Former Mission Church of St Andrew

Former Mission Church of St Andrew

This mission church was built around 1868 to the designs of architect Richard Reynolds Rowe. It is constructed of brown brick laid in Flemish bond with dressings of ashlar stone and red brick, beneath a slate roof.

The church occupies a narrow plot between two roads, with its principal west elevation facing North Street and its rear east elevation facing Silver Street. It follows a long rectangular plan, with a small extension added to the east end of the north side sometime after 1974.

The building is designed in the Gothic style with polychromatic detailing. It features a steeply pitched roof with overhanging eaves and exposed rafter feet. The ridge is embellished with trefoil cresting and a row of fishscale tiles. On the principal west gable end, the ridge projects beyond the face of the wall, supported by shaped brackets, to provide shelter for the bell. The rear east gable end is surmounted by a floriated wheelhead stone cross mounted on a cross-gable base carved with trefoils.

The church has a brick plinth and red brick quoins. The principal west elevation features an entrance porch on the right-hand side under a low projecting roof containing a Gothic arch plank and batten door with long strap hinges. This sits within a recessed red brick Gothic arch of two orders, the outer one with a roll-moulding, encompassed by a stone hoodmould. Low brick boundary walls and gate piers extend from each end of this elevation. Both the west and east gable ends are dominated by trefoil-headed triple lancet windows with metal glazing bars, each lancet set within a recessed red brick Gothic arch. The whole is contained within a large red brick Gothic arch with stone hoodmould. Within the head of the west gable arch is a single cusped oculus, while the east gable contains a group of three cusped oculi. Above these windows, the west gable head is pierced by another oculus in a stone surround, and the east gable by a trefoil window opening, also in a carved stone surround.

The long north and south sides are dominated by large decorative chimneys projecting from the wall and rising through the eaves. Each chimney has a square base and octagonal shaft, both detailed with red brick at the corners, and a circular pot with swirling lines of red brick. The seven-bay elevations are divided by brick piers and lit by trefoil-headed triple lancet windows with stone mullions, set within recessed red brick Gothic arches.

The interior has been gutted and retains no historic fixtures other than the Gothic arch panelled doors leading from the porch to the boiler room and the church—the latter having had its upper panels replaced with glazing. The internal walls are exposed brick with a concrete floor. The canted ceiling is clad in matchboard panelling laid diagonally between the ribs. The highly decorative queen post roof trusses have arched braces rising from the tie beams to the collar beams. The timbers are chamfered and embellished with painted decoration in gold leaf. The tie beams are supported by delicately carved corbels, and on each side are labels painted in gold leaf inscribed with biblical quotations in Gothic lettering.

The triple lancet windows along the north and south sides are grouped together under red brick Gothic arches. On each side, the recessed openings for fireplaces or stoves consist of three concentric red brick arches: the inner one a round-lobed trefoil, followed by a round arch and an outer Gothic arch. The original heating means have been removed, and the opening on the north side has been opened up for a door. The principal east window is given the most elaborate treatment as the focal point of the church, featuring stone columns with moulded capitals and bases attached to each mullion.

At the east end of the church is a low brick boundary wall with saddleback coping.