United Reformed Church And Attached Walls

The following building shall be added: SD 52 SW LEYLAND HOUGH LANE (north side)

119-/8/10000 United Reformed Church and attached walls

II

Nonconformist Church, School and Hall. 1874-1877, by David Grant. Padiham stone, crockfaced; dressed Longridge stone to openings; brick and stone to church rooms at the rear. Interior woodwork, including the roof, of pitch pine. Slate roofs. High Victorian Gothic style. Oriented on a north-south axis; all directions given below are ritual. Shallow apse to east with plaster rib vaulting and simply molded chancel arch. Vestries for minister and choir to either side. Broad, undivided nave with trilobed, boarded roof of four bays; chamfered tie beam spanning central lobe of roof. West gallery carried on cast-iron columns. West saddleback tower (with tower arch to nave gallery), its roof of exceptionally steep pitch; vestibule to north and vestibule-cum-stair tower to south, the two latter have polygonal roofs. Nave returns with setback buttress to each bay and single lancet. Two facing gable ranges to church halls at the rear, the first a schoolroom with two adult classrooms and the eastmost with an infants' classroom and additional room. Separate entrances to schools allowed minister and choir access to vestries directly from the east end. Interior: Many furnishings of original design, including, panelling, pews, door surrounds, and gallery front. Of special note is the organ set in the shallow apse with choir stalls on a low dais demarcated from the nave by a wood and metal rail; these latter built by Andrew Tomlinson; large wood pulpit to northeast of good quality wood, possibly figured walnut. Windows glazed with tinted cathedral glass. Also included are the Padiham stone walls enclosing the forecourt and a square stone lamp base immediately west of the main entrance. The west elevation is a highly mannered and inventive design that is strongly asymmetrical. David Grant (born in 1846) was a well-regarded Nonconformist architect and secretary of the Leyland Church building committee. During the time of construction he was resident in Leyland. By 1874 he had set up offices in Preston.

Listing NGR: SD5429422349