The history of the Peasedown Christadelphians
The Peasedown Christadelphian Church dates from 1876 when John Henry Young, a miner, learned the true Christian gospel from his friend Mr. Joseph Hawkins of Frome. He was baptised by a Mr Shuttleworth from Birmingham, and his family and friends soon followed his example. The following year they hired a field for the day, and with the help of visiting speakers from Bristol addressed an audience of between five and six hundred people. They were pelted with rubbish, but the message got across. In 1883 their active spreading of the gospel attracted the attention of the local vicar. He invited them to attend for “a little plain Bible teaching” and they gave a good account of themselves in return. He had to admit that he had no answer for some of the points they put to him, and he expressed the wish that his congregation had as good a knowledge of the Bible as they had.  This incident gave them some respect locally, and helped to establish them among the Peasedown and Radstock dissenting communities.psj Numbers increased rapidly, and by 1915 after an extended period of “house meetings” the Peasedown Christadelphian Church with about forty members, moved into a temporary building on the present site at Huddox Hill. The Meeting Room at first consisted of a “Nissen” type hut purchased from the Army, and brought from Salisbury Plain. Conditions were basic, but the worshippers had their own hand-blown pipe organ made by a local craftsman. The meetings were well supported, and numbers steadily increased.In 1936 the freehold of the original building was purchased from the farmer who owned the land. In 1961 the old corrugated iron building was demolished and a new purpose-made timber building was designed and erected on the same foundations. In 1966 the accommodation was doubled by erecting another similar building alongside mainly to house the growing Sunday School, which by 1974 numbered twenty-nine. A further extension was added to accommodate the Infants Class, and toilet and kitchen facilities were added at the other end of the building.The original members were nearly all employed in the local mines and related trades, but today the mines are closed and we all have other occupations and live in the surrounding towns and villages. The fields around us are rapidly filling with houses, and all who live in them are most welcome to meet with us, in the years to come, if the Lord remains away.

 

© Peasedown Christadelphians 2010