History
Philip Lord Wharton provided funds to build a chapel in 1690 for dissenters at Smarber on the steep hillside above Low Row. This building eventually fell into disrepair and the present building adjacent to the main road was dedicated in 1809.
John Boyd was minister here from 1838 to 1882. Here’s an account of a chance meeting.
Just beyond Reeth, at a spot named "Low Row", - and so named for no earthly reason we could make out, except, perhaps, that there was no "Row", and that the situation is rather elevated - we noticed by the roadside a simple, substantial-looking little stone chapel, with a bell, and a much more ecclesiastical and comfortable aspect than is usual in such out of the way regions, A modest house close by proclaimed itself the parsonage, and on the garden step stood an elderly man, whose aspect not less certainly proclaimed him the pastor. Using the privilege of wayfarers, we introduced ourselves, and at once received a most patriarchal welcome. We found that our friend was a Congregationalist, and that he had spent between thirty and forty years of his life in labouring as minister of the little chapel hard by. It has recently been nearly re-built and re-pewed, and now it is a model of simplicity and neatness, and we hear is well attended every Sunday. We noticed with pleasure that the pulpit Bible has been presented to the pastor by the Vicar of the parish. With infinite labour, the pastor has toiled to get the £300 required for this good work of building. This money has been got, and now the only thing that he desires for the completion of the premises is an iron railing, which will cost about £20. He told us with kindling eye that he was a fellow townsman of Robert Moffat; and as we saw his fresh enthusiasm, unchilled by seventy-five winters, we could not but feel that the great good-hearted missionary. whom we all reverence, would have rejoiced to greet him as a fellow-labourer. His dear old wife, too, whose delicate looking face seemed to have caught some of the light that comes to the good "at eventide", was as kind as her husband, and she was a child at school with Dr Harris. Long shall we remember that pleasant wayside greeting, and the kind people quietly doing their work in that far-away spot.
The Christian World August 27th 1875