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Here,
the woods and heaths are dramatic, and we are
east of the village of Tunstall on the edge of
the old American air base. The chapel is at a
bend in the road, and cottages huddle it, as if
the 19th Century non-conformists of the parish
had set themselves adrift in a lifeboat. The
chapel dates from 1805, but in recent years the
windows have been replaced with utilitarian ones
that look as if they might have been a job lot
from a DIY warehouse. I couldn't help thinking
that we are awfully remote from the nearest
planning inspector's office here.
| To the north of the chapel
is a small graveyard, largely cleared,
but containing several graves to holders
of that most evocative of Suffolk family
names, the Catchpoles. The forecourt of
the chapel is again as utilitarian and
functional as the denomination it serves. They
seem to have been an enthusiastically
church- and chapel-going lot in 19th
century Tunstall. At the time of the 1851
Census of Religious Worship, the
population of the parish was 676, and yet
in the afternoon this chapel could claim
an attendance of about 500,
while the Anglican church half a mile
away recorded 239 plus 48 scholars.
No doubt both totals were exaggerated,
and certainly many of the chapel
attenders would have come to Tunstall
from neighbouring parishes; but the
combined total is way above the average
for Suffolk. William Whiteband, the
Baptist chapel Deacon, could proudly
claim (and one imagines him saying this
in a rather gruff voice) that this
cause is supported by public collections
and voluntary contributions, and not by
pew rents.
Today, little remains of the
atmosphere of the 19th Century community
here, but the Baptist movement is still a
strong one in Suffolk, and the most
popular of all non-conformist
denominations in the county.
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Simon Knott, September 2008
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