'Tin Chapels'

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Alec K

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I know some Forum members are particularly skilled in modelling prototype structures and the following pictures are attached with them in mind (and me as well, although I wouldn't claim any "particular skill"). While on yet another house hunt this lunchtime, we came across this 'Tin Chapel': although it has a frontier outpost air, it is by the roadside on the Gloucestershire-Worcestershire-Herefordshire border, still today a rural and sparsely-populated area.

From the 1880s, there was a realisation by the Established Church in England - and the Nonconformists too - that many communities, either new ones, like the mining villages of Cornwall, or rural ones - were not served by local church buildings. One solution was the purchase and siting of prefabricated, catalogue-based buildings of modest proportions and costs - so-called 'tin chapels' as the principal building material was corrugated iron sheet. These buildings could be erected cheaply and quickly and the one in the pictures below is typical of its kind. It was built and opened as a Mission Room in 1904 - the pictures suggest that a number of additions have been added locally to the original shell, but the line of wrought-iron railings look original.

Forum experts will hopefully advise those of us who might want to set about building a model how we might go about creating weatherproof scale corrugated iron sheets. These are characterful little buildings and may still be found dotted around the more isolated reaches of the UK and I think overseas, as there was a healthy export business in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The third picture shows the setting of the Coombe Green Mission Room at the roadside: the small wooden bell 'tower' may be seen on the extreme left.


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Fabulous! Very reminiscent of my Grandfather's house in the New Forest.

I'll have to see if I can find a picture.

Edit : - Success!

Millbury.jpg

A little less wriggly tin, but of the same era. Apparently a load of these were built for returning war heroes. Not WW1, but the Boar War! Unfortunately this one (one of the last in the area) was pulled down in the late 1990s and a new modern house is now on the site, just shy of an acre to allow the occupant to grow his own produce and not have to totally rely on their war pension.
 
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G-force1 said:
Fabulous! Very reminiscent of my Grandfather's house in the New Forest.

I'll have to see if I can find a picture.

Edit : - Success!

View attachment 237139

A little less wriggly tin, but of the same era. Apparently a load of these were built for returning war heroes. Not WW1, but the Boar War! Unfortunately this one (one of the last in the area) was pulled down in the late 1990s and a new modern house is now on the site, just shy of an acre to allow the occupant to grow his own produce and not have to totally rely on their war pension.
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Ah - fascinating- and what a survivor! A real shame it's not still around for educational purposes at the very least. Another prototype that's relatively straightforward to model, I would have thought. All the hallmarks of the 'Tin Chapel' : mass production, simple construction. WW1 'Homes Fit For Heroes' in a village west of Malvern also included an allotment for each property, on the same basis as you have described - we had a look at one.
 
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That's not to suggest that my Grandfather was a Boar War hero, far from it, he wasn't born until 1898. He bought the property in 1963 to retire to. He just loved growing stuff. Did him Ok, 'til he was 92!

Edit, spollong error!
 
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Alec K said:
I know some Forum members are particularly skilled in modelling prototype structures and the following pictures are attached with them in mind (and me as well, although I wouldn't claim any "particular skill"). While on yet another house hunt this lunchtime, we came across this 'Tin Chapel': although it has a frontier outpost air, it is by the roadside on the Gloucestershire-Worcestershire-Herefordshire border, still today a rural and sparsely-populated area.

From the 1880s, there was a realisation by the Established Church in England - and the Nonconformists too - that many communities, either new ones, like the mining villages of Cornwall, or rural ones - were not served by local church buildings. One solution was the purchase and siting of prefabricated, catalogue-based buildings of modest proportions and costs - so-called 'tin chapels' as the principal building material was corrugated iron sheet. These buildings could be erected cheaply and quickly and the one in the pictures below is typical of its kind. It was built and opened as a Mission Room in 1904 - the pictures suggest that a number of additions have been added locally to the original shell, but the line of wrought-iron railings look original.

Forum experts will hopefully advise those of us who might want to set about building a model how we might go about creating weatherproof scale corrugated iron sheets. These are characterful little buildings and may still be found dotted around the more isolated reaches of the UK and I think overseas, as there was a healthy export business in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The third picture shows the setting of the Coombe Green Mission Room at the roadside: the small wooden bell 'tower' may be seen on the extreme left.


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The fact that it was called a Mission Room indicates that it may have been - only say may as I'm guessing - one of the designs by the Baptist minister Charles Haddon Spurgeon. (Spurgeon's church was the Tabernacle at the Elephant & Castle in London, and many of his sermons have been collated and printed in book form). I know that he designed some wooden pre-fabricated mission rooms - there is one in Stanley in the Falkland Islands.

My parents attended a tin church when they moved to East Sussex. I was engaged to help the minister and congregation build a new church on the site, as one of the congregation had received an electric shock when touching the outside wall :D:D
 
What is it with churches, and their electrics??

My 'local' in Nottingham, the ladies said the err, 'Ladies' was haunted.. They had strange feelings, whilst using the facilities.. :eek:
I was eventually told it was whilst actually having a pee, that they had 'strange sensations'.. I tipped a galvanised bucket of water into the loo, and was rewarded with a very mild 'tingle'. :oops:

Turned out the high-level cast-iron cistern had an enormous screw holding it up.. This went through the wall into a neutral on the electrical gear in the utility room behind it. - Hence the mild electric shock the ladies of the church were feeling.. :)
 
Very similar to quite a few buildings in Oz, corrugated iron was/is a staple building material.
 
I used Dog Food Tins to make this on a wooden frame some 8 years ago for the Ruschbahn. Tis a Gravel Loader but the principle of Construction the same just cut off the corrugated Tin with Tinsnips, flatten as best you can and nail onto the wood. Think I used about a 1/2 framework width for the wood. Steel Nails and the Tin rusting nicely now. Oh and be very careful when cutting the tin, best to use Gardening Gloves for the initial work. Baked bean cans or any other with corrugations work very well in our scale. I just had a very big dog at the time so the Chappie Tins were recycled.image.jpgimage.jpg
This is something else I built just using Tinplate, a typical German lineside hut. This was all soldered up abd lives indoors hence tge lack of rust. I did a Thread about building this a couple of years back.image.jpg
That Welsh Chapel would make a great talking piece on any G Scale Layout.
 
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Yeah, forgot to add that when we first married, we lived on the Surrey / Hants / Sussex borders. In one of the neighbouring villages, Standford, they had a tin chapel that was called 'The Iron Room'. A brick church was built in the late '70s / early ,80s - I think on a different site, so I assume the Iron Room was sold for development.
 
Rhinochugger said:
Yeah, forgot to add that when we first married, we lived on the Surrey / Hants / Sussex borders. In one of the neighbouring villages, Standford, they had a tin chapel that was called 'The Iron Room'. A brick church was built in the late '70s / early ,80s - I think on a different site, so I assume the Iron Room was sold for development.
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Have just caught up with all the replies to this thread - thank you, everyone, and to you, Ian - I will follow up the Baptist connection for sure. A few miles away from the Coombe Green example in my picture, we passed another 'Tin Chapel' on the roadside on the old Gloucester-Tewkesbury Turnpike, although this was much repaired and restored (and converted, I think).

The corrugated tin can method as used by Jon D is of interest - time to invest in some tinsnips, methinks!
 
I understand they were originally, if a little disrespectfully, nicknamed “tin Tabernacles.” I think they were produced as a standard “kit,” but I may be wrong. One in Derby was later replaced by a more orthodox structure.
 
Eaglecliff said:
I understand they were originally, if a little disrespectfully, nicknamed “tin Tabernacles.” I think they were produced as a standard “kit,” but I may be wrong. One in Derby was later replaced by a more orthodox structure.
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Indeed so, and there's an excellent overview here with a Gazetteer of many of the surviving structures:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_tabernacle

A Museum local to us has a reconstructed version originally from Bringsty Common in Herefordshire, which once again serves a religious function for the solemnisation of weddings:
http://www.avoncroft.org.uk/collections/avoncrofts-historic-buildings/
 
Alec K said:
Indeed so, and there's an excellent overview here with a Gazetteer of many of the surviving structures:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_tabernacle

A Museum local to us has a reconstructed version originally from Bringsty Common in Herefordshire, which once again serves a religious function for the solemnisation of weddings:
http://www.avoncroft.org.uk/collections/avoncrofts-historic-buildings/
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I honestly thought that there was one of these Chapels at Ashley Green between Berkhamstead and Chesham, certainly not listed in the list and sadly not clear from Google Street View. But It is still there and certainly in good condition last time I went past. Interesting to know if any local forumist can elucidate what in fact it exactly was is?
 
Back in about 2009 I used a similar idea to Mr Dunnyrail to make a goods shed and an engine shed. The only real difference was, I think, that I used galvanised steel mesh as the frame.

The goods shed:

40217011890_d8423155e3_b.jpg


41980222232_f741eb8a5e_b.jpg


Still standing in 2018, albeit somewhat precariously:

42108122492_af506ec3d7_b.jpg


Similarly with the engine shed:

42025463491_2840db86ef_b.jpg


41980573022_b2f27d8a87_b.jpg


Same story nearly 10 years on:

42286324561_d09bc5af8e_b.jpg


Sorry for the pic-heavy reply, but just wanted to give a flavour of the process. Quite straightforward, and both buildings came in at a cost of about 50p in total for the 2 (the hinges for the engine shed doors!)
 
Clive Tucker said:
Back in about 2009 I used a similar idea to Mr Dunnyrail to make a goods shed and an engine shed. The only real difference was, I think, that I used galvanised steel mesh as the frame.

The goods shed:

40217011890_d8423155e3_b.jpg


41980222232_f741eb8a5e_b.jpg


Still standing in 2018, albeit somewhat precariously:

42108122492_af506ec3d7_b.jpg


Similarly with the engine shed:

42025463491_2840db86ef_b.jpg


41980573022_b2f27d8a87_b.jpg


Same story nearly 10 years on:

42286324561_d09bc5af8e_b.jpg


Sorry for the pic-heavy reply, but just wanted to give a flavour of the process. Quite straightforward, and both buildings came in at a cost of about 50p in total for the 2 (the hinges for the engine shed doors!)
Click to expand...
They have both aged rather nicely.
 
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