Church Cottage Manse Moravian Church

A Moravian chapel with attached manse and cottages, built between 1792 and 1794, red brick with ashlar dressings and stone slate roofs. The Moravian Settlement at East Tytherton was founded by John Cennick, a Methodist who evangelized in North Wiltshire, and the chapel was originally founded in 1742. The community joined the Moravian Brethren in 1745. The chapel, manse, and cottages were rebuilt, replacing earlier structures from 1743-4.

The chapel is a single-story building, continuous with the manse to its left and with Church Cottage to its right. It has a rubble plinth, flush quoins to the right, and a coped east gable with a small hexagonal timber bellcote. The three-window front has round-headed windows with small panes in ashlar surrounds, raised keystones, and imposts. Tall windows flank a stilted lunette above a large ashlar porch, added in 1882 with double doors in a Roman Doric doorcase. The inner doorcase is segment-headed with panelling around the door. An eroded memorial plaque and a datestone reading AD 1792 are set below a window. Two large arched windows are at the rear.

The manse, which is continuous with the chapel to the left, is built in Flemish bond brickwork, contrasting with the English bond of the chapel. It is a two-story building with end stacks, a rubble plinth, ashlar band, and a brick dentilled eaves course. It has a three-window front with twelve-pane sashes in ashlar surrounds, paired on each side and single to the first floor above a six-panel door in a raised moulded surround with a hood on brackets.

Church Cottage, to the right, originally had a two-window front, but has been extended to the east to incorporate a church room and a flat. The original section has an ashlar plinth and band, brick dentilled eaves, fifteen-pane sashes (paired to the right and single to the left), and a six-panel door in a raised moulded surround with a hood on brackets. A brick stack is located at the original east end. The addition beyond has a fifteen-pane sash above and a twelve-pane sash and a four-panel door in a plain raised surround below, both with a hood on brackets.

The interior of the chapel is plain, with an east gallery supported on two iron columns. The gallery front is panelled and broken forward in the centre. The chapel interior was altered in 1882 when the porch was added and the pulpit was removed from the rear wall. Church Cottage was apparently the girls’ boarding school, added in 1793-4 and extended or altered later.