Barton Evangelical Church

Our History

From 1975, there was a small group of Christrians in Barton meeting for prayer and Bible study, from various established churches in the town and the surrounding villages. They felt burdened that they needed to share together and pray together and read God's Word and encourage one another.

In June 1977 they constituted themselves as a church - it had 12 members, including Mike & Elaine, pictured here.They are the only founder members who have remained in the church to the present day. Barry Shucksmith was appointed as the first pastor and Mike became one of the Elders.

In 1978 they bought the present building for £4000 and started building regulation changes and alterations - which still go on today! The building goes back to the 1800's and the history of the site can be traced back to the 900's! These buildings were previously public houses and inns, bedsit accommodation and finally a plumber's workshop. It took a lot of renovation work even before the first meeting could be held there in 1980.

The above photograps are just a few from a set of re-discovered slides. We hope to publish more in a new Gallery section of the site in due course.

By 1982 the pastor, had moved on to Liverpool and Mike remembers "I preached on the fifth anniversary in 1982 on ‘weary in welldoing’. We had no pastor, the building was a ruin, we had no money and there were very few of us, but we thank God we can look back on those days and see how He has sustained us by his grace and through that so many have come to know the Lord Jesus within these very four walls; so many have been baptised; so many are serving the Lord around this world and we thank God for that."

In 1989, the present pastor, Gareth James, was called to minister at the church.

... and the renovation work continues.