Methodist Church

SOUTHPORT

SD31NW LEYLAND ROAD 664-1/1/54 (East side) Methodist Church

GV II

Methodist church. 1878-80. Coursed sandstone rubble, slate roofs. Early English style. Nave with wide north and south transepts, short chancel, south-west porch-steeple and north-west porch. EXTERIOR: tall nave of 5 bays in all, of which 2 at the east end are covered by the transepts while the westernmost is stepped in, with the steeple in the south angle and the porch in the north angle. The gabled west front has string courses on 3 levels and a square corner pilaster to the left terminating in a small turret with pyramidal roof. Tall tripartite west window of 3 lancet lights with moulded mullions and surround, each light divided by a slender mullion into 2 minor lancet lights. Projecting from the angle to the left is a steeply-gabled porch which has a 2-centred arched doorway chamfered in 2 orders, a weathered band surmounted by a band of pierced trefoils and a set-back gable with an oculus and raised coping with a finial. To the right the steeple has a similar doorway and weathered band, a tall set-back upper stage with angle buttresses, a 2-light window to the second stage, a very tall belfry stage which has square corner pinnacles flanking traceried and louvred 2-light lancets under steeply-pitched gablets, and an octagonal spire rising to a height of 150 feet; and on its south side is a gabled projection with a 2-light window flanked by buttresses. The nave is buttressed and has 2 large 2-centred arched 3-light windows. Each transept embraces on its west side a square turret rising above eaves level, with a lancet in each exposed side and a pyramidal roof, and a lean-to porch in the angle with the turret, with a 2-centred arched doorway and a 2-light window above this; a buttressed gable wall with 3 lancets at ground floor and a large 2-centred arched window of 4 lancet lights above. The chancel has a plate-traceried rose window. INTERIOR: with arch-braced wooden roof; galleries at the west end and in both transepts; chancel with mosaic floor and fine 9-panelled painted reredos in which panels depicting fig, wheat, vine and olive alternate with Commandments and Lord's Prayer, under a coved arcaded canopy.

Listing NGR: SD3491317607