1. THE CHURCH IN TUNBRIDGE WELLS

by Derek Daniell

THE CHURCH IN TUNBRIDGE WELLS opened its new building in Commercial Road in October 1877 but the beginning of this work goes back ten years earlier when Brother Collyer and his wife came from Woking, in Surrey, to live in Tunbridge Wells. In a report given in the Ecclesiastical Observer of June 1st 1873, we learn that the Collyers “attended to the weekly breaking of the bread in their own house, telling faithfully the truth to neighbours; and thus has arisen the church as now existing.“

A visitor, writing in a retrospective glance, spoke of:

“Brother Collyer and Brother Turner as pioneers of primitive

Christianity in this town, their labours being directed to open-air

speaking on the Common, a well-situated position in the centre of the

town. In a short time, they had to find room for the increasing ‘few’,

and a place was hired in Goods Station Road (The Belgrave Commercial

School), which, after a few more years, was found to be inadequate, the

audience at times having to find seating accommodation on the stairs. “

The membership at Commercial Road in 1873 is recorded as 17 but, twenty years later, it had risen to 166.

Other congregations in Tunbridge Wells

In 1894, a church was formed in Southborough, about a mile and half away. Twenty members were drafted there from Commercial Road and they continued meeting until 1918.

Another group was formed in 1911, when about 50 members began meeting in a hall on Mount Ephraim. In 1917, they rejoined the church at Commercial Road.

The Hill family and others

Like most congregations, family names keep reappearing and, in the case of Commercial Road, those names are such as Haffenden, Heasman and Lawrence. In 1931, Arthur and Gertrude Hill and family came from Leicester to live in Tunbridge Wells. For five and a half years, until his death under anaesthetic in the local hospital, Arthur Hill served as evangelist for the churches of the South Eastern Division (comprising Tunbridge Wells, Piltdown and Brighton). His son Raymond married Olive Haffenden and both were deeply involved in the Lords work in many parts of England. Olive Hill’s biography can be found in Favourite Hymns of the Church, page 338

Albert Winstanley visits Commercial Road

In 1943, Albert Winstanley came at the invitation of the South East Division of the Cooperation of Churches of Christ, t0 give evangelistic help. He spent March and April in Tunbridge Wells, working with Commercial Road, followed by three weeks at Brighton and two weeks at Piltdown. In his report to the committee he wrote:

“the brethren gave me a very cordial welcome. Meetings were well supported. Apart from Lord’s Days, I spoke at the women’s meeting, devotional meeting and children’s meeting (Sunshine Corner). Attendance had been very poor. These steadily grew from rather more than twenty to fifty five. “

At the close of the second World War, membership at Commercial Road numbered one hundred.

The Fellowship of Churches of Christ

The Commercial Road church continued as part of what later became the Association of Churches of Christ but, in the 1970’s, the Association began negotiations to amalgamate with the United Reformed Church. In the subsequent vote a number of churches voted against joining with the U.R.C. and the Commercial Road church was among them. In 1980 it joined other like-minded churches in the formation of The Fellowship of Churches of Christ, to continue a co-operated work. Commercial Road is still a part of this Fellowship of churches.

The Silverdale Road Assembly

In 1950, membership at Commercial Road was down to 52. Some of this reduction in numbers was due to a group having separated to form another congregation, which began to meet in ‘Tinkers Chapel’, Silverdale Road in November 1946. The little church included Gertrude Hill (the widow of Arthur Hill), Edith Collyer (youngest daughter of H. Collyer) and Chris and Eva Lawrence.

In October 1950, Albert Winstanley returned to Tunbridge Wells with his wife Jean, at the request of this little church. Albert was no longer working under the direction and support of the Evangelistic Committee. Instead, several churches in Britain now sent their support through his ‘home’ congregation in Hindley (near Wigan) in Lancashire. He was to stay for fifteen years. Other men came to help for short periods and among them was Tom Kemp and Ralph Limb. Membership rose from about 12 members in 1946, to 25 in 1952. In June of 1951, Bro. W C Ketcherside (USA) visited to preach the gospel.

However, in May 1952, six of the members, including two who owned the chapel, wrote giving the church notice to quit the building. This was a reaction to the steady effort to ‘set things in order’. In October 1951, at a meeting of the brothers, it was

“agreed that an honest effort to restore Christianity as originally given, would mean sacrifice and the giving up of much, hitherto accepted without question. But the brothers were . unanimous in their determination to restore the ancient order of things, to seek always to serve the Lord in complete obedience to His Word.”

A New Beginning

Thus on the 29th June 1952 the church began meeting in an upper room at the YMCA 5 Mount Ephraim Road, which was to be their home for the next 11 years. Steady progress was made but the difficulties associated with the accommodation intensified the search for a permanent home of their own. Several sites and buildings were considered but none proved acceptable. During this time, several young men came to live in “The Wells”, to be assisted by Albert in their development as preachers of the gospel – Alan Ashurst, Colin Leyland and John Dodsley, to name some. During this time, help was given to the churches in Brighton and Kentish Town (London) and the latter congregation reciprocated by giving assistance to Tunbridge Wells. In September 1957, the writer of this article came to Tunbridge Wells from his home in Bristol and the congregation in Bedminster. His marriage to Margaret Scott of Kentish Town resulted in their settling in Tunbridge Wells to raise their family and serve the Lord. From here on, much of the information is first hand, as well as being part of history.

Holiday Fellowships

In 1958, a Holiday Bible School was organised so that Christians could get together for study, worship and recreation. Brethren of all age groups came from many parts of the UK. That first year, the Holiday Fellowship was held in nearby Paddock Wood and used, as sleeping accommodation, the huts which were otherwise occupied, in season, by hop pickers. A big marquee was used for meals and other gatherings, while meetings for worship and the preaching of the gospel were held in Tunbridge Wells. This same formula was repeated the following year, using the premises of a ballet school in the town. Over the next several years, these Holiday fellowships were held in Bangor, North Wales; Scatby, near Great Yarmouth and Switzerland. The final location, for many years, was a large manor house at Kelston, near Bath. We commend to the reader, Bro. Alf Marsden’s record of some of these events.

The ‘Better Intent’

The prospect of having a building of our own was brought a step nearer in 1960 when a suitable piece of land was located. It measured 120 feet by 80 feet and was owned by a local brewery, which accepted our offer of £600. A local newspaper ran an article under the headline: CHURCH BUYS PUBLIC HOUSE SITE and went on to say:

“For years, a sign stood on a piece of overgrown ground found on the corner of Cambrian Road and Upper Grosvenor Road, near High Brooms. It read: ‘Site of the proposed Good Intent’. Now, a religious meeting house is to be built on the site instead of a public house and a new poster reads ‘Better Intent’.”

Mysteriously, this board was later removed from the site but the replacement gave this message: “BETTER INTENT – this site is the property of a church of Christ who intend to erect a meeting house for the propagation of Christianity as taught by the Lord Jesus and His apostles”.

As the site was on a busy bus route and close to an equally busy rail line, many people read our notices. Subsequently, “BETTER INTENT” was replaced with “BEST INTENT: the best intention anyone can have is to believe in the Lord Jesus and obey His Word”. At a later date and in order to advertise gospel meetings, our poster read: “The Lord’s church is FOR SINNERS ONLY!” followed by the Master’s words in Matt. 9:13. This provoked quite a correspondence in the local press and gave the church some excellent publicity. This notice board has continued to be used to bear the message of the gospel and to advertise meetings.

Planning, fund-raising and construction

Bro. John Partington of Hindley was asked to prepare plans for a building but, meanwhile, the task of raising funds to erect this building, was stepped up. Thanks to a legacy from a sister in Eastbourne, the Building Fund totalled £3,539 at the beginning of 1961. A year later, this had risen to £4195 and, in July 1962, a contract was signed with a local building firm for the price of £5853. To save costs, some of the work was to be undertaken by the members, with the help of Christians from various parts of the country.

To establish the church in this area of the town, the church moved it’s meeting to a community centre on a nearby housing estate. By early 1964, work was nearly complete and the building partially in use. The official opening took place on the 16th. May 1964, with over 200 brethren and friends gathered to praise God and to hear the gospel preached. There were 19 members at that time and, by the close of the following year, that number had risen to 23.

Albert Winstanley leaves

In October 1964, Albert announced he would be leaving Tunbridge Wells in the following summer and, on August 12th. 1965, the Winstanley’s moved to Loughborough, leaving Derek Daniell and Jim Styles to continue the work. Over the next four years, steady progress was made and numbers rose to 28. It was then that several American families joined with us, as their jobs brought them to this part of Kent. In August 1970, the Meltons began to meet with us and Fred offered his services as evangelist. They remained for four years.

That same year, we held a five-day Holiday Bible School for children in the Easter holidays, with 98 attending in one day. This event continued for the next 10 years, although numbers slowly fell. In the spring of 1974, Bill and Thelma Murrell joined us and Bill and Derek worked together in preaching for two and a half years. Derek was now receiving financial support from several American churches following his visit to the States at the beginning of 1975.:

No language barrier!

One interesting convert at this time was a young man from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Tony spoke no English and we spoke no Portuguese, but we each had a Bible in our own language.

Thus Tony became a Christian and, about four years later, returned home to Sao Paulo. He remained faithful under great difficulties and is now helping American evangelists to reach his fellow countrymen with the gospel. We may not cross an ocean but we can still spread the gospel far beyond our own patch.

Correspondence Course Evangelism

In 1977, Sewell Hall and his family came to live in nearby Tonbridge. Although not working directly with us, we were greatly encouraged by his support. Brother Hall wrote a seven-lesson Bible correspondence course, with lesson one designed for mass distribution.

The remaining six lessons expanded on the subsections of the first lesson. Tens of thousands of these were put into letter boxes in south London by others, who followed his two-year stay and a church was established in London as a result of this distribution.

Every house in Tunbridge Wells has also been ‘letter-boxed’ and a similar distribution has been made in other areas of the south east, in particular Maidstone. One elderly lady obeyed the gospel and was faithful until she died. A Ghanaian family who were living for a short time in Maidstone were also contacted and Boamah Adomako was eventually baptised. On their return to Ghana, his wife Adelaide was also baptised and they now worship with the church in their town.

Though isolated geographically from many brethren, we have been blessed with the visits of many Christians who have come our way because of our nearness to Gatwick and Heathrow Airports. Some have been preachers en route to India, Africa and, more recently, eastern Europe and this has kept us in touch with the progress of the Kingdom beyond our shores.

Since the mid 1960’s, we have used newspaper advertising continually, not just in Tunbridge Wells but in the south east generally. Many people have been reached and a few converted. For many years, we have been placing Bible messages on an advertised telephone answering service and this, together with the newspaper advertisements, correspondence courses and gospel meetings, has been the main thrust of our recent gospel outreach

New Technology

As we enter the new millennium, we have harnessed the new technology of the Internet and have placed our correspondence course on a website, managed by one of our members. In the first two months, we had many ‘hits’ and eight have so far returned their answers to lesson one. There is still some work to be done to complete the website but we already have contacts to be followed up – people who may be living anywhere in the world!

Continuing service

The task of preaching the gospel is ever before us and is never easy, as Satan seeks to thwart our every effort. We must remain faithful to His Word and shine as lights in a dark world, seeking those of good and honest hearts into which to plant the seed of the Kingdom.

End Notes:

The Bible Advocate 12th. November 1897, page 736
The Scripture Standard. June 1943
Church Minute Book
‘A Journey into Faith’ by Alf Marsden, pages 93 – 107
Tunbridge Wells Advertiser, 31st. January 1961