Operated by East Boldre Community Stores Limited, a voluntary organisation.
Owned by it members, predominantly local people.
Community Benefit Society, number 8481
The Chapel's Story
We were keen to capture the history and interpret the heritage of East Boldre's Baptist Chapel at the point where its role in our community changed from a place of worship to our community shop and Post Office.
Our village's first church, the Baptist chapel is an intrinsic part of East Boldre's social history, founded in 1810 to serve our community's predominantly non-conformist congregation. More recently, its services, Sunday school, Harvest Festivals, and Carols by Candlelight were supplemented by a secular role had encompassed fetes, youth clubs, summer outings, barbeques, messy breakfasts, and a Happy Hour for local Mums.
In September 2023, East Boldre Community Stores was delighted to be awarded £54,000 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund towards:
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The exterior renovation of the chapel, addressing damp and creating the vestry community space and kitchen.
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The Chapel Story project to research, interpret, share and celebrate the chapel's heritage
The project is due to complete in March 2026.
We were fortunate to partner with St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery on the project:
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Using their reading room and its resources in our research of local history.
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They helped to coordinate and run the popular and engaging 'Graveyard Detective' activities with their team of Young Curators and at Priestlands School.
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The vestry community space has hosted three of St Barbe's touring exhibitions to date, helping to bring art and heritage to local people's doorsteps.
Thanks to National Lottery players.
The 'Chapel Story' Project
The Chapel's Records
The chapel's records have been transcribed and digitised. The handwriting was often difficult to decipher but our work has provided an easily readable and searchable reference copy of each record (church minute and burial register).
The transcriptions are shared on this website under a creative commons licence,
CC BY 4.0
Heritage Activities and Events
Engaging a wide range of people in the Chapel Story heritage project was a key criteria for the grant we received from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
These included 60+ living memory interviews, 'Graveyard detective' workshops , a presentation by Archeovision and gravestone recording sessions.
Gravestone Recording
Having cleared the site of brambles and ivy we uncovered 55 gravestones. Following careful cleaning by volunteers, advanced imaging techniques were used to record and decipher each gravestone.
Once readable, we researched the ancestry and biographies of the individuals they commemorate. These can be found here.
Permanent Exhibition
We will draw upon our research of the chapel's history to create a permanent exhibition in the Vestry community space.
This will cover the building's history and more importantly the people who built, maintained and used the space from 1810 up until 2023 when the building was acquired by EBCS.
Preservation + Interpretation
Discovery, preservation and interpretation of the chapel's heritage and so it might be appreciated by a wider audience.
This includes the Baptistry (now infilled and outlined in the overlying flooring), the graveyard with over 500 burials in situ, gravestone repairs, Uncle Eddie's graffiti, heating and decorative ceiling roses.
"Keeping the Lights Burning"
This book draws upon Eric Smith's "A Light in the Forest - The History of East Boldre Baptist Church and brings this 1985 history up to date (due to be published Jan 2026).
Alongside the chapel's history, it explores the history of retailers in East Boldre to the point where we established Chapel Stores as a community owned and run business.
The heritage project is led by Rebecca Gabzdyl, founder of East Boldre Community Stores, who successfully led the project to establish Chapel Stores.
Judith Richardson led the collection of Living Memories and researched and wrote the section of the book that covered the chapel history from 1985 to 2023. She also pulled together the initial content for the permanent exhibition in the vestry.
Over 140 predominantly local people have participated in the project sharing their memories, assisting in research, transcription, gravestone clearing and cleaning, and taking part in related events and activities.