Church Micro 12035...Biggleswade - Baptist Mystery Cache

Biggleswade Baptist Church was formally founded in June 1771 and was probably known as the “Free Communion Baptist Church”. It is likely however that the church goes back much further. There are references to a licensed meeting house being used by “Independents” in the town in 1717 and 1720, and Biggleswade is listed as having a Baptist chapel in a list of Presbyterian and independent chapels in England from 1717 to 1729. A congregation of 300 described as “anabaptist” and “independent” was meeting by 1715 suggesting an even earlier beginning. There is evidence from the 1670s of 6 people who were subject to legal proceedings for not attending the Parish Church and these may have been early non-conformists. Charles II’s Declaration of Indulgence was made in 1672 but was repealed the following year. This allowed congregations to apply for a licence and there was a house in Biggleswade registered in this way. The title of the first Church book states it is “of the Free Communion Baptist Church meeting in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire”. By 1851 the church was known as the “Old Meeting” and this name change may have taken place when the “Calvinistical Baptist” Providence Chapel opened a few years earlier. When the new building was opened in 1968 the Old Meeting name was dropped in favour of being known as Biggleswade Baptist Church.

This is a mystery cache and IS NOT at the published coordinates.

The cache is a 2ml tube.

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