Cardinham Methodist Church, Attached Sunday School And Gate Piers

The Cardinham Methodist Church, with its attached Sunday school and gate piers, dates from the 18th century and is constructed of squared granite rubble with granite quoins and brick dressings, all under a slate roof featuring courses of scalloped slates, terracotta ridge tiles, and finials.

The building has a single auditorium plan with a wing projecting from the east side. It stands on a dressed granite plinth. The south elevation features a central porch with a small arch window and double doors beneath a chamfered lintel on the east side, flanked by two windows on either side. All windows in the main church are horned sashes with Y-traceried heads, topped by a two-centred arch incorporating dressed granite keystones and quoins, brick voussoirs, and splayed glazing bars. A moulded string course runs along the top of the south end, raised into a trefoil shape. The west elevation has two pairs of sashes; the east side has one pair. A single-storey, rubble-built lean-to at the rear houses a trap house with a cobbled floor and timber partition, alongside a pair of toilets and a storage area. The Sunday school room, projecting from the east side, has two square eight-pane sashes and central double doors with an eight-pane overlight on its south elevation; there are two similar windows on the north side and a blind, rendered gable end on the east.

Inside the church, a moulded string course runs around the walls, raised over three pointed-arched recesses in the north end, with trefoil decoration in the spandrels of the windows. Most of the seating has been removed, however two pitch-pine pews have been retained at the rear of the hall, along with the rostrum, associated ramp, and attached front pews in the north-east corner. The panelling along the side of the hall has also been preserved. The Sunday school is separated from the church by a timber screen with a folding entrance door to the right and detachable timber wall panels. The auditorium has an ‘A’ frame roof and a plasterboard ceiling with taped joints. Decorative applied timber with chamfer and cusp detailing adorns the undersides of the principal trusses.

The property includes two sets of granite gate piers, one with cruciform-heads, and iron gates to the south and east.