East Hill United Reformed Church

This is a former Congregational church, now a United Reformed Church, designed by John G. Stapleton and construction began in 1859. The earliest section of the church comprises the broad, north-facing transept. A four-bay nave with lower, lean-to side aisles was added from 1876, possibly to Stapleton’s designs. The building is constructed of London stock brick with limestone dressings, and originally had a slate roof. It is built in the Decorated Gothic style. The east window is four-light with two quatrefoils and a sexfoil above, flanked by similar two-light windows within the aisle walls. A small stone arcade is positioned on either side of the main entrance, divided by carved colonettes. The pitched, half-hipped roof of the porch features a small rose window in the gable. The porch is supported by paired stone colonnettes. The north transept has a large Decorated window in the gable end, five-lights with quatrefoils and trefoils above. This window is flanked by brick buttresses topped with stone carved pinnacles, and spherical triangle windows are positioned either side.

The interior features Baltic pine roof trusses with chamfered ties spanning the nave roof and the two-bay transept. The aisles have separate, simple timber tongue and groove boarded roofs. A stone arcade of four bays has carved capitals to round columns, with roundels in the spandrels. A particularly elaborate pier is at the junction of the transept and the nave, being square, chamfered and featuring paired colonnettes. Galleries in the transept have carved wooden fronts supported on cast-iron colonnettes. A fine carved stone and alabaster pulpit is present, as is an organ installed in 1902 by Hele and Co.

Adjoining the main church is a brick building with limestone dressings, originally the church hall. The gable end has a rose window flanked by stepped buttresses, which terminate in carved stone pinnacles. An arcade of thin, lancet windows with trefoil heads is positioned below a string course; the central four windows are plain glazed. The central entrance porch has pointed, moulded arches supported on stone colonnettes and a carved stone spandrel. Short brick buttresses with stone coping flank the porch. The hall’s interior was rebuilt following bomb damage. It is listed for group value alongside the main church.