Bethel Strict Baptist Chapel, Wivelsfield

Throughout Sussex, a coastal county in southeast England, many Christian denominations have thrived alongside the Established Church of England since the 17th century, when the Act of Uniformity 1662 extended religious freedom to so-called Nonconformists or Dissenters (people and ministers who worshipped outside the Church of England but were not part of the Roman Catholic Church). The area around Lewes, the present county town of East Sussex, was a hotbed of Nonconformist worship, and Baptists of all types were well represented. Ditchling, a village near Lewes, also supported several chapels in addition to the Anglican parish church, whose vicar said in 1780 that "this place is noted for…

Bethel Chapel is a plain, simple Vernacular building which has been extended several times. It has been described as "a quaint and interesting place" with a "quiet and unassuming elegance". The building is of mixed height, mostly two storeys, and is L-shaped. The endmost bay is faced with weatherboarding. The hipped roof is laid with tiles. The earliest part of the chapel is the northern section and the attached cottage at the west end; the two parts formed a modest rectangle. An 18+1/2 ft extension in the 19th century brought the chapel's internal dimensions up to 35+1/4 x and also lengthened the cottage. Of the three surviving entrances, the main, cambered-arched doorway is aligned to the…