In 1852 a group of people arrived in Bacup from Heptonstall Slack in Yorkshire, the place which William Mitchell and David Crosley a come in 1692 to form the Baptist church at Bacup. They were handloom weavers looking for work in the cotton mills of Rossendale.

They held their first meeting in a house in Earnshaw Road and soon after moved to a house in Burnley Road. On Good Friday 1854 they moved again, this time to a building on Newchurch Road and from there they decided to start a building fund for a new chapel. After raising £250 a plot of land was bought between Gladstone Street and Tong Lane. On Good Friday 1872 the foundation stone for South Street General Baptist church was laid and the first was held on the 3rd April 1873. The chapel, which cost £1600 to build could 250 people.

By 1921 Mount Olivet Baptist chapel had fallen in to disrepair and an agreement was made to merge with South Street under the title Mount Olivet and South Street Baptist Church. The War years took their toll and attendances declined. After turning down an invitation to talks on forming one Baptist church in Bacup it was decided in September 1962 to close the chapel and the last service was held on the last Sunday in December 1962. Whilst there was no formal agreement to unite the church on the Sunday following closure the members joined in worship with the newly formed Trinity.