Sapcote Methodist Church

1326/0/10004 08-FEB-02

SAPCOTE LEICESTER ROAD Sapcote Methodist Church

II

Methodist church. 1902-5. By Brookes of Broughton Astley. Leicestershire granite with limestone ashlar and granite dressings. Slate roof with stone-coped gable. Arts and Crafts style with Perpendicular tracery to front windows. Contrasting squared and random granite and heavy buttresses with limestone quoins. 2-storey facade with gable facing. Entrance with double plank doors up steps under deep segmental arch between buttresses. Perpendicular style window above and panel inscribed Wesley Church over. Small windows on each storey to sides again set back within buttresses. Sides have 2-light stone mullion windows set between buttresses. Lower element to rear with pulpit end and church offices has long roof coming down to ground floor eaves. The wide limestone plinth around the church consists of many foundation stones inscribed with the names of those who laid them, being contributors to the church. INTERIOR. Galleries with pews on three sides supported on cast-iron columns, and the gallery with pews on the fourth side behind the pulpit has organ to rear. Arched open fronts to galleries and pew ends have pierced decoration, as have the pulpit with steps up either side and the ground floor pews. Massive hammerbeam roof with arched braces. Stained glass in window above entrance. HISTORY. The local congregation gave much help in the building. The stone was made available free by the local Sapcote quarry to the quarrymen members if they worked after their normal day's work and local settmakers and kerb dressers worked the dressed stone. Farmers helped in the transport. This is a well-designed and little altered Methodist church of the period with almost complete internal fittings. Fortescue, E., My Journey Through the Twentieth Century, 1903-1996, Wesley Historical Society Publishing Office, 1997.