Arnesby Baptist Chapel with attached Sunday School and Manse

Arnesby Baptist Chapel with attached Sunday School and Manse

A Baptist chapel built in 1799, with an attached early-19th-century Sunday school and connected by a 20th-century link block to an early-18th-century manse. All buildings are constructed of red brick in Flemish bond under slate roofs.

The chapel is a square, symmetrical building under a hipped roof, with its principal elevation facing west. A link block to its north connects the chapel to the Sunday school, and then to the manse and accommodation beyond, which form a linear range running west to east.

CHAPEL

The chapel's west elevation features two entrances, each with double doors under a glazed fanlight with moulded stone surround and segmental arch of rubbed brick. Between the two entrances is a double, six-pane casement window under a segmental brick arch with projecting brick sill. Three further windows of the same design are located on the first floor. The east elevation has two double-height multi-pane lancet windows. The south elevation has a regular arrangement of three casement windows at both ground and first-floor levels.

The interior opens to a small narthex with two further sets of doors accessing the nave. The main chapel has a plastered ceiling with a central circular design, and the walls are half-clad in timber matchboarding. A first-floor gallery runs on all sides except the east, where a mid-20th-century timber pulpit is located. The gallery is supported by slender Tuscan columns and is panelled, with the gallery rail supported by iron balusters featuring twisted shafts and split heads. Stairs at the north-west and south-west corners give access to the gallery above. Timber pews with simple curved ends are located in the nave and beneath the northern and southern galleries, with stepped pews retained in the gallery spaces at first-floor level.

SUNDAY SCHOOL

The Sunday school is located to the north of the chapel and is partially obscured on its west elevation by a 20th-century single-storey link block. The east elevation contains the building's principal entrance, with a single timber door matching the design of those on the chapel. The building has a hipped roof with a dentilled cornice and a brick chimney stack on its north elevation. A 19th-century twelve-pane window is located on the ground floor to the right of the entrance; the brick segmental arch appears to have been renewed in the 21st century and the brick sill has been replaced with concrete. A matching window on the first floor retains its brick sill.

The Sunday school is connected to the chapel at first-floor level via the northern gallery through a central doorway with three steps down to access the school. The first floor features 19th-century joinery with built-in cupboards at both the northern and southern ends of the room.

MANSE AND LINK BLOCK

To the north-west of the chapel is a range of buildings with an early-18th-century three-bay manse at its centre, although this was altered in the 19th century. The manse has two brick stacks at the building's former gable ends. Both storeys of the southern elevation have two large 19th-century windows, each with nine panes and brick sills.

To the east of the manse is a two-storey three-bay 19th-century brick extension which abuts the 20th-century single-storey brick link building to its south. This link building connects the chapel to the manse and Sunday school and now houses the chapel's vestry. The link building has an entrance door with canopy at the north end of its west elevation and a single casement window to the south. The 19th-century extension has a hipped roof with a single casement window on the first floor of the south elevation. The northern elevation of the earlier building has a regular arrangement of two small casements at both ground and first-floor levels, with patio doors at the centre. The 19th-century addition has a squat brick stack and an additional casement to the first floor.

The interior of the manse and 19th-century extension is arranged as a series of reception rooms. All fire surrounds have been removed or replaced in the 20th century, but 19th-century skirting boards and picture rails have been retained.