Congregational Church

SS 70 NW 4/84

LAPFORD Congregational Church

II Congregational church. Circa 1850. Purple mudstone, squared and laid to uneven courses to front and tending to rubble to rear; granite dressings; coated slate roof.

Simple Gothick chapel; a gable-ended rectangular block with entrance under gallery and porch on narrow southeast facing gabled front, and vestry projecting from left (southwest) side rear. Three-window gable front with chamfered plinth, flanking diagonal buttresses and plain granite coping to gable. Windows are tall lancets with granite sills and pointed arch heads and contain original sashes with glazing bars which follow Gothick pattern at the top. Central window is smaller and set higher above the front porch; it has diagonal buttresses, top dripcourse, embattled parapet and tall two-centred outer arch. Elliptical headed doorway contains double doors with moulded cover strips in Gothick pattern. Each side has three lancet sashes with glazing bars similar to those on front, and vestry has another smaller version. Rear wall has a Bathstone oculus with plate tracery comprising a central circle surrounded by six others.

Mostly original interior. Moulded cornice to high ceiling. Rear oculus contains leaded coloured glass and has moulded plaster hood with floral labels and painted text below. Rear gallery has blind Gothick arcading and is supported on moulded posts with broad spandrels and cut out trefoils. Box pews, rail, rostrum and organ in similar style.

Listing NGR: SS7334608490