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Walsworth Road Baptist Church (WRBC) is one of three Baptist churches in the town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire. There are two Sunday services a week; a morning one at 10:30am and an evening one at 6:30pm.

Services


There are regularly two services; a morning one at 10:30am and an evening one at 6:30pm. In 2013, a new evening service was trialled, named "4-5-6". This involves a shortened service from 4pm, light tea at 5pm, and 'everyone home' by 6pm. The trial was deemed successful and 4-5-6 services now form part of regular worship with 9-10 a year.

Holy Communion services occur twice a month; on the first Sunday of the month in the morning and the third Sunday of each month in the evening. There are also Parade Services attended by the Scout (3rd Hitchin) and Guide (9th Hitchin) groups that meet at the church; these Parade services include Harvest and Remembrance Sunday.

History
Following the construction of the Great Northern Railway, Hitchin became an important railway station on the line. This led to housing development in the area around Walsworth Road, with several families attached to the principles of the General Baptists settling in this area. However, the distance to the nearest Baptist Church (at Tilehouse Street) was seen as somewhat inconvenient. Led by Richard Johnson, one of the Chief Engineers of the GNR, the small group of families decided to serve the new community by erecting a temporary church building (called the Mission Hall) in 1867. Mr Johnson, who owned a piece of land on Walsworth Road was responsible for putting up the Mission Hall, a wooden structure with corrugated roof which seated 200 worshippers on open pews, made by a number of GNR carpenters. The Mission Hall, known locally as the "Railway Mission" was opened on 9 October 1867.

Almost as soon as the Mission Hall had opened a congregation of around 120 had formed, predominantly of people from the local area but also those with connections to the railway, also causing a Sunday School to start. Due to the continued support from the community, the Mission Hall was expanded within 9 months with the addition of a schoolroom at the rear, separated from the main congregational church by sliding folding doors.



Construction on the current church building began in May 1875, being completed on June 2nd 1876. The first stone for the church hall was laid on 25th November 1914, again by Richard Johnson Chief Engineer.

Located about 0.4 mi from the station,

Building Project
In March 2008, construction on a link building began, which planned to build a new welcome area, new toilets and a new kitchen. In addition, it would physically link the two buildings, something not previously done. A time capsule was laid above the doorway leading from the welcome area into the church hall, and included service plans, programmes and a single memory stick containing information on the building project. This building was officially opened by Songs of Praise presenter Pam Rhodes on September 6th 2008. Further building work was completed in the church hall, where the old kitchen was removed, allowing for expansion of the main downstairs rooms.

Very little work has been undertaken within the main church building. All windows have a second pane of glass to improve the energy efficiency.

During 2016, the pulpit was removed from its traditional place on the right hand side. In this space, a platform has been erected to the height of the stage to provide the band with a permanent set-up space. A number of church pews at the rear of the church have also been removed to accommodate for the PA system.

Ministers
The present minister of WRBC is the Reverend Andrew Henton Pusey, who became the second longest preacher in the church's history during 2016. He became the new minister in 2002 following numerous lay preachers during a period of ministerial transition following the departure of Revd Ian Green.

Projects and community
The church is well known locally for several projects over the years; just one is the Christmas Shoebox project. Introduced by the church 15 years ago, the Shoebox project involves schools, churches, groups and individuals from across the town and beyond. Unlike most Christmas Shoebox donations which are delivered to charities, the church has a team of volunteers open and sort every donated shoebox to ensure each item on the checklist is included and add if not, to bulk up any boxes where necessary, and to remove any banned items. Once sorted, the boxes are individually wrapped, then cartoned up in 6 to 10, after which the cartons are delivered direct to Link to Hope HQ ready to go onto palettes - removing hundreds of hours of work for the charity. Having completed 10 years collecting shoeboxes for Smile International, the church found a new partner in Link to Hope when Smile suddenly announced they were discontinuing the project. In the five years since, several church members have gone on the distribution trip to Eastern Europe and the church continues to collect around 1000 shoeboxes each year.

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