Bethel Strict Baptist Chapel, Robertsbridge

The village of Salehurst, mentioned in the Domesday survey of 1086, had an extensive parish spanning the River Rother. There was no settlement at Robertsbridge, 1 mi southwest of Salehurst village, until after 1210, when a Cistercian abbey founded in 1176 moved there from its site further up the valley. By the 14th century, Robertsbridge was by far the larger village. and the parish church remained in Salehurst. In 1676, when a religious census was taken, Salehurst parish was found to have the second highest number of Nonconformists (28) of any parish in the area: it was behind only Rye, whose Nonconformist population was increased by refugees from continental Europe. (In England, people…

Bethel Chapel is "an excellent example of the unobtrusive good taste of the Strict Baptists' chapel style", and its "quaint" appearance Weller's chapel was built in 1842, as indicated on the carved stone tablet placed high on the west-facing gable. This elevation is of red brick and has two wooden-framed windows with pointed arches containing -tracery. concluded the epitaph. George Stedman, the second preacher (d. 2 January 1881), and Christopher Sharp (d. 25 January 1890), another man associated with the chapel's early history, were commemorated together on another stone. James Caffyn (d. 23 October 1894), who gave the site for the chapel, and his two daughters also had a monumental…