Building record 0075500000 - KEACH'S MEETING HOUSE, Bell Walk

Dimensions - Length 0600 cm Width 0550
Plan Form - RECTANGULAR
Grade II+. Baptist chapel, C17, said to be 1625 but probably contemporary with porch dated 1695, altered and re-fitted early C19. Brick irregularly bonded. Left gable has brick plinth and band course at eaves level, Old tile roof, 2 bays. N front has small leaded windows with moulded jambs and wooden shutters. Central gabled porch is timber framed with brick infill and original twisted wooden balusters to open side sections, wooden entablature much restored. E gable has C20 leaded casements with segmental heads. 2 single lights high in W wall inserted in 1824. Humble interior has arched braces to central principal rafters, and wind braces to roof. Fittings: C17 communion table with turned baluster legs; c1800 box pews and central pulpit at W end; plain benches with single back rails, probably of same date; narrow gallery of 1827 along E wall with open front and narrow staircase to N, wooden hat pegs. Early C18 tomb slabs in floor, Small graveyard to front had brick wall with segmental arch to gateway on E side. Chapel associated with Benjamin Keach, one of the first people to introduce regular hymn singing in services, and pastor at Winslow 1658-68. Sources: RCHM II p341 Mon 2; Guide Book (B5).
The chapel is a typical example of a 17th century dissenter’s chapel, designed to be plain and unadorned for people to worship God ‘in spirit and in truth’. Much of the timber-framed porch was renewed in 1958. The pulpit is flanked with box pews and there is a small gallery built at the east end in 1827 to cope for the increasing congregation. In the N gable, a small stone tablet inscribed the WMG 1695 stands of William and Mary Gyles. William Gyles was a prominent Winslow citizen mentioned in local records for his feud with the Duke of Buckingham over the right to set up stalls in the market place. He died in 1713 and enmity towards him by the established church was such that he was described as an ‘anti-Christian baptist’ in the parish register. Benjamin Keach ministered here. There are records of various confrontations between himself and local authorities which eventually forced him to move to London. He is well-known as the leader of the movement to introduce hymn singing into normal congregational work. By 1856, the church’s congregation had decline to non-existent but a revival came 1863. Services finally ceased in 1927 (B4).