General Baptist Unitarian Church, Trowbridge

The chapel was originally Particular Baptist and was connected with the original Baptist movement in the village of Southwick.The exact date of the foundation of the church in Trowbridge is unknown but there were some Baptists in the town in 1669 when between 140 and 150 Anabaptists were meeting at the house of Edward Grant, a clothier. Dates of 1655, 1660, 1680 and 1697 have been claimed for the founding of the chapel. The Conigre Chapel was probably officially formed in 1697, after the Act of Toleration of 1688; before that date Trowbridge Baptists probably went out of town to Southwick to worship. A site for the chapel was acquired in 1699 and a chapel built in 1700. The first minute book dates from 1714.

There was also a dissenting academy in the Conigre. This was virtually a non-conformist university which taught more modern subjects than Oxford and Cambridge, which non-comformists could not enter. A minister's house, the surviving Conigre Parsonage, was either erected or rebuilt and all these early enterprises owed much to the generosity of the Houlton family. In the 1730s the chapel drifted to Unitarianism and in 1736 part of the congregation seceded to form the Back Street Baptist Chapel. William Waldron, who was also a clothier, was a noted minister for 50 years until his death in 1794. During this time many well off residents were members. From 1827 the chapel enjoyed the energetic ministry of Samuel Martin who set up a library, a sick fund and a benevolent society. By 1835 most of the congregation were decribed as 'poor'.

In 1835 the chapel was repaired but by 1856 it was found to be 'much decayed'. It was pulled down and rebuilt by Martin on the same site in 1857 in a more ornate Decorated style with sittings for 550 people. A Sunday School existed by 1833 and new schools were built in 1838 while in 1840 there were 300 pupils. New schoolrooms were built in 1865 by Samuel Martin. In the 1970s it was found that the church was in a poor state, largely due to poor quality stone that was badly seasoned having been used. The church was later demolished in the 1980s, various fittings were saved, some being in Trowbridge Museum, and the congregation moved into the school. Later they moved to a bungalow on Seymour Road.