Membership Card

I am unsure of the date of this item

Old Childs Hill

This is a copy of an (idealised?) Childs Hill scene from the 18th Century

Childs Hill 1866

In 1866 the Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science By National Association for the Promotion of Social Science (Great Britain) appeared under the names of George Woodyatt Hastings, Andrew Edgar, Edwin Pears and Charles Wager Ryalls. An interesting reference to Childs Hill appears on page 75.

... It is almost impossible under our present laws to initiate sanitary improvement in the villages and small towns of the country. The most gigantic nuisances are allowed to grow up without let or hindrance, and it is only when some terrible calamity visits a place, that any action is taken. The Metropolitan boundary is studded with villages that the Management Act does not reach, and which are a disgrace to our civilisation. Such a village exists at Childs Hill, in the midst of a farm belonging to the Lord President of the Privy Council. I mention this to show how defective our sanitary legislation is at the present moment, so that the representative of all sanitary authority in Her Majesty's Government is helpless to remove nuisances at his very door. ...

This fits with what Mr Poulton later wrote in a piece about the church's early days.

First Church Minute Book

Pew number plaque

This is an old pew number plaque, presumably from the earliest days (1870s).

Anniversary Dates

September 4, 1865 - Arrival of William Rickard to work at Heath Street Home Mission
April 8, 1866 - First Sunday Service in Childs Hill in an upper room of 'the Model Laundry' in The Mead (later Granville Road)
May 20, 1866 - Launch of the Sunday School at Mr Elphick's Laundry in The Mead
January 10, 1867 - Mission Hall opened in The Mead
July 28, 1870 - Foundation stone of present chapel laid (by James Harvey)
November 17, 1870 - Chapel formally opened
June 12, 1877 - Formal founding of the Childs Hill church with the transfer of 63 members from Heath Street, Hampstead
June 24, 1877 - First pastor, William Rickard, formally received

Cover for the printed sermon delivered by JSP Tuesday, January 10, 1911, to the Western Group of The London Baptist Association.