Methodist Church Including Schoolrooms And Hall

Methodist Church including schoolrooms and hall, High Street, Bideford

Built in 1912–13, this Methodist church was designed by W Beddoes Rees of Cardiff. It stands on the south side of High Street and represents a confident expression of Arts and Crafts Gothic style applied to a Nonconformist place of worship.

The front elevation is constructed of rough-faced, grey and brown coursed Welsh stone rubble with limestone (probably Bath stone) dressings. Side and rear walls are rendered with limestone and cream-brick dressings. The roof is slate with pierced red crested ridge-tiles, and cream-brick chimneys rise from the rear. The building is oblong in plan with galleries on the north, east and west sides. Behind the church lie schoolrooms, followed by a hall set at right-angles to the main building.

The front façade is dominated by a gabled centrepiece flanked by octagonal buttresses that rise almost to the apex of the gable. Lower battlemented wings extend at either side with steeply-pitched hipped roofs facing sideways. The centrepiece features a moulded doorway with pointed arch and double plank doors fitted with ornate iron handles and strap-hinges. On either side of the doorhead is a band of limestone panels with pointed, cinquefoiled arches; the second panel from each end is glazed. Above this sits a large traceried 7-light window with pointed arch. The mullions flanking the three centre lights are developed into buttresses that cut through the hood-mould and turn into six-sided shafts, rising above the roof-line and finished with capitals and scroll-buttressed finials. The centre of the gable contains a niche with cusped ogee arch, and above it at the apex stands a large foliated finial. The octagonal buttresses are banded with limestone, topped with trefoil-headed panels and ogee caps with ball-finials.

The wings have plain, tapered ashlar diagonal buttresses. Doorways and doors match those of the centre. The upper stage features bands of traceried windows: five lights at the front and three at the sides. Across the base of the front runs a series of memorial plaques in blue Forest of Dean stone.

The side-walls of the church have cream-brick buttresses and two rows of two-light limestone windows with blind trefoiled arches to the lights. Both front and side windows contain patterned coloured glass. The windows of the schoolrooms and hall are mostly plain with cream-brick surrounds. The west gable-wall of the hall, visible from Providence Row, has a doorway and door matching those at the front of the church. Above it is a stone window with pointed arch, two mullions and patterned coloured glass. Mock timber-framing appears in the apex of the gable, with plain bargeboards.

The interior is very well-preserved. Galleries are supported on cast-iron columns with moulded caps and bowed, patterned cast-iron fronts. From the side-galleries rise further columns with foliated caps, supporting four-centred arches that carry the main roof. The ceiling is barrel-vaulted with panelling on both ribs and the spaces between. The apse has piers with moulded imposts from which springs a four-centred arch; the piers are decorated with traceried Gothic panels. An elaborate wooden rostrum combines Gothic and Georgian-style details. The screen to the vestibule and several doors are half-glazed with patterned coloured glass.

The schoolrooms contain two staircases with turned balusters, though they were not inspected in detail.

The memorial stones were laid on 26 June 1912 and the church was formally opened on 2 July 1912.