St. Andrew with Castlegate United Reformed Church

St Andrew's with Castlegate United Reformed Church
St Andrew's with Castlegate United Reformed Church
Denomination	United Reformed
Website	standrewswithcastlegate.org.uk
Architecture
Heritage designation	Grade II listed
Architect(s)	Robert Evans JP
Style	Early decorated Gothic
Groundbreaking	21 September 1869
Completed	29 September 1870
Construction cost	£4,000 (equivalent to £345,164 in 2015).
Specifications
Capacity	600 people

St Andrew's with Castlegate United Reformed Church is in Nottingham.

St Andrew’s-with-Castle Gate United Reformed Church, Nottingham, was established in 1975 by the union of St Andrew’s URC with Castle Gate URC, following the creation of the United Reformed Church by Act of Parliament in 1972. Prior to this date, St Andrew’s (founded 1870) had been the leading Presbyterian Church in the city and Castle Gate (founded c.1665) the leading Congregational Church.

Following Union, the membership of St Andrew’s-with-Castle Gate resolved to retain the former St Andrew’s premises on Goldsmith Street, where it still worships and hosts its many other activities, while the Castle Gate premises were acquired by the Congregational Federation (bringing together those Congregational Churches that elected to remain independent on the formation of the URC), for use as its national headquarters. It is now known as The Castle Gate Centre.

Through its different branches, the Church has a long and distinguished history of Christian witness in the city and county. The history of Castle Gate Congregational Church can be traced to the mid-seventeenth century and the period of the English Civil War. A dissenting community of Independents (Congregationalists) first set up a Church in Castle Gate in 1689, while the existing building was opened in 1864. The St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church was constituted in 1866 and its present building was opened in 1870.

Both Churches assisted in the foundation of daughter churches in the locality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Castle Gate’s included The Boulevard (Gregory Boulevard, 1823), Albion (Sneinton, 1856), Addison Street (1867), Queen’s Walk (1874), Park Hill (Derby Road, 1880), Bloomsgrove (Norton Street, 1894), with missions at Thorneywood (1861) and Old Radford (1860-61). Most of these (The Boulevard being a distinguished exception) have now closed or have merged again with their mother churches. St Andrew’s, in its turn, established the Hyson Green Mission (Noel Street) in 1885, where a new Church was opened in 1901, to survive until the close of WW2. In 1896, St Columba’s was opened on the Mansfield Road, to re-unite with St Andrew’s in 1946. The St Ann’s Well Road Congregational Church, an independent foundation, united with Castle Gate Congregational Church in 1971, shortly before the majority of Congregational Churches in England and Wales united with the English Presbyterian Church to form the United Reformed Church.