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Doncaster Baptist Church History

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DONCASTER:
Doncaster Baptist Church History up to 1912.

Source=h:/!Genuki/RecordTranscriptions/WRY/BaptistChurches.txt

DONCASTER BAPTIST CHURCH

The Doncaster Church of to-day originated in 1885, when a small company of Baptists established a mission by holding services in a hired hall. It is not the first Baptist effort in the town, for there had been an earlier chapel which is still standing in Spring Gardens. This having become dilapidated, the Church appears to have been divided in feeling concerning its future, with the result that it was disbanded in 1871. The only information obtainable relating to the old chapel, is that the trustees sold the furnishings, and there appears to be some doubt as to present ownership.

The new cause made slow progress until, in 1890, Rev. J. F. Porteous-who had just left College-accepted the call of the little remnant and formed a Church of twelve members. Success quickly followed his coming, and in 1893 a site was purchased, upon which a school-chapel was built. Mr. Porteous removed to Huddersfield in 1899; he left a Church which had increased to 176 members and was unencumbered by debt. Rev. A. C. Carter succeeded him (1900-08), and by the help of the "Twentieth Century Fund" and the Association, the present chapel was opened in 1906, providing sittings for 630 worshippers and costing 3500. At the present time Rev. H. Rolfe sustains the pastorate, and Doncaster is attracting the attention of the denomination as being at the centre of the new South Yorkshire coalfield.


Transcribed by Colin Hinson © 2014
from the "Present Churches" section of
The Baptists of Yorkshire
by Rev. J. Brown Morgan
and Rev. C.E. Shipley