Strict & Particular Baptist Chapel, Waddesdon Hill, Buckinghamshire

Local farmer, Francis Cox, built this white-washed preaching box in 1792 as a place of worship for agricultural labourers. Worshippers gathered from over thirty towns and villages to attend the chapel.

It’s a rendered rectangular building with a hipped roof covered in plain clay tiles, and sash windows. The dentil-brick cornice is the only hint of decoration. Inside, 19th-century benches fill the main body of the chapel. They are overlooked by an 18th-century gallery and pulpit. In all, it evokes simple rustic nonconformist piety.

The Strict & Particular Baptist sect was first mentioned in 1633, and membership depended critically on the rite of baptism. To that end, a complete lead-lined full-immersion baptism tank is found just in front of the pulpit (which is not in its original position). The ritual required full immersion three times – in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

There was still social prejudice against Nonconformists in the late 18th century, and that explains why they chapel is built out of way – away from settlements and on the road between Aylesbury and Winchendon. Many worshippers would have travelled here on horseback; as evidenced by the stables and mounting-block.

In 2021, a grant towards repairs and redecoration, from the Culture Recovery Fund, enabled us to re-roof the entire building (with handmade Aldershaw roof-tiles from Kent), lay new drainage, and replace cement pebble-dash render with a more sympathethic lime mix. With its freshly painted white walls it now looks very spruce!