United Reformed Church, Wigston Magna
Long Street, Wigston Magna
The building proudly proclaims that the congregation was formed in 1666, the building erected in 1731, and rebuilt in 1841, yet the Return of Conventicles of 1669 denies there was any conventicle (religious group) meeting in the parish.
Summary information relating to the history of this church
1732: ‘The building lately erected for a meeting house’ was registered with the county quarter sessions (source: ROLLR, QS 44/1/1, rot. 2). The total cost of the building was £243 7s. 6d (source: RCHM, Nonconformist Chapels in Central England, p. 133.
1829: ‘probable number of sect’ 520 (source: ROLLR, QS 95/2/1/31)
1841: licensing of ‘a barn’ for worship, owned by [blank] Pochin (source: ROLLR, QS 44/1/2), perhaps used while the former chapel was being rebuilt
1841: meeting house licensed 28 August, although not clear if this is the barn or the new chapel (source: ROLLR, QS 44/2/193)
1841: rebuilding cost £1070 (source: White, Hist. Gaz. & Dir. Leics. (Sheffield, 1846) p. 420)
1842: opened for public worship on 19 April 1842 (source: The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle, 20 (July-Dec 1842), p. 603)
1851: 84 free seats, 650 other seats. Attendance on Sunday 30 March 1851 was 210 to morning worship and 255 to the afternoon service. The average congregation size was 300, but the number was reduced that day due to a measles epidemic. Sunday School attendance that day was 180 in the morning and 172 in the afternoon (source: TNA, HO 129/411/10)