Methodist Church, The Square

An early- C20 Methodist Church in a free Gothic style.

MATERIALS: the building is of buff-coloured brick in English bond with Bath stone dressings and plain tile roofs.

PLAN: the building is oriented from north-east to south-west and is roughly cruciform with a wide nave, with an offset tower to the north-east corner.

EXTERIOR: the building is in a free Gothic style throughout.

The entrance to the eastern end is flanked by a squat north east tower with embattled corner piers and a south east tower with diagonal buttresses and an octagonal belfry steeple above. The east end has a large five-light window with reticulated tracery, moulded four-centred arch and flanking four-centred arch lancets with buttresses rising between. The north and south elevations have gabled transepts and reticulated tracery in cambered arches.

INTERIOR: there is an open timber roof structure.

The interior contains its complete original set of pitch-pine furnishings including galleries with tiered bench seating and benches in the transepts, aisles and nave. The walls are plastered. There is a four- centred domed arch above the “high” end containing an organ loft and beneath it a rostrum and communion rail. Lancet windows containing commemorative stained glass flank the organ.

The transepts have four-bay four-centred arch arcades with slender polygonal piers with foliated capitals. The gallery cuts through the arcades and is curved around the east end.