[WillowTheWhisp]

Originally Posted by blazey

How would you feel if your place of worship had to be turned into a pub willow? I get the feeling you would be upset about it.

It wouldn't bother me one bit. But then again I agree with what Rindy said. The church isn't the building it's the group of people. I have attended church in a purpose built building in Rawtenstall which I wasn't overthrilled with because it's set on high ground and in winter the approach can be extremely slippery and almost impossible to walk up to.

Then the geographic boundaries were changed and without moving house we became part of Blackburn Ward instead of Rawtenstall and started attending Blackburn but there wasn't a church building at the time and we met in rented rooms over the top of the Skipton Building Society.

Then a chapel was built and we moved into that. But then the congregation grew too big for the chapel so those of us who lived in the Accrington area were split off and we met in the Town Hall, then Moorhead High School, then the Masonic Lodge in Ossy (where we had the women's Relief Society in the bar area - we made some little curtains to cover the actual bar during our lessons but all the optics and bottles were still behind there), then shared the chapel with the Blackburn lot with them going in the morning and us going in the afternoon one year and the vice versa the next year.

Then lots of people moved out of the area and Blackburn Ward became quite small again so we were joined back together again and all of us met in the chapel in the mornings.

Then the chapel was refurbished and for a while we met at Darwen Vale High School.

So, you see to me the building is unimportant.

The building in Water Street Chorley which used to be the Chorley chapel no longer belongs to the church and I haven't a clue what it is now. Likewise the one in Nelson. It doesn't matter.

As far as Cannon Street Baptist chapel is concerned from an architectural point of view I would rather see the building saved and converted to something useful than demolished and lost forever.

I wouldn't mind living in a converted chapel in principal if it was done sympathetically and if there was enough private outside space. I think the one at Stonefold is a bit cramped and Cannon Street Baptist is too centrally located.