Besses United Reformed Church

Besses United Reformed Church was built to serve the Congregational denomination of nonconformist Christians and was originally known as Besses Congregational Church. The United Kingdom Congregationalists and the Presbyterian Church of England merged in the 1970s to form the United Reformed Church. The structure was designed in the Gothic Revival style by Alfred Waterhouse. His design allowed for a chapel capable of holding 823 people, ancillary buildings such as the vestry, and a schoolroom on the upper storey. The latter measured 78 ft by 33 ft and was expected to accommodate between 500 and 600 children. The local school at that time had a roll of 200, of which 70-80 were adults.…