THE MISSION HALL

The Mission Hall was built some 70 years or more ago by Henry Waldren, who then owned and occupied Hill Farm House; there was a cart-shed where the hall now stands. Almost opposite the Mission Hall, in the garden of the house now occupied by Mr F. Vale, was a building known as the Tabernacle, which had fallen into disrepair and the Tabernacle Sunday School and Services were transferred to the Mission Hall. There were regular preachers for the Sunday Services, supplied chiefly from Brandon, though of what denomination I do not know. Mr Waldren buried his father, his wife and his little daughter in the garden of Hill Farm House; there are no headstones to mark the place but they are buried under the south wall of the Wesleyan Chapel below the window at the west end of the building. Inside the Chapel, in the south-west corner, lies buried Mr. A. Whiteman, a former owner of Hill Farm House, who died in March, 1826, as the result of an accident when riding, he being thrown from his house. The late Mr H. Addison, in a letter to the Press in 1921, gives the interesting information that Mr. Whiteman was the first to introduce the Gospel as preached by the Methodists, into Feltwell. Mr Addison also says: "I am informed that the chapel was acquired in 1821"; which leads one to suppose that it was not originally built as a place of worship.

Mr Waldren married again and later on, with his wife and a Mr. Goodson, a local preacher of Brandon, migrated to Australia, where he eventually died. Mr. Goodson, who was a bankrupt at the time of migrating, returned to England ten years later, paid his debts in full and went back to Australia. Mr. Waldren was known in the parish as "Schemer" Waldren, from his aptness in scheming and making things.

Please note that the correct spelling is Walden. ARVD got it wrong.

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