Blyth United Reformed Church

BLYTH WATERLOO ROAD NZ 3181 SW (South side) 11/47 Blyth United Reformed Church 28.7.50 (formerly listed as Presbyterian Church)

GV II

United Reformed Church, formerly Presbyterian. 1874-6 by Thomas Oliver junior. Brick in English Garden Wall Bond 1 and 3, with ashlar dressings; Lakeland slate roof with terracotta ridge cresting. T-plan with hall and sunday schools at rear; liturgical west end (to north) with north-west tower/spire and south- west apsidal stair projection. Free C14 style. West end, flanked by, large stepped buttresses, has boarded doors with ornamental ironwork, and small lancets to right and left with linked hoodmoulds. Multi-chamfered set-back above and two tall 2-light windows; rose window in gable. To left, short linking bay with shouldered doorway within pointed arch, and 3-stage tower. Chamfered plinth, moulded strings; upper stages have multi-chamfered setback, between clasping buttresses. Tall paired bell openings with slatted louvres. Lofty spire patterned in ashlar and brick; pierced band with small lucarnes at mid-height. To right, stair projection has similar doorway to tower link bay, and lancets above. 5-bay north and south walls; stepped buttresses, 2 tiers of paired lancets except for upper 2-light window in gabled dormer at east. Hall at rear, 5 bays, rather plainer detail.

Interior: 4 bays, plastered above wainscoting. Panelled gallery round 3 sides supported on cast-iron columns, canted at western corners, and with pointed arcade on upper level. Roof recently underdrawn; raised half tie-beam trusses in aisles. Eastern arch, filled by organ, moulded on detached colonnettes and with head-stopped hoodmould. Oak central pulpit. Original numbered benches. Early brass light fittings on gallery string. War memorial window of St. George.

Porch to hall, and small extruded block between hall and church, are later additions and are not of special interest.

Listing NGR: NZ3106581370

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Register. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 16 August 2017.