By Norman L. Hopkins
Published by the author, Tyndale Cottage, Egerton, Ashford, Kent TN27 9DJ
214 pages, 80 illustrations. £10.00 + p&p
Based on a lecture given by the author to the Smarden Local History Society, this book will be a valuable resource for any whose interest is in Particular Baptist history in Kent.
Norman Hopkins has enlarged that lecture with a great amount of detailed material - which portrays much patient and meticulous research - with the result that, as Dr. Robert Oliver says in his commentary Foreword, we now have 'an important contribution to the local history of Smarden and the Weald. More important, it provides material for an understanding of that Protestant dissent which has played such a part in the history of England.'
As one who has, in the past, enjoyed some visits to the pretty village of Smarden and to the Tilden Chapel, this reviewer learned much from this up-to-date account of some 360 years of Baptist church life, not least the evident spiritual stamina of ordinary Christian men and women through those years.
