There lived within ½ a mile a Mr Webster (footnote 1), a retired schoolmaster, who had married a lady with money, so he used to do carpentry work, gardening etc etc. As there were several homes on the estate they bought and occupied, also as he was an enthusiastic Christian man, he built a small Chapel (footnote 2) and attached [17] to which was land at the back, used as a cemetery or, as we called it, burying-ground (footnote 3). Now this Mr Webster was a Baptist, and he was successful in gathering a few converts, and his wife with the help of others conducted a Sunday School, and Mr W for years preached twice on Sundays.
I do not know much about this period, and so shall be treading on thin ice, in what immediately follows.
My father did not join Mr Webster’s church, but used to walk 3½ miles to Hartney Wintney on Sundays, where there was a strict Baptist Church, until a Mr Spurgin, a retired wine & spirit merchant, and some others put their heads together and built another little place of worship and was strict and particular. One morning I was out for a walk before breakfast, accompanied by my sister Emily and the maid who looked after us, when passing [18] the site of the new building (footnote 4), saw the builder waiting for his men, and he with an eye to business asked me to lay the first brick of the new Chapel. I suppose he thought my mother would be good enough to hand him a piece of gold, so we three each laid a brick, or rather he laid the bricks and we touched it; also, he spread the mortar, etc. Well, he got his half-sovereign (footnote 5). The Chapel being built, preachers had to be got, etc, but I expect my Father had his work cut out, although he did not preach.
There was some difference of opinion and Mr Spurgin left, and the 2 chapels were amalgamated (footnote 6), thereafter we had morning service at Mr Webster’s and evenings (footnote 7) at the new Chapel; and Mr Webster died and some of the students from Spurgeon’s College carried on for some time, and then a Mr Cork settled as pastor; and in order to aid his income [19] opened a school, where he got about 6 or 7 boys. I was one of them.
But to go back.
Transcriber’s footnotes:
1. William Webster. Much of the details about the churches have now been checked against the official history of Fleet Baptist Church; the two accounts correlate well.
2. He called it Hope House; it later became Ivy Lodge and is now Cedar House (with a very old Cedar in the grounds).
3. Still to be seen.
4. The Fleet Baptist history records the date as 1858, and the site as the “east side of Reading Road North, close to Cane’s corner opposite the Oatsheaf Public House”; it was therefore virtually next-door to the house/shop. The chapel was known as Fleet Pond Chapel, later in approx 1893 it was called Ebenezer Chapel.
5. A small gold coin, worth 10 shillings, and made of real gold; there were gold sovereigns (£1) and half-sovereigns. I have one in my collection, a gift from my maternal grandfather - Bernard
6. The Fleet Baptist history had no information about how the two chapels came together, but minutes showed that they were worshipping as one congregation by April 1868. The minutes confirm that they were worshipping in two chapels, and that Pastor Daniel Cork started to serve the church in April 1868.
7. The Fleet Baptist history had the arrangements the other way round.
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