History
Roomfield Baptist church began at Rodwell End on the hills overlooking the road to Halifax. Thie was the first home for the congregation that was to form the basis of the first Baptist church in Todmorden. The original chapel there was built in 1703, having been founded by Baptists from Rossendale at the same time that their sister chapel at Slack was founded..They became fully independent by 1717. As in the latter part of the C18th the population began to shift towards the valley, the work declined and the chapel was dissolved in 1782.
In 1807 Rodwell End was purchased by the Weslyans and the Baptists built their new chapel at Millwood. They continued to worship and top flourish here until the 1870’s by which time the congregation had outgrown the chapel. This building is now Leah’s Animal Feed shop. The original name of ‘Rehoboth’ can still be faintly seen engraved into the headstone over the old front entrance door.
In 1877 the new Church was opened on the present site and also called ‘Rehoboth’ (A Hebrew word meaning ‘The Lord has made room for us’) However we have always been better known as ‘Roomfield Baptist Church,’ after the area in which we are situated. Thie old Pennine chapel that was built could seat almost 1000 people and had a Sunday School annex of two large halls and eight smaller classrooms. This huge building served the church until the 1950’s when it was demolished and the present building was put up.
Roomfield was substantially modernised and improved after flood damage in 2001 and so we now enjoy a warm, comfortable and thoroughly modern chapel building, well equipped and adaptable for the changing needs of worship and Christian activities in the 21st century.
In the Autumn of 2008 we completed our last phase of improvements that provided us with new ‘Enabled access’ toilets, a small Coffee / Craft area and an enlarged kitchen, together with an upgraded electrical and audio/visual provision to facilitate both our regular Sunday worship and our work in the surrounding community. A dropped ceiling also complements the ‘look’ of the worship area as well as adding to our ‘green’ factor by better insulation. We have been making good use of these new facilities with our Thursday Lunch Club where a number of regular clients enjoy a home cooked 2 course meal and a friendly afternoon out.