The ornate and impressive facade of Broad Street Congregational Chapel, one of the jewels of Reading’s town centre conceals a fascinating past. The author chronicles the life of the building and its origins, from the Lollards of the 1400s through Puritanism and persecution in the 1500s and 1600s, respectability in the 1800s and finally decline in the 1960s. Now that the building has been rescued from dereliction and restored as a bookshop, few shoppers appreciate its religious significance or know about the people whose lives centred upon it for so many centuries. In this comprehensive account, the story of the chapel is told in its entirety, right up to the present day.
Geoff Sawers. Paperback, 170 x 125 mm, 64 pages, September 2012.