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Ebley Chapel was founded in 1797. The congregation met at first in a barn, but a chapel was soon built on its site, largely at the expense of James Hogg, a local clothier.
From 1826-54, Benjamin Parsons was the minister. He found the chapel in bad repair and the manse primitive, but over time he restored and improved them. Parsons became an advocate for voluntary education, and founded a British School at Ebley, with allotment gardens for the children in the field around it. Sometime before 1826 the chapel joined the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion but remained affiliated to the Congregational Union (source: Victoria County History Volume 10: URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=15890.).
A later minister, Rev. Thomas Thomas, rebuilt the chapel in 1880-81, to his own designs. In 1956 the Chapel yearbook states that the Chapel followed the Congregational Order of Service.
Only the gatepiers and railings survive today. The former school building, built in 1840 and extended by the Gloucester architect J.P. Moore in 1896, is today used as the chapel still under the 'Countess of Huntingdon Connexion'.
From January 2016, this website is managed by Stroud Local
History Society
Revised 2018 EMW
