Rode Baptist

Rode Chapel, High Street, Rode was Grade II listed in 1968. The justification for the listing includes “Baptist church. Dated 1780 on tablet. Random rubble, dressed quoins, coped gable to frontage, continuous moulded cornice extending across the base of the gable, slate roof. Plain 2-storey facade, 3 bays; Gothicised sash windows with glazing bars in semi-circular headed bead-moulded stone surrounds.”

The plaque actually has ‘1786’ and ‘Rode Chapel’ is variously described as Baptist, Methodist and ‘Baptist/Methodist’ and as a ‘Single Congregation LEPs with Baptist participation’ where LEP stands for ‘Local Ecumenical Partnership’ where more than one Christian denomination is working together under a formal agreement. It is part of the Somerset Mendip Methodist Circuit. The graveyard is on all four sides of the chapel with just a few memorials by the entrance. In 2023 the churchyard was transformed into a ‘quiet garden’.