Thatcham Baptist Church marks first 25 years

The church in Wheelers Green Way was officially opened on Saturday, April 11, 1987, and its anniversary celebrations will take place on Easter Sunday, April 8, from 10.30am.
An Easter service, a shared lunch, a trip down memory lane and a performance from youth band Limelight will all take place.
The current minister at the church, David Taylor, said that the event had been organised to recognise the work of those who set up the church, to celebrate the anniversary and to give new people the chance to have a look inside the building.
He said: “This is something that’s really worth celebrating.It was a lot of effort by a small number of committed people.
“You take it for granted that things are there in the community.”
The church was almost never built after members spent about five years fighting for planning permission to get it built.
The developers, Rockhold, that said it would give up a piece of land for the church development if it was compensated with some open space for housing.
In May 1984 Thatcham Town Council rejected this idea, saying that there was already not enough recreational space in the town and that it would set a precedent.
However, the proposal was taken forward to the district council later the same year, and the district council’s western area planning sub-committee pushed the plans through saying the church could be used by the local community during the week.
Thatcham man Alastair Watson, who was the architect for the building, said that planning permission was granted but with the condition that it was built within two years.
In addition, the church members had to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds to build it.
Mr Watson said: “The difficulty was that, being a Baptist church, there was no central funding.
“The money was being raised by congregation.
“The brief to me was that it had to be a simple building, not threatening and ‘user friendly’.”
Seven years ago, the building was extended, again by Mr Watson, meaning that disabled users could access all areas of the church.
Mr Watson added: “I feel the building has been a success because it’s used every day of the week by the church itself and community groups.
“It was built to serve the community and that’s what it’s being used for.”
Anyone is welcome to attend the church’s anniversary celebrations.