The decline in chapel worship

As the chapel religion became more popular and more widely respected its adherents came to realise that it was on an equal footing with the Anglican Church. More and more chapels became meeting houses not just for the middle classes and the labourers but for intellectuals and "respectable persons". It was soon noted that with this new group came money, and that an intellectual ministry would attract more intellectuals. By the middle of the 19th century over 70% of men entering the Congregational ministry were college trained. Preaching was no longer the job of laymen. In 1856 the Calvinistic Methodist Association in Wales decreed that all new members of the ministry should undergo a series of tests to determine their knowledge of the faith.

This new training of ministers soon opened up a social divide. The middle and lower classes complained that the new ministers no longer preached in simple dialect or tended to their communities. Now the energies of the ministers went into chapel building to establish themselves as equals of the Church of England and the evangelism, which had once been the attraction of the chapel religion, went into decline.

As the ministers were no longer laymen they began to rely on well-attended chapels to supply their salaries and soon itinerant preaching, which had been the catalyst for Non-conformist expansion, began to decline.

By the 1840s it was becoming more and more usual for the Baptist Church to construct indoor baptismal pools as their previous practice of baptism in rivers and ponds was discouraging the more "genteel folk".

Many chapels also began to charge a "pew rent" (for example, Bromyard) which meant that the wealthy once again had more influence.

In Herefordshire the membership of the Non-conformist religions was often made up of just a few families in the village. Often the younger generations of these families would move away from the rural villages and into larger towns where there was more likelihood of work. They may have joined chapels in the towns but this left the rural chapels in Herefordshire with a declining membership.

Sadly the downfall in membership meant closure for many of the chapels in the most rural parts of Herefordshire. Most that closed were sold into private ownership for a relatively small amount and now have become storage facilities or been converted into unusual family houses. Fortunately the simplicity and quaint beauty of these buildings has meant that most remain largely unaltered and are still a standing testament to the religious revival of the 18th century.

[Original author: Miranda Greene, 2003]