Philip, Lord Wharton, owned land in the area. On this stood a number of shooting lodges including one at Crackpot, near
Keld, and one at Smarber, a small hamlet on the ridge to the west of Low Row. A
Puritan sympathiser, in around 1690 Wharton converted part of the Smarber lodge into a chapel for ‘
Protestant Dissenters’. He particularly had the needs of the local lead miners in mind. It was a small, simple building; the lower part of the dry-stone wall remains and shows evidence of plaster and the location of a window. At the east end, an adjoining barn still stands. This also shows traces of plaster and windows and is considered originally to have been a cottage attached to the chapel. It is known that Wharton bought land near
Kirkby Stephen, the income from which was to support a minister at Smarber. In 1809 a new chapel was built, beside the road at the west end of Low Row, and the former building fell into disrepair. Having originally tended to favour the
Presbyterian position, the chapel declared itself
Congregational in 1867, during the 50-year ministry of John Boyd. He also supervised a major rebuild in 1874. This cost over £300 and resulted in the building as seen today. Now part of the
United Reformed Church, an active congregation continues to worship in the chapel and ‘pilgrimages’ to the former building take place from time to time. ==In popular culture==