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Thomas Barrass, Baptist Minister

Baptist minister, Rev Thomas Barrass (nicknamed ‘the Nonconformist Bishop of Peterborough’) whose popularity was behind the construction of a new building on Queen Street capable of seating 800 people in 1870.

The building only lasted for 35 years until, early in the morning of October 16, 1905 the chapel and most of the “Barrass Memorial Hall” built in 1904 alongside were completely burned down leaving only the shell of the buildings standing. The cause of the fire was unknown, but it is listed among the ‘great fires of Peterborough’.

Pictured below are the buildings before the fire and the devastation afterwards, along with smartly dressed onlookers !