Ricky Hart saved some of this organ and the Cornopean was implemented into his instrument.

History

Baptists in Folkestone first gathered in the house of John Stace, who owned the windmill in what was then the village of Foord, in 1720.

It was John Stace who gave a piece of land in Mill Bay on which the first chapel was built in 1730. Up until 1750 the Folkestone church was a branch of the church in Canterbury, in that year it was granted ‘dismission’ and became a separate entity.

On May 22 1845, the foundation stone of the first Baptist chapel, on this site was laid. The new building was called Salem Chapel and was funded largely by a loan given by the Folkestone MP, Mr SM Peto. The foundation stone of this building was laid on August 4 1874.

More than a century later, in 1987, Baptist worship here came to an end when the building was sold and is now a Weatherspoon’s pub. The Baptist Church that once worshipped in this building now worships in a new building in Hill Road, which it first occupied on Christmas Eve 1989.