The following is an extract from Kirdford Chapel A Centenary Celebration 1892 – 1992, by Jane Terry.
“Life in the village of Kirdford in Sussex at the end of the last century, when Queen Victoria was ruler of the British Empire, was very different from today. The roads were rough, often only green lanes, and traveling by pony and trap or walking to even the neighboring villages took time. The villagers would walk to Petworth, and Stemp, the village carrier, took two days to go to Guildford and back. In 1892, a thrice-weekly omnibus service to Billingshurst railway was due to begin, which would be a great boon to the inhabitants, according to a report in the local paper.
The difference in the standard of living between the rich and the poor was vast. In 1888, a young lady companion from Wiltshire, who was staying with the Fell family of Parsonage Farm, noted in her diary: “Wrote to mother and they kindly told me to send them two beautiful nectarines each, which we packed in leaves and wool.”
While in 1892, the West Sussex Times recorded the sudden death of a 40-year-old Kirdford woman whose condition had been accelerated by want and exposure. She had neither enough clothing nor enough food to eat. Her husband said that he earned 10s a week, out of which he paid 1s 6d a week rent, and that sometimes he took part of his wages in flour. He said his wife preferred to live as they did rather than go to the workhouse.
Although the village had a full range of traders, the majority of the men were agricultural laborers. Many of those living around Pound Common worked in the woods in winter and as hired help on the farms in summer. This gave them a certain amount of independence as they were not living in cottages tied to the job, but their incomes still depended very much on their own health, the weather, and the ability and willingness of the local farmers to pay them. Agriculture in England had been in a state of depression since the 1870s.
Even for those not on the breadline, life was difficult. Sanitation was poor with a privy at the end of the garden, and the bath, a tub in front of the fire. Water was drawn from the well. Some dwellings had pumps which made the task only slightly easier. Wash day was a major performance. The copper had to be lit so that the clothes could be boiled, and flat irons heated on the kitchen range.
Farming, too, was labour intensive. Mowing and threshing machines were in use, but there were still no reapers and binders in the village. Sickles and scythes were used in harvesting, and it would take a man a long day to cut about half an acre. The cows were milked in the byre by hand and the milk cooled in the dairy some distance away. Life was hard, and for some, almost without hope.
It was against this background in 1888, that Mr Ayling of Wisborough Green and Mr Stanford of Coolham, a village beyond Billingshurst, started open air religious meetings on Pound Common at the far end of the village. With the onset of winter the worshippers agreed to join with the Brethren who met for worship on Sunday evenings in the Club Room of the Foresters Arms. The Rev E Lee, the Congregational Minister of Billingshurst, helped with these services, along with others from Billingshurst who formed a choir with the local people.
The following summer there was a disagreement, and the Brethren and Congregationalists separated. Mr William Snelling took charge of the Congregationalists and held meetings in the cottage next to his. One of the first things he did, was to purchase an organ. Alas no one could play it, so while his sister was learning to master the instrument, the singing was unaccompanied. An old basket woman who lived next door did not like what was going on, and so she would sit on her stairs and play her Jews harp while the services were in progress. However this did not stop the worshippers. It was not long before the downstairs room was overcrowded with them. William Snelling then took out the floor of one bedroom and shored up the floor of the other with poles to form a gallery. This arrangement lasted for three years.
In 1892 Mr E Lee, the Minister of Billingshurst, contacted the Rev Jesse Tustin of Burstow Hall, near Horley in Surrey, about the plight of the worshippers of Kirdford. Jesse Tustin agreed to buy the land, and if the chapel was built within six weeks, he said he would pay for that as well.
The challenge was accepted. The chapel was built and the opening ceremony of the Tustin Memorial Chapel was performed by the Rev Tustin on 6th October, 1892. The ceremony was unusual in that the foundation stone was laid at the same time. Mr Tustin was about 80 years old and not in the best of health. He would have found travelling difficult, especially to have made the journey twice in so short a time. A hole was left in the wall for the stone to be put in place on the opening day. The folk in Kirdford managed to raise £30 themselves, a large sum in those days, towards the cost.
The text at the opening was James 4, verse 14.
1892 Conveyance
Transcript: “This Indenture made the thirty-first day of December one thousand eight hundred and ninety-two Between Robert Knowles of Loxwood in the County of Sussex Gentleman of the one part, and George Ayling of Wisborough Green in the said County, Builder, James Balchin of Wisborough Green aforesaid, Carpenter and Joiner, William Green of New Bridge Road, Billingshurst in the said County, Sawyer, The Reverend Edward Lee of Crawley in the said County, Congregational Minister, William Pullen of Kirdford in the said County, Hackney Carriage Proprietor, Middleton Remnant of White House, Dunsfold in the County of Surrey, Farmer, William John Snelling of Pound Common, Kirdford aforesaid, Farmer, Richard Williams Of lower Station Road Billingshurst a four said plate layer and Robert Wilson of whisperer Green a four said insurance agent all of whom are hereafter collectively called the said trustees of the other part whereas by an indenture dated the 14th day of May 1,868 and in rolled in Chancery on the 30th day of that month and made between James Edmond Hazelwood of the first part and the Reverend Joseph Charles Lloyd Harris and 11 others of the second part a certain piece of land situate in the parish of Billingshurst in the county of Sussex…”
The Early Years
There was opposition by some of the gentry and farmers to the chapel. They did not like their employees attending. In fact the late Mrs Nineham told me that when her father worked for the Barwells at Barkfold, he had to attend the parish church each Sunday. If he had not gone, he could have lost his job on the Monday. So it was very difficult for some folk to attend.
Mr William Snelling was appointed as the first Superintendent of the Kirdford Chapel, a task he undertook with his wife until his death in 1922. They had two sons, Bill and Ron, who took over from his father in the chapel. Ron, who was born in 1888, often told how as a four year old he played in the mortar as they built the chapel…”