The Chapel

Grendon Union Chapel. The Grendon meeting, as it was known in 1810, bought a house for conversion as a place of worship, which was opened on the 4th of August 1813 by Mr. Hemmel of Wallsden. The preacher was Mr. Vali of Carlton.

By 1861, the meeting house had become too small for its congregation, and it was sold for the grand sum of 33 pounds, 3 shillings, and 6 pence. A new chapel to accommodate 200 people was built at a cost of 300 pounds.

Proper seating was installed in 1874. And in 1881, a schoolroom was added.

In 1861, there were two other small non-conformist groups, or movements as they were known in the village, the Wesleyans and the Independent Wesleyans, which decided to join the new chapel.

They closed their own separate places of worship, and the new meeting house was therefore given the name of the Grand Union Chapel.

Relations with the parish church were not good in the early days. And in 1925, members of the congregation could still remember a vicar who tried to influence the people of the village against them. He used to call the chapel the schism shop, and would spit when on his way to church as he passed people entering the chapel.

The vicar also refused to give their dead a proper burial. The chapel therefore became registered for marriages, and all relations with the church were ended. Today, however, the situation is very different. Relations between the church and the chapel are excellent, and the Grand Union Chapel even gets a section for announcements in the parish bulletin.

The chapel in Grendon was one of the first to have electric heating, which was fitted about 1934. Before this, a coke boiler heated the building, and old records list the purchases of oil, sticks, coal and coke. Lighting was by oil lamps, which had to be trimmed and filled every week. What a job the caretakers had in those days. The organ now in the chapel was purchased from St. Barnabus Church in Wellingborough over 50 years ago for the sum of 50 pounds. The piece of land next to the chapel was called Chapel Yard.