Tuesday, February 3, 2009

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.

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