When John Nuttall and his congregation of Baptists decided they must move from the chapel in Lumb, Goodshaw would have appealed as the site for the new Baptist chapel for several reasons.

There were strong connections with both David Crossley and William Mitchell. Goodshaw had been the home of David Crossley and he died here in 1744. Goodshaw was also regarded by many as the birthplace of the Baptist cause in Rossendale because of Mitchell’s imprisonment and fine for preaching dissent in 1685. Most importantly, it was more central for worshippers living in the Rossendale area than Lumb.

The new chapel was built largely by the labour of its members at a cost of £191 10s 4d. When it opened in April 1760, some of the earliest seats (probably temporary wooden benches) were carried over the hill from the chapel at Lumb for use in the new chapel. The chapel also incorporated a cottage (now demolished) for the minister.

John Nuttall was succeeded in the ministry by John Pilling, who came to Goodshaw from the church at Bacup. The minister’s stipend (paid out of the pockets of the congregation) then being £30. Under Pilling the chapel and its congregation continued to flourish. The building had to be enlarged twice. A school room was added in 1809 and the chapel reached its present form. However, the alterations could only be completed by contracting a substantial loan, and this was paid off with difficulty.

The Sunday service was always an important occasion bringing in people from miles around. After the service, the congregation would gather round the chapel door to hear notices and announcements about forthcoming auctions, sales and other events. Many would then dine at the public house.

The singing and musical instruments of the Larks of Dean, that were such an important part of worship at Goodshaw, did not appeal to everyone’s taste. One well-known local preacher remarked that “if he ever went there again he hoped they would not have all those instruments: it was more like a theatre or playhouse than a place of public worship”.

There certainly was a great variety of instruments played at the chapel, the space in front of the pulpit being used for both string and wind instruments. There was particular difficulty with the double bass: this was partly because at first there was nobody willing to play it; soon, however, there were too many wanting the instrument, causing argument and dissension. It was sold in 1854.

In 1828 Richard Ashworth and eighteen others left to form a new church at Lumb. By this time, the pastor at Goodshaw, John Pilling, was in poor health. He had to be carried to the Sunday services in a sedan chair. Pilling preached his last sermon in 1832 and from then until his death in 1835 the church was without proper pastoral care. His successor, Abraham Nichols, appointed in 1836 and approved by the church membership in the following year in a verdict described by Nichols himself as ‘moderately unanimous’, had been minister at Keighley in Yorkshire. By this time the yearly stipend payable to the minister was the relatively princely sum of £70.

Abraham Nichols was something of an eccentric and an individualist. His presence caused divisions among the congregation almost from the beginning. In 1840, after some members, dissatisfied with his ministry, had already left the church and joined the community at Lumb, some of the Church Trustees resolved to reduce the minister’s salary to £40. There was a vote of confidence resulting in those who wanted Nichols to remain at Goodshaw winning the day. His salary was not reduced.

Despite this, similar troubles arose in 1842, when about twenty principal members left the church and set up a rival meeting at Crawshaw Booth. A list of Goodshaw members of this date records against some  names “withdrawn from communion and thrown in his seat having his mind prejudiced against the church and ministeyr”. Five years later, Nichols and fifty of the church members left to form their own meeting at Sunnyside, Rawtenstall, and those who had left earlier returned to Goodshaw. 

After a period when the chapel’s life and existence seemed at a low ebb, John Jefferson was appointed minister in 1852. By 1859 the church had bought a new house for their minister and had decided to move to a new site on the main turnpike road to Burnley. At the Centenary services of the Old Chapel, inApril 1860, its days were already numbered.

By 1864 a new chapel on the main road had been opened. The Old Chapel was used as an infants’ and Sunday School for a while until the old school buildings were demolished, and the old chapel was abandoned, except for the anniversary and Christmas services.

For many years, the Old Baptist Chapel was maintained by the new, but this was becoming increasingly costly. The chapel was handed over to English Heritage, and in 1976, after being unused for over one hundred years, work commenced on a full restoration with the chapel being re-opened to the public in July 1985. The chapel is now a local tourist attraction. An Anniversary Service is held once a year on the first Sunday in July. The new chapel continues to thrive.