Armitage United Reform Church Chapel

SK01NE 1578/6/10019

ARMITAGE WITH HANDSACRE RUGELEY ROAD Armitage Armitage United Reform Church Chapel

16-AUG-00

II

Congregational chapel. 1820; by Thomas Birch; extended later C19. Red brick in Flemish garden wall bond with rendered dressings. Clay plain tile roof with moulded stone coping to gable ends.

PLAN: Small chapel, the auditorium with gallery over entrance at west end, vestry at east end and north 'aisle' that might have served as 'squire's pew or Sunday school; two-storey porch at west end possibly added in 1820s or 1830s. Later C19 school room in angle of east vestry and north 'aisle'. Tudor Gothic style.

EXTERIOR: West front has gabled two-storey porch with set-back buttresses with weathered set-offs, large moulded oculus with rose window and four-centred arch doorway with moulded label with shield stops; stepped west gable behind porch with large diagonal buttresses with weathered set-offs. North and south sides have two large windows with labels and pointed arch frames and large buttresses. North 'aisle' has large diagonal buttress with gabled pinnacles. Small vestry at east end with pointed arch doorway with hood mould and diagonal buttress with pinnacle. School room to NE with porch on west side with pointed arch doorway.

INTERIOR: Auditorium has vaulted plaster ceiling and two exposed cambered tie-beams with arcading above; west gallery with panelled front on slender posts and four-centred arches. Original simple pews in gallery. Auditorium pews replaced later C19. Polygonal pulpit. Panelled double doors to vestry with four-centred arch.

NOTE: The Armitage United Reformed Chapel was built in 1820, apparently by Thomas Birch of Armitage Lodge, who placed it in trust for the Congregationalists [now URC] in 1831, while he retained the right of burial in a private vault under the north 'aisle'.

Listing NGR: SK0777116166