Lapal Halesowen B62 0BX

The present church stands on land which is right behind the 1811 buildings pictured on the left.

 It has seen the phenomenal growth of Lapal as a residential community and has became the spiritual home of many within the locality and beyond. It is a landmark within Lapal and its Community.

In 2011 the church celebrated 200 years with a series of events that reflected what we had achieved within our community, and our hopes for the future.

Churches are essentially a social gathering place but the 2020 Covid 19 virus pandemic closed down all activities of this nature, but the church adapted and meetings took place on Zoom, services on YouTube, with the church and community staying in touch with each other on social media.

The church remains family centred and continues to provide pastoral and practical help for the Community of Lapal,  and beyond. New ventures have arisen and older ones revised as the Church has moved into the 2020’s.  

The pandemic had given time to review activities and plan for the future. Plans which the community is guiding.

In 1787 a group of Baptists from Bond Street in Hockley used to set out every Sunday morning to support smaller groups meeting at peoples’ homes in the surrounding countryside.

One of the groups was in Illey where they worshipped with the local folk and helped with the schooling of the children in the afternoon, before trudging back to Hockley.

For many households Sunday was the only break they had, enabling the children to attend a school which taught them elementary subjects.

In church hymns were led by a deacon and sung two lines at a time as most of those attending could not read.

The increase in numbers eventually meant that larger premises needed to be built. The decision was to build new in Carter Lane, as it was then known.

A BRIEF HISTORY

So it was that on Easter Monday in 1811 a new dedicated chapel was opened, with an attached caretakers house.

They were still served by visiting preachers who travelled miles to get here in all weathers. For communion services all the members walked back into Hockley.

When two deacons were given the right to administer Communion the church became less dependant upon the inner city elders, who had provided such devoted commitment over the years.

The period after WW1 began the slow growth of housing in the area of Lapal and with it the numbers attending Chapel and Sunday school.

The deacons began to look ahead and in 1937 agreed to build a new bigger church with a Hall, ready to serve an enlarging community of Lapal.

Plans were drawn and the present day Church and hall were opened in Sept 1939, just days before WW2 started.