It is a listed building because it is one of the few examples of Georgian nonconformist chapels in the midlands. Within three years it was so full that a gallery was added at the back. In 1824 the side galleries were added and the original box pews (which were rented out to rich people until the 1920s) are still in place on one side.
In 1808 a very strange incident occurred. William Salt preached a sermon at a morning service and afterwards one of the people from the church, a 19 year old tailor's apprentice called Henry Fairbrother, committed suicide.
The people of the city, who didn't like the Congregationalists anyway, were enraged and assumed that it was William Salt's fault. So they went to lynch him. The magistrates were called and William said he would preach the sermon again to show that there was no reason to blame him. In a packed courtroom, William satisfied everyone that the sermon was not the cause of Henry's death, and some people were so impressed that they gave money for the Congregationalists to build their own church. However the sermon later became known as the Killing Sermon.