Elim Pentecostal Church And Railings

Elim Pentecostal Church and Railings

A Pentecostal church with contemporary railings, built in 1903–4 by E Ridgeway in the Art Nouveau Gothic style. The church is constructed in red brick with stone dressings and plinth, featuring moulded stone copings and flush stone bands at sill and lintel levels. The steeply pitched slate roofs have overhanging eaves and moulded stone copings to gables sitting on wavy-headed kneelers, with crested ridge tiles and ridge finials. At the east end of the nave ridge stands an octagonal wooden cupola with a wide bracketed cornice and a thin tapering lead spire.

The plan comprises a tower, nave with double gabled cross transept bays, and a narrow chancel bay. The north elevation features a tapering tower to the west corner with full-height buttresses to all corners. Near the base of each buttress is a spur with a wavy-headed stone and trefoil-headed panels to the sides. Between these, on the south and west elevations, are small single-light cavetto-moulded windows with cusped ogee tracery and pierced spandrels. Thin trefoil-headed lancets sit above on each side, with fanciful ogee-headed returned hoodmoulds and a moulded sill stringcourse. Above again are single cavetto-moulded louvred bell openings with ogee tracery, pierced spandrels, and a moulded sill stringcourse. A continuous eaves stringcourse features a frieze of Tudor flowers and gargoyles at each buttress corner. Wavy-topped parapets rise above, with buttresses forming angled corner piers. The tapering lead spire above bears a circle of ironwork decoration near its top and a contemporary weathervane.

To the east is the nave, with a low canted porch bay featuring wavy-headed parapets rising to a central panel with blind cusped tracery. Below is a deeply chamfered doorcase with an elaborately moulded segment head, over which sits a returned ogee-headed hoodmould. The contemporary panelled doors contain panes of stained glass. To either side, the porch has single-light cavetto-moulded windows with ogee-headed tracery, similar to the bell openings. Similar windows flank the porch on either side. Above the porch is a large seven-light segment-headed panel tracery window with an ogee-headed hoodmould and griffin stops. To either side of this window are full-height triangular-sectioned pilaster strips rising over the gable to form small eared pieces with finials. Above the window is a flush stone band with three stepped vents.

Attached to the east corner of the nave is a tapering octagonal tower with louvred vents to the top and a domed leaded roof set above a wide bracketed eaves cornice, topped by a tall iron finial. The east and west elevations have two pointed three-light cavetto-moulded panel tracery windows to the north, with carved foliage stops to the hoodmoulds, and double gabled transept bays to the south, each with large four-light pointed panel tracery windows also featuring carved stops to the hoodmoulds. Above each window is a narrow ventilation slit with a flush stone band below. Beyond to the south is a low vestry bay with a three-light cavetto-moulded mullion window. The chancel bay is blank.

The interior has a wide four-centred moulded arch into the chancel bay, with soffit mould resting on polished marble column corbels with foliage capitals. Within the bay stands a large contemporary organ, and to the front is the original canted pulpit with steps to either side. The nave contains curved oak pews arranged in a semi-circular layout, each with a curved top to the benchends, and retains the original copper lights and Art Nouveau ironwork trusses. The transept bays have tapering piers supporting the arches with open timberwork above. All windows contain contemporary coloured glass designs.

The contemporary railings to the north and east sides feature decorative panels between sets of plain railings. Each panel has a curved head between two nail-headed rails with looping ironwork between rails below. At the centre of each set of railings is a tapering rail with a corniced top and a small heart positioned approximately halfway up. The gates to the north side are in a similar style.