The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.49 No.3 | December 2022

Member’s article

Fig 1 1851 Ecclesiastical census from TNA

phoned from Canada and had a lovely conversation with Mr and Mrs Hurst, who confirmed that the gravestones I had seen online, were indeed all that remained of the Ebenezer Baptist chapel, which was demolished in 1967, when it was deemed unsafe. They were aware of some boxes of old records which were stored in the new Baptist church and invited me to come to their home to look through them. As it happened, I had planned a visit in July 2022 and I rapidly drew up an itinerary to include time at HRO as well as a visit to Lockerley. Angela decided to join me in Winchester, the first time we had met. We drove out to Chapel Lane one evening and found the gravestones were in an advanced stage of decay and virtually unreadable. We met the couple who live next door to the site and who maintain it. They showed us photos of the chapel and described the orientation of the building. They had loaned some material to the Hursts who had made copies for me, of

Fig 2 Map showing Ebenezer Baptist Chapel

monumental inscriptions and other items. During our visit to HRO, Angela and I found an amazing document 15M84/Z3/165 a 16 page leaflet entitled “1758 State of Protestant Dissenting Congregation in Lockerley”.

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