How can you support our work?
HCT's running costs are currently supported by a 70 per cent grant from English Heritage. The balance has to be found from the Heritage Lottery Fund, grant-giving charities, local organisations, donations and Subscribing Friends. The Historic Chapels Trust is not a grant giving body.
Please complete a membership application form to become a Friend.
Our Chapels
The Dissenters' Chapel, Kensal Green Cemetery, Harrow Road, Kensal Green
The Dissenters' Chapel lies within Kensal Green Cemetery,...
Who We Are
Rt Hon Sir Alan Beith, MP – Chairman
Member of Parliament for Berwick-on-Tweed since 1973. Former chairman, Council of Europe’s sub-committee on the Artistic and Architectural Heritage. Methodist local preacher, formerly elder in the United Reformed Church.
Professor Clyde Binfield, OBE – Trustee
Historian. Emeritus professor in history, University of Sheffield. Publications include James Cubitt (1836-1912) – the Contexting of a Victorian Architect (Chapels Society 2001). Elder and lay preacher, United Reformed Church. Currently president United Reformed Church History Society. Past president, the Chapels Society, the Ecclesiastical History Society, trustee, Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust, chairman, Fabric Advisory Committee, Wakefield Cathedral.
Neil Burton, BA (Hons), FSA – Trustee
Architectural historian. Director of the Architectural History Practice. former secretary, Georgian Group, 1994-2001. Previously an officer with the Greater London Council Historic Buildings Division and English Heritage. Author of English Heritage leaflet, New Works in Historic Churches and several books and articles on building history and conservation.
James H Gregory, BA (Hons) – Trustee
Practising barrister on the Northern Circuit. Long-standing chair of local regeneration initiative. Particular interest in restoration and subsequent public use of buildings of quality. Active supporter of environmental charities. Wide experience of property issues as trustee of property syndicates.
Christina van Melzen – Trustee
Trustee and elder of her local Quaker Meeting. Trustee, Suffolk Historic Churches Trust and representative for the Nonconformist churches on their grants committee since 1989. Former secretary, Chapels Society (1992-2000) and secretary to the Organising Committee, Walpole Old Chapel since 1994.
Lord (Andrew) Mawson OBE – Trustee
Independent crossbench peer. Founder and president of Bromley-by-Bow Centre, co-founder and president of Community Action Network (CAN). Minister in the Baptist and United Reformed Churches for 25 years. Member of Prime Minister's Delivery Unit, 2002–04. Leader, motivator and adviser to a number of major projects including Water City (a visionary plan to revitalise east London and a vehicle for true Olympic legacy utilising the forgotten waterways of the area) and One Church, 100 Uses, a newly established agency of the United Reformed church which brings new life to church buildings no longer needed for worship.
Oliver Pearcey BSc IHBC – Trustee
Historic environment consultant. Former director of Conservation at English Heritage. Previously employed in Department of the Environment whence he was seconded to the Greater London Council. chairman/trustee of several charities.
Rt Hon Lord (David) Shutt of Greetland OBE FCA – Trustee
Chartered accountant. Former councillor (1973–2003). Member of the House of Lords. Trustee of Pennine Heritage and a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
Christopher Stell, OBE – Trustee
Architectural investigator with the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) 1955-89; consultant from 1989. Authority on the architecture of Nonconformist chapels. Author of Inventories of Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting Houses in Central England (HMSO, 1986), in South West England(1991), in the North of England (1994); in Eastern England (2002). Hon secretary, Chapels Society,1989–92, hon editor, 1992–94, president, 2001–04, member of the Listed Building Advisory Panel of the Methodist Church 1994–98, of the Baptist Union, 1998–2002, hon secretary, Ancient Monuments Society from 1988, hon vice-president, Royal Archaeological Institute from 1988.
Dr Jennifer M Freeman, Hon D. Arts, Dipl Cons (AA), IHBC, FRSA, FSA – Director
Architectural historian, writer, developer of historic buildings and HCT’s first director, from 1993. Chairman, Freeman Historic Properties Ltd. President, Kettering Civic Society, president, Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery, Chairman of Fabric Committee, trustee, Heritage Link, Building Crafts and Conservation Trust, committee member, Save Britain’s Heritage since 1977. Former secretary, Victorian Society, former member, Council for the Care of Churches. London Committee of English Heritage. Author – W D Caroe, co-author Save the City: a Conservation Study of the City of London, Kensal Green Cemetery.
Nicola Westbury BA(Hons) BArch(Hons) RIBA - Consultant Architect
Nicola specialises in working with historic buildings. Her projects have included reports on and repairs works to several churches for the Churches Conservation Trust and the Friends of Friendless Churches. Other projects have included repairs to houses for private clients and the National Trust. Nicola has also provided consultant architectural services for English Heritage. She is now a sole practitioner based in Surrey. She is a member of Guildford Diocesan Advisory Committee, a trustee of the Surrey Historic Buildings Trust and is involved with the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.