As our Unitarian movement looks at the history of the flaming chalice, here’s a unique example which actually predates the adoption of the chalice as the Unitarian symbol during WWII.

Choppington Chapel (1868-1970) was one of several former Unitarian congregations in the North East, and was known as the ‘Chapel of the Miner’s Lamp’. Choppington was a mining village, and their custom of hanging a lit miner’s lamp in the chapel when services were taking place predates the adoption of the chalice as the Unitarian symbol. Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians inherited the miner’s lamp when Choppington Chapel closed in 1975. We still have it, and it will still light!

A couple of historical notes:

• Choppington Chapel was also the home of two of the most notable members of the Newcastle upon Tyne congregation. Rev. Lilian Preston was the only female minister in our history, though we have since had many female worship leaders and lay leaders. She was minister at Choppington Chapel between 1932-1935. Mary Indiana McIntyre, known to all as ‘Mollie’, was a much-loved member of Choppington Chapel and then of Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians. She died in 2008 with no family to leave her estate to, so she left it all to the church. She had always led a very frugal life, so we were astonished to receive a very sizeable sum! Without Mollie’s generosity, we would probably have had to close.
• Lighting a lamp to signify a meeting in progress appears not to have been uncommon in the north-east; in the old days, Newcastle City Council used to have a lit tar barrel outside the Town Hall whenever the council was in session. (These days we use gas lamps.)

Here’s some images.

And here’s a short article in the Inquirer magazine in 2025, written by Maurice Large: