This place of worship, the most ancient dissenting structure in Nottingham, stands near the foot of Castle gate, in the parish of St. Nicholas, and was built in 1689, the foundation stone being laid on the 29^th of May in that year. About the middle of the eighteenth century, when the Presbyterian congregation on the High pavement adopted Arian sentiments, many families withdrew and joined the Calvinistic Independents of Castle Gate. In consequence of this accession to the church the building was enlarged. During the present century it has been enlarged four times.

The chapel is plain yet comely, and there is attached to it a burial ground, which lies in St. Peter's parish. The interior fittings are comfortable and becoming. In 1826, when the chapel underwent a thorough repair, it was enriched with an organ which had been purchased for £250 from a church at Birmingham. Very recently the date, 1774, was found under the key board. The building can accommodate upwards of a thousand persons, and is generally well attended - by a congregation reputed to be the wealthiest in the town.

This, the first Independent or congregational church in Nottingham, was formed during the protectorate of Oliver CROMWELL, about the year 1655. At the restoration of Charles II., it was dismayed, but not destroyed, by the relentless hand of persecution. The pastor was driven away and his flock for a time scattered. The ejected minister is supposed to have been Mr. Thomas PALMER, a man who in 1663 suffered imprisonment for preaching in conventicles. In 1665, in consequence of the act which restrained all nonconformist ministers from coming within five miles of any borough, the people united with a church at Sutton-in-Ashfield, of which Mr. John JAMES was pastor. This pious and persecuted man died at Wapping in 1696, at the advanced age of seventy years. The amiable Mr. John GIBBS was chosen his successor; but, entering on his sacred duties at a period when the bitterness of the persecuting spirit had somewhat abated, he passed away from earth ere the renewed fires of intolerance shed their baneful glare across the land. He had been but newly laid in his green grave on the old forest of Sherwood when the hirelings of a wicked government were once more let loose upon their pious countrymen. Again were the nonconforming worshippers of God obliged to betake themselves to the secret places, where they could safely commune with their father in heaven. They might not be hunted, as were the noble band of Scottish covenanters, like partridges upon the mountains; but still fines and imprisonments, distraints and other grievous wrongs, with a worship conducted only in the darkness of the night and in damp unwholesome caves, were the portion of all who chose to follow the path pointed out by conscience.

While the church remained without a regular pastor it was edified by the pious exhortations of some of its members, especially of the then elder Captain WRIGHT, who suffered much for the sake of his Master.

In 1688 the two churches separated, owing to their distance from each other, and Mr. John RYTHER, the son of a rejected minister, was chosen pastor of the Castle gate chapel, where he labored till January, 1704, when he died. Mr. Richard BATESON, his successor, was obliged in 1739, from a declining state of health to lay aside public engagements. In 1730 a fruitless effort had been made to procure the services of Mr. Philip DODDRIDGE, and Mr. FLOYD was appointed, but remained only two years. In 1733 Mr. James SLOSS, A.M., a Scotsman, had been appointed co-pastor with Mr. BATESON. Mr. SLOSS was a man of great learning and ability. The most elaborate of his numerous publications was a work on the doctrine of the Trinity. He continued in office nearly forty years; and when he died, on the first of May, 1772, the newspapers recorded his demise in words of love and respect. His body lies interred in St. Mary's church.

Mr. SLOSS, it is stated, was a Presbyterian and a minister of the Church of Scotland, and it was stipulated when he became pastor of Castle gate that he should attempt no alteration in the mode of Church government. Mr. SLOSS was assisted after Mr. BATESON's resignation by several ministers in succession.

Mr. Gervas WYLDE, afterwards of Birmingham, remained seven years. Mr. Thomas BINGHAM continued five years, at the close of which he declined an invitation to become co-pastor, and accepted one at Dedham. Mr. PORTER and Mr. WALKER succeeded. In 1759 Mr. John TROUGHTON ALLISTON was appointed co-pastor with Mr. SLOSS; in the following year he was ordained; in 1761 he resigned , in consequence of the divided state of the church. Mr. Joseph POPPLEWELL, appointed in 1764, was assistant for three years. The Rev. Charles PLUMBE, A.M., was elected pastor in March, 1772, and ordained April the 16^th, 1773; he died on the 4^th of August, 1791, aged 54.

For more than three years after Mr. PLUMBE's death the church remained destitute of a pastor, but in 1794 the Rev. Richard ALLIOTT was chosen to the vacant office. Mr. ALLIOTT, who was born at Coventry on the 1^st of February, 1769, was the son of a zealous minister of that town. During his ministry of about forty-six years the Castle gate congregation increased greatly, and the members of the church advanced from 41 to 330. In 1828 his son, the Rev. Richard ALLIOTT, L.L.D., now president and theological tutor of the Western College, Plymouth, was appointed assistant, and on the 6^th of January, 1830, he was chosen co-pastor. On the death of his father, which took place on the 19^th of April, 1840, he became the sole pastor; and after laboring for three years with great success, he resigned to become pastor of the church at York road, Lambeth, London.

In September, 1843, the Rev. Samuel M'ALL of Doncaster was chosen pastor. Mr. M'ALL, who is distinguished as a zealous laborer in the vineyard of the Lord, was educated for the ministry at Rotherham College, and previous to his removal to Nottingham he had been settled at Doncaster about thirteen years. When he began his duties in Castle gate on the 9^th of October, 1843, the church members numbered 385. The present number of communicants is 470. Mr. M'ALL's father was one of the preachers engaged by the Countess of Huntingdon in her zealous endeavours to spread the gospel. Dr. M'ALL of Manchester, the eldest member of the family, was ranked with Thomas CHALMERS and Robert HALL among the preachers of his day. Another brother is a beneficed clergyman. Mr. M'ALL published some years ago "Remarks upon the Controversy in the Bible Society" and also "A Sermon to Young Men." More recently he has published "Monthly Lectures; or Sermons delivered at the United Services of the Nonconformist Churches in Nottingham;" "A speech delivered before the Congregational Union on Slavery;" and "Logic of Atheism."

Several neighbouring churches in the county of Nottingham, and on the borders of Derbyshire, were originally branches of this church, such as Ilkeston and Melbourne, in Derbyshire; Moorgreen, Keyworth, and Ison Green, in Nottinghamshire. The church has existed for fully two centuries, and yet has had no written articles of faith; and no material change has taken place either in the doctrine held or mode of Church governement maintained - the former being Calvinistic and the latter strictly congregational.

Under the charge of this congregation there are at present three Sunday schools; the principal one is held in Hounds gate Schoolroom, a commodious building erected a few years ago at a cost of £1,250. The second is held in a school-room at Bloomsgrove, the property of a member of the congregation. The third is carried on in Eldon street, Sneinton. In Hounds ate there are 366 children; at Bloomsgrove, 259; at Sneinton, 189 - total, 814. There is a day school for the young of both sexes in the building in Hounds gate and another in Bloomsgrove, the expense of the latter being defrayed by the member of the congregation who possesses the building. The scholars in Hounds gate number 120; at Bloomsgrove, 80. A library is connected with each of the schools, that in Hounds gate containing from three to four hundred volumes.