Historian Martyn Taylor explains the history behind Bury St Edmunds’ green Railway Mission Hall

Thousands of people were employed at one time on the railways and working on a Sunday precluded some of them from attending a church service, so, in 1895, local railwaymen approached Mrs Arthur Ridley, a widow of Hexham House, Northgate Street, about starting a Railway Mission in Bury St Edmunds.

Mrs Ridley attended the Congregational Chapel in Northgate Street, on the corner of Looms Lane, and agreed to run services for the workers in a room in the Station Master's house at the Northgate railway station from 1895. However, it soon became clear that a new place of worship was required and consequently a fund was opened for this.

Obviously, any facility had to be close to the station. A site was chosen in what was then Northgate Road and by 1900 sufficient monies had been accrued to proceed with the building of the Mission Hall.

A decision was made to dispense with a brick building to save time and money and a pre-fabricated corrugated iron structure, with two-light windows in a gothic design and small triangular dormers in both roof slopes, was purchased in 1900 from Norwich firm Boulton and Paul, one of several companies nationwide then offering this type of what is known today as ‘tin tabernacles’. W Hartrow, a contractor from London, was employed for the build and the total cost, including fitting out, was just over £317, a bargain.

Sunday services soon commenced and a range of activities involving various groups were soon under way. Due to its popularity these services were extended, as was the building, during 1903 with Mrs Ridley very much at the helm until she retired in 1916.

Always welcoming, during World War Two even German POWs encamped at Fornham sang at the Mission Hall as a choir.

In 1990 the Mission Hall was re-named Fornham Road Free Church and at this time still retained its original open benches and raised pulpit.

In 2001 it was purchased for £35,000 by the Seventh Day Adventists and refurbished, the work completed by May 2005, the Bury Society giving a substantial grant. With a new coat of green paint on the exterior but no longer with its original turret, this former Mission Hall is now Grade II-listed.

-- Martyn Taylor is a local historian, author and Bury Tour Guide. His latest book, Going Underground: Bury St Edmunds, is widely available.