This West Country movement, which had split from the Primitive Methodists, opened their chapel on January 1st 1851, marking ‘the commencement of the Bible Christians in Castle Acre’.
Described as a separate and entire building, the chapel had sittings for 168. But where was it located?
For a village, even though populous, there was a plethora of Nonconformist places of worship at the time.
Quite what motivated this group to set up in rural Norfolk is unclear; what is clear is that Norfolk was not fertile ground for the Bible Christians – the 1851 ecclesiastical census lists only two of their chapels in Norfolk.
The minister, Henry Bunce, was based in nearby Swaffham where the movement had opened a chapel the previous year. Swaffham’s chapel lasted little more than twenty years. There is no reason to think that Castle Acre’s chapel lasted any longer.
Source
Census of Religious Worship 1851 (Norfolk): Ed J Ede and N Virgoe 1998
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