Ansdell Baptist Church

SD 32 NW; 621-1/2/1

LYTHAM ST ANNES, ANSDELL, ANSDELL ROAD NORTH, (east side), Ansdell Baptist Church

II

Baptist church. Dated 1908 over west doorway. Accrington brick in stretcher bond, with sandstone dressings and graduated Cumbrian slate roof with red ridge tiles. Arts and Crafts Perpendicular style. Nave on north-south axis, with east and west transepts, north-west tower, narthex at north end and apse at south end. The 3-bay nave (the 3rd bay canted out to form a diagonal junction with the transept) has buttresses, weathered stone coping to the plinth, a broad band segmentally-arched over the windows, a thin moulded cornice and a parapet swept up to upstands between the bays; and segmental-headed 3-light windows with arched centre lights, transomed outer lights and arcaded tracery in the heads. The north gable has a large segmental-headed 3-light "west" window with stylised tracery and a hoodmould with Art Nouveau whiplash returned ends, and below this the flat-roofed narthex has a segmental-headed doorway at the west end and a parapet with a carved stone plaque dated 1908. The tower at the east end of the narthex, of three stages with straight diagonal buttresses carried up above the parapet, has a north doorway (up 5 steps) with an elaborate stone surround including a gable breaking through an arcaded parapet, and a belfry stage with coupled glazed windows and a high parapet with a triangular shaft rising through an upstand in the centre of each side. Each transept has two windows like those of the nave, a large oculus above these with geometrical tracery, and stepped gable coping with apex cross.

INTERIOR: hammer-beam roof; stained glass in contemporary debased Art Nouveau style; original numbered benches; Gothic-style dais and desk; 2-centred arched organ loft in apse (which contains meeting room at ground floor beneath this).

Listing NGR: SD3498627746