Methodist Church Including Front Steps And Railings

This is a Methodist chapel, built in 1816 and altered in 1871 and 1981. The 1871 alterations were undertaken by WG Couldrey, Son & Partners, Paignton. The chapel has solid, rendered walls with some exposed stone rubble in the side walls and a hipped slated roof. It follows a simple oblong plan, containing an entrance lobby and gallery staircases on the south side, a rebuilt rostrum on the north side (dating from 1981), and galleries on the remaining three sides.

The building is of a Classical style, presented over two storeys raised on a high basement. The front facade is five bays wide, featuring five windows. A round-headed entrance doorway has panelled double doors with an incised key pattern, panelled reveals, and an elaborated cobweb fanlight. A deep Doric porch with eccentric capitals, likely of iron, stands in front of the doorway, topped by a flat modillioned hood with a foliated boss on the soffit. This porch sits on a raised terrace accessed by stone steps to the left and right. At the base of each flight of steps are pairs of square gate piers with stepped pyramidal caps, and simple iron gates, which are likely replacements. An original iron railing with fluted uprights and standards bearing spear-head finials runs between the gates and across the front of the terrace.

The facade is organized into five bays, flanked and separated by pilaster strips. Raised bands are present above each storey, breaking forward over the strips, with an upper band surmounted by a parapet. The windows are round-arched, with three large panes in the centre and six margin panes at either side, incorporating radial bars in the head. Two windows flanking the doorway have a slightly different glazing pattern; these were originally doorways, now featuring eight small panes in the centre with eight margin panes at either side, radial bars in the head and a dentil-course beneath them. Round-arched windows are found in both side walls, across both storeys, foreshortened in the lower tier, with similar glazing to the front but featuring smaller middle panes and including some old glass.

The interior was significantly altered in the late 19th century, including new seating and gallery fronts, and again in 1981 when the entrance lobby and rostrum were remodelled. The iron columns that support the galleries, which curve at the north end, are original. Late 19th century panelled gallery fronts feature diagonal planking and scrolled iron uprights. A large round clock, inscribed MINCHINTON. BRIXHAM, is fixed to the north gallery front. A panelled dado is likely original to the ground storey, and there is also a panelled ceiling. The organ, currently located in the north gallery, was newly installed around 1933, as evidenced by a photograph kept within the church.