Castle Hill Baptist Church

About

Castle Hill Baptist Church in the town of Warwick in Warwickshire, England, is one of the oldest Baptist churches in the world. It was founded in the 17th century when non-conformist churches were undergoing persecution in England, although Castle Hill itself escaped much persecution due to the protection offered by Lord Brooke of Warwick Castle. Due to the threat of persecution the church at first met in private houses.

In 1655 the Midland Baptist Association (now termed the Heart of England Baptist Association) was founded at a meeting hosted by Castle Hill and attended by six other Baptist churches in the Midlands. In 1685 the church began meeting at its current site. It had been given a garden plot to act as a cemetery due to restrictions on non-Anglican burials in the graveyards of parish churches.

For the next 15 years the church continued to meet in a house on the plot. However in 1700 the first purpose-built church building was constructed on the site. Other key developments of this period in the church's history include earliest date from which continuous church records exist (1697) and the introduction of hymn singing to the church around 1710.

The first church building only...