Ellerton Methodist Chapel

Ellerton Methodist Chapel

A Methodist chapel of the early 19th century, built of Gault brick with a Welsh slate-clad hipped roof.

The chapel has a rectangular plan with a long-wall façade and a projecting porch set back from the pavement by a grassed area. The main (north) elevation is tall, single-storey, and comprises three bays in a slightly asymmetric arrangement. A central porch is flanked by Gothic tracery windows. The porch itself is a secondary feature with a double-leaf four-fielded panelled door, flanked on either side by a circular tie-plate, and is approached by a modern concrete ramp with a cast-iron boot scrapper to the left. Above the door is a pointed Gothic tracery window set in a rubbed brick arch, beneath a shouldered open pediment. The tall multi-pane Gothic tracery windows to either side of the porch feature late 20th-century square-profile glazing bars and timber sills. Ventilation bricks venting the interior floor space are situated at the base of the wall beneath each window. The western end of the main elevation has been extended in a mixture of Gault and red bricks, with a brick pier topped by slate coping supporting the junction between the original wall and the extension. The west wall, which is part of the extension, is built of the same mixture of bricks and is pierced centrally by a high-set round window. The rear (south) wall has a projecting brick pier at its western end and is pierced by two secondary top-hung nine-light casement windows, with patched brickwork above indicating the former position of pointed Gothic windows. A sliding vent and a brick vent set on the central axis mark the position of a blocked chimney within the chapel. The east elevation is obscured by an adjoining cottage. The hipped slate-clad roof is asymmetrical and has been extended to the west, with a mixture of stone and concrete ridge tiles, plastic rainwater gutters, and the chimney stack removed.

The interior comprises a single room auditorium entered from the porch through a painted ashlar open-chamfered lancet-arched doorway. The porch has a stone-paved floor and a timber hymnbook cupboard on the east wall with double-leaf single-panel doors. The western end of the auditorium is occupied by tiered pews accessed from the sides via stepped side passageways which lead up on each side to a low two-panelled door opening into the top row. The pews have flat bench seats, panelled straight backs, and are each divided by a central stepped partition with fielded panels. The absence of a central passageway is a Nonconformist feature, permitting clear sight-lines to the pulpit, which is positioned centrally against the east wall. The first and second pews have fielded panel backs, with the first being shorter than the remainder. The pulpit stands on a raised timber podium with a simple timber communion rail in front and a four-panel timber screen to either side. It is constructed of two tiers of fielded panels with a moulded cornice, accessed via a four-panelled door on the left-hand side, and has a cantilevered canted lectern. A plain timber communion cupboard, closed by a pair of doors with strap hinges, is attached to the right-hand side. Panelled wall panels line the east and south walls to the right of the pulpit. The panelling on the south wall abuts a blocked chimney breast set centrally between a pair of windows. A fragmentary section of timber panelling lines the north wall to the left of the pulpit. The reuse of these panels, the shorter length of the front pews, and the fitting of the tiered pews into the extension suggest some reordering has taken place. The auditorium has a plain unadorned plaster ceiling. The roof was not inspected in 2017.