Central Methodist Church

The Central Methodist Church, dated 1868 as inscribed on its pediment, is a Primitive Methodist chapel located on Emmerson Street in Crook and Wellington. The building is constructed of sandstone ashlar with pink granite columns flanking the entrance and has a Welsh slate roof.

The front facade is pedimented and two storeys high with three bays. It features a moulded plinth and chamfered, rusticated ground floor. Eight steps, with a renewed top step, lead to a central four-leaf, eight-panelled door set within a round-headed, moulded surround. A lunette sits above the door, recessed between the attached columns with stone Corinthian capitals. Flanking the door are recessed windows with apron panels, each set within a round-headed surround. A double cyma recta cornice projects over the door and supports balustrades for the first-floor windows, which have low segmental heads and cord-moulded surrounds under bracketed drip-moulds with carved central finials. The deeply-moulded pediment, resting on a richly-carved cornice, contains a sunken oval date panel within a cord-moulded frame and topped with a lily finial. The roof has two ridge ventilators with ogee stops. Dwarf walls alongside the steps have chamfered coping, and wrought-iron handrails have down-curved ends.

Inside, the walls are painted plaster above a boarded dado. Slender cast-iron columns, adorned with crocket capitals, support a continuous gallery on three sides. The gallery features cast-iron balustrades with ivy-leaf decoration arranged in a four-petal circle motif, and similar, more slender posts. A large, panelled pulpit with side steps stands opposite the organ, which is housed within a moulded arch supported by Corinthian pilasters. Flanking panelled wood screens enclose the minister's and choir's vestries. Iron balustrades are present on the rear gallery stairs within the entrance foyer, which has a tiled floor. The ceiling is deeply coved along the long axis, and three ceiling roses contain pierced cones that formerly held light fittings suspended by a ratchet control system. Simple floral stained glass from around 1925 commemorates members of the congregation, while a west window serves as a memorial to those who perished in the First World War.