An historic Newtown chapel which closed for worship last month is to be sold at auction.
The Grade II Listed Zion Baptist Chapel, on the corner of New Church Street and New Road, will be sold at Halls auctioneers’ next collective property and land auction in Shrewsbury on Friday, November 29.
Carrying a pre-auction guide price of £100,000 to £120,000, the chapel has a classical front in brick and freestone with a shaped gable above a huge Corinthian façade with portico and pillars.
The chapel held its final service after more than 100 years on October 27. The landmark Grade II*-listed church was built in 1801, enlarged in 1814, 1821 and 1836 before being rebuilt in 1881.
James Evans, a director of Halls, said: “The auction provides a unique opportunity to acquire what is more like a cathedral than a chapel and offers a wide variety of potential uses, subject to planning consent, to hopefully secure both the future and the integrity of this wonderful building.
“It has huge potential to continue as a religious place of worship or for mixed use as offices, workshops, leisure purposes or even residential. It will be a fantastic project for the buyer and their architect.”
The "lavish" interior has a rectangular congregation hall, raked gallery on iron columns and fine ironwork, segmental vaulted ceiling, round arched arcades to gallery sides, a giant Serliana arch to the organ chamber and grey marble columns.
The accommodation comprises two storeys above a basement, which housed the schoolroom and a rear service block containing offices, kitchen and schoolrooms.
The building, which has wooden framed single glazed sash windows with decorative stone surrounds, has mains electricity, water and gas heating.
The chapel was designed to accommodate 1,334 people.
When the memorial stones were laid on August 17, 1881, the Baptist choir sang and the minister, the Rev J. W. Williams of Derby gave a history of the Baptists in the county. It was claimed that the church had 364 communicants and 550 scholars and teachers.
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