United Reformed Church And Adjoining School

The United Reformed Church and adjoining school were built in 1886 to designs by G.S. Bridgman, with H.P. Raddich as the contractor, as evidenced by the datestone. The buildings are constructed of local grey snecked limestone with bands of Bathstone and red sandstone, covered by a slate roof with crested ridge tiles.

The complex is situated on the corner of Dartmouth and Commercial Roads, with the chapel and school roofed along an east-west axis. The chapel fronts west onto Dartmouth Road and the school faces north. The chapel includes a southwest tower. The architectural style is Free Decorated Gothic.

The chapel’s gabled west front has a coped gable, a shallow gabled projection to the left, and a tower to the right. A large, four-light traceried window is centrally located, with a hoodmould and red sandstone apron. A shallow gabled porch with a shoulder-headed west doorway, featuring red sandstone detached shafts with carved capitals and a sexafoil in the tympanum, provides access. Flanking the porch are single-light shoulder-headed windows. The left projection contains a doorway with original plank doors and elaborate strap hinges; a decorative gable sits above the doorway, below a stone panel with blind roundel decoration, with a pair of lancet windows above. The square tower rises to an octagonal stage, which features a waterleaf-carved corbel frieze below a stone spire with contrasting bands of yellow and red stone. The tower's west face mirrors the west front’s design elements, with a doorway, sexafoil, roundel decoration, and a tall two-tier, two-light window with plate tracery, a trefoil in the head, and a frieze of blind cinquefoils and polished stones. The south side of the chapel has buttresses with set-offs and five windows, with gables above the eaves on two windows. A toothed red brick frieze sits below a moulded stone cornice. Tall two-light windows, with two transoms, are spaced along the elevation, with the upper lights having shouldered heads. The school is linked to the chapel by a small porch block. The school’s gabled main room projects slightly forward, featuring a tall, arched, four-light mullioned window with moulded mullions, three transoms, and decorative brickwork below. A doorway to the right has a shouldered doorframe and deep overlight with a hoodmould. The interior of the church was remodelled in the 20th century. This is an imposing group of buildings by G.S. Bridgman, a developer architect responsible for many buildings in late 19th century Paignton.