Our History
For more than 30 years, up until 1865, the local Anglican church in Calne had an evangelical vicar, the Rev. Canon Guthrie. His successor, the Rev. Duncan offered a high church ministry that some members of the congregation found unacceptable. Some 80 or more parishioners, led by members of the Harris family, left the parish church.
At first they held services in the town hall, by permission of the mayor, which was licensed for worship. On October 29th 1867 the foundation stone for a new church was laid and this opened on July 28th 1868. It is built in the Geometic style and the architect was W.J. Stent.
Before the Church was completed a schoolroom had been built behind the church and this was opened on January 7th 1868. The new church had between 200 and 300 members. At first the Anglican liturgy was used but this changed to services on more nonconformist lines. In the 1940s there were some non-liturgical services and in the 1950s the liturgy was abondoned. The church has an evangelical ministry. In 1930 the school was closed and it became the church hall. The interior was renovated in 1966-7.
Opened as the British Schools in rooms adjoining Calne Free Church in 1868. There was both a mixed elementary boys and girls school, shown here, and an infants' school and by 1876 there were 153 pupils. Numbers rose towards the end of the century and by 1910 there were around 200, although this dropped to about 175 in 1919. The infants' school closed in 1922 and by 1927 there were 70 pupils in the mixed school. The school closed in 1930 and pupils were transferred to the newly formed Calne Junior School, with older pupils going to the Calne County Secondary School.
The Church is a grade 2 listed building. (English Heritage Building ID: 456696)