Baptist Chapel

BARNSTAPLE

SS5533 BOUTPORT STREET 684-1/6/73 (West side) 31/08/88 Baptist Chapel

GV II

Baptist chapel. 1860. By RD Gould; C20 addition at rear. Squared stone rubble with dressings of limestone; brick relieving arches, painted white, to windows. Left gable wall slate-hung. Slated roofs; stair turret at left-hand has a small rendered chimney to left of front wall. Plan consists of a large oblong room with galleries along rear and side walls; rear gallery and space below now partitioned off. At left-hand end an entrance lobby with stair turret to left of it. 7-window range with 2 tiers of round-arched openings. All have moulded archivolts terminating on small carved brackets, being linked at cill level and springing level of the arches by bands of limestone. Doorway in each end opening has 8-panelled door, the 2 lowest panels flush; fanlight with radial glazing bars. The other openings contain small-paned windows, 16 panes in lower tier, 20 panes above, all with radial bars in the window-head. A lot of old glass survives, especially in the upper tiers. Small panels carved with 4-leaved flowers between heads of openings in lower tier. Bracketed stone eaves cornice. The stair turret to left has a lower eaves level and contains a small round-arched window in each of its 2 storeys; plain chamfered surrounds, 8-pane fixed sashes, the top 2 panes shaped to fit the head of the window. INTERIOR: 1988 list description describes original galleries as surviving, carried on cast-iron columns of quatrefoil section with patterned, open-work brackets at the top. Gallery fronts (possibly later) had deal panelling with ornate iron rails above. Galleries re-seated in 1896. At south end, choir loft had similar panelled front; at the rear of it an organ of 1884 with painted pipes. In front of and below it an elaborate pulpit of 1933 with carved Gothic detail. 2 large, decorated chandelier bosses on the ceiling. Adjoining the chapel on the right-hand side are, successively, the hall and schoolrooms (qv) and the former Minister's residence, May House (qv). (Gardiner WF: Barnstaple, 1837-97: Barnstaple: 1897-: 101; 1986-).

Listing NGR: SS5578033513