Event Description

A history of religious architecture in North East Lincolnshire

A Free Heritage Open Day exhibition at Grimsby Town Hall will showcase centuries of religious architecture.

The exhibition will explore the history of religious architecture across the area, featuring a collection of photographs, historic documents and artefacts relating to monastic houses, Anglican churches and nonconformist chapels.

It will also shine a light on some of the region’s lost places of worship, including Grimsby’s Baptist Tabernacle, St Stephen’s Church on Roberts Street, St Paul’s Church in the West Marsh, and Trinity Methodist Church in Cleethorpes. A dedicated section of the exhibition will focus on Grimsby’s synagogue and the history of the town’s Jewish community, including their contribution to the development of the town and their service during both World Wars.

The exhibition will also tell the fascinating story of Grimsby’s synagogue, which first opened for worship in 1888. This part of the display will also shed light on the lives of Jewish people in the town, their service in both World Wars, and the businesses they established, which played an important part in Grimsby’s development from the late 19th century onwards.

Here is a sneak peek into some of the information you can discover at this exhibition: 

The Baptist Tabernacle c1925 

The building was designed by a London architect, Martin Glover, and constructed by John Brown of Grimsby. On 19th October 1876 the foundation stone for the chapel was laid by Richard Johnson, the Chief Engineer for the Great Northern Railway, who was very devout and a strict teetotaller. The building opened for services on 6th November 1877 and in its early days the congregation sometimes exceeded its seating capacity of 1,150.