Kettering - Part 3

The final pictures from Kettering deal with the actual reason why I was there. Namely to preach at Pollard Evangelical Church.

Pollard Evangelical Church, originally called London Road Hall, was opened for the preaching of the Gospel in 1891. It is therefore roughly contemporaneous with the London Road Congregational Church - and yet what a difference! If everything about the Congregational Church screams 'Church!', Pollard is designed to look like a public hall. Indeed, it might be a temperance hall as well as it might be a church-building. The non-church design is presumably intended to make those unused to church comfortable.

This is the reason why it is called Pollard Evangelical Church -after Charles Pollard, the man who built the church. I know nothing about Charles Pollard beyond what this plaque says, but presumably he was a Christian man with enough money to build and run a mission-hall. Since the establishment of the hall a proper Church has been constituted there.

And finally: farewell to Kettering. The cast-ironwork of the railway station. For something that played an important part in the town's history, the station is remarkably quiet, built of red brick and biscuit-colored. terracotta. This is the view from Platform 4, looking towards Platform 1. It was very cold there, despite the sunshine.

Kettering - Part 2

Continuing the pictures of Kettering taken on my recent visit to the historic Northamptonshire market town.

If Fuller was the Little Meeting, what was it Little in relation to? The answer is this, the Great Meeting, now called Toller Church. Now part of the URC, it was originally a Congregational Church. As can be seen from the photograph, it was not as wealthy as Fuller by the 19th century, as rather than building a new structure, they merely put this new facade on. To my eyes it looks more like part of a railway station than a church! But it does have a cross on the front, in case you wondered what the building was. Not the most elegant re-fronting job!


The former London Road Congregational Church (now URC) is another matter. Built in 1898-9, it is in the Gothic style, by this time all but universal as the Church style. The building is galleried on three sides, the turrets presumably containing the gallery stairs. This is very much, at least on the outside, a comfortable middle-class church declaring that the nonconformists were themselves an institution. The great West window of London Road chapel is on a line with the East window of the Parish Church. Make of that what you will.


Kettering Central Methodist Church. Built in 1932, it looks back to the earlier part of the 19th century, when this sort of neoclassical design was typical of nonconformist chapels. The use of the older form has, however, been modified by the 1930s architect. The proportions of the facade are slightly odd, and few 19th century architects would have had the first floor windows smaller than the ground floor. Although it looks back to the 19th century, the building, in its position on a side-street, suggests that Methodism was not as wealthy as the oder nonconformity in Kettering, and perhaps it speaks of the forthcoming decline of the nonconformists in England.

Kettering

A couple of weeks back, I preached at Pollard Evangelical Church, Kettering. My digital camera came along too, and these are the results:
Firstly, Kettering Parish Church. It is dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. The chancel is in the Early Decorated Gothic of about 1300, while the rest of the building is in the Perpendicular style. I confess that I prefer the Perpendicular myself. The spire is not Medieval, it was put up in 1887 to replace a slightly shorter spire. The whole building was restored in the 19th century. It is occupied by a congregation of decidedly High Church principles. This is probably the only building in Kettering today that Dr. Gill would recognise from his childhood here. Of course, being a Baptist, he never went inside this building. Indeed, it was his schoolmaster's insistence that young John should come to the Parish Church that led his parents to take him out of school. Gill did not suffer from that! But of course, he was an uncommon genius.


Next up is the Marketplace. It was deserted at the time I took this photograph - it was early on a Lord's Day morning! On the left is the old Corn Exchange, now apparently a covered market, but also once a cinema. It's possible that Andrew Fuller may have seen this building, but I don't know the date. Ahead is the Royal Hotel, so named because Queen Victoria and Prince Albert stayed there in 1844. John Gill and Andrew Fuller would have known it as the White Hart Inn. The facade is of course from the latter part of the nineteenth century. Beyond the Royal Hotel can be glimpsed the round tower of an Art Deco cinema, now a bingo hall.


It is impossible for a Reformed Baptist to take a camera to Kettering and not photograph the handsome Italianate facade of Fuller Baptist Church. Of course, Andrew Fuller did not preach in this building, but in its predecessor, known as the Little Meeting. You can see that only the front of the building is faced in ashlar, the rest of it being a yellowy-grey brick that would have been bright yellow originally, and looks much better when it has had a slight coating of grime. I didn't go in, as I was on my way to Pollard Evangelical Church at the time, and Fuller was about to have its service.

And there's more to come!