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It was on 4 September 1866 that
Sittingbourne Baptist Church was born, when, in the presence of
eleven witnesses, the thirteen founder members covenanted
together in the house of George Hambrook Dean ( 1834-1924), who
was its first deacon.
This house, “Whitehall”, Bell Road, Sittingbourne, now used as
offices, still stands. After meeting for worship in the old
Latimer Chapel, the Butts, and also in the Corn Exchange which
later became the Town hall in the High Street (hiring charge £20
per annum), our present church site was purchased for £300 and a
building erected for £1700. It’s memorial stone was laid on 13
May 1867 by Pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
 The
first minister, a student from Spurgeon’s College, the Rev’d
Robert Makin was pastor from 1868 to 1875 when he moved to
Bideford, North Devon, where he died of typhoid fever in 1882 at
the age of 42.Two short ministries followed, one of twelve
months and the other of three years, when another student from
the college, the Rev’d John Doubleday came in 1881 and exercised
a ministry lasting 40 years.
Early in 1900, Mr Doubleday collapsed and subsequently suffered
from “nerve storms of a very alarming nature”. This illness
persisted for four years. During 1900 he was not able to work at
all, and from 1901-1902 a student, Ernest Joseph Debnam, left
Spurgeon’s College for a year to become Assistant Pastor. In
1903 a Deaconess, Sister Maud engaged in the pastoral work and
during 1904 Doubleday resumed his duties. Through the kindness
of the church in sustaining Mr Doubleday, his ministry was able
to continue and membership numbers remained high, rising to
their highest figure of 397 in 1908.
Under that long ministry, the church statistics reached their
zenith in the first decade of the 20th century, and included
amongst its members Messrs G H Dean, Daniel Wills and Henry
Packham, who between them employed most of the available labour
in Sittingbourne and Milton Regis.
There was still a £600 debt on the original church building,
when in November 1883 it was decided to build an extension at
the rear of the church to provide on the ground floor an
“Institute” or large schoolroom with cubicles for Sunday school
classes above. This cost £700 and both debts, totalling £1300,
were cleared by the time the Sunday school was opened on 6 March
1884.
By 1887, the congregations had outgrown the church building;
people were sitting in the aisles and even on the pulpit steps.
Accordingly, the church services were held in the Town Hall
while the original 1867 building was enlarged. A new front wall
was in what John Newman in Pevsner’s “The Buildings of England”
(Penguin, 2nd edition, 1976) scathingly refers to as “a wretched
round-arched style”, some eight feet in front of the previous
one with its memorial stone. This and the internal work, which
included galleries with circular windows above, staircases, a
roof lantern, gas lighting, extra ventilation and the old
pulpit, were all built within six months at a cost of £1240, and
the building opened free of debt. The architect was William
Leonard Grant, whose practice was in Sittingbourne High Street.
In the mid 1890’s, the Sunday School had 800 scholars and to
accommodate them, a further extension became necessary, so in
1896 the Manse on the west side of the church was demolished,
and a new building erected abutting the whole length of the 1887
church. This contained classrooms and a Minister’s vestry and
was opened 13 January 1897 free of debt, having cost £1,760.
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