Masters Church

980/0/10097 REGENT STREET 30-APR-01 Masters Church

GV II

Congregationalist Chapel, 1851, by Henry Masters of Bristol. Pennant stone random rubble with Bath stone dressings, Welsh slate roof. Large aisled chapel with polygonal (liturgical) east end and flanking towers to (liturgical) west end. EXTERIOR: West end arched door of diagonally set plank construction, set between stone piers and blind lancet windows, below a moulded string course and three stepped lancet windows with pierced trefoil decoration above. The flanking buttressed two-stage towers have blocked openings within canopies at ground level and lancets at upper level, below corbel tables. The (liturgical) west tower is capped with an open octagonal spire with canopied arcade: that on the (liturgical) east side has been removed. Angled iron plates in the side corners of the towers at plinth level. Five bay side elevations with projecting aisles: blocked lancet windows at ground level, paired lancet openings at clerestory height. Projecting polygonal apse at east end with two orders of lancet openings and a projecting chimney stack on the (liturgical) north-east face. INTERIOR: nave and aisles of five bays with pointed arched arcades on octagonal piers. Open timber king-post roof. Polygonal apse formerly with organ and choir; gallery at west end. Floorboards, pews and fittings removed at time of inspection. HISTORY: this chapel was built to accommodate the enlarged congregation attending Whitfield's Tabernacle. It was closed for worship in 1983. The building has group value with the Grade I-listed Whitfield Tabernacle and forms a significant part of a historically significant Methodist enclave. REFERENCES: G. Eayrs, Wesley and Kingswood and its Free Churches (1911); RCHME, An Inventory of Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting-Houses Central England (1986), 85-87.

Listing NGR: ST6488273920