History
There has been a Baptist church on the current site in Broad Street, Foleshill, Coventry since 1924. However, the church moved to its current site, from nearby Webster Street, having started there with public worship on 2nd January 1908. So, the church is already well over 100 years old!
The First World War (1914 – 1918) having interrupted plans for the erection of the new building on the Broad Street site, which also saw the loss of members due to the hostilities.
From the move in 1924 the church became known as Foleshill Baptist Church. Previously it was known as Great Heath Baptist Chapel. The opening ceremony took place on September 25th, 1924.
The church ran The Boys (4th Coventry) and Girls (2nd Coventry) Brigades from the 1920’s up until 1984. These became the mainstay of the church young people work for almost 60 years. The work of the children’s Sunday Club, that continues as an important part of the church life today can be traced right back to 1908.
The work in the community, which remains so important to the church life today, can be traced back to 1931, when the fellowship became involved in certain aspects of community life, including the use of the premises as an occupational centre for the unemployed.
The outbreak of the Second Great War (1939 – 1945) severely interrupted the life and witness of the fellowship. Many members and children were forced to leave the city, and those that remained struggled on through blackout and blitz to maintain the work of God’s kingdom.
The church was faced with a number of problems as the challenge presented by the post-war situation: it was short of workers due to the ravages of war, its property had sustained damage during air-raids, and the expansion of new housing estates had caused young married couples to move away from the Foleshill area. The church was repaired, renovated and redecorated and the church went forward.
The church whilst reaching out more to the community built a very strong partnership with the Christian organisation Operation Mobilisation. This can be traced back to 1974. The new millennia then saw an increase in the church support for missionary work, including overseas, mostly through a number of Christian organisations - this reflecting the diverse make-up of the fellowship. One highlight was in 2011 when an initiative called ‘Walk for Water’ raised enough monies, through a sponsored walk, for a village water well and a school toilet to be built via the charity Samaritan’s Purse in the village of Mamonhe, in the Bilene district of Mozambique.
The global Covid19 pandemic meant that the church moved to online services from March 2020, starting a very challenging period of time to provide pastoral care, prayer, worship and bible teaching during the time of national lock-downs. Services were streamed on-line and meetings held on-line!
The church now very much looks forward to the next chapter / next season in the history of Foleshill Baptist Church.
The above article is a brief summary of the history of the church. The full version and accompanying history materials are available in the church archives.
Ministers:
17 full time Ministers have served across the time of being at Webster Street and Broad Street.
Rev. H F Griffin 1908 – 1909
Rev. J S Hughes 1910 – 1912
Rev. C T Cook 1913 – 1918
Rev. George B Coombe 1918
Rev. Albert Sadler 1923 – 1929
Rev. F Holmes Bedford – 1931 – 1935
Rev. Harry J. Soan in 1936 – 1939
Rev. Bernard Mason – 1941 – 1946
Rev. Denis Bareham – 1946 – 1953
Rev. B P Smith – 1956 – 1960
Rev. Donald V. Manson – 1962 – 1966
Rev. S. C. Highway – 1967 – 1971
Neil Walker (Student pastor) – 1972
Rev. Geoffrey Lee – 1974 – 1979
Rev. Edward Slade – 1980 – 1994
Rev. Peter Worth – 1996 – 2000
Rev. John and Rev. Kirsteen Macaulay – 2004 – 2022