Aston on Clun Ebenezer Primitive Methodist chapel, Shropshire

This simple red-brick chapel was built in 1862, and now belongs to the man living over the road. I photographed it in July 2013. Under the date, in very decorative script, it bears the chapel’s name: Ebeneser. This is taken from 1 Samuel 7:12, “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up … and called its name Ebenezer, for he said, “Hitherto the Lord has helped us.””

Down the road is the 1844 Baptist chapel, which I photographed on the same day. This too is no longer in use as a chapel, but the text over the door still calls each passer-by, in clear letters, to “Prepare to meet thy God.”.

The village has no place of worship, either Anglican or Nonconformist. Some Mennonites travel in from elsewhere to worship in the village hall, but no-one from the village attends.

I shall use these photographs and facts in a talk I have been asked to give on “Why read Church History?” There is so much we can learn as we ponder such situations.