Tuesday December 16 1777
I paid a short visit to Bristol; preached in the evening and morning following, Wednesday 17 ... Just
at this time there was a combination among many of the post-chaise drivers on the Bath road,
especially those that drove at night, to deliver their passengers into each other's hands. One driver
stopped at the spot they had appointed, where another waited to attack the chaise. In consequence
of this, many were robbed; but I had a good protector still. I have travelled all roads, by day and by
night, for these forty years, and never was interrupted yet.
Whitfield and Wesley remained ordained ministers of the Church of England, but they offended by
preaching in the parish of Bitton although several miles from Bitton Church. The Bishops
eventually closed the Bristol pulpits to them. Church or no church, wrote John Wesley to his brother
Charles, we must attend to the saving of souls.
Hanham Mount, with its pulpit and beacon, is a well-known landmark and a lasting memorial to the
early field preachers. Looking over the extensive panorama of Somerset, the Avon Valley and
Hanham woods, John Wesley's words: “I look upon all the world as my parish” echo the voices of
the Baptist preachers of 1658.
In the early years the Baptist congregation in Pithay was closely associated with the congregation in
Hanham and Keynsham, and provided preachers who travelled out over the appalling roads to
preach on Sundays. In 1802 the Rev John Sharpe was inducted as Pastor of Pithay and it is recorded
that his labours were remarkably successful especially in the country at Hanham and Keynsham.
[The Keynsham Baptists, similarly persecuted, had met in each other's homes until 1784, when they
purchased a barn off Danes Lane, now Charlton Road. The present site in Keynsham High Street,
was purchased in 1802.] This is endorsed by another report which states that upon the opening of
the enlarged building at Hanham, he [John Sharpe] exerted himself much in obtaining subscriptions
for defraying the expense of the building and the whole was soon paid.
Mr Sharpe died in 1805 and, after an interregnum of two years, Mr Roberts from Brixham agreed to
come but only on the understanding that he would not be responsible for Hanham and Keynsham.
The outcome was that in 1807 the Hanham and Keynsham churches became independent,
subsequently appointing a joint pastor but their own deacons. On 28th October 1807, Mr John
Hutchings was appointed Pastor and it was agreed with him that he should be paid a minimum of
£60 per annum and that ‘some one or other of the members of the church should provide him with a
horse and cart to convey him from Keynsham to Hanham on every Lord"s Day to preach in the
afternoon’. Mr Hutchings resigned on 13 th February 1813. His letter of resignation was, in effect, a
carbon copy of the earlier situation at The Pithay. The Hanham Church was almost as far distant
from Keynsham as the two churches were from Pithay, and the exertions of looking after both
churches was having an adverse effect on his health.
In 1814 the Rev Thomas Ayres became joint pastor of the two churches, remaining at Keynsham for
thirty-eight years, until early 1852.
Both churches had crises along the way. In 1817 at Hanham, their only remaining deacon became
incapable because of old age. The other two deacons, John Britton and John Jarrett, had been
excluded in 1811 for non-attendance. Three brethren were elected to fill the vacancies created,
namely Job Fudge, Daniel Short and John Ody. Fudge was later excluded for selling beer on the
Sabbath and Short for non-attendance. Ody lived long enough to be transferred to the newly formed
Hanham Church in 1850. The story at Keynsham was little better for Brother Wise was requested to
resign as a deacon because he was disrespectable and misrepresented Brother Edwards, a fellow
deacon. However, the two churches survived these difficulties, but during the mid 1840s the health