United Reformed Church, Westbury

This congregation was also called the Independent Meeting and the Lower Meeting. The meeting claims to date from 1662 when a group gathered around Philip Hunton, the vicar who had been ejected from the parish church of Westbury because of Presbyterian leanings. His followers met at his house where he preached to them privately. When Hunton died in 1682 he left a piece of land, called the Hop Ground, to 'The Protestant Nonconforming Church of Westbury'. After his death a barn in Lower (now Leigh) Road was converted into a chapel c.1693, but this was burned down in 1711. There were suspicions that this was done by members of the parish church but no proof was forthcoming. The Hop Ground was sold to pay for the building of a new chapel, probably on the site of the present one, on the eastern side of Warminster Road.

By 1725 the congregation numbered 800 and included some of the town's most influential people. In 1751 some people suspected the minister of holding Unitarian views and withdrew to form the Upper Meeting. In 1821 the chapel was rebuilt at a cost of £2,000 and by 1829 the congregation totalled 500. The front of the chapel received its present embellishments in the late 19th century. On 9th May 1940 the members of the two Congregational chapels were reunited and the members of the Upper chapel returned to worship in the old chapel. In 1972 the Congregationalists joined the Presbyterians to form the United Reformed Church. The church still retains its 19th century three sided gallery.