Barton-in-the-Beans General Baptist Chapel
is on the north side of Main Street, around seventy metres east
of the Sycamore Close turning. The original General Baptist chapel
here was founded in 1745 as Barton-in-the-Beans Independent
Chapel, but by the 1750s the congregation began following
General Baptist practices. The chapel was rebuilt in 1841 in the
Greek revival style, complete with pews and seating up to 800.
Many of the fittings survive today.
Market Bosworth Free Church stands on the
west side of Barton Road, about forty metres north of the Church
Street junction to the parish church. Originally Market Bosworth
Baptist Chapel, the building became disused in the mid-1930s.
In 1947, as there was no nonconformist church in the town, a group
formed itself into a body known as the Free Church. In 1949 it drew
up a formal constitution which welcomed a congregation of all
nonconformist denominations.
St Peter's Church, Witherley, is at the
southern end of Church Road, with the River Anker on its western
flank. It dates originally to the fourteenth century, with a
fifteenth century ashlar three-stage west tower with spire, and a
three-bay, random rubble chancel that was added in 1858. It is of
coursed and squared freestone, with a four-bay nave, an ashlar north
aisle, plain tile roofs with stone coped verges, and a fourteenth
century gabled south porch.
All Saints Church, Sheepy Magna, is on the
west side of Main Road, with Church Lane on its north flank and on
the southern edge of the main village. An earlier building on this
site, with documentary evidence to suggest that it probably predated
1150, was replaced by the present building in 1778. Inside,
memorials are dominated by the Fell family which presided over the
rectory virtually uninterrupted between 1768-1888. Other memorials
relate to the Lowe family.
All photos on this page kindly contributed by Rob
Kinnon-Brettle.
