To set the context of the Local History Society’s exhibition on “The History of Harpenden’s Churches” on 1 September 2018, a timeline was constructed, mainly derived from Vol 3, Church and Chapel of WEA series on Wheathampstead and Harpenden, 1975.
1537 Henry VIII charter
1538 Parish registers to be kept – Harpenden’s date back to 1562
1545 Chantries Act – inventory of Harpenden church property
1553 Queen Mary attempts to restore Catholicism
1558 Queen Elizabeth restores Protestantism
1564 Wittewronges arrive from Flanders to escape persecution of Calvinist Huguenots (living in London)
1571-4 Two Church bells cast in Harpenden by an itinerant founder, John Grene
1593 Compulsory church attendance required
1611 Richard Bardolf cited for not attending church for 10 years
1628 One Catholic recorded in Harpenden
1635 Harpenden curate John Barker recorded as having Puritan leanings
1656 Documents for separating the parishes of Wheathampstead and Harpenden were drawn up but not implemented
1660 The State Arms in Harpenden Church replaced by the King’s Arms – the Restoration
1662 Act of Uniformity makes the Prayer Book compulsory
1665 The Five Mile Act bans non-conformist Nathaniel Eeles from Harpenden
1679 William Gawen named a ‘Recusant’ (i.e. Catholic) and a warrant issued for his arrest
1689 Toleration Act legalises meetings of dissenters in people’s houses
1711 First dissenting meeting house in Harpenden of which there is any record – Anabaptists in dwelling house of John Gooding at Coldharbour
1723 Baptists at house of Jeremiah Downes – last recorded Baptist meeting house in Harpenden (Baptists met in St Albans, Kensworth…)
[1772 John Wesley preached at Luton Methodist church – Harpenden people probably heard him there)]
1774 Harpenden churchyard enlarged
1790 Licence granted to Samuel Coplestone for (Methodist) meeting house on West Common (house and barn of Thomas Tomalin, then Thomas Robinson’s cottage
1802 Independents recorded as meeting at the house or chapel of Susan Tomalin/John Humphry
1818 Rev Maurice Phillips establishes School for Dissenting Boys at Blakesley’s (Harpenden Hall)
1819 William Vigis’ house registered for Protestant Dissenters in January – with addition of the house of Rev Maurice Phillips appended in May – chapel in house or grounds of Blakesley’s (Harpenden Hall)
1820 Creation of Methodist congregation at Kinsbourne Green (house of John Lock)
1839-40 Independent chapel built in Amenbury Lane
1839 Methodist chapel built in Leyton Road
1856 Methodist chapel at Kinsbourne Green opened
1859 Separation of Harpenden and Wheathampstead parishes
1860 Anglican Mission opened by Canon Vaughan in a cottage in Coldharbour Lane (All Saints)
1862 Demolition of Norman nave and rebuilding of the the nave of St Nicholas church
1864 Anglican Mission hall at Bowling Alley opened – for church services and school
1865 Anglican Mission at Kinsbourne Green – in Mrs Crip’s kitchen (beginning’s of St Mary’s)
1865 Primitive Methodist chapel built in Wheathampstead (now Southdown) Road – previously met in a house in Grove Road)
1868 St Mary’s church and school at Kinsbourne Green opened
1876 New Bowling Alley church/school built (old Mission Room retained alongside)
1884 Batford Methodists met in the home of Mr and Mrs Smart, Coldharbour Lane – corrugated iron (tin) chapel built at northern end of Coldharbour Lane
1885 First meeting of Harpenden Corps of the Salvation Army in a field in Crabtree Lane; moved to Welcombe Hall in Heath Road (Mrs Tyler)
1886 New Methodist chapel in Leyton Road built
1887 St George’s School built by Mr Wix, with temporary iron chapel
1888 Sunday school added to Methodist Chapel in Bowling Alley
1889 Anglican Mission at Coldharbour – All Saints church built
1891 St George’s School chapel built and consecrated
1890s Bamville Mission established in a barn of Bamville Farm by Leyton Road Methodist church (John Fensome)
1895 St John the Baptist church built at corner of Crabtree Lane – former church-school at Bowling Alley became a school only
1897 Congregational Church built in Vaughan Road – Amenbury Lane chapel retained for Sunday school etc)
1899 Primitive Methodist Sunday school hall (‘the Tin Hut’) built opposite the chapel in Wheathampstead (now Southdown) Road
1904 Congregational Sunday School opened in Victoria Road
1904 Salvation Army bought Independent/Congregational church in Amenbury Lane
1904 Batford Methodist Church Foundation stone laid
1905 St John’s church, Crabtree Lane destroyed by fire – congregation moved back to Bowling Alley school
1905 Batford Methodist church built and opened on Lower Luton Road
1905 Father Martin built Catholic ‘tin church’ in Rothamsted Avenue
1908 New St John the Baptist’s church built in St John’s Road
1908 United Mission, 18 West Common, established by trustees representing Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists and Congregationalists
1910 Baptist Mission in Luton Road (tin chapel next to the Old Bell) taken over by Congregational church
1913 Highfield Oval (National Children’s Home) chapel consecrated
1922 Trustees of the Methodist Church (Leyton Road) bought The White House in the High Street (former brewer’s house for Healey-Mardall-Glover’s brewery)
1922 Batford Methodist church Sunday school hall opened
1925 Society of Friends (Quakers) met in a room at the Red House, lent by Sir Halley Stewart
1927 The Brethern met in a room at 41 High Street (Harpenden Music School) – later moved to United Mission Hall, West Common
1928/9 Our Lady of Lourdes church built and consecrated to replace the ‘tin church’
1929 Foundation stones of High Street Methodist church laid
1930 Opening of High Street Methodist Church
1931 Kinsbourne Green Methodist church hall built
1932 Union of Primitive, Wesleyan and United Methodists established
1933 Closure of United Mission Room in West Common
1933 Society of Friends purchased and converted the former Harpenden Institute in Southdown Road
1936 Separate parish of St John the Baptist created
1951 Rebuilding of chancel at Kinsbourne Green Methodist hall to replace the old church
1954 Crabtree Hall in Crabtree Lane built for the Brethern
1955 Dolphin Smith gave riverside meadow at corner of Station Road for a church to replace Coldharbour Lane Anglican Mission (All Saints)
1955 St Mary’s Kinsbourne Green became church only, as school moved to Roundwood Park
1957 Closure of Bamville Mission
1963 Harpenden Evangelical church met in old Public Hall (now Park Hall)
1965 All Saints. Station Road consecrated
1966 Salvation Army citadel on Leyton Green opened
1968 First extension to St Mary’s Kinsbourne Green dedicated
1969 Harpenden Evangelical Church opened in Vaughan Road
1997 Flora Humm rooms opened, (off North transept of St Nicholas church)
2002 Closure of Kinsbourne Green Methodist church
2008 Extension and bell tower added to St Mary’s, Kinsbourne Green
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