Barnoldswick Baptist Centre
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Barnoldswick Baptist Centre
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The Baptist Church Centre, Barnoldswick 1661 -2007: A brief history The 1600’s The Baptist Church in Barnoldswick is one of the earliest to be formed in the north of England and a baptistic community began worshiping in this safe community away from the interference of the authorities (in the 1600’s free, or dissenting churches were subject to the penalties of the law for not conforming to the Church of England, the State Church). By 1691 the group of baptistic believers were in a position to purchase a barn and cottage on the signature of William Mitchell, one of their key members, to give them a permanent home and a legal existence as property owners to create the Baptist Church in Barnoldswick. Though the community flourished here because it was isolated and not subject to too many acts of interference by the Government, it was not isolationist from other similar communities being formed across the north of England. This development was spearheaded by two cousins, David Crosley (whose name is commemorated in the housing scheme across the road from the Baptist Church Centre – David Crosley House) and William Mitchel. These two cousins, and others, helped develop several churches like Barnoldswick from Rawdon and Gildersome in West Yorkshire, through the Rossendale valley and as far afield as Tottlebank in the Lake District. Twenty congregations were involved in this trans-local grouping. The 1700’s The Church grew during the 1700’s and developed in remarkable ways. One very fruitful period was during the ministry of pastor Alvery Jackson (1718 – 1763). He preached a long sermon on one occasion to convince the congregation that the singing of hymns in worship was appropriate. The Church has not stopped singing since! Another important pastorate of this era was the erection of a purpose designed chapel in Walmsgate. Nathan Smith and Alvery Jackson are remembered in the two main meeting rooms of the current Baptist Church Centre. In those days members of the church were poor and in order to survive in his work as the minister Nathan Smith worked as a home weaver, a malt merchant and a school teacher! He was the devoted pastor of the church for over 41 years. In 1797 a new chapel was erected for the growing community in Manchester Road – the Bethesda chapel buildings. The 1800’s This century was a time of great expansion for the non State or dissenting churches, in England. Cities like Bradford and Manchester were great centres of Baptist, Congregationalist (now United Reformed) and Methodist life. However, even in a relative rural area like West Craven, new congregations were established and for Baptists Mount Zion Baptist (1819, Earby) and Salterforth Baptist (1861) came out of the growing community of Baptists in the area. With such growth and expansion inevitably there were tensions and the Barnoldswick community divided in two with a new Chapel being erected in North Street (on the other side of the street from the current Baptist Centre). The Bethesda buildings were expanded later on in the century with multipurpose halls and rooms being added behind the chapel building. The 1900’s Both Baptist causes flourished in the early 1900’s. The ministry of A S Hollinshead at Bethesda (1920-1936) was noted for the quality of his preaching, but also for his encouragement for the young men of the town to find their place for recreation in the Baptist institute rather than the local pub. A H Eames had a strong ministry at North Street (1926-1936) with a keen emphasis on evangelism. However, like so many other Christian communities the two world wars saw many of the young male members go to war not to return, or to return disillusioned with life in a small town. The congregations began to reduce in size, though there remained a robust social life in the churches with events for young people, choirs who performed “Messiah”, “Elijah”, Olivet to Calvary” and other sacred oratorios, generally to full congregations and with special noted soloists invited for the occasion. From 1959 through until 1971 the two churches, Bethesda and North Street talked through the issues of whether one re-united Baptist cause would better serve Baptist witness in Barnoldswick. Ministers A A Kippax, R S Eldridge and R W Williams enabled the two congregations to work through the issues and re-union took place in 1971. Now, there was one church again, but three sets of buildings (Walmsgate, Manchester Road and North Street). The church called K G Jones as minister in 1973, though he was still completing his ministerial training. He led the church through a process of re-examining their mission and ministry and this led to the concept of the Baptist Church Centre which has a worship room designed to reflect baptistic theological insights architecturally and meeting rooms to serve the needs of the community. This new complex was completed in 1977 and the surplus buildings either sold for housing (Walmsgate) or demolished and redeveloped with modern housing (North Street) or in the case of the Bethesda site, the church joined a housing association to enable the site to be redeveloped with sheltered housing for seniors. In the 1980’s the Barnoldswick church covenanted with its two daughter causes in Earby and Salterforth to form the West Craven Baptist Fellowship. From the redevelopment onwards the church sought to develop an increased presence in the community with a luncheon club, youth work and later other community activities. This holistic mission emphasis was encouraged by a succession of three ministers, K G Jones, K F Dafforn and P P J Sheppy.
The 2000’s
The Baptist Church Centre entered the new millennium firmly committed to baptistic emphases - a gathering and believing community, committed to mission In the local setting and believing in trans-local connectedness denominationally and ecumenically. How that works out today is explained elsewhere on our web site. Student Minister Kezia Lama came to Barnoldswick and trained at Northern College. In June 2006 she was called to be part of the team ministry at Wakefield Baptist Church. My thanks to the Revd KG Jones for this brief history. |
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secretary@barnoldswickbaptists.org.uk with
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