Hay Hill Baptist Church

Baptist church, built in the years 1869 to 1870, with alterations in the 20th century. Designed by Wilson and Willcox. The church is constructed from square, rock-faced limestone rubble with ashlar dressings and has a Welsh slate roof. The layout comprises a nave, aisles, and chancel, with a gallery at the east (entrance) end.

The building is situated on an angled plot, with only the street facade visible externally. The front elevation has three bays, displaying an Early Pointed Gothic style. A plinth supports a central entrance arch with paired plank doors framed by colonnettes with stiff leaf caps, all under an arch head. The tympanum above the doors features five sunk quatrefoils. The flanking windows are three-light, also with arched heads and triple quatrefoils above, beneath an elliptically arched drip. The central bay is slightly projected and flanked by strip buttresses with ashlar quoins. The facade features ashlar sill and impost bands. Side bays have windows at gallery level; these are two-light, pointed arch with trefoil heads and a quatrefoil above, and are covered by a drip. A large central Decorated window is a larger version of the side windows, featuring two taller paired windows supporting a quatrefoil drip. The buttresses are topped with two-stage pinnacles: the lower stage is square, the upper stage is eight-sided with conical roofs. The side bays have lean-to roofs behind a parapet pierced by quatrefoils. The remaining exterior is not visible, and the roof is plain.

The interior features a four and a half bay nave and a two-bay chancel. The arcade has plain shafts and cushion caps with sharply pointed arches. The clerestory has triple-light windows, and the roof is a close-set scissor brace design. The east end is dominated by a gallery with a pierced pine front, which was infilled below c.1980 to create a meeting room. A segmental chancel arch leads to a rose window with a central octofoil surrounded by a circle of quatrefoils. The chancel arcade is a smaller version of the nave arcade.

The church was built on the site of St Werburgh’s Church, also known as the Sanctuary Chapel. The steep site presented a design challenge; a large schoolroom was built beneath the chapel as a solution. The design shares similarities with Manvers Street Baptist Church.