The earliest chapel was in Hog Leys, off Market Street (now known as the Horsemarket), adjacent to a plot where a farmer kept his pigs, and sometmes other animals such as sheep. The building in front of it was for many years the preacher's house. In 1835 a schoolroom was built in Dalkeith Place nearby.

The Hog Leys chapel was not replaced until 1867, when a new Italianate chapel was opened in Silver Street, costing £3,000 and seating 700. John Tordolf (1803-1878), a prosperous citizen with investment in the new Midland Railway, was a major contributor with a donation of £1,000 and also paid for the first organ. He was for many years Sunday School Superintendant and paid for the new Sunday School, built c.1876.

The Silver Street premises were enlarged in 1901. The church celebrated its Jubilee in 1917, but was demolished in 1933 when the street was widened. Its successor, 'Central', was built on a site in School Lane, provided by the local Council. Alterations to the interior in 1983 transformed it into a multi-functional building.

Among other churches built in response to the growing population was the Victoria Hall Mission, launched in 1887 while Silver Street was undergoing renovation, and Rockingham Road, opened in 1893 (now a Salvation Army citadel).

The Primitive Methodists opened a chapel in Grange Road in 1854. With growing congregations, services were for a time held in the Corn Exchange in the Market Place. Their Bath Road chapel, seating nearly 500, opened in 1905, with a tin hut as a schoolroom.

Category: Place
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