Methodist Church

TORQUAY

SX9063 OLD MILL ROAD, Chelston 885-1/17/333 (North side) Methodist Church

GV II

Methodist chapel. 1908 (datestone). Rock-faced local red sandstone with Bathstone dressings, yellow brick dressings to hall to rear; natural slate roof, stone slates to spire. Gothic style, a conscious foil to the parish church of St Luke, Warren Hill (qv), across the valley. PLAN: Chancel, nave, 5-bay north aisle; south-east tower; west end hall roofed at right-angles. EXTERIOR: East end gabled with a moulded doorway with tympanum carved with trefoil containing date; flanking lancet windows. Triplet of one-light traceried windows above. Set-back buttresses to the right with pinnacle gabled on 4 sides with spinelet finial. Tower to the left square on plan broached to octagonal belfry stage and tall pyramidal roof with stone slates; tower has trefoil-headed windows. Buttressed north aisle with lean-to roof and one-light traceried windows. Westernmost bay gabled to the front with a 2-light window. South elevation similar. 2-window link block to hall is 2 storeys with crank-headed windows on each side. Hall crosswing has large 4-light crank-headed windows to gabled north and south ends and one-window elevations to the west. Doorway to hall on south side in link block. INTERIOR: Not inspected but contains complete set of ornate Art Nouveau glass. Chelston, a suburb of Torquay, is a well-preserved C19 development with detached villas and later terraces built on picturesque hilly ground. The spire of the Methodist church is an important feature.

Listing NGR: SX9029063934