Central Methodist Church And Attached Ancillary Buildings

The Central Methodist Church, along with its attached ancillary buildings, was constructed in 1840, with further additions in 1872 and 1895. The chapel was designed by James Simpson of Leeds. The front of the chapel is built of cream brick in a Flemish bond, featuring a sandstone ashlar portico. The rear and side returns are of orange-grey mottled brick in an English garden-wall bond. The roof is hipped and covered in slate, with a brick stack. A wrought-iron overthrow and lamp bracket are also present.

The building is two storeys high, with a basement, and has a five-bay, pedimented front, articulated by pilasters behind a tetrastyle giant Ionic portico. The entablature to the pediment returns on each side across the full width of the front. The basement windows are four-pane and sixteen-pane sashes. Flights of steps lead up to folding, sunk panelled doors with flat arches of gauged brick. Flanking windows have bordered lights in raised architraves, with upper storey windows being similar. The rear features a two-storey, five-bay apse. Basement windows were originally sixteen-pane sashes, some with semicircular grilles. Ground and first floor windows are round-headed bordered lights with brick arches and stone sills, the first-floor windows being taller. The side returns mirror the rear fenestration. A rear bay on the right return incorporates an ashlar doorcase with plain jambs, a shouldered lintel, a dentilled cornice on moulded consoles, and a moulded coping parapet; double panelled doors provide access via steps.

The interior features two staircases to the gallery, with open strings, slender turned balusters, shaped treadends, and a serpentine handrail. An oval gallery is supported by cast-iron Corinthian columns with a sunk-panelled front projecting on modillions. Numbered box pews remain on the ground floor and in the gallery, retaining original fittings. Gallery windows have coloured glass borders incorporating palmette and rinceaux motifs. The modillioned ceiling cornice is enriched with egg-and-dart mouldings over a plaster frieze of rinceaux and rosettes, the ceiling itself being coffered with rosette mouldings. A large matching pulpit and organ case are also present. Wall monuments include a white marble sarcophagus to Joseph Agar (died 1847), signed Waudby, and a pedimented tabernacle, supported by sculpted figures, to Rev. David Hill (died 1896), by Skelton of York.