By Ruth Bloomfield | Photography by Dylan Thomas for WSJ
For many years, Lyn Bannister and Russell Hindley walked past the imposing ruin of a Methodist chapel in their town outside Manchester, England, and wondered what lay behind its high stone walls and creaking iron gates.
When the circa-1893 building came up for sale in 2019, the couple agreed that it was time to find out.
They bought the building, which had almost been destroyed by fire in the 1990s, for about $135,500 and brought it back to life, putting a three-bedroom prefab house within its walls.
The project cost some $800,000, and the result is an optical illusion. From the street, the chapel's facade looks much the same as it always did: arched windows and a Grecian-style pediment surrounded by mossy gravestones. Behind its columned entrance, however, is a slick, pared-down modern house with white-plaster walls and huge windows.
"Every time I walk in the front I go, 'I can't believe this,'" said Bannister, 64, an artist-turned-event planner.
Bannister and Hindley moved in 2007 to the town of New Mills, about 15 miles southeast of Manchester, buying a Victorian house there. They chose the town for its proximity to family and good transport links, since Hindley's work as a control-systems engineer takes him around the country.
It was impossible not to notice the Mount Pleasant Methodist Chapel, which occupies a prime and elevated site in the center of New Mills. With dwindling congregation numbers, the chapel had sat empty since its final service around 1980, according to a Archaeological Research Services report on the building. Years later, the fire devastated the main building and adjacent Sunday school, and only the exterior walls were left standing.
Bannister found their Victorian "a bit too ordinary," so when the chapel came on the market, she was thrilled. It was being sold by a local businessman who had purchased it with a view to redeveloping it before deciding to sell.
"I had always wanted to convert a church," Bannister said. "It is something I have been interested in forever."
The couple were also in the mood to seize an opportunity. Hindley had just finished treatment for stage-three cancer which, said Bannister, had given them a sobering insight into just how short and unpredictable life can be. And Bannister had just received an inheritance from her sister; it felt like fate, she said.
The deal closed in August 2020. The couple, who sold their previous home to fund the move, rented an apartment in town. By then, the third-of-an-acre site was well on its way to being reclaimed by nature. "It was like a forest," said Hindley, 67.
The first task was to clear the site of the trees and undergrowth that had grown during its long period of neglect. Then they were able to appreciate the full scale of the building for the first time. "We had no real idea how high the walls were or how large the windows were until we did that," said Bannister.
Preserving the original yellow grit stone walls and making them a feature of the site was always part of the plan. Jeremy Poulter of Phi Architects drew up plans to tuck a 1,302-square-foot, timber-framed house neatly within them.
"The house is deliberately simple," said Poulter. "Partly that was about cost, and partly that was about the amount of space we had within the chapel walls."
The couple was required by law to inform the local community that they planned to make alterations, albeit modest ones, to the graveyard outside the chapel. They also had to notify the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which maintains graves of servicemen killed in the First and Second World Wars.
Work began in March 2023. First, concrete foundations were laid, while the house was manufactured in a factory. It was then craned onto the site in panels, and fitted together over the course of a week.
The back wall of the building had to be taken down entirely so that machines and materials could get inside. Once it was complete, the wall was put together again.
By October 2023, Bannister and Hindley were able to move in and get to work on their unconventional backyard.
Wrapped around the new house is a series of decked or paved seating areas, one featuring a hot tub. Beyond the chapel walls, the 150-or-so graves remain in place, though the couple removed edging stones around each memorial to make room for hundreds of spring bulbs. The stones have been repurposed as borders for new flower beds, and lintels and sills for the chapel's open windows.
"Do I find it spooky? Not at all," said Bannister. "It is the most peaceful place I know."
While designing the landscape, Bannister has tried to reuse as much as possible. Organ pipes discovered when the chapel site was being cleaned are now pressed into the flower beds as structural garden ornaments.
Before the work commenced, Hindley worried that building a house behind the high walls of the chapel could result in a gloomy, depressing space. His fears proved to be unfounded. An oversize picture window in the living room provides views across the rooftops of New Mills and the hills of the Peak District National Park beyond.
The couple brought their collection of books, plants, paintings and antique furniture with them. "We didn't buy a single new thing to come here," said Bannister. "People often say it is surprisingly cozy considering it is a modern house with lots of windows, and I think that is probably why."
When seen from above, the modern home's windows form the shape of a cross.
This was entirely unintentional, according to the owners and architect. When asked about the coincidence, the owners quipped: "Divine intervention?"
The house does cause a certain amount of confusion among tourists. Passersby often walk through the graveyard, and one couple had a picnic on a bench in front of the house, laughed Bannister. "They come and look through the living room windows. I say: 'Feel free.'"
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 22, 2026 12:00 ET (16:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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