Earl Soham Baptist Church - who are we?
Mary Kingham
Mary Kingham knows more about the history of our church than anyone, which is not surprising since she has lived in Saxtead and Earl Soham for most of her life. Her mother also came to the church here for all her life and her father was a Methodist local preacher but came to Earl Soham when not preaching elsewhere. Mary was transported each week from Saxtead, where she was born and raised, to Earl Soham on the back of a bicycle when very small. She was dedicated as a baby here (Baptists have a dedication service instead of Christening or Infant Baptism, with similar vows by parents and congregation and sometimes with godparents). After going through Sunday School her friends talked to her and she decided she had to be baptised, then aged 15. In those days the water for the baptistry (and there’s a lot of it—baptism is by full immersion) had to be fetched in buckets from the first cottage in Low Road!
Mary with Tommy the
cockatiel in her lounge
Her schooling was first at Saxtead, then two years at the old Area School in Framlingham (now Sir Robert Hitcham primary) and two more at the new Modern School when it opened, where she especially liked the new young teachers.
Leaving school at 14, she worked for Dr Allen in Framlingham as House Parlour maid. She would come to church on alternate Sundays: first Sunday School, then an afternoon service followed by an evening service. The young people would often cycle to a friend’s house for lunch between services, but cycling on a Sunday was frowned upon by some - as was playing ball, playing cards or buying ice creams, not to mention cooking hot food. Sometimes her Granny would give her a penny to buy an ice cream, however, and her Dad was furious.
When she was 17, Dr Allen went to serve in the war and she had to leave, so she worked in a munitions factory in Bedford, living with an aunt. However she became ill and returned to Suffolk. Then at 19 she registered for war work and worked in a NAAFI canteen, but later moved to cooking in a hospital at Colchester where she met Roy, whom she married in 1947. Guess where they married – at Earl Soham Baptist Church, of course!
Mary and Roy initially lived with his parents in Basingstoke, where his father was a sidesman at the parish church. They found that church too high in style so decided to go to the Baptist Church in Basingstoke. For three years they could not get a house of their own, so they returned to Suffolk and stayed with Mary’s parents for another year, during which Roy was also baptised at Earl Soham, much to Mary’s surprise because Roy was scared of water! Finally they moved to a cottage in Low Road and acted as caretakers and cleaners for the church, a duty which included lighting fires for heating. Fortunately electricity had arrived by then, so they did not have to tend the oil lamps! Mains drainage hadn’t, however, and because the building sometimes flooded (the last time may have been 1904) an extra floor was built in about 1969 to separate the top part where we now hold services. That made Roy and Mary’s job easier.
Her fondest memories of the church are the Harvest Festival teas, much better than meals at home, a church meal every Good Friday, and Sunday School Anniversaries which were full of visitors (the stable room would be full of bicycles) and children with new dresses. The Sunday School also had a rally every year when they would go by bus to another local church, and an outing once a year to the sea, which was the only time Mary got to visit the seaside and have a swim. The least favourite memory is of the long services, particularly those of one preacher who used to say, “and finally…” several times in his sermons!
Now with four children and five grandchildren, she is on her own at Brookside after Roy died 11 years ago. Using a wheelchair for the last 12 years, she found the parish church more accessible because it has no stairs, so we haven’t seen her much at the Baptist Church. Now that we have a stairlift she hopes to come back when she can. She was a regular attender at Rev Clare Sanders’ bible study group once a month and continues to go to Home Communion. In Earl Soham Mary has been involved with Mothers Union and was our representative on the Village Hall committee for a time.
So many things have changed at ESBC since Mary first started coming. She has seen many ministers come and go, not to mention congregation members. Now we have just one service on a Sunday at 10.30, and we no longer frown on cycling on a Sunday, so why not cycle along?