Leaside Methodist Church And United Reform Church

WARE TOWN

TL3514SE LEASIDE WALK 829-1/9/140 (North side) Leaside Methodist Church and United Reform Church

GV II

Church. Built as The Independent Chapel 1816, rebuilt as the Congregational Church 1858-1859. Brick with stone window surrounds, south facade coursed limestone rubble with ashlar limestone dressings, bands, quoins and ornamental window and door surrounds, Welsh slated roofs. 5 bay single cell meeting room, with shallow gallery at south end, shallow chancel' bay at north end. EXTERIOR: south facade in the Romanesque style, treated as 2 storeys with attic, and subdivided by shallow projecting buttresses into 3 bays, with plinth and moulded bands below and above first floor windows, which light the gallery within. Central doorway, with twin leaf battened doors, with foliated scrollwork wrought-iron hinges recessed with 2 semicircular arches, the inner with ornamental discs, the outer with interlaced zigzags, moulded extrados and impost carried on twin colonnettes. Left and right colonnettes and semicircular arches, bobbin mouldings on ground floor, relief zigzags on first floor. Central triple-light window above entrance, lancet, with billet ornamented head, flanked by semicircular headed windows, with colonnettes at jambs, and separating the lights. Circular wheel window above, with 8 radiating lights and central oculus. Plaque above in apex of gable1816 rebuilt 1859'. Brick sides divided into 5 bays by shallow buttresses, with semicircular headed windows between. INTERIOR: has yellow brick walls, with stone windows set in red brick recesses and beneath red brick arches, lattice glazing with etched and painted quarries by Powell of Whitefriars. 3 light north window divided by colonnettes, in one bay `chancel'. Stained and painted glazing of scenes from the Resurrection. Below is foundation stone laid by David Williams Wire, Lord Mayor of London on 25 November 1858. Roof over church has exposed tie-beam trusses, braced below from corbels, with queen posts, king post, curved braces, collar and struts, supporting 3 purlins. Principal rafters, and curved bracing exposed beneath boarded ceiling. HISTORICAL NOTE: the Independent Chapel was established by a dissenting group from the Old Independent Chapel in Church Street in 1811, and their first chapel opened 5 years later. The 1859 rebuilding was financed to half the cost by Joseph Chuck of Widbury House, a leading Ware maltster. In 1972 the United Reform Church was formed by amalgamation of the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches, and in 1978 they were joined by Ware Methodists to form the Leaside Church. (Edwards E and Perman D: Ware's Past In Pictures: Ware: 1991-: 125; Heath C: The Book of Ware. A Portrait of the Town: Chesham: 1977-: 77, 83; Lavender S: Churches, Chapels and Faiths of Ware: Ware: 1989-: 38-9; Ware Tithe Map: 1845-; Ware 25" to 1 Mile. Surveyed by the Ordnance Survey Department: 1851-).

Listing NGR: TL3586314354