1880 - Hathern Baptist Chapel - Hathern, Leicestershire - Dated Buildings and Cornerstones on Waymarking.com

The original building Baptist Chapel of 1840 was rebuilt in 1880 as the 2 story accommodation present today.

The church is in The Leys, which is just off of Anchor Lane;
"The Leys is an area of ground behind the Baptist Church off Anchor Lane and is owned by Hathern Parish Council who possess a number of historical documents related to the land. The Leys was formerly a play area but is now being developed as an orchard.

A ley is an area of land given over to grass or clover and the earliest document dates from 1764 when the land, described as the Tenter Ground, was sold to William Swift by Isaac Swift. Before 1764 this must have been a location for tenters. Tenters were originally large wooden frames which were used for making woollen cloth. After a piece of cloth was woven, it still contained oil from the fleece and some dirt. A fuller cleaned the woollen cloth and then had to dry it carefully or the woollen fabric would shrink. To prevent this shrinkage, the fuller would place the wet cloth on a tenter, and leave it to dry outdoors. The lengths of wet cloth were stretched on the tenter using tenterhooks (hooked nails driven through the wood) all around the perimeter of the frame to which the cloth's edges were fixed, so that as it dried the cloth would retain its shape and size. In some areas, entire tenter-fields, larger open spaces full of tenters, were once common.

The dimensions of the ground are given as 48 yards x 12 yards, in later documents it is described as being of one rood (1210 square yards) and equates to the current Leys area plus the Baptist Church. In 1782 it was sold by William Swift and George Bennett to William Spencer, and in 1837 it was sold by Elizabeth Spencer (widow of William Spencer) to George Monk. George Monk sold the land to Joseph Coddington in 1839.

Joseph Coddington ran a bakery in Wide Street until his death in 1877. Joseph gave part of The Leys to build the first Baptist Church in 1840. The church was rebuilt in 1880, and has a foundation stone laid by Miss (Annie) Coddington in memory of her grandfather.

The ownership of this land and the three cottages on it passed to Laura Wakefield, the granddaughter of Joseph Coddington. Miss Wakefield operated a general dealers shop from her cottage at the A6 end of The Leys. In 1967 closing orders were made on the cottages on the basis that they were unfit for habitation. In 1969 Miss Wakefield applied for planning permission to build on the land and this was refused mainly on highway grounds. Miss Wakefield then asked Loughborough Corporation to buy the land from her, which it did. The land passed to the ownership of Charnwood Borough Council in 1972 and then to Hathern Parish Council in 1983.

The Leys has two yew trees, one of which is in the church grounds. Although it’s hard to be precise, it is likely that these are around 250 years old and so date from the earliest record. There used to be a third tree close to the church, but this had to be removed."

SOURCE - (visit link)

Year of construction: 1880 Cross-listed waymark: [Web Link] Full inscription: General Baptist Chapel, Rebuilt 1880

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