Our history is important to us as a pointer to our future

There has been a Baptist church in Chipping Sodbury for nearly nearly 500 years - probably since the late 1640s or early 1650s.

The first Baptist church had been founded in Amsterdam, Holland, around 1608, during the time of King James I. Its members were English refugees who had fled England to escape religious persecution.

They were eager to read the Bible for themselves and to follow its teachings and practices, but this brought them into conflict with the state-controlled Church of England. Their gatherings were declared illegal and their preachers arrested. They were referred to as ‘Baptists’ because, like John the Baptist in the Bible, they would dip new believers under water as a witness to their new faith.

Some of the Amsterdam Baptists returned to London in 1611, where they established the first Baptist church on English soil. Their gatherings were still regarded as illegal and so they met secretly in members’ houses.

In 1640, two years before the English Civil War, a Baptist church was established at Broad Mead in Bristol. With the defeat of King Charles and the Royalists, there was a period of religious liberty under Oliver Cromwell’s ‘Commonwealth’, allowing Baptists to spread their beliefs from the cities to outlying rural communities. It was during this time, in the late 1640s or early 1650s, that a Baptist ‘church’ was established in Chipping Sodbury, probably consisting of no more than a handful of like-minded Christians meeting in a home or small room.

The first surviving document mentioning Sodbury Baptist Church comes from the records of Broadmead Baptist Church, when the Rev. James Nobbs signed the Somerset Baptist Confession of Faith on behalf of the Church at Sodbury in 1656. Nobbs may well have been the first minister of Chipping Sodbury Baptist Church.

Unfortunately, when the monarchy was restored in 1660, bringing King Charles II to the throne, persecution of non-conformists returned. The 1662 Act of Uniformity required all subjects to attend their local Anglican church, regardless of their personal beliefs, and banned religious meetings of more than five people within five miles of an Anglican church. This forced the Baptists to ‘go underground’ again, meeting secretly in members’ homes.

In 1689, an Act of Tolerance was passed which gave non-conformist churches the opportunity to licence a room in their houses or to build a meeting house. In Sodbury, it seems the Baptists initially licensed a room, being unable to afford to purchase land and build a meeting house.

It wasn’t until 1708 that they had funds available to purchase a plot of land along Hounds Lane and bordering Painter’s Mead, from William Alden, a local farrier (i.e. a blacksmith who shoed horses). On this land they established a small burial ground, but it wasn’t until the early 1730s that they were able to build a Meeting House. It was a small, two-storey building with a fireplace on both floors for heating.

By the 1760s, the church had outgrown the Meeting House, and at some time around 1769 a larger building was built adjoining the Meeting House, on the area previously used as the burial ground. The new Chapel was built of local limestone and contained a high pulpit between the two rear windows. In front of it was the communion table and under the floor was a baptistery.

Church membership continued to rise and in 1819 further work was done on the Chapel and a balcony was added for extra seating. In 1838 a porch was added to the front of the building. There was not much room left on the site for burials, so in 1860 land was purchased adjacent to the buildings which allowed the burial ground to be extended.

Back in 1807, the Church had opened a Sunday School in the Hounds Road buildings, to offer a basic education to local children. Attendance increased and by 1838 there were 260 scholars taught by 20 teachers.

In 1882 a School Room Building Fund was set up and in April 1885 two cottages were purchased on the High Street. The land at the back of these cottages bordered the 1860 burial extension, so now the church owned an L-shaped plot with access from both Hounds Road and the High Street.

The cottages were demolished and a new Sunday School Hall was built, set back from the High Street. The opening ceremony took place on Tuesday, 10th August, 1886. The main room was divided into small class areas using movable wooden partitions, wooden benches providing for seating. One of these original benches has survived and is now situated beside the path in the burial ground.

During the week, the School Hall was used for many purposes and leased to many organisations including the Grammar School from 1911. At the end of the First World War, in 1918, it was used by American airmen, and during the Second World War the hall was used as a YMCA centre.

By the early 1960s, the Chapel building on Hounds Road had become rather run-down. It was draughty and expensive to heat, and parts of the wooden gallery had become unsafe. It was decided to move the Sunday School into the Meeting House and Chapel, and to hold Sunday Services in the School Hall (which eventually became known as the ‘Church Hall’).

During the 1960s and 1970s, there was a huge amount of housing development in the Sodbury and Yate area, resulting in a large influx of young families into the Church. Sunday services in the School (Church) Hall became ever more crowded and in 1974 a sliding partition was installed to incorporate the vestibule as an overflow area.

Church attendance continued to grow and in February 1986 the Church members took a big step of faith when they decided to build a new church building to accommodate 350 seats. It would be built in the grassed area between the back of the School (Church) Hall and the Burial Ground.

After much hard-work and fund-raising, construction began on the site in July 1990 and the new steel-framed Church building was officially opened in February 1991, during a weekend of snow storms.

The new, modern church building featured a spacious, carpeted sanctuary for Sunday services, with comfortable chairs. There was also a large creche room, offices and toilets.

Around 2013, the Church decided to step out in faith again and develop the site further to enable it to become a more effective part of the local community and a more effective Christian witness within it. The Meeting House and Chapel were converted to flats, and building work on a New Church Extension commenced in August 2014.

The work was completed by April 2015. The most noticeable addition was an eye-catching glass front extension providing an informal meeting place and ‘information hub’ for the local community.

The School (Church) Hall and the New Church were joined by a new two storey structure providing an enlarged kitchen, a new Reception, offices, Welcome area and meeting rooms.

The result is a single, attractive and multi-use community building through which Chipping Sodbury Baptist Church can share God’s Love and Good News with the community of Chipping Sodbury and beyond.