Mission Church, Sunderland Point

Mission Church, 1894 to designs by Paley, Austen and Paley.

MATERIALS: local Claughton red brick with a Wesmorland slate roof.

PLAN: the church is oriented north to south, but the following directions are liturgical. It is rectangular with a projecting north-west porch, a projecting north-east vestry recess, and a third projecting WC bay to the south-west corner. There is a west gabled bell canopy.

EXTERIOR: a five bay, single-storey building of red brick laid in stretcher bond beneath a pitched roof of Westmorland slate, that sweeps low over the projecting porch and vestry and WC in the form of lean-to roofs. Windows and door openings mostly have brick, camber heads. The west end has a central, projecting timber bell canopy that retains the bell, above an external, stepped brick chimney stack with tumbling-in brickwork. To the left is the main camber-headed entrance, and to the right is a secondary opening of similar style; both with plain boarded doors. The north elevation has projecting end bays, the porch to the right with a plain window beneath a stone lintel, and the vestry with a camber-headed entrance. The blind central bay is demarcated by a pair of slim pilasters, and a flanking bay to either side has a camber-headed window fitted with a six-light fixed timber window. The east end is rendered obscuring the brickwork, but there is a single camber-headed window. The south elevation is similarly detailed to the north elevation but only the westernmost bay is projecting, with a pair of short ventilation slits to its east wall.

INTERIOR: the porch has painted brick walls with three rows of coat hooks, and opens into the main body of the church through double boarded doors. There is a timber baffle screen to the left, and horizontal wainscoting to the lower parts of the walls, which are painted brick above, and there is a boarded floor. The original stove to the west end has been removed but its semi-circular opening remains. At the east end there is a raised dais with an altar and timber rails to the front; the wainscoting raises above the altar table, and above this is a large camber-headed timber panel. The roof structure comprises four triangular tie-beam trusses supported by cast-iron struts. The small vestry niche to the left has wainscotted walls.