NONCONFORMITY.
By the 1690s Fordham
had enough dissenters to raise £12 a year to
obtain preaching on Sundays as well as weekdays. (fn. 77) Their families were probably among
those which frequently in that decade, (fn. 78) and
occasionally from the 1730s to the 1770s (fn. 79) provided members for the then Independent chapel
nearby in Isleham. In Fordham itself houses
were registered for worship in 1712 by a tailor
from Bury St. Edmunds (Suff.), in 1731 by a
local yeoman, also a barn on Carter Street in
1770. (fn. 80) The vicar reported in 1806 a few dissenters, then and in 1813 supposedly Baptists,
but quiet and orderly, taught by Robert Fyson,
a local farmer, who had registered a house for
them in 1805, (fn. 81) and whose family was long
prominent in Fordham dissent. (fn. 82) Another house
on Carter Street was registered by a minister
from Bury in 1815 and two different barns were
registered in 1815-16. (fn. 83)
In 1818 a congregation, still small, by 1820
styled Independents, registered a meeting
house, (fn. 84) presumably the Congregational chapel
which still stands east of the north end of Mill
Lane. Of grey brick, it has a plain three-bayed
west front with round-headed windows above a
gabled porch. Inside are original furnishings in
pine with a gallery railed in cast iron. (fn. 85) Probably
completed in 1820, it could seat c. 385 people,
with standing room for over 80 more, in 1851.
A smaller building at the rear then accommodated a vestry and school. The minister, who
held three Sunday services, claimed in 1851 an
average attendance rising in the afternoon and
evening to 170-200, besides up to 120 Sundayschool children, (fn. 86) from a Sunday school started
in 1844 by Philip Smith, promoter of Fordham
British school. (fn. 87) From the 1880s the chapel supported local Temperance societies. (fn. 88) After the
1820s (fn. 89) it had, probably for a century, a regular
series of resident ministers, also dwelling by
1860 on Mill Lane, who occupied as a manse
a house of 1848. The Congregationalists' full
membership gradually declined from 70 in
1905 (fn. 90) to 40-45 in the mid 20th century, when
for a time the chapel was served from Soham,
and below 40 by the 1960s when it was served
with Burwell. (fn. 91) Still maintaining its Sunday
school, along with a youth club, in the 1970s,
when it adhered to the United Reformed
Church, (fn. 92) and still with a minister in the 1980s, (fn. 93)
the chapel remained in use in the 1990s. (fn. 94)
Methodism also flourished in Fordham by the
mid 19th century. In 1849, to replace an old
meeting house that was proving too small, the
Wesleyans built, off Sharmans lane at the west
end of the village, a chapel in Early English
style, seating 266, but with only 76 places free,
and standing room for 140 more. Besides the 88
children from its Sunday school, it had in 1851
attendances averaging 170, that might rise in the
evening to 300. It then provided three Sunday
services, (fn. 95) like the Primitive Methodist chapel
built in 1850 on New Path. That chapel, seating
200, only 30 places being free, was attended in
1851 by up to 100 people. It occasionally held
'camp meetings' in summer. (fn. 96) Both Methodist
chapels remained open into the 1930s. (fn. 97) The
Wesleyan chapel, a plain greybrick building with
three bays to the front, four at the sides, was
still open in the 1990s. (fn. 98) The smaller Primitive
one with only two bays at the side, likewise of
brick and minimally Gothic, had probably
closed by 1960 (fn. 99) and was converted into a house
in 1989. (fn. 1)