Listed Building record TQ 55 NW 306 - OLD MEETING HOUSE AND DWELLING ATTACHED

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
1. 5280 CHEVENING BESSELS GREEN Cold Arbor Road Old Meeting House and dwelling attached (Formerly listed as Old Meeting House, Main Road) TQ 5055 5/126 10.9.54.
II
2. Rebuilt 1740 though possibly retaining some timber and mason from older structure inside. 1 storey, 3 window main chapel at left. 1 storey and attic, 2 window right part which is partly ante-room and small first floor room (formerly an open gallery); and partly a residence. Fairly high pitched, hipped tiled roof. Red brick with diaper of blue headers. 2 long dormers breaking eaves at right. Segmental arches to casement windows, with wood mullion and transom, in left part. C18 leaded casements at right. Random stone walling at lower right. Mid C19 right extension to dwelling part.
Listing NGR: TQ5090055597

Shown as Baptist Chapel (General) on 1862-75 map and as The Old Meeting House (Unitarian) on the 1897-1900, 1907-23, 1929-52 and current O/S maps.

Former General Baptist chapel at Bessels Green built in 1716 and becoming Unitarian in the 19th century. It has brick walls and a tiled roof. The north end, formerly a cottage is now a vestry. The east front has three cross-framed windows to the left of the present entrance, the north one of which is on the site of the original entrance. There is an external baptistery 50 yards to the west in the grounds of `The Bastry', constructed in 1733, a brick-lined pool in a hollow approached from either side by curved steps which met in one broader stpes leading to the pool. Now backfilled. (1)

English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<2> Christopher Stell, 2002, An Inventory of Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting Houses in Eastern England (Bibliographic reference). SKE58544.