Castle Hill United Reformed Church is a Grade II listed building in the Ipswich local planning authority area, England. Church.

Castle Hill United Reformed Church

WRENN ID
carved-footing-summer
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Ipswich
Constituency
Central Suffolk and North Ipswich MP: Patrick Spencer (Con)
Country
England
Type
Church
Address
Castle Hill United Reformed Church, Dryden Road
OS grid reference
TM 152 472
Coordinates
52.08164, 1.13996
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Castle Hill United Reformed Church was built as a Congregational church between 1955 and 1956 by architects Johns, Slater and Haward. The church is constructed from yellow brick and precast concrete, featuring painted glass and a steeply pitched roof covered in asbestos cement. It has a rectangular main space with a communion table located at the east end in a projecting sanctuary, and a small stage at the west end. The entrance projects to the southwest beneath a folded slab roof.

The church is characterized by its steeply pitched zig-zag roof, which slopes down and then rises to the north and south, creating aisles without piers. The walls to the north and south are designed with a diagonal pattern of squares made from precast concrete, filled with blue and yellow painted glass and perspex. A continuous long top light runs along the ridge of the roof. Inside, unpainted precast concrete rafters and purlins are notable features. At both the east and west ends, the concrete frame rises to form a straight-sided pointed arch above the sanctuary and stage. A cross made of red perspex is set into the east wall. This church is a good example of a non-conformist church from this period.

Local climate

Castle Hill United Reformed Church sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 700 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 91% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 67% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 24 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 74% of listed buildings. Of these, 12 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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