The caption on this postcard view says ”Old Congregational Church, Loftus”, the plaque between the windows says ”Ebenezer Chapel”, so they were both right. Built in 1827 in North Road (then called Lambs Lane), it accommodated 180 people and over the doorway was an inscription ”Si deus a nobis est qui contra nos?” which in English means ’If God is with us who shall be against us?’ The church was replaced in 1906 by the church built on the former monumental mason’s yard at the corner of West Road and Westfield Terrace to accommodate more people; the ”Ebenezer” when disused later became the Parish Hall. Now refurbished as a private property and currently up for sale, this fine old building looks as austere now as it did then. The obligatory group of onlookers makes this picture, don’t you think? Can anybody explain why it looks like a building of two halves, with each half a mirror image of the other?
Image courtesy of Ann Wedgewood & Keith Bowers, information courtesy of Jean Wiggins.
Trying to trace a Minister from the Ebenezer Chapel in Loftus. His name was Jonas Edmund Evans he was born in Wales in 1822 and was married to Anne Hunton sister of Lewis Hunton (Geologist).
Janet Dowey
just a guess – were the Ebenezers one of those austere religious groupings who considered that it was unseemly/distracting for men and women to mingle whilst they were at worship?