Church Of St Barnabas

The Church of St Barnabas began as a chapel of ease to St Petrox and is now used as a hostel for the homeless, a junk emporium, and with craft workshops. The nave and aisles were built in 1831 by the architect Joseph Lidstone, with the east end added in 1884 by George H Birch. The earlier fabric is limestone rubble with freestone dressings, while the later additions use snecked limestone with Bathstone details, all covered by a slate roof.

The church is built on a terrace above the road and features a wooden verandah sheltering the steps leading up to the church below the apse. The east end, facing Newcomen Road, is in a French neo-Romanesque style. It comprises square, twin turrets with open arcades below spires, connected by an open arcade reminiscent of Auvergne. A polygonal apse stands in front, with a lancet window on each facet, all linked by a continuous hoodmould and string course. To the right of the apse is a ground-floor window with Y-tracery, below two lancets with hoodmoulds. To the left, the east window of the south aisle is of two lights with Y-tracery. The main body of the church has four bays on each side with tall, two-light windows with simple tracery, and a similar three-light window in the west end. The west end gable has a castellated parapet from 1831.

Inside, the church has a relatively plain interior, with four-bay arcades to the aisles. The arcades use square columns of painted brick with nailhead ornament to the capitals. The aisles have boarded, flat ceilings, and the nave roof is boarded and carried on king post trusses. A tall stone chancel arch springs from moulded corbels, leading to a ribbed chancel roof. The walls are plastered with plain, panelled wainscotting in the aisles, and the floors are of stone flags in the nave and aisles, with parquet flooring in the chancel. The aisle windows contain patterns of opaque leaded glass, while the west window and chancel windows feature 19th-century stained glass. A low stone wall serves as a chancel screen.

The church contains 19th-century fittings. A timber screen against the west wall is arcaded with Gothic ornament, featuring painted texts and the Commandments. A plain, somewhat altered, timber gallery is located in the south aisle, with an infill below. The stone font is in Perpendicular style, with a clustered column stem to an octagonal bowl, decorated on its sides with quatrefoils carved with leafy motifs. Remaining elements include remnants of a timber pulpit and various plain pine benches. A single small, plain marble wall plaque is in the south aisle.