BAPTISMAL FONT

Baptism

The entry into the body of christ was the ritual of baptism, total immersion in the running waters of their homeland which washed away sins and gifted them the keys to heaven.

In early days a stream would be dammed for a few days and the hollow filled to create a baptismal pool. The congregation would gather on a hillside to watch.

Females wore dresses from ‘shalloon’ a lightweight but tightly woven wool fabric when they were being baptised.

Baptistries built into chapels and sometime fed by a spring in the floor as is the case at Wainsgate.

The minister has his hand at the back of the baptism candidate to support them as they lean back to dip their head back under the water three times.

The Congregation would speak up at this point.

Dan Taylor was born to poor parents in Northoweram in 1738. At the age of three he could read well , and at five had to join his father working in a coal pit. At 14 he was preaching for the Wesyleyans in Halifax, but after religious arguments, became a Baptist. In 1763, he preached to a congregation of four people gathered under a tree in Nook, Wadsworth. This was the first Birchcliffe congregation. (P14 A Hundred Chaps Binns)