United Reformed Church

United Reformed Church, Newport Pagnell

A Congregational church, now United Reformed, built in 1880–81 to the designs of John Sulman of London. The building is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with Bath stone dressings. It has a steep plain slate roof with serrated ridge tiles and a small slate-hung bellcote at the centre, topped with a slated spire and decorative iron windvane.

The entrance elevation faces north and consists of a wide central section between two buttresses that terminate a lean-to porch. The porch contains two identical 2-centred stone arches with stiff-leaf trail mouldings and hood mouldings extending as a moulded string. Within the raised shallow porch are two pairs of part-glazed doors set under a segmental brick arch. Above the entrances is a moulded stone cornice enriched with formal flowers. A large rose window of six cinquefoils in roundels arranged around a central quatrefoil rises above. A narrow vent opening to the roof void sits above the window. The diminutive side bays are hipped.

The sides of the church consist of three bays to the nave, defined by offsetting brick buttresses with stone detail. Each bay contains four high-set windows with trefoil tracery lights. Beyond the nave is a flush gabled bay representing the transepts, and a narrow bay for the chancel. The south (ritual east) end is a high square block between buttresses, terminating in a hipped roof. The ground floor contains a church office with three modern windows. Attached to the walls are memorial stones to Reverend William Bull, minister for 50 years who died in 1814, and Reverend Thomas Palmer Bull, his successor, who died in 1859, together with their wives. The foundation stone, laid by Miss French, is set in the first buttress on the west side.

The interior features an entrance lobby with a glazed screen with leaded lights and trefoiled heads, which divides the body of the church. The nave has an open roof of three bays with a narrow crossing bay at the south end. Arched braces on stone corbels with sloping boarded soffits carry tie beams; above these is boarded open roof, ceiled at collar level. The walls are plastered below the sill strings. The wide south (ritual east) end has the organ mounted at upper level behind the pulpit. Arched doors lead to lobbies either side, with 2-light openings into the body of the church. A square panelled reredos and similarly panelled pulpit, approached by steps on either side, occupy this end. At the north end is a canted balcony with panelled front above the entrance screen. Three banks of pews are arranged throughout.

Numerous monuments from the former chapel are affixed to the walls—mostly corniced tablets of white marble from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. These include: a marble tablet by Bacon to Walter Beaty (died 1791) with fluted side pilasters and a draped urn on the cornice against a streaked grey marble field; a draped urn tablet to Amelia Higgins (died 1834); a profile head in a shaped top with poppy scroll to Reverend Thomas Palmer Bull (died 1859); a flat profile head in a circular panel to Reverend William Bull (died 1814) with ribbons, a prostrate cross and book on a bed of leaves; a shaped tablet to Reverend John Gibbs, formerly of the University of Cambridge, ejected for his Protestant views in 1660 (died 1690), the tablet erected around the mid-19th century with a draped eastern crown above; a tablet with leaf sprays to Mary Ward (died 1850), wife of the vicar; a simple tablet with a Grecian urn emitting flame to Joseph Ward (died 1771); and a tablet with open book to Elizabeth Kilpin.

On the south wall are an aedicule with yellow marble slips and Ionic columns and Greek key frieze to William Bull, solicitor (died 1884); a tablet between fluted pilasters to George Osborn (died 1857) with a draped urn on the cornice; a marble tablet on a painted panel to Reverend Thomas Jones (died 1795) with a Grecian urn above; a panel with simple pediment and fluted sides to Joseph Cripps (died 1829); a cast bronze tablet to Arthur George Percy French, corporal in the City of London Volunteers (died 1900); a sarcophagus-shaped tablet with gable and ball feet to Jones Millas, secretary to the British and Foreign School Society in the town (died 1852); and a tablet with urn on brackets to John Rogers, surgeon (died 1858).

On the west wall are a white marble tablet to Ann Greatheed, née Hamilton (died 1807) with a shaped apron and cornice carrying an urn against a grey marble field, and a tablet with a book against a shaped grey pediment.

On the upper level is an acroteria gabled pediment on streaked grey marble to Thomas Hackett, student of Newport Evangelical Institution, who died unexpectedly in 1821.

History: The Congregational community was originally founded in Newport in 1662 following the ejection of the vicar, Reverend John Gibbs, who took a licence as a Presbyterian preacher. The foundation stone of the new church was laid on 26 October 1880; the building was opened in 1881 at a cost of £4,000 and could seat up to 400 members. The large rose window in the north gable end was a gift from Dr Rogers of Exeter.