Ashburnham Chapel

Life has been very busy in our little Chapel for the last few weeks.  It all started with preparations for our Harvest Festival celebrations.  You can see some photos on our ‘News’ page.  We spent most of the Saturday doing flower arrangements and fruit and vegetable arrangements, the previous day was spent moving furniture around to accommodate round tables for our guests to sit around and eat their tea.  Which we had been madly cooking cakes for in the week before.  Then on the Sunday morning sausage rolls, cheese straws and sandwiches of various kinds were all prepared.  Again you can see a photograph of the ‘goodies’ that we all enjoyed. 

The week before we joined a Harvest Festival Service in Hazel Lodge Care Home which recently opened in Battle, a town near the Chapel.  I took along my portable piano and we sang all the well known harvest hymns. 

Many of our Congregation also belong to St. Peter’s Church in Ashburnham where we go in the mornings.  (The Chapel has only ever had a service in the evenings – more about that in a minute) 

St. Peter’s had their Harvest Festival the week after us so we were able to take our corn sheaves and some other bits along to help with their decorations.  The day before was taken up decorating St. Peter’s and then we all joined together for a Harvest Supper in the Village Hall. £200+ was donated to three local charities. 

Oh, and Penhurst Church had promised that first the Chapel and then St. Peter’s could have a beautiful loaf of bread which one of their congregation had baked for their Harvest Service. 

Unfortunately, before the beautifully baked loaf could be brought to the Chapel some mice discovered it sitting on the alter and had a wonderful feast and bread and corn ears.  The St. Peter’s congregations’ Offering of £301 was sent to Tearfund for their work in Sudan.  I know that because I am the Treasurer of St. Peter’s Church. 

As promised, I will explain why the Chapel only has an evening Service……..Many years ago sometime around 1866 two men whose names were Mr. Whitlock and Mr. Watford came out to Ashburnham from Hastings by horse and cart and started holding an evening service in a barn.  It was held in the evening because most of the people that lived in Ashburnham were employed by the Ashburnham’s, a family of notability who owned miles and miles of land in the area.  (They once sheltered Charles I when he was fleeing for his life.) 

The farmhands and servants of Lord and Lady Ashburnham didn’t finish work until well after dark in the winter months but enjoyed joining together in the barn to sing worship songs and hear more about the bible.  Rumour also has it that the ‘workers’ felt more comfortable in a barn than the church.  However, after several years Lord Ashburnham had a proper chapel built for them to worship in on the outskirts of the village.  Then in about 1964 the Chapel were offered our present building which is more in the center of the village and near the village pub! 

The original chapel was Congregational, then it became United Reformed and 13 years ago we became non-denominational which of course is why we have people from the Church of England, Baptists, Methodists, Congregationalists and other denominations all worshiping together under the chapel roof.