Wainsgate Baptist Church And Attached Sunday School

The Wainsgate Baptist Church and attached Sunday School, dated 1859, is constructed of hammer-dressed stone with ashlar dressings, rusticated quoins, and a slate roof. It is situated on Wainsgate Lane in Wadsworth. The building possibly incorporates materials from a preceding chapel and manse dating back to 1806.

The front elevation is symmetrical with three bays and a pedimented gable. It features a doorway with panelled pilasters, an overpanel containing a fanlight and spandrels topped by a moulded cornice, and a date plaque above the doorway. The four-bay return, continued by the school range, displays windows similar to those on the front, and archivolt-arched windows with console keys within the architraves. A moulded eaves cornice is present. The school range has console-bracketed eaves and shaped kneelers to the gable end with quoins. The west elevation has two doorways with monolithic jambs and cornices on consoles, and two bays of three-light windows, taller on the first floor. A simple Venetian window sits within the gable.

The chapel's interior, largely complete from around 1860, retains original furnishings. A gallery with curved ends is supported by pews and features ornately carved oak rails leading to the platform, crafted by Mitchells of Halifax. The ornate marble pulpit includes alabaster panels, good bas-relief work designed by Anthony Welsh in 1891 and donated by the Mitchell family, who also provided the stained glass by Powell Brothers of Leeds, dating between 1859 and 1900. The archway of the deep organ loft is elaborately decorated with Oinceaux work. The organ loft wagon roof retains its original star spangled azure color scheme, though the original elaborate stencilwork decoration of the chapel body has been overpainted. A decorative, partly pendant, pierced-work rose vent is located in the ceiling's centre. In the walls are monuments to John Fawcett and Richard Smith, the first minister who died in 1817.

Wainsgate represents an early Baptist site and the chapel was founded in 1759 by the prominent Baptist preacher and author John Fawcett DD, who also had associations with Slack, Heptonstall, and Hebden Bridge Chapels. Fawcett’s tomb is located in the church graveyard.