KILSBY VILLAGE

Following the death of Cromwell in 1658AD, and the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660AD, the Anglican church in the reign of Charles II saw a violent reaction against the previous decades of puritan ascendancy. In 1660AD, the year of Charles’ restoration, the powers of bishops and church censorship were also restored. Over the next five years, the Church of England asserted its supremacy over all non-conformist churches, and imposed increasing restrictions over the activities of such dissenting churches.

In 1662AD two significant events took place: the Book of Common Prayer was reintroduced and made compulsory, and a new act was passed by the “Cavalier parliament” of King Charles – the Act of Uniformity – which led to the ejection of all puritan ministers from the Church of England.

Among the 1,760 dissenting ministers who were thrown out of the Church of England was Timothy Hodgkin, vicar of Kilsby, who was replaced by John Worth; Richard Thorpe the vicar of Barby was also replaced at the same time, by Thomas Isham.

These are the basic reasons behind the founding, in or about 1663AD, of Kilsby’s Independent Chapel – and we may reasonably infer that its first minister was the village’s former vicar Timothy Hodgkin.

It is certain that this early chapel in Kilsby had a fairly strong following – indeed, the number of chapel worshippers may well have exceeded the number of those attending the church – and in consequence the fabric of Kilsby church probably fell into disrepair between the late 1600s and the early 1700s.

For some years the activity of the chapel was conducted in private houses in the village – for not only did it take time to raise the funds to purchase land and erect a new chapel building, but there were also new restrictions to contend with, which limited the freedom of action of Kilsby’s Independent worshippers.

But further changes followed in the monarchy, with the death of Charles II. His son King James II fled to France, and was replaced in 1688AD by William III of Orange (who was invited to assume the throne of England by influential English protestants, to save England from a return to catholicism under the influence of James II). The Act of Toleration in 1689AD restored greater freedom of worship to non-conformists – and the way was cleared to allow construction of a chapel.

However, this did not happen immediately. In fact it was not until 1738AD, by which time the numbers of worshippers had grown too large to meet in a private house, that a meeting-house was purchased. By 1750AD there were over 100 in the congregation, and they were obliged to build a gallery in the meeting-house; and within two years, thanks to the powerful preaching of the Reverend Thomas Strange, they were obliged to erect a second and a third gallery.

By 1760AD, the original timber and plaster meeting house was deemed too small and unsound to contain the congregation, which by then numbered over 200, and a smart new stone meeting-house was erected (at a cost of almost £400!). This is the building still in use today as the Independent Chapel – and though the congregation has dwindled since its heyday in the period between 1760AD and 1850AD, there is still a steady band of worshippers.