Providence Chapel, Hadlow Down

Providence Chapel is a former Calvinistic Baptist place of worship in the village of Hadlow Down in Wealden, one of six local government districts in the English county of East Sussex. Although built in 1849, the chapel can trace its origins to the founding in 1824 of an Independent Baptist place of worship in the village (pre-dating the local Anglican church by 12 years). The new building was in religious use for nearly 150 years, but storm damage led to its closure and conversion into a private dwelling in 1993—although its former graveyard survives. The chapel is a Grade II Listed building.HistoryThe village of Hadlow Down is situated on high ground in the Sussex Weald between Buxted (2.75mi to the west) and Heathfield. Its first Anglican church, dedicated to St Mark, was built in 1836, and a parish was created from parts of Buxted and Mayfield parishes the following year. The first place of worship in the village was, however, founded 12 years earlier. In 1824, Henry Smith—a local builder and Wesleyan Methodist—built an independent nonconformist chapel for the use of local Dissenters, principally Baptists. In 1849, it was replaced by the present building. This was recorded in the religious census of Sussex in 1851, for which the return (compiled by the chapel's trustee Benjamin Austen) stated there was accommodation for 600 worshippers and that typical Sunday attendance was 300 adults and 350–450 Sunday school children. The chapel was registered for marriages on 26 January 1876, and its denomination was recorded as "Calvinistic Baptist" in 1882.