History of Our Chapel

A History of Non-Conformism

This Grade II Listed Building first opened in 1736 as a meeting house for dissenting Presbyterians who had split from the state church in 1662. Unitarians have been, and still are, called non conformists. We come from the Christian tradition, but we have no creeds or doctrines and freedom of belief is very important. The Rev William Hazlitt, father of William Hazlitt Essayist and Critic was Minister of this church between 1770 and 1780.

Architectural Highlights

Maidstone Church has a remarkable architectural feature of a suspended ceiling (being held up by an inverted tree trunk). We also have a Bevington organ. Originally a square meeting house it was extended in 1921 to incorporate stained glass windows to honour members of the congregation who were killed in the First World War.

The front of the building, the gallery and the pulpit are listed and the church was renovated and painted inside in the 1990s with colours that would have been used when the building was erected.