Chertsey Street Baptist Church
© Copyright David960 and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
Chertsey Street Baptist Church, Guildford, used to be called "the Old Baptist Chapel". There is no exact date known for the first Baptist congregation in Guildford, or for founding this church, but the first allusion to a non-conformist group appears in a land deed from the 1590s. The first pastorate of the church is dated 1645, but the beginnings probably go back quite a time before that. We know that by 1669 there were some 60 to 100 people with these convictions meeting regularly in Guildford. Less than 20 years later a barn was converted into a meeting house and called the "Charcoal Barn Chapel" because it was on the site of the town's charcoal store.
The Charcoal Barn Chapel was situated in what is now the Tunsgate, just off Guildford's cobbled High Street. It was reconstructed and became the centre of the worship and witness of the church until 1953, when the town council developed the site and the church moved its meeting place to our present building in Chertsey Street (formerly a Methodist Chapel).
In 1837 a group of people broke away to form a new church. They first met in Quarry Street, and later in Commercial Road and now form the Millmead Centre congregation (Church Micro 7136). Another group of people, with Hyper-Calvinist convictions broke at the end of the 19th century, which resulted in the building of Bethel Chapel in the Bars in 1910. In 1992, after being offered a small church in Guildford Park which was about to close the church decided it could help and a small group moved over to Guildford Park (Church Micro 3322) and began morning meetings.
Above the front doors are pointed arches with words engraved thereon.
A = Number of letter E's engraved on the right hand arch
B = Number of letter L's on the left hand arch
C = Number of letters in the 2nd word on the left hand arch
D = C - B
E = Number of consonants in 2nd word on right hand arch
F = Number of words on Right hand arch + 1
G = number of letters in the first and last words on left hand arch
H = number of letters in the third word on the left hand arch
The cache is a short walk away at: N51 1A.BCD W0 3E.FGH
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