Bideford Baptist Church 200th Anniversary
These words have been taken from a book produced in 1964 when our present building was opened.
In July 1818 Opie Smith Esquire of Bath visited this town and encouraged and assisted the few Baptists here to rent and fit up a large room for the purpose of public worship, preaching etc. The room, we are told, had been a malt house, possibly the rear of 10 Mill Street. Occasional services were held for about three years, but little progress seems to have been made.
We were afterwards assisted by Mr Thomas Pulsford of Torrington, Mr J O Mitchell of Barnstaple and Mr William Harris of Bray Ford. On the 20th April two persons were baptised in the River Torridge by Mr Pulsford and these with eight others were formed into a Church. The two baptised were Mrs Maria Wedge and Mr Israel Down, the place in the Torridge was at the foot of Bull Hill. Later that same year in August three women were baptised in the river at Crosspark. The church was officially formed in 1821. Meetings continued to be held in Mill Street, but things did not go well for the young Church and in January 1825 it was dissolved.
On May 7th 1829 the Church was reformed and this time as premises a coal-store in Honestone Street was used. Mr Lamerton, who surveyed the Church's history in a paper given at a Young Life Campaign Meeting in October 1930, suggests that “Methodist fire and Baptist water combined to form steam and the church made progress!” A Church Covenant was formulated and a Minister was officially appointed in the person of Mr Christopher Passmore (Autumn 1828 – May 1830), followed by Mr Robert Pyne (1830-1835).
Marked progress and prosperity are reported, and in 1837, when Rev John H Osborne became Minister, the Church was evidently strong enough to build its first Chapel (our old building) in Back Lane, now called Lower Gunstone. The building of the Chapel started on 9th August 1837 and was opened on June 14th 1838, and enlarged soon after. During the years to 1848 there had been much thought about Communion, and Open Communion was agreed by the Church.
As far as the Sunday School is concerned, it met in the chapel (there were no other premises), boys in the gallery and girls downstairs. Discipline was 'tough'. Unruly boys got a 'cuffing' and if they were particularly bad they were relegated to the 'pulpit stairs', a place no doubt in full view of the girls and their derisive titters. Heating of the premises was poor and often withheld altogether even in very cold weather to save money or work.
The schoolrooms were added in 1866 but had no classrooms or kitchen — a sign that the number of children attending was rapidly increasing. During 1887 repairs and alterations had to be done to the chapel, and the Mayor of Bideford at the time, A Duncan Esq, kindly granted the use of the Town Hall for our Sunday Services. By October 1892 the membership was around 200.
Musical accompaniment was provided at one point by two flutes and a bass viola. Later on a Harmonium, and then a small organ bought from the Church School in Old Town. In the closing years of the nineteenth century it was decided that the Church must have an organ of good quality and big efforts were made to transform the front of the church. A new organ loft was prepared and a new organ costing £240 bought, along with a new baptistry. The Church now had 570 sittings. The new organ was first played in public on July 26th 1899 when Miss Annie Williams L.R.A.M. gave a recital.
Many events took place in this building until it was demolished in the early sixties; the schoolrooms remained in use until the late 1970s. Radio broadcast services were held in 1948, 1949, 1956 and 1962.
God had plans back in 1818/21 that Mill Street would be a place of worship, and two centuries later the church family still gathers here — grateful for those who went before, and looking forward to what God will do next in Bideford.