Hardwick Baptist Church
Pastor
Matt Oliver
Location
Hardwick Baptist Church, Piper Knowle Road, Stockton-on-Tees TS19 8JQ, UK
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about the church
Hardwick Baptist Church is a reformed baptist church. Our building was one of the first completed on the estate, in 1959, and God has faithfully kept a gospel witness here since then.
With an aging congregation, the church deliberately prayed for, and sought out, a younger pastor.
Matt Oliver arrived to pastor the church in 2015 with his wife Nancy and their 3 kids. They bought a house on the estate and moved into the community.
Most of the church members live across Stockton and the surrounding areas.
But, we have a desire to reach the community and we’ve been encouraged by increased connections with the estate over the last few years as well as some younger people joining the church.
about the Area
Hardwick is a deprived community on the north west side of Stockton-on-Tees in the North East of England
Hardwick was built as a council estate in the late 1950s/early 1960s. It is now mixed with approximately 1/3 of houses privately owned, 1/3 privately rented and 1/3 managed by the council or housing associations.
A section in the middle of the estate was flattened about 15 years ago and rebuilt over a period about 10 years.
The Index of Multiple Deprivation for England and Wales breaks the country up into 32,844 ‘neighbourhoods’. Hardwick is made up of 3 of these ‘neighbourhoods’. With one ranked in the top 3% most deprived (801), with the other 2 being inside the top 10% (1768 and 2832).
Hardwick actually ranks amongst the least deprived areas for air pollution and access to services (we have a hospital at the bottom of the estate). So, that tells you that against some of the other markers we are particularly deprived.