 August 1870, the new chapel would seated 200 people. Two sermons were preached by the Reverend Moses of Falmouth on the opening of the new chapel, after which collections were made in aid of defraying the building expenses. Mary Moyses was the first to be baptized by immersion in the baptistry of the new chapel. Previous to the erection of this building and baptistry, those who joined the church were baptized either in the harbour or on the beach. Since the present chapel was erected, a schoolroom with a minister's vestry over it, has been added. The chapel is only accessible from the main road by a narrow footpath. Since 1839, it had been assumed that the footpath was held under the same trusts as the chapel, however, during 2016 it came to light that the title to the footpath was not owned by the chapel trustees. The Grace Baptist Trust Corporation was able to assist the church in dealing with the legal owner and the

Land Registry Land registration is any of various systems by which matters concerning ownership, possession, or other rights in land are formally recorded (usually with a government agency or department) to provide evidence of title, facilitate transactions, ...

to acquire title of the footpath, thereby safeguarding access to the chapel in perpetuity.

References

{{coord missing, Cornwall Churches in Cornwall Baptist churches in England Newquay