Mission Church, Sunderland Point

The Mission Church at Sunderland Point was built in 1894 to designs by Paley, Austen and Paley. It is constructed of local Claughton red brick in a stretcher bond, with a roof of Westmorland slate.

The church is rectangular, oriented north to south but with liturgical planning. It includes a projecting porch and vestry recess to the northwest, and a small WC bay to the southwest corner. A gabled bell canopy is set into the west end.

The exterior is a five-bay, single-storey building. The roof is pitched and sweeps low over the projecting porch, vestry, and WC, each with a lean-to form. Window and door openings have cambered brick heads. A projecting timber bell canopy, retaining the bell, sits above a stepped brick chimney stack with tumbling-in brickwork at the west end. The main entrance is centrally placed with a plain boarded door, with a secondary opening to the right, also with a boarded door. The north elevation has projecting end bays: the porch to the right with a plain window under a stone lintel, and the vestry with a camber-headed entrance. A blind central bay is defined by slim pilasters, and the flanking bays have camber-headed windows with six-light fixed timber windows. The east end is rendered, obscuring the brickwork, but has a single camber-headed window. The south elevation mirrors the north, with only the westernmost bay projecting; ventilation slits are set into its east wall.

Inside, the porch has painted brick walls with coat hooks, and opens to the main church area via double boarded doors. A timber baffle screen is to the left, and the lower parts of the walls are wainscoted. The walls are painted brick above a boarded floor. The original stove’s semi-circular opening remains in the west end. At the east end is a raised dais with an altar, timber rails, and wainscoted walls that extend above the altar table, topped by a large camber-headed timber panel. The roof structure incorporates four triangular tie-beam trusses supported by cast-iron struts. The small vestry niche to the left has wainscoted walls.