Wesleyan Methodist Chapel

Wesleyan Methodist Chapel

This is a massive Italianate chapel with a rectangular plan. The south front and west side are faced in fine ashlared limestone, while the less visible east side is constructed of rough ashlar laid to regular courses. The rear is built in red brick. The apertures are mostly shallow with stone dressings.

The chapel is a double-height building that dominates its narrow, built-up street. The regular façade is divided into three stages with pavilions at either end. The first stage of each pavilion features banded rustication and a recessed two-leaf door set in a moulded architrave, reached by two steps. The second stage has a square-headed window with a narrow sill, and the third stage has a blind window set in a round-arched architrave with imposts and two corbels supporting the sill. On the outer returning wall of the projecting wings is a square-headed window on the first stage, with blind equivalents of the windows on the second and third stages.

The triangular-gabled connecting block features a three-bay entrance in the Doric order, added in 1924. This comprises pilasters at either end with columns flanking the moulded round-arched doorway. The paired two-leaf doors have two narrow vertical panels and a square glazed panel at the top. Above a dentilled cornice sits a glazed tympanum.

All windows contain square leaded lights with single coloured Art Nouveau-style symbols, including a pomegranate, rose, lily, passion flower, vine, wheat and fleur-de-lys. The second stage of the central block has three round-arched windows linked by a continuous band at impost level. On the third stage, above the entablature, "WESLEYAN CHAPEL" is carved in the gable head.

The five-bay west elevation is divided into two stages by a string course. Windows on both stages are set in round-arched shallow recesses of double height, creating the impression of lesenes defining the bays. On the first stage the windows are square-headed; on the second stage they are round-headed, connected at impost level by a continuous band. The east side has the same arrangement of windows but they are set in a plain wall with no recesses or banding.

The interior underwent extensive remodelling in 1924. The double-height hall is dominated by a massive organ chamber at the north end, framed by a round arch with gilt-edged spandrels supported by paired scagliola columns. Below the organ is a two-tier mahogany-panelled pulpit containing a niche for the stone font. The central section of this pulpit is the only remaining fragment of the original 1840 pulpit, flanked by panelled side wings added in 1924, behind which straight flights of steps lead up. A panelled screen rises behind the pulpit to gallery level.

The gallery, accessed via stairs either side of the front door, is supported on slender columns and runs around all sides of the hall. The low panelled front appears to belong to the original 1840 building, though the pine fitted benches arranged in tiered groups date to 1924. Ground floor oak fitted benches, which replaced the box pews, are arranged in three groups. Two memorial tablets—one to Richard Hornsby (1864) and one to Thomas Dixon (1867)—are now located in the narrow passage running transversely behind the pulpit, having been moved from what was formerly the back of the hall during the 1924 alterations.

Extensive ancillary accommodation exists at the rear, including the vestry and caretaker's lodging. These rooms, which are plain, retain much of their original configuration and joinery. The building has a small projection on the rear west corner containing these ancillary rooms.