Brassey Green Baptist Chapel

Baptist chapel pre-dating 1742, with a secondary vestry and late C20 alterations.

MATERIALS: plain red brick, with some minor infill. It has a gabled Welsh slate roof, with a lower secondary gabled slate roof over the vestry that merges with the southern slope of the roof. The gable ends of both roofs have plain timber barge boards.

PLAN: a single-storey L-plan structure, with the rectangular main body of the chapel roughly aligned east to west, and a small single-storey vestry built against the south elevation.

EXTERIOR: the main entrance is situated in the west gable, and has a segmental brick arch lintel, an ashlar stone doorstep and is closed by double timber board doors. A leaded oculus window is set within the apex of the gable, above the doorway. The corners of the chapel are formed by projecting brick pilasters that wrap around two sides, with simple capitals and friezes formed by projecting brickwork courses. A similar projecting pilaster divides the north elevation into two-bays, each bay with a window opening beneath a segmental brick arch lintel, fitted with a late-C20 eight-light timber casement, which has an inward opening bottom-hung top panel, and is protected by a wire-mesh screen. A brick architrave, formed by projecting courses of brickwork, runs beneath the soffit of the roof on either side of the chapel, and plastic rainwater goods are supported on a timber soffit board. A single window of an identical design exists in the south elevation and two similar 6-light windows are set in the east gable. The vestry is built against the eastern end of the south elevation, with a south facing gable wall; it has some patched brickwork, with secondary ladies' and gentlemen's lavatory doors, flanked by small square windows, set beneath concrete lintels. The rear door is situated in the east elevation of the vestry; it has a segmental brick arch lintel and butts up against the south-east corner pilaster of the chapel.

INTERIOR: the rectangular-plan auditorium is entered direct from the doorway in the west gable; it has unadorned painted plaster walls fitted with plain un-painted timber skirting boards, and has a C19 black and red quarry-tile floor. The roof structure is obscured by a plaster ceiling; although the base of a centrally placed, principal rafter truss, with raking struts and a tie beam, rests on projecting side piers. The original auditorium space has been divided by a transverse partition wall, forming a kitchen at the eastern end; it is entered from the auditorium by a doorway on the right-hand side. The kitchen is fitted with C20 kitchen units, with plain white tile splash-backs and a modern tiled floor. The southern end of the room extends into the vestry extension, with the rear door in the east wall and the rear wall of the externally accessed lavatories projecting back into the room, with storage space over within the slope of the roof.