This flower arrangement used as prop some blue and white china from the Baptist Chapel and a piece of slate to represent the roofs of the Baptist Chapel and the Old Methodist Chapel.   

Courtesy of Tony Stokes

Quakers in Bardwell

Thomas Turpin, in his will of 1723, bequeathed 'the meeting house and burying ground to my friends called Quakers for the worship of Almighty God for ever, to be settled by a foeffment' The wording of this implies that the meeting house and burial ground were already established by this time. Thomas Turpin was a well-respected member of the community, who lived in the house now known as The Old Farmhouse. It was upon his land that the Meeting House was constructed, and it is from this that Quaker Lane takes its name.

The Quakers were holding their meetings in Bardwell from 1701, with Thomas Turpin as the main supporter. Before 1788, however, the meetings had gone into Bury, where a new Meeting House had been built about 1750, although weekly night meetings were still held at Bardwell. In April 1841, however, it was decided to discontinue meeting, as only one member was left, and in 1842 the Meeting House was let out as a schoolroom at a rental of £3 per annum. The Society of Friends, who continued to own the building, applied the conditions that the doctrines of the Church of England were not to be enforced on the children of dissenting parents, and that the burial ground was not to be used as a playground.

The Quaker Meeting House

Location:   Quaker Lane, on the site of the Primitive Methodist Chapel.

Description:   None available; however, it would seem to have been built in the early part of the eighteenth century, and was probably of red-brick, as it is said that the Methodist Chapel was built using some of the bricks. There was also a burial ground attached to it.

Methodists

Wesleyans

In 1835 a barn belonging to John Jeffes of Diss, and in the occupation of John Bobby, was certified for the Wesleyans to worship there. This was at Place Farm. It was probably fitted out to be used as a permanent meeting house, but by 1874 it had fallen out of use.

Primitive Methodists

In 1882 the Old Quaker Meeting House building was taken over by the Primitive Methodists, and rebuilt as their chapel in 1894. They had had adherents in the village since at least 1843, when a house in the occupation of John Stevens was certified for worship. The Chapel closed in 1974 and is now a private residence.

Baptists

In 1822, Thomas Bullock, a cooper by trade, had his house in Bardwell certified for worship.

The Baptist Chapel

Courtesy of Tony Stokes

Located in Low Street. Grade II.

Built 1824 a cost of £500 and certified for worship. The first Minister we can trace as living in the house next to the Chapel is Robert Hervey in 1841. He lived in the two bedroom cottage with his wife and five children with an age range between 15 and 2.

Ten years later the minister was Charles S Smith, he died in 1882 age 82. He was probably the Minister for many years but he did not live in the house but in Ixworth High Street. In 1871 he had moved to Earl Stonham but Ixworth must have been his family home as he returned there on retirement and was buried in the Bardwell Chapel graveyard with both his wives.  The next minister in Bardwell was the Rev Alfred Davidson followed by William Glasgow both lived in the house. The Rev George F Wall was the next Minister to live in the house; he died whilst on holiday in Gloucestershire in 1916 age 63 years. He had been the Baptist Minister in Bardwell for 33 years and was greatly missed, having been held in great esteem by all who knew him including Cannon Warren.

The Baptist Union sold the house in about 1969 when it needed a great deal of attention and was no longer considered to be habitable.

Services continued in the Chapel throughout the years with visiting Ministers and lay preachers; in the 1980’s there was a thriving Sunday school. The numbers in the congregation dwindled to a handful and finally the Chapel closed for services in Dec 2003.