Wesley Memorial Church

Wesley Memorial Church

A Wesleyan church built in 1888-9 to the design of Charles Bell. The building is constructed of rock-faced ashlar on its north, east and west sides, with the south side finished in yellow brick, and features ashlar dressings throughout. It is roofed in Welsh slate.

The church is oriented north-south and comprises a 4-bay nave with a north entrance, 3-bay aisles on either side, single-bay east and west transepts, and a small sanctuary. A square tower with an adjoining octagonal stair turret stands at the north-west angle. The building adjoins a school to its south-east.

The structure sits on a chamfered plinth and is buttressed with angle buttresses and buttresses between bays, all featuring offsets and ashlar quoining. The north side features a flight of 5 stone steps leading to a central entrance. The entrance doorway is pointed with a double-chamfered arch, hoodmould and carved stops, flanked by single pointed 2-light traceried windows with hoodmoulds and carved stops. These are gathered beneath a triple-gabled hoodmould supported on corbelled wall shafts, with trefoil finials to each side and a taller carved finial over the door attached to the central mullion of a pointed 4-light plate-traceried window above. A sill string course, hoodmould and head stops frame this upper window. A string course and small pointed ashlar window light the gable, beneath which are narrow stepped triple lancets with a hoodmould. The gable is coped with a finial. Angle buttresses to the left rise to an octagonal ashlar turret with blind lancets and a spirelet with finial.

The 3-stage tower adjoins to the right. Its first stage contains a pointed double-chamfered doorway with hoodmould and carved stops, a single trefoiled lancet above, and a moulded ashlar frieze with blind roundels. The second stage is splayed with a string course. The octagonal belfry features louvred double-chamfered lancets with foliate capitals at the angles supporting hoodmoulds. A moulded string course with gargoyles at the angles supports an octagonal spire decorated with trefoiled lucarnes, ashlar quoins and flush bands, crowned with a wrought-iron finial. A 2-stage west stair-turret adjoins the lower stage of the tower, featuring a sill string course and 3 lancets to the upper stage, with a half-octagonal roof.

The aisles have square-headed 3-light traceried east and west windows, with a pointed 2-light traceried north window to the east aisle. The transepts contain pointed 3-light traceried east and west windows with flush ashlar impost bands, hoodmoulds with carved stops, and single needle lancets above. The south side has a pointed 3-light traceried window to the sanctuary. All windows display Geometric-style tracery. Board doors feature ornate wrought ironwork. Coped gables with shaped kneelers and finials, and crested ridge tiles complete the external decoration.

Internally, the entrance lobby contains inscribed tablets recording the architect Charles Bell, the builder H Kelsey, and the laying of memorial tablets in September 1888. The 4-bay nave has pointed wooden arches with pierced spandrels resting on slender iron columns. A north gallery is present. The sanctuary is defined by a pointed moulded arch with a corbelled inner order and hoodmould. The nave is ceiled, while the transepts have 2-bay hammer-beam roofs.

Notable interior furnishings include a 19th-century marble wall tablet in the east transept dedicated to Reverend John Wesley and his parents, featuring a pediment and dove above. A series of mid-19th-century pedimented wall tablets by Bailey of Hull are located in the transepts. The ornate octagonal carved wooden pulpit and altar rails, which date from 1860 and originally came from the Kilham Memorial Chapel opposite, were moved here in 1949.

The church forms part of an unusually ornate group of Methodist buildings at Epworth, erected in commemoration of the founder of Methodism, John Wesley (1703-91), and the Wesley family of Epworth.