There is one problem with England’s superb legacy of Nonconformist architecture (one that is shared by Wales, though Christopher Wakeling’s book is only about England): it is largely unknown because the doors are very often firmly locked. By contrast, many of the UK’s Anglican parish churches are open to anyone who chooses to enter (or, if not, the contact details of the keyholder are usually posted in the porch). We have a lively history in the UK of visiting churches as reservoirs of history and archaeology; these places of worship are seen not only as spiritual spaces, but also as places that can be appreciated in non-religious terms, exemplars of art and architectural styles and movements, and rich resources for studying the all-important role of religion in the lives of people from the late Roman period onwards.
The Nonconformist architectural and artistic legacy is largely unknown, though. You can walk past chapels and meeting houses every day of your life and never know what they look like on the inside. Some denominations reject tourism outright: they are closer to the Roman Catholic Church in this respect – believing that places of worship exist for the purpose of praising God, not as some form of historic visitor attraction. Many Catholic parishes nevertheless welcome respectful visitors and try to keep their churches open for those who wish to seek spiritual sustenance; Nonconformist chapels rarely even do that.
As a consequence, Nonconformist places of worship have not had the attention they deserve from historians who study material culture. There are plenty of documentary histories of Nonconformity in all its many branches, but very few that record and analyse the buildings, furnishings, memorials, and churchyards, seeking to explain their form and development. Even the celebrated ‘Pevsner’ volumes occasionally omit non-Anglican religious buildings (surely as an oversight rather than as a matter of policy), and while their introductory essays do go into considerable detail about the best of the county’s churches, furnishings, and monuments, Nonconformist architecture typically merits no more than a page, and is often described in dismissive terms as derivative – the work of jobbing small-town architects.
