Ebenezer Particular Baptist Chapel, Hastings

Hastings is one of the oldest settlements in Sussex. Its position—a sheltered natural harbour near fertile fishing grounds in the English Channel, surrounded by forests and marshes—allowed an autonomous settlement to develop from about the 8th century. The Haestingas tribe, finally overcome by King Offa of Mercia in 771, gave its name to the settlement in which they were based. The town was large and important enough to have a mint by 928; and a century later its most famous event, the Battle of Hastings, brought it to wider attention. Several churches were founded in the medieval era: there were seven in 1291. Over the centuries, most were closed and demolished. The two oldest survivors,…

The chapel is Neoclassical in style and has a rendered exterior which has now been painted over. The walls underneath are brick. The two-storey building has three bays, each with a sash window (described by Ian Nairn and Nikolaus Pevsner as "oddly debased"). A wide string course divides the upper and lower floors. The entrance porch is flanked by pilasters and has a cornice and parapet with a tympanum. Below the roofline, a set of three sash windows are topped with slightly recessed arches which extend above the level of the cornice; the centre arch is higher. Above these is a pediment with a circular recess surrounded by four keystones. At the rear (facing Tackleway), some of the original…