Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This evangelist chapel was built in 1798 by R Billing, then embellished and extended by N Briant around 1840, with further alterations in the late 19th century and mid- to late 20th century.

The building has stucco walls scored to simulate ashlar, with stone and artificial stone dressings including probable Coade stone capitals, all beneath a slate roof.

The plan comprises an entrance hall with dual end stairs to a gallery, a large nave and chancel to the north end, a vestry to the west side, and Sunday school rooms to the east.

The symmetrical front elevation is dominated by a giant hexastyle portico of Greek Corinthian order under a triangular pediment, both dating from 1840. The portico has six fluted columns with Corinthian capitals, probably of Coade stone, and is approached by three stone steps from street level. The cornice and tympanum above feature dentil moulding. A shortened and simplified stone bell tower straddles the roof apex in the form of a giant pedestal with rebated corners and moulded cornice. The front wall has three giant door openings, the central one being taller. Each has a moulded architrave and a pair of timber panelled doors with wrought-iron drop handles and a geometric pattern of circular iron mouldings.

The west elevation comprises six bays with metal eight-pane round-headed windows, five of which are full height with the frontmost being smaller. The wall has stucco render, including to the moulded soffit. The east side is similar in design but largely obscured by adjacent buildings. It has a panelled gate leading to a passageway, and towards the rear, a panelled entrance door with rectangular fanlight surmounted by a triangular pediment. At the rear, the end gable of the school is visible, faced with brown brick in header bond, probably a later repair, and contains a single 20th-century window.

The rear elevation is constructed of red brick in Dutch bond. It comprises a chancel to the centre, a vestry to the right, and a two-storey former Sunday school to the left. The chancel has three tall round-headed windows, the central one being taller, with a plain bargeboard to the gable end above. The single-storey vestry has a plain 20th-century door under a timber porch supported on carved brackets, and a single six-over-six sash window with margin lights, recessed under a segmental brick arch. The two-storey four-bay rear elevation of the school has regular rebated sash windows to both floors under segmental brick arches. Ground-floor windows are one over one, while first-floor windows are four over four, except at the far right which is one over one. To the left side is a small 20th-century lean-to extension.

Internally, at the front of the building there is a wide narthex with a geometric tiled floor, located between the later portico and the original front wall of the chapel, which retains its stone quoins. At the centre is an entrance to the nave with a moulded architrave and panelled timber doors. To either end of the entrance hall are dog-leg stairs with plain spindles and curved moulded handrails, rising to the gallery.

The interior of the nave largely dates from 1798. It is rectangular, laid out with timber box pews of raised and fielded panelling either side of a mid-19th-century geometric coloured tile floor. The box pews are numbered with plaques and many carry informal carvings with owners' names and dates of 1798 or 1799. Doric columns, painted to resemble marble in scagliola, rise to support a gallery on three sides, faced with moulded panels and fronting raked box pews. The columns continue through the gallery, transitioning to Ionic form, and terminate under longitudinal beams connecting to a cornice around the walls, all decorated with modillion moulding. The nave has three curved ceilings, with the central one being higher and lit by two late-18th-century cast-iron chandeliers under ceiling sconces. An unused sconce is fixed to the pitched ceiling of the chancel.

The small chancel at the north end is set under a round-headed arch decorated with the painted letters 'TAKE THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY'. Beneath the entrance stands a mid-19th-century barrel-shaped pulpit of polished wood on a short column with carved console brackets, featuring decorative panel mouldings, fluted columns, a dentil course, and brass fittings. An access stair with a curving moulded handrail and decorative wrought-iron spindles adjoins it. The adjacent reading desk is similar in design, with the barrel body attached directly to the floor. Round-headed timber plaques to either side of the chancel arch carry the Ten Commandments. The chancel windows contain multiple panes of coloured glass, with the central window featuring a stained-glass garland with text commemorating Caroline Young, dated 1902. Above the chancel windows are the painted letters 'TILL HE COME'. The organ is set into the western side of the chancel with pipes revealed to the west gallery within a round-headed arch. At first-floor level on the east side of the chancel are three sets of sliding screens allowing a view of the chancel and congregation from the first-floor schoolroom. The chancel has timber pews and a timber moulded communion rail with wrought-iron spindles. The communion table and reredos, added in 1930, are constructed of timber with decorative moulded panels of Gothic character.

A door on the east side connects the nave to the Sunday school rooms, which predominantly have four or six-panel solid timber doors. The entrance hallway has a decorative cast-iron ventilation grille on the church side. The foreshortened schoolroom to the front has a small brick fireplace and panelled fitted cupboards. At ceiling level it has a modillion cornice under exposed rafters. At the rear, the ground-floor schoolroom has a spine beam supported by a cast-iron column, fitted cupboards, and a Tortoise Stove supplied by the Reading ironmongers. A door leads to a 20th-century rear extension with functional fixtures and fittings. A plain dog-leg stair rises from the eastern side of the rear schoolroom to the first-floor schoolroom, which has exposed A-frames to the ceiling and is otherwise plain and functional.