The Congregational Church

The Congregational Church, located on Swanlow Lane in Winsford, was built between 1864 and 1865, designed by John Douglas. It is constructed of Flemish bond brick with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. The church’s base projects slightly, featuring a layer of blue brick with alternating bands of red and white brick above, incorporating diapered patterns. The roof itself features a diapered design using grey, green, and mauve slates arranged in decorative patterns.

The building comprises a nave and a projecting porch at its eastern end, with a gallery above the porch and an organ chamber added around 1900 to the southwest. The eastern front has three central projecting bays, the lowest containing the porch and the upper level a gallery. Clasping buttresses flank the bays, continuing upwards to form small square turrets with the gable between, each containing staircase quadrants to the sides. The central recessed porch consists of three bays forming an arcade screen. This is characterized by round, grey granite columns resting on red sandstone ashlar bases with crocket capitals. Ovolo-moulded arches are topped with voussoirs of alternating red and white brick, and a continuous hood-mould with figurehead and floral label stops. Above the porch is a diamond-patterned diaper band, followed by a corbel table of white brick connecting with a continuous sill below the three central gallery windows; the central window rises higher than the flanking windows, each featuring two round-arched lights above a round window. Diapering appears on the gable, accompanied by a moulded surround beneath the eaves, which have stone coping. The lateral turrets feature stone capping pieces with gablets and crocketed finials. The quadrants to the sides have single-light staircase windows.

The south side includes a staircase quadrant and a clasping buttress. Four bays are punctuated by buttresses, featuring two-light windows with plate tracery, each containing two arched lights and an apex porthole. Round-headed relieving arches use alternating red and white brick voussoirs. To the left is a square organ chamber with canted corners and an octagonal pyramidal roof capped with a wrought iron finial. The north front mirrors this design, excluding the organ chamber.

The west end has a square vestry with canted corners and a hipped roof, topped with a wrought iron finial that served as a model for the later organ chamber. A lean-to porch provides access to the lower walling. A 20th-century church hall extension is attached to the right. Above this is a central rose window with plate tracery, consisting of a central round light and eight surrounding lights. Pilaster buttresses flank this wing, forming small turrets similar to those at the east end. The left-hand turret terminates as a chimney. Ashlar coping stones top the gable, and the roof features three gabled louvres on each side.