Here are the pews headlines - former Rainworth chapel goes on sale

St George’s (Chapel of Ease), on Warsop Lane, was opened in the early 1960s, and served both Rainworth and Blidworth.

It was closed as a chapel in March 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, and had a final Thanksgiving mass in February this year.

The property has now gone on the market with estate agent WA Barnes, with the sales particulars describing it as ‘providing an entrance lobby, meeting room, inner hall, disabled WC, church, side chapel, further WC, confessional box and vestry’.

It also comes with one-and-a-half acres of land, with a driveway, and it is suggested it could become a house, subject to any planning permission.

Adi Ross, aged 36, and 39-year-old Mary Ross, from Thoresby Road, Rainworth, were married at the chapel in September 2019.

The couple had been together for 10 years and decided to get married at the chapel as Mary is Catholic.

Adi said: “It was a lovely day, with lots of sunshine. It’s a shame it is no longer a church, but there was talk even back then that it might close.

“We already have a lot of new homes in this area so it would be great to see it as a possible wedding venue, or somewhere just to host events.”

Coun Tom Smith, Nottinghamshire Council member for Blidworth, said he hoped it became a venue that could be used for community groups.

He said: “We have a number of very good groups in our villages and it would be good if it could be taken on for community use.”

The floor area of the property, excluding the basement, is 285.69 sq metres, which is 3,075 sq feet.

The chapel is being sold as a freehold property, but there is an Overage Clause.

This means that the seller will be entitled to 30 per cent of the ‘uplift in the value of the site on the grant of planning permission for a higher value use’, other than the existing use, for up to 30 years from the sale date.