After a splendid visit to Inkberrow St Peter (about which
I shall write on a future date) and a failed visit to Cookhill St Paul, part of
the same benefice where a funeral was underway, I noticed a street sign that
made me turn right off the A441 Evesham Road into Chapel Lane. Not knowing what
to find I was pleasantly surprised to pull into the car park of a red brick
building carrying the sign Cookhill Baptist Church. So as an ecumenical gesture
I feel it only meet and right to include a few notes about this brief visit.
I say “visit” for it was only an external viewing of the
solid-looking early Victorian building that bore more than a resemblance to
many a farmhouse built in Worcestershire during that period. Set at the end of
a cul-de-sac and bordered by farmland (and a very friendly horse who leaned over
a barbed wire fence to see if I had anything for him to eat) the only structural
indications that this was a house of worship were a large, white, wooden cross
on the end wall and the faux perpendicular style of windows. Of, course, it was locked. But I must be wary of criticizing the Baptists when so many Church of England buildings were
also locked that day.
A little potted history was later gleaned from the church’s
blog: A Baptist fellowship began in
Cookhill in the early 1830s, probably as a result of “missionaries” from the
nearby town of Alcester. They raised
money and resources and built the church in (what is now) Chapel Lane by
1835. There have been many
refurbishments over the years and a small WW1 memorial was built into the north
wall. And judging by a photograph that I
found in the Redditch Standard newspaper which I cannot post here for copyright
reasons the baptistery (tank!) looks quite new.
So in a village and area steeped in ancient ecclesiastical
history, with churches, priories and nunneries, a little vein of Baptist faith
flows to this day!
Source: Church Blog http://www.cookhill-baptist-church.blogspot.com/
OS Grid Reference for Cookhill SO053588
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