Posted: Tue 26 Jun, 2012 2:35 pm
The following is in volume 3 of John Mayhall's 'Annals of Yorkshire'. It is a long item but I thought it may be interesting to quote all of it.June 26 1870. "The Leeds Corporation having purchased Call Lane Baptist Chapel, in connection with the formation of a new street from Vicar Lane through the Rotation Office Yard to Duncan Street, and the improvement of the thoroughfare in the neighbourhood of the Corn Exchange, the members of the church and congregation worshipping in that building, so intimately connected with the history of Nonconformity in Yorkshire for nearly two hundred years, were under the necessity of removing to another place of worship, and held their closing services. The chapel was built in 1691, by a congregation then worshipping at "Main Riding House," a building situated in Water Lane, near the confluence of the river Aire with the rivulet named Holbeck. The ancient pile was described in those days as the "Stately Chapel or Meeting House, with a turret on a leaded roof," Under this same leaden roof, and beneath it and the ceiling a secret chamber was constructed, intended, doubtless, as a place for religious meetings should the revival of persecution render it dangerous to hold meetings in public".