Beaford Methodist Church, Chapel Cottage And Adjoining Railings

Methodist chapel with adjoining manse and railings, on the north-east side of Exeter Road at Beaford.

Built in 1838 and enlarged and probably altered in 1869, with further minor internal alterations of the 1930s and minor late 20th-century additions. The exterior is rendered, probably over stone rubble and lined as ashlar to the front. The buildings have gable-ended Welsh-slate roofs with tiled ridge cresting, with a lean-to roof over the school room at the rear. A brick end stack serves the left side. Cast-iron railings mounted on a low rendered wall front the property.

The chapel occupies the right side of the composition with its front entrance at the right-hand end. The adjoining manse to the left is a one-room plan structure with an integral end stack and entrance to the right. A school room was added to the rear of the chapel in 1869. The 1869 alterations probably include the gabled porch to the chapel and the railings adjoining the front. A porch to the manse and a minor outshut addition to the left-hand end were probably added at some point in the 20th century.

The chapel is in a Gothick style. The chapel and manse feature flanking pilaster strips. The chapel has two Gothick small-paned windows (4 by 5 panes) with old glass, curved intersecting tracery and slate cills. The doorway to the right has a 19th-century door, probably dating from around 1869, with four recessed moulded panels and a beaded wooden frame. A gabled porch with a segmental-arched entrance and scalloped barge boards has been added to the chapel.

The two-storey former manse has sash windows to each floor with three panes to each leaf, probably replaced around 1869 based on their horns, with slate cills. A 19th-century boarded door to the right has a beaded frame. A probably 20th-century porch with a boarded gable has been added. A small Gothick window on the right-hand gable end, which lights the gallery, has small panes (4 by 5) and intersecting tracery.

A lean-to addition at the rear of the chapel has a boarded door in its side wall. The cast-iron railings to the front are mounted on a low wall with chamfered stone coping. A pair of cast-iron gates, one leading to each doorway, is flanked by cast-iron standards with moulded finials. The railings bear superscribed lettering reading "T. LAKE & CO. BARNSTAPLE". Walls link to the chapel at each end.

Within the chapel, the walls are plastered with splayed jambs to the windows. Two small-paned windows (4 by 5 panes) of 1838 in the rear wall have curved intersecting tracery. The ceiling probably dates from the 1930s, replacing an earlier ceiling (probably of 1838) with a central plaster rose. The ceiling is higher over the gallery.

Most of the fittings probably date from the 1869 internal remodelling. A west gallery of 1838 is supported on two wooden Tuscan columns with pilasters at each end. Its front features a beaded lower edge, raised and fielded panels divided by half columns, and a moulded top rail. Two central panels are pierced. The gallery has raked seating and a staircase to the rear, probably of 1869, with a closed string, rectangular-section stick balusters, and a turned foot newel with finial.

A reading desk at the left-hand end, probably dating from 1869, has three panels to its front with the centre broken forward, and steps up from each side, each with a closed string, rectangular-section stick balusters, and a square foot newel with chamfered corners. A panelled dado is partly replaced by a later matchboarded dado, probably of 1869. Mid-19th-century benches are present. A four-panelled mid-19th-century door provides access to the school room at the rear. Most of the woodwork displays 19th-century graining.

The original 1838 chapel was built at a cost of £220 16 shillings, according to contemporary accounts.