On the 8th of January, 1832, a public notice was given at church of a town meeting to consider the propriety of building a new and more convenient chapel for the use of the inhabitants; to appropriate for its site a portion of the town land, and to provide the necessary funds. In pursuance of which notice the inhabitants of Lowestoft met on Thursday, the 12th of January following, when it was resolved, that the present chapel having been found unsuitable in size and situation for the accommodation of the inhabitants, it was expedient that a new chapel be erected. That in the impossibility of enlarging the present site, if one more suitable cannot be found, application be made to the Church Building Commissioners to purchase a portion of the town land, opposite Back Street, and abutting on the Beccles road. That the new chapel should contain not less than 1,209 sittings, and that in order to provide a fund for the erection and fitting such chapel, subscriptions be collected; in respect of which, pews and sittings be allotted to the subscribers upon the terms after mentioned; that application be made to the Society for Building and Enlarging Churches, for aid; and lastly, voluntary contributions be collected from the public. That 300 sittings be disposed of under a faculty to be obtained from the Ordinary. That subscribers of £25 each be entitled to one sitting for every £5 subscribed. The pews and sittings to be allotted to each subscriber by ballot, &c. That no expense be incurred relative to providing such a site for building new chapel, until the necessary funds, which were estimated at £2500, be subscribed and raised; and that a committee of inhabitants be formed to carry these resolutions into effect.

Subscriptions for pews were immediately entered into, which amounted to £790, besides donations of £130; of which the Rev. F. Cunningham, the Vicar, gave £100. On the 13th of January, at a meeting held in the town chamber, it was further resolved, that personal application should be made throughout the town for subscriptions and donations, and that applications should be made to different architects for plans and estimates. On the 16th of February, the site of the proposed building was determined on, and the draft of an application to the Incorporated Society for promoting the enlargement, building, and repairing of Churches and Chapels, was prepared; which Society shortly after announced a grant of £600 towards the purposes required.

On the 17th of May, an application was made to Mr. Kitson, the Bishop’s Secretary and Registrar, inquiring whether the Marriage Act would allow of the publication of banns and celebration of marriages in the new chapel intended to be erected at Lowestoft, and if so, whether the Bishop would be willing to grant a license for the above purposes. Mr. Kitson’s reply stated, that the intended new chapel not being one “having a chapelry thereto annexed,” nor, “one situated in an extra-parochial place,” did not come within the provisions of the Marriage Act of the fourth of Geo. IV, cap. 76; and therefore that publication of banns and solemnization of marriage cannot be authorised to be performed therein. On the 24th of May, in consequence of the exertions of the Vicar and the principal inhabitants of the town, a sum of very nearly £2,500 had been raised, including the grant from the Incorporated Society; and four days after, Mr. Brown, the architect selected by the committee, attended at Lowestoft with his plans, which were examined and approved, with a trifling exception. After divers tenders and propositions, that of Mr. John Bunn, of Norwich, to build the chapel with white brick, including the palisades, fencing, and boundry wall, for £2,626, was agreed on, and signed on the 30th of July; at which time the sum of £75 was ordered to be paid to Messrs. Reeve, Elph, and Cleveland, the trustees appointed by the feoffees of the town land, as the piece of the site for the chapel; and the further sum of £10, being the charge of the Solicitor of the Treasury, relative to the conveyance.

On Monday, August the 6th, 1832, the first stone of the new chapel was laid in the presence of a vast concourse of the inhabitants and visitors. The committee, the contractor, and architect, met at the vicarage-house, whence they proceeded to the ground. Two hundred and forty children—the Sunday and endowed schools belonging to the established church—had also been brought together. After an explanation of the object of the meeting, the Vicar laid the first stone, in which was deposited a piece of money, of the coinage of William IV., and a plate engraven as follows:

LOWESTOFT.

THE FIRST STONE OF THIS
CHAPEL,
TO BE CALLED BY THE NAME OF
SAINT PETER,
AND ERECTED
BY SUBSCRIPTIONS AND VOLUNTARY
CONTRIBUTIONS, WITH THE AID OF THE
INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR
BUILDING AND ENLARGING CHURCHES,
WAS LAID ON THE 6TH DAY OF AUGUST,
IN THE 3RD YEAR OF THE REIGN OF HIS
MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY,
WILLIAM THE FOURTH;
1832;
BY THE
REV. FRANCIS CUNNINGHAM, M.A., VICAR.

JOHN BROWN, ARCHITECT.

After this the Vicar offered up a prayer composed for the occasion, and the whole assembly sang the 100th Psalm. On the 15th of August, 1833, Dr. Charles Sumner, Lord Bishop of Winchester, under a commission given to him by the Bishop of this diocese, proceeded to the act of consecration. Prayers were read by the Vicar, and the sermon preached by the Bishop; the text being taken from the 122nd Psalm, and 7th verse.

The subject of the Prelate’s sermon was the Peace attendant upon a knowledge of the truths of the Gospel:—that Peace beautifully promoted by the various services of our church, and an application as to the possession of this Peace on the part of those present. A collection was made after the sermon of £56 13s. 6d. On Sunday August the 25th, the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was administered for the first time at the communion table to 140 persons.

On the 15th of October following, a certificate was forwarded to the Secretary of the Incorporated Society, informing him, that the chapel had been completed in the substantial and workmanlike manner, and was capable of accommodating 1215 persons, including 900 free sittings. In consequence of subsequent arrangements, these sitting have been increased to 1263; of which 939 are free.

It appears that upon the completion of the work, and the putting up of a bell, weighing about 6 cwt., a sum of £196 6s. 5d. was required for the payment of all the bills and expenses, which the vicar generously consented to advance by way of loan. Of this debt £140 18s. 9d. were repaid; so that the final deficit paid by Mr. Cunningham was £55 7s. 8d. It should be recorded, that an offer was made by Mr. Robert Allen, an inhabitant of Lowestoft, to present to the chapel, glass for the east window, painted by himself at the advanced age of eighty-seven, representing the king’s arms, &c. But on consulting the architect, it was judged that this glass was not in character with the design of the building, and that, therefore, plain glass would be adopted to prevent the glare to which, otherwise, the congregation would be exposed. A copy of the original faculty for erecting this edifice is deposited in the chest of Lowestoft, and the opinion of Dr. Lushington and Mr. Kitson, respecting the faculty pews are in the hands of the Vicar; from whose careful and well-arranged minutes of the proceedings adopted throughout the whole business, the preceding remarks have been extracted.

Among the notes attached to these records, it stated that “the proposition is to build a chapel in a parish, where there is a parish church, but so distantly situated from the town, as, under any circumstances, to be of no use, and occasionally insufficient.” The particulars are as follows:

The parish church of Lowestoft was placed upwards of 500 years since in its present situation, under the impression as it is supposed, that if nearer to the sea, it might, at no great length of time, be destroyed by its encroachments. But the sea, instead of advancing, has continued to recede, and now a new town has sprung up on the beach, and the church is left, even in fine weather, out of the reach of a considerable part of the population. In the inclement weather to which so frequently the easternmost point of England is exposed, the church is not opened, and it would be highly inexpedient to hold an evening service in it, at any time. In order to meet the actual necessities of the place, part of a town house has been used by a license of Bishop Parkhurst, as a chapel, since the year 1572, on occasions, ‘hiberno prÆsertim tempore,’ according to the original document—when the people cannot without great inconvenience get to church. But this expedient is found insufficient. The chapel will hold between three and four hundred persons, but it is usually so filled, that when it is used, numbers do not attempt to go at all; and many who at all events, will attend a public service, are driven to the Dissenting Meeting Houses. Some peculiar circumstances, connected with the town, make a new provision for public worship absolutely necessary. In the bathing season the church is not sufficiently large for the congregation, and then it would be expedient, if circumstances permitted, to open a second place of worship. Moreover, a harbour, for which the Government is about to grant a loan of £50,000, will, at no distant period, be opened; and Lowestoft, in the course of a short time, will become a commencing point to a navigation, which is likely to extend through a large part of Suffolk and Norfolk. For the persons attendant upon this harbour the church is most inconveniently situated.

In a notice of the new chapel, printed in the provincial journals at the time of its foundation, its architecture was said to be in the style of the Temple Church at London. Wherein the similitude consists, the writer is unable to determine; unless, indeed, the presence of long narrow windows, unaccompanied by the charming proportions and graceful decorations of the proud Crusaders’ church, be alone able to constitute its resemblance.