Blakeney United Reformed Church

The Blakeney United Reformed Church is a non-conformist chapel, dated 1849. It was built to replace an earlier chapel at Blakeney Hill, which opened in 1823. The chapel is constructed of squared and coursed stone, with ashlar quoins and dressings. The left-hand return and rear of the building are rendered, while the rear block features brick window dressings. The steeply pitched slate roof is hipped over the front chapel block and gabled over the rear schoolroom block. The design is primarily Classical in style, incorporating Gothic details.

The main facade is gabled, featuring pyramidal finials and pilaster buttresses at the ends. A debased classical porch with bootscrapers to the sides sits beneath a simple pediment with a cornice and finial. Double doors lead into the narthex, which is located beneath a gallery. Above the doors is a panel inscribed "INDEPENDENT CHAPEL," set within a semi-circular architraves with impost and key blocks. Tall windows with small panes and radiating heads are similarly treated, with moulded detailing below the pediment. The tympanum of the pediment contains an oval panel with the date 1849. Similar windows are present on the returns, with Gothic details to the heads on the left-hand side. A lower schoolroom range is positioned at the rear, featuring three smaller windows, graduated in size from the centre.

The interior features a moulded ceiling cornice and a dog-leg staircase with turned balustrades leading to the gallery. The gallery retains original pews with panelled backs and shaped ends, along with a panelled balcony front incorporating a Gothic frieze and full-height trefoil-headed panels. Octagonal piers with moulded bases and capitals support the gallery, with fluted upper sections. Panelled screen walls and doors are located in the narthex. The church retains a full set of original box pews and a pulpit set within a railed area. The rail is supported by wrought-iron stanchions with Gothic scrolls. The church is a remarkably complete and architecturally distinctive example of its type, and a prominent expression of non-conformist architecture in the Forest of Dean region.