New Meeting House (Unitarian)

This is a Unitarian meeting house, originally a Presbyterian chapel, dating from 1724, with alterations made in 1879-80. It is also used by the Royal Naval Association. The building is constructed of chequer brick with a pebble-dashed front and has a hipped slate roof. It has a rectangular plan and is in an Early Georgian style, with one storey and two tiers of windows arranged in a four-window range. The facade features two plat bands and a top brick cornice. An entrance was added around 1880, featuring a gabled porch with a pointed outer entrance and a plank door. An inscribed plaque above the door records the chapel’s erection. The windows have plaster surrounds and small-paned glazing; two upper-left windows retain 18th-century cross-casement windows. The rear of the building has segmental-headed windows with cross-casements, some retaining leaded glazing with rectangular quarries. The right return demonstrates a blocked segmental-headed entrance and several 19th-century headstones belonging to burials in the adjacent graveyard. The interior features a wooden screen from around 1880 with three pointed arches at the east end, and a re-sited pulpit with four panelled sides, a moulded cornice, and railings with 18th-century turned balusters. It contains a collection of 18th and 19th century monuments for the Lakin and Byng families, and some original panelling from 1724 with bolection mouldings. The Tamworth Unitarian congregation was established in 1690.