Prescott Baptist Chapel

CULMSTOCK PRESCOTT ST 01 SE 9/61 Prescott Baptist Chapel - 5.4.66 GV II* Baptist church. According to an inscription painted onto the front porch the original chapel built in 1715, was rebuilt in 1785 and renovated in 1892. Some furniture from the original chapel is incorporated. Plastered stone rubble; slate roof. Plan: chapel on a north-south axis. Entrance through south end into an entrance lobby under the rear gallery. Gallery round 3 sides and pulpit on fourth side against the north end wall. Baptistry in floor in front of pulpit. Exterior: the entrance (south) front has a symmetrical front. Although the window frames and doors date from 1892 the openings are original. Wide central doorway contains panelled double doors behind a late C19 timber gabled porch. It is flanked by round-headed windows and there is another above; all contain 3 round-headed lights. Another similar each side towards the north end and the north has 4 windows, the middle two higher than the outer ones. The latter windows contain patterns of translucent leaded glass. The exterior plaster is lightly incised as ashlar. The roof is gable-ended. Good Interior: it is aisled by rows of octagonal oak posts which support the gallery fronts and rise to support an arcade plate which is boxed in with a moulded cornice. A segmental plaster barrel vault spans the centre and there are half vaults either side over the galleries. The galleries have fielded panel fronts. The baptistry has rounded ends and steps down from the west side. Early C18 communion table with turned legs. The pulpit is late C19 except for the ornate back-board which dates from 1785. The ground floor benches are late C19 but those in the galleries are C18 and some have been reused from the early C18 chapel. A couple of old graffitis are dated 1719 and 1721. Ornate wrought bootscrapes of 1785. The 1892 renovation retained a great deal of the 1785 chapel. As Stell reports "the interior remains a notable example of unusally elaborate country craftmansnip". Source: C. Stell Inventory of Non-Conformist Chapels RCHM, (forthcoming).

Listing NGR: ST0913514328