Nonconformist Gazetteers

Gazetteer of Nonconformist Chapels in Shropshire

This website, created by Janice Cox and now hosted by VCH Shropshire, displays photographs of the many and varied nonconformist chapels in Shropshire. The number of chapels photographed so far is about 500. New chapels are added as and when the author can get about the county. The aim is to add brief historical notes to all of the chapel photographs. If you have a photograph of a chapel not included on this site which you would like to have shown here, we will be delighted to hear from you. It doesn't matter if the photograph is old or in poor condition, as this can be corrected digitally to some extent. Photographs of chapels no longer in existence would be of special interest.

Gazetteer of Nonconformist Chapels in Shropshire

Gazetteer of Nonconformist Chapels in Shrewsbury

Here we make available to readers and researchers the Gazetteer of Nonconformist places of worship in Shrewsbury, compiled by Dr Rosemary Thornes, Lyn Leach and Jonathan Davies. This is both a listing of the chapels and congregations in the town from Restoration Protestant nonconformity to our own times, and a history of each chapel. It therefore gathers together a mass of information which has been either little known or unknown.

VCH Shropshire offers its thanks to the three authors for their work on the project. The version we present here is a draft. We have additional material to be inserted including that from Pidgeon’s Salopian Annals and so a further augmented version will appear later in the year. We publish now out of fairness to the three compilers of the work who have had to wait a long time to see their labours, COVID having intervened, but also to invite comments. We would particularly welcome information about some of the churches which stand outside the tradition of Protestant Nonconformity such as the Seventh Day Adventists, but corrections and amendments of all sorts are welcome.

Download the Gazetteer of Nonconformist Chapels in Shrewsbury [PDF format 5.6 MB, 171 pp., updated 17 Feb. 2022]

We would advise you not to print the text until you’ve seen how long it is!