Hitchin had in 1850 become an important railway station
on the Great Northern Railway and housing had been built
near the station following this. The particular Baptist
Church at Tilehouse Street was rather inconvenient for
them and so led by Mr Richard Johnson, the GNR engineer,
a small group in 1867 decided to serve this area by
erecting a temporary church building. Mr Johnson himself,
owning a piece of land in Walsworth Road, was responsible
for putting up the actual mission hall.
This hall was made of wood with a corrugated roof and
filled with open pews was able to seat 200 worshippers.
This hall known as "The Railway Mission" opened for
the public worship of God on Wednesday 9th October 1867.
A Sunday School started soon after and before long had
120 children in attendance regularly. Services were
so well supported that an extension was built in 1868
to provide a schoolroom, vestries and baptistery.
Shortly after, in September 1869, the Mission Hall was
formally registered as a place of Public Worship and
hence became a Church.
By 1875 the congregations were so large that it was
decided to go ahead and build the present church and
this opened for worship on Tuesday 23rd May 1876. Membership
of the Church by now had risen and in 1881 there were
134 members rising to 268 in 1888 after several transferred
from Tilehouse Street in order to support the work at
Walsworth Road.
In 1912 the suggestion was made to replace the old Mission
Hall with a new Sunday School building and this was
formally opened on 15th April 1915. Difficult times
were experienced but new groups started within the Church
and a link with the Scouting movement was made which
is still strong at the present time. Membership had
fallen by the early 1920's but was 126 in 1933.
In 1954 Revd S.M.Stone was inducted as minister and
he was to become our longest service pastor as he served
us until his retirement in 1990. Membership in 1954
stood at 118.
The Church centenary celebrations were held between
October 5th and 14th 1969 and evenings were led by different
groups in the Church including the Sunday School.
The Church at Walsworth Road started its own magazine
for the congregation in 1971 and this continues to be
popular containing as it does a mix of news, forthcoming
events, reports and articles of interest to the congregation.
In 1992 building work was carried out in the Church
to extend the vestibule area at the entrance and this
gave an area suitable for serving tea and coffee after
morning services. This room was named the "Richard Johnson
Room" in honour of our founder and is used regularly
for meetings as well as its function on a Sunday.
Two years after Revd S.M.Stone's retirement, the Church
invited Revd Ian Green from Kettering to serve as the
next minister and he served from September 1992 until
August 1999 when he and his family moved to Malvern
Baptist Church.
The Revd Andrew Henton Pusey was appointed pastor of
the Church in November 2002.
In 2008 major building work was undertaken to extend
the buildings at a cost of £400,000. A new entrance,
toilets and kitchen were built between the existing
buildings to provide facilities suitable for the 21st
century.
Thanks are due to Mr Peter Hankin for permission to
use information from his book "A History of Walsworth
Road Baptist Church Hitchin Hertfordshire 1867-1992".