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Somerset has had a long tradition of dissent and non-conformity for
it
was the townspeople of Taunton and Bridgwater who flocked to Monmouth’s rag bag army in 1685 and who paid dearly for their insurrection in the bloody years that followed.
Monmouth passed through Frome in his bid to reach and occupy Bristol. The town was rich from woollen weaving and the population would then have worshipped at St John’s parish church, which has a spire, a rarity in Somerset.
The accession of William and Mary brought the Act of Toleration in 1689 and the early 1700s saw the construction of several chapels in Frome, including Rook Lane in 1707. It was built by James Pope to a design that displays all the
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architectural confusion of its historical context. While
it
is classical in overall concept,
it
has many 17th century elements such as its roof construction which is supported on two massive stone columns.
The original roof was hipped on four sides and had hidden valleys with the low point of each located above the columns. These became clogged with leaves and debris and probably contributed to the deterioration at the column heads. This has meant that there have been a succession of repairs and alterations over at least two centuries.
The stone columns originally supported a domed ceiling
—
altered in the middle of the 19th century to a flat plaster ceiling. Although there is
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photographic evidence of the later ceiling, there was enough archaeological evidence in the arched timber structure to allow the dome to be rebuilt with accuracy.
The chapel was made of relatively poor materials, put together in a cavalier fashion requiring sporadic periods of maintenance, notably in the 1850s when a schoolroom was added at the rear, a new gallery installed and cast iron replacement windows put in.
There were a thousand ‘hearers’ in the congregation in 1717, but there was a gradual decline as other chapels opened. In 1933, the pastor’s salary was reduced by £20 to
£205
and in 1965 came an inevitable union with the Zion Chapel. Rook Lane closed in 1968.
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CONTEXT 42
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