Church of St Mary the Virgin

A pre-fabricated, corrugated iron clad missionary church, brought in from elsewhere and re-erected here in 1914.

MATERIALS: the building is set on a brick base and has a timber frame clad in corrugated galvanised iron, painted a matt black. It has a tiled, pitched roof with decorative gable-end terracotta finials and decoratively carved timber barge boards set under the eaves.

PLAN: it has a rectangular plan with a small projecting entrance porch attached to the east, which incorporates a small vestry cupboard accessed from the inside of the church.

EXTERIOR: the south-east side elevation, with its full height projecting porch, is blind. The inside of the porch is timber clad and a four-panelled door gives access to the church. A three-light timber casement window with two horizontal top swing windows above and a rectangular fixed light in the apex survive to the north-east gable end. The south-west gable end has the same window arrangement, though the windows are later timber replacements. Here the fixed light above has a small bell-cote hanging over it. The north-west side elevation has two of the same three-light windows with top swing lights above, though they have been partially replaced as before.

INTERIOR: its fully timber clad interior survives remarkably well, with the majority of its fixtures and fittings surviving in situ, including for example its timber panelled doors, the small vestry, the timber pews in the nave, a Bible lectern and cast iron oil wall lamp in the sanctuary at its north-east end, and the 1930s electric wall heaters and Bakelite light switches.