Hope Baptist Church With Integral Sunday School

Hope Baptist Church with integral Sunday School is a town chapel and Sunday School built in 1857. The building is constructed of ashlar stone and has a slate roof. It features a monumental temple front that is one tall storey high and divided into three bays by giant Corinthian pilasters on moulded bases that rise from a shallow plinth. The central doorway is approached by a shallow flight of steps and has double moulded panel doors with a fanlight, framed by panelled Corinthian pilasters, a plain frieze, and a moulded triangular pediment. Above the doorway is a weathered date plaque. On either side of the entrance are full-height windows with coved reveals and round heads that have console keystones. The building has a full-width pediment and an entablature with a bracketed cornice. The right-hand return wall consists of five bays, also articulated by Tuscan pilasters, with the same fenestration as the front. At the right end of the structure is a lower single-storey, three-bay Sunday School with a half-hipped slate roof, rusticated quoins, and a moulded ashlar eaves cornice. The windows in the Sunday School are similar to those in the chapel but do not have keystones. There is a panelled pilaster doorway with a pediment.

Inside, the church is galleried on three sides, supported by cast iron columns with foliated capitals and elaborately fretted side braces. The original fittings are still present. The entrance vestibule features a mosaic floor laid in 1924 and staircases leading to the gallery with an elaborate cast iron balustrade. The interior also contains a late 17th-century oak table that once belonged to John Fawcett, D.D., who founded this church in 1777. The building has high townscape value.