Southover General Baptist Chapel

Southover General Baptist Chapel
The former chapel from the northeast
50°52′12″N 0°00′30″E / 50.8700°N 0.0082°E / 50.8700; 0.0082Coordinates: 50°52′12″N 0°00′30″E / 50.8700°N 0.0082°E / 50.8700; 0.0082
Location	Eastport Lane, Southover, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1TL
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Baptist
History
Founded	1741
Architecture
Status	Former chapel
Functional status	Residential conversion
Heritage designation	Grade II
Designated	29 October 1985
Style	Vernacular
Completed	1741
Closed	1972

Southover General Baptist Chapel is a former Baptist place of worship in the ancient village of Southover, now part of the town and district of Lewes, one of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex. Founded in 1741 as the first Baptist place of worship in the area, it attracted a congregation of General Baptists whose theological views gradually moved towards Unitarianism. This led to their union with the members of the nearby Westgate Chapel, after which the flint and brick building housed other congregations and secular groups before its conversion to a house. The building is protected as a Grade II by English Heritage.

Lewes is an ancient borough and market town on the River Ouse. The adjacent village of Southover, now part of the town, was chosen by William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey in the 11th century as the site for his Cluniac Priory dedicated to St Pancras. The area went on to develop a strong Protestant Nonconformist tradition in the 18th and 19th centuries: denominations such as the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, Unitarianism, Methodism, Quakers, Baptists, Strict Baptists, Presbyterianism and Congregationalism were all represented. The General Baptist Chapel, the first Baptist place of worship in the area, was founded at Southover in 1741, possibly by a group associated with an earlier church (now Unitarian) at nearby Ditchling. Another Baptist congregation, this time consisting of Particular Baptists, started worshipping in Lewes in 1784; they moved to Eastgate Chapel in 1843.