Burslem United Reformed Church (Formerly Woodall Memorial Congregational Church)

Burslem United Reformed Church (formerly Woodall Memorial Congregational Church) is a church of 1905-6 designed by Absalom Reade Wood.

The church is constructed of red and brown brick with red Hollington sandstone block. Windows throughout have sandstone architraves and fenestration. The roofs are slate-covered, with cast and wrought iron railings and rainwater goods.

The church is laid out with a main rectangular central worship space flanked by east and west aisles. At the north end, a gallery provides additional congregation space, with the area below now separated from the main space by an inserted glazed partition. Stairs to the gallery are positioned at the north-east and north-west. Lobbies occupy the north-east and north-west corners, the latter adapted for other uses. A corridor and vestry wing extend to the west.

The red brick and sandstone road front presents an imposing two-storey elevation with attic and four-storey bell tower. The four-bay central section projects forward of the flanking bays, framed between square sandstone columns. A large central first-floor window features tracery, a Romanesque-detailed round arch, and keystone. Small square two-light windows positioned either side create a Venetian window composition. Pilasters carry the arch, and between them is a decorated stone tablet bearing a bronze relief of William Woodall by Stanley Thorogood A.R.C.A. (1873-1953). The tablet is inscribed "Congregational Church" flanking the relief, with "Woodall Memorial" below. Four ground-floor casement windows of two or three lights have mullions, elliptical arches and keystones. A dentil eaves cornice supports a pedimented parapet with stone finials atop the columns at each end and a central oval window in the gable with elaborate decoration.

To the left, a lower two-storey stairwell bay has a curved pitched roof and twin finials, with a further single-storey bay containing a door entrance beyond. The right-hand bays include a four-storey bell tower incorporating a two-storey stairwell, and a two-storey bay with another door entrance. The bell tower features a round-arched window at first-floor level with an 1905 inscription set within a stone tablet above. Three additional stone tablets are set in the facade inscribed: "Laid by C.W. Carlick Esq. of Wolstanton 5th October 1905"; "Laid by Councillor S. Gibson of Burslem 5th October 1905"; and "Laid by Corbet Woodall Esq. of London in memory of the late Wm. Woodall". The copper-domed roof with finial stands above a projecting dentil eaves cornice. The upper bell level is built of coursed sandstone with stone-mullioned openings. Ground-floor doorcases have sandstone dressings. The facade features stone banding at first-floor level and a stone plinth above ground level. Windows contain coloured-glass panes. The red brick boundary wall, repaired in places, has replacement iron railings constructed to original specifications.

The west flank is red and brown brick. The original vestry entrance has been infilled and adapted using modern materials. Three round-arched clerestorey windows are positioned above. The single-storey vestry wing extends to the west boundary with stone-dressed window openings and stone parapet. The east flank is brown brick with a single-storey lean-to projection of three bays with openings. Three round-arched clerestorey windows with brick arches are positioned above. Stone steps at the south end of the elevation lead down to a cellar door and coal opening. Numerous tie plates feature across the elevation. The rear elevation is brown brick with a centrally-positioned round-arched first-floor window with brick arch and heavy tracery. Three ground-floor window openings are sealed. An angular brick chimney-breast rises to the roof on the left side, with the rear of the vestry range projecting from the left.

The rectangular congregation space has a raised stage to the south with oak choir seating and oak panelling. Above the panelling, a large traceried window contains rich decorative coloured panes depicting The Sermon on the Mount, with emblems of the Evangelists and the inscription "BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD". The window is the work of Williams Brothers and Co. The original boiler, converted from coke to oil power, sits underneath the stage. To the right are a pulpit of stone and oak, and an oak-panelled organ of 1910. Fittings include curved radiating oak pews with bronze handrails and umbrella rails to each side and heating pipes at floor level. Bronze drip-trays at lower level have been removed. The floor slopes gently to the south. Two-bay stone arcades comprising three columns with decorated capitals stand to each side, both with a partitioned bay to the north. The left bay in the east aisle now forms an office. The left bay in the west aisle provides storage space and toilet facilities. The hall ceiling is barrel-vaulted with moulded ribs standing on decorative corbels. The area is floored with pitch pine blockwork.

At the north end, a balcony to the gallery stands above a glazed partitioned space. Original double doorways with upper coloured glazing, bronze handles and finger plates are positioned to left and right, leading to the principal church entrances and stairs to the gallery. The stairs have decorative balustrades with timber handrails. A storage room, formerly a book store with access to the bell tower, is located at the top of the left stair. Gallery pew seating is pine, and the gallery has four-panelled doors with six glazed lights above. The lobby to the north-east entrance has caustic tile flooring beneath modern linoleum. The original north-west entrance has been blocked and partitioned to form a disabled toilet, and a modern west entrance has been created around the former vestry entrance. The west entrance incorporates a re-ordered corridor leading to modern kitchen facilities, a meeting area and cloakrooms, and an entrance into the main hall next to the organ. The meeting area has an exposed king-post roof truss.

Woodall Memorial Congregational Church was built in 1905-6 to designs by Absalom Reade Wood (1851-1922), a long-established architect of civic and domestic buildings in the area, notably Tunstall Town Hall of 1883-5 and Burslem School of Art of 1908, both listed at Grade II. The church was officially opened in October 1906 and named in memory of William Woodall (1832-1901), the Liberal MP for Stoke-on-Trent and Hanley. Woodall was a notable social reformer who served the Gladstone government. As leader of the House of Commons women's suffrage group and chairman of the Central Committee for Women's Suffrage, he made a number of attempts to put anti-suffrage Bills through parliament in the late 19th century. He had risen through the political ranks of Burslem in the 1860s and 1870s while establishing himself as a successful industrialist as a manager in the gas, pottery and coal trades. He was a vigorous campaigner for numerous social causes, including the improvement of technical education, and was the driving force behind the creation and development of the Wedgwood Institute of 1869, listed at Grade II*. A lifelong Congregationalist, Woodall had long encouraged the building of a new Congregationalist church in the town. The church was named after the former MP as a fitting memorial to his commitment to the town, the congregation, and the Congregationalist movement in general.

The church is shown on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1925 (3rd Edition) with a terraced row of dwellings attached to the south-east corner of the building. The attached buildings are not shown on the 1937 edition. Woodall Memorial Congregational Church was renamed Burslem United Reformed Church in 1984. The United Reformed Church had been formed in 1972 by a union between most Congregational churches in England and Wales and the Presbyterian Church of England, with other denominations joining in later years. Internal changes to the church were carried out around 1990. In 2009, the church was partly refurbished.