Church to celebrate remarkable journey

On Sunday October 9, Upper Beeding Baptist Church will celebrate 100 years of Baptist worship in the village.

One hundred years ago, almost to the day, a farming family brought their entire farm up from the West Country, using a special train. They then settled at Beeding Court Farm and began a Sunday School in their kitchen which eventually led to a corrugated iron hall being built in Church Lane in 1913 and the present church in 1966.

Church members, accompanied by descendants of the original family, will be re-enacting the arrival of the farming family by dressing in costume and walking from Bramber roundabout to the Baptist Church in Beeding.

The event will begin at 11am. All are welcome to line the village street of Bramber and Beeding as the procession goes by.

It's a tale which has been thoroughly researched by church member, Odre Lush, who takes up the story '“ a story which began with a train.

"This train left Crewkerne in Somerset on the October 10 1905, carrying the Cross family and their entire farm to a new home in Sussex. The family consisted of Mr and Mrs Cross and their six sons and four daughters.

"With them were some of their farm workers, all their livestock, the farm implements, plus the farmhouse furniture, complete with all their other possessions.

Full story in West Sussex Gazette, October 6