SIR: I was very disappointed to learn from your paper that, in the Church's tercentenary year, the trustees of Bank Street Chapel have chosen to overlook 300 years of political involvement and influence by refusing to allow the Socialist Labour Party to hold a meeting on their premises.

Unitarians have always involved themselves in political activity because they believe that politics is an element of Christian mission, and that it is through radical political activity that social progress can be achieved, and the lot of the people, at home and at work, can be improved.

It was two prominent members of Bank Street Chapel, Charles James Darbishire and Robert Heywood, who were leading Liberals in the town, who campaigned successfully in 1838, despite intense Tory opposition, for Bolton to be incorporated as a modern municipal borough. Bank Street Chapel always advocated radical reform, and its members were never afraid to support projects which were perceived as being 'anti-establishment' in nature. When the Bolton Suffragettes needed a base as they fought for women to be given the vote, it was at Bank Street Chapel that they found a home.

Bank Street Chapel has always shown an open door to any individual or any group, regardless of their political views of affiliations, so long as their professed aim is to improve the quality of life for the people of Bolton.

Dilys A Taylor

Belmont Road, Sharples

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