Horsham Unitarian Church

It was founded in 1719 to serve the large Baptist population of the ancient market town of Horsham—home of radical preacher Matthew Caffyn—and the surrounding area.

The chapel's congregation moved towards Unitarian beliefs in the 19th century, but the simple brick building continued to serve worshippers drawn from a wide area of Sussex.

It is one of several places of worship which continue to represent Horsham's centuries-old tradition of Protestant Nonconformism, and is the town's second oldest surviving religious building—only St Mary's, the parish church, predates it.

[3] This trend was seen throughout Sussex, and by the late 17th century "the all-embracing medieval Church" existed alongside dozens of newly established groups and denominations.

[4] Along with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and the Presbyterians, they found significant early success in the area around the north Sussex market town of Horsham.

By 1676 there were about 100 Nonconformists in the town, and the General Baptist cause was led by local radical and evangelist Matthew Caffyn.

[9] The Act of Toleration 1689 gave greater freedom to Nonconformist groups: they no longer had to meet in secret in houses, and could build their own chapels.

[8] There were known to be 18 Baptist families in Horsham in 1724, but in the chapel's early years about 350 worshippers typically attended: the building served as a central meeting place for congregations and individual people across a large area.

The original rostrum was replaced with a conventional pulpit in 1752,[9] and in 1772 the building was extended at the south end to accommodate a second vestry and an internal baptistery.

[14] The 19th century was also characterised by pastoral and community work: a school was established in the chapel, although it later moved to a private house; in 1839, the incumbent minister started an educational academy in a building in Albion Terrace, which published its own journal (the Albion Terrace Academy Gazette) for several years; and the same minister founded Horsham's first library in the chapel.

[14] Horsham Unitarian Church was listed at Grade II by English Heritage on 20 May 1949;[20] this defines it as a "nationally important" building of "special interest".

[23] Early Unitarian chapels are characteristically simple, homely,[24] domestic-style buildings—partly because they were not expected to become permanent places of worship, because reintegration with the Church of England was anticipated.

"Habit had accustomed [congregations] to the[ir] existing places of worship" by the time it became clear that Unitarianism would be a separate denomination, "and the domestic influence thus established by association made itself felt" in subsequent chapel architecture.

[7][26] It has walls of red and blue-grey brick, two storeys and a hipped roof (with a hidden central depression) laid with Horsham Stone tiles.

At the time of its construction, mistrust of Christian denominations outside the Established (Anglican) Church was still prevalent, and the building intentionally avoided drawing attention to itself or its congregation by being obtrusive.

Many of the chapel's early worshippers lived in Billingshurst. A chapel was founded there in 1754, and survives.
An extension was built under a sloping lean-to roof (pictured to the left) in 1772.
The chapel moved towards Unitarianism in the 19th century, but a new General Baptist cause was founded on the Brighton Road in the 1890s (present Brighton Road Baptist Church pictured) .
The chapel is set back from the road in extensive grounds.