Appeals: Historic Chapels Trust wants to acquire the Baptist Chapel, at Cote, near Witney, in Oxfordshire,

The Baptist Chapel, at Cote, near Witney, in Oxfordshire, a listed Grade II* building, which the newly formed Historic Chapels Trust seeks to acquire this year. The trust has been established to protect redundant non-Anglican chapels and other places of worship of exceptional architectural or historic interest, graded I or II*, in England.

The trust intends to acquire, preserve, repair and maintain buildings used by Roman Catholic, Nonconformist, Jewish or other non-Anglican religious bodies. Those Anglican churches which are eligible for care by the Church of England's Redundant Churches Fund will be excluded.

The meeting house on the present site was built in 1704, enlarged in 1739 and further capacity added with a gallery in 1756. Just over a century later, there were extensive internal alterations.

With grant aid of pounds 20,000 from the Department of National Heritage for this year, 50 per cent of which must be matched through fund-raising, the Historic Chapels Trust is appealing for pounds 100,000 to set itself up. It hopes to acquire about six buildings each year and has earmarked the Friends Meeting House at Farfield, West Yorkshire; the Congregational Chapel at Walpole, Suffolk; and the Unitarian Church at Todmorden, West Yorkshire. For further information, contact: The Historic Chapels Trust, 4 Cromwell Place, London SW7 2JJ, telephone 071-589 0228.

Photograph: Rob Judges

(Photograph omitted)