Old chapel building on the market for £200k+
AFORMER chapel has gone on the market with the prospect of being converted to a unique home or other use.
Set within half an acre of West Lancashire countryside, the former Drummersdale Mission is listed for sale for offers above £200,000.
Pictures from inside the building showcase its former use with chairs still set out for a service.
As well as the main church area, the building contains a reception/entrance, an additional two small halls, a kitchen and a WC.
The property is listed for sale with Fitton Estates who requests that unconditional offers must be submitted by March 4. According to Fitton, the property has scope for residential conversion or redevelopment but any such change would require planning permission.
The building dates back to at least the 19th century and was originally built as a Presbyterian Church. Its services ended in recent years and the historic property could soon have an entirely new use.
It is located in what Fitton describes as the “attractive and affluent semi-rural location” of Scarisbrick in West Lancashire, with towns such as Southport and Ormskirk only a short drive away. It is also surrounded by half an acre of land which is associated with the property.
According to the 1893 book ‘Lancashire nonconformity, or, Sketches, historical & descriptive, of the Congregational and old Presbyterian churches in the county’, the Drummersdale Mission was first built using the proceeds of the sale of potatoes grown on the same land.
It states: “At Drummersdale, Scarisbrick, for more than half a century there has existed an interesting religious movement, which, though not distinctly congregational, is sufficiently so to deserve notice here. Fifty-five years ago the scattered population of the Township of Scarisbrick was largely Roman Catholic, and not of high moral character.
“It was about this time that a youth named Richard Sephton, son of a farmer, and a member of the Congregational Church at Ormskirk, began to gather a few children together and teach them on Sundays.
“The first meeting place was a kitchen, and as this became too small they moved into a gig house and then into his father’s farm, where the scholars numbered about ninety.”
Explaining the origins of the actual building, it continues to explain that Charles Scarisbrick told Mr Sephton he had seen an “improvement” in the village boys since the teachings began and that he would build a schoolroom if it was needed.
The book continues: “A modest structure was erected in 1843, and Mr Sephton’s account of how this came about is interesting. ‘One day,’ says he, ‘I was with my father, looking at a small plot of land that he said he would sow with corn. I said it would give potatoes well.
“’He said, I will give it you for spending money. We planted the potatoes, they came up, father looked at them, and said he never saw potatoes look so well.
“’While they were growing we were converting the cart-shed into a chapel.
“’They were a very large yield, and were sold for £21 10S. and this amount, with what was given at the opening service, paid all the cost of the building, and we were not a shilling too little, nor a shilling too much.’
“Several generations of scholars have passed through this little school, and are filling useful positions in different parts of the country, whilst some have found homes in America, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition to the Sunday School, divine service has been conducted weekly, generally by lay preachers from Liverpool and Southport.
“For some years the Rev. G. Compton Smith, M.A., formerly a deacon of the West End Congregational Church, Southport, went over to Scarisbrick periodically and administered the Lord s Supper, but during the last three years the Rev. A. S, Welch, 1 and other friends from the Hawkshead Street Church have been closely in touch with the people, and have given them such help as they have needed.
“Mr Sephton, in this quiet out-of theway place, has worthily served the interests of Evangelical religion. During all the years, so long as strength permitted, he attended every service and acted as superintendent, deacon, and occasional minister for much of that time.
“It is probable that ere long this interesting little cause will be even more closely allied with Congregationalism than as yet it has been.”