Template:Did you know nominations/Wellington Square Baptist Church, Hastings

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Theleekycauldron (talk) 12:02, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

Wellington Square Baptist Church, Hastings

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Wellington Square Baptist Church in June 2020

... that a London shipbuilder founded Wellington Square Baptist Church (pictured) in Hastings out of gratitude for his daughter's health improving while staying in the seaside town? Source: "Birth and Growth of the Baptist Chapel", in the Hastings and St Leonards Observer (3 September 1881), available via the British Newspaper Archive (subscription only) here. Quote: "In the year 1836 ... a wealthy shipbuilder, named Fletcher, brought a favourite daughter down to Hastings much out of health. The child recovered whilst in Hastings ... in gratitude for this great mercy, and perceiving, as he thought, a necessity for what they called a Baptist church, he went ... amongst this little band of people [who were meeting in a hired room] ... hiring for them the Assembly Room at the Swan Hotel ... and undertook to send down a minister and pay for his services, in order that they might at once commence a building fund ... a committee was formed for the erection of the present church, and in 1838, in the month of May, the place was opened."
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/New Haven and Northampton Railroad
- Comment: The first article I have written with the help of the vast resources of the British Newspaper Archive. The article "Pen Portraits of Local Men. The Minister of the Baptist Chapel" (current ref [5]) also supports elements of the hook. The BNA is a subscription-only service, so please ask if further quotes/supporting info are needed.

Moved to mainspace by Hassocks5489 (talk). Self-nominated at 18:52, 4 February 2022 (UTC).

Hi Hassocks5489, review follows: article moved to mainspace on 4 February and exceeds minimum length; article is well written and cited inline throughout to reliable sources for the subject; many sources are subscription only but I found no overly close paraphrasing from the accessible ones, AGF on the others; a QPQ has been carried out. Hook is interesting but I note that neither the article nor source explicitly state that Fletcher founded the church, only that he paid for them to hire rooms and to employ a minister. Though perhaps the latter is what is considered the founding of the church? Can the wording of the article be tightened up a little in this regard, if the sources support it? - Dumelow (talk) 09:05, 6 February 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for reviewing @Dumelow:; fortunately there is another source (Elleray (2004), Sussex Places of Worship, p29, ref [1]) which explicitly states he was the founder, so I have slightly reworded the article and added this ref. As you say, it was the fact that he sorted out premises and a minister, and formally constituted the church as an entity (as opposed to just a group of people meeting informally), which made him the founder. Cheers, Hassocks5489 (Floreat Hova!) 16:27, 6 February 2022 (UTC)

Looks good Hassocks5489, also confirming that the image, which is the nominator's own work, is fine as I forgot to mention it earlier - Dumelow (talk) 16:46, 6 February 2022 (UTC)

To T:DYK/P7 without image