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Providence Chapel (founded as Charlwood Union Chapel) is a former Nonconformist place of worship in the village of Charlwood in the English county of Surrey. Founded in 1816 on the outskirts of the ancient village, it was associated with Independent Calvinists and Strict Baptists throughout nearly two centuries of religious use. The "startling" wooden building—remarkably un-English with its simple veranda-fronted style—had seen several years of service as an officers' mess at a nearby barracks. The chapel was put up for sale in 2012.〔 English Heritage has listed it at Grade II * for its architectural and historical importance, but because of its poor condition it is also on that body's Heritage at Risk Register. ==History== Joseph Flint was an early 19th-century shopkeeper in the village of Charlwood on the Surrey/Sussex border. Unlike most residents at the time, he was a Protestant Nonconformist and from around 1814〔 worshipped in a cottage with a small group of like-minded people rather than at St Nicholas' Church, the Anglican parish church. Meanwhile, during the Napoleonic Wars, a barracks existed in the Sussex market town of Horsham. A wooden guardroom or officers' mess was erected there in about 1800.〔 After the war the barracks was decommissioned, and the timber mess building was dismantled and transported on wagons to Charlwood. There the "strange () quaint" structure was re-erected in a field on a dirt track north of the village, and on 15 November 1816 it opened as an Independent Calvinistic chapel for Flint and his fellow worshippers.〔〔〔 The opening sermons at Charlwood Union Chapel, as it was originally called, were preached by ministers from chapels at Epsom and Dorking.〔 Epsom had an Independent Calvinistic chapel of its own—the denomination was "closely associated with Surrey" in the 18th and 19th centuries; Bugby Chapel was opened there in 1779. The chapel only had one permanent pastor: C.T. Smith, who served from 1816 until 1834. Since then, it was served mostly by Strict Baptist ministers, and although it was nominally an Independent Calvinistic place of worship it adopted the character of a Strict Baptist chapel.〔 Smith regularly preached in the village of Horley, away,〔 and in 1846 a Strict Baptist chapel was built there with assistance from the Charlwood cause.〔 The congregation moved from the wooden chapel at Lee Street to a new larger building near Horley railway station in 1881. (Both of these chapels have been demolished, but the burial ground at Lee Street survives.)〔 Charlwood Union Chapel was renamed ''Providence Chapel'',〔 and services were latterly held on Sunday afternoons and Wednesday evenings.〔Information sign on the chapel wall, photographed on 12 May 2012.〕 The building was advertised for sale by a local estate agent in 2012. It was offered on a freehold basis at a guide price of £49,500, and was advertised as "in need of repair and improvement" and as being on the national Heritage at Risk Register. For planning purposes, places of worship are covered by Use Class D1; any new owner would be allowed to use the building for D1-class activities without seeking planning permission, but any change of use would require approval from Mole Valley District Council. The purchaser would also have to keep the graveyard around the chapel in its present condition and allow burials on request. In spring 2013, the Charlwood Society—a local history and preservation group—became the new trustees of the chapel. Under the name ''Charlwood Union Chapel'', the chapel was registered for marriages on 7 December 1844. It was also registered with this name as a place of worship under the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855; as it predates the passing of the Act, its identity number on the Worship Register is 1. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Providence Chapel, Charlwood」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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