Stroud Congregational Church

Stroud Congregational Church

A Congregational church built between 1835 and 1837, designed by Charles Baker of Painswick, with later alterations dating from 1851 and beyond. The building is faced in limestone ashlar.

The church is rectangular in plan with an apsidal north-west end and a stair tower to the south-east. It comprises two storeys with a gallery inserted at first-floor level. The first floor is supported by cast-iron columns manufactured by Jackman and Cooke of Gloucester. The cast-iron columns supporting the gallery are encased in plaster and may be of later date. Church fittings throughout are of oak and pine.

The façade is built in the Greek Revival style across three bays. The ground floor (basement in Classical terms) is faced in banded rustication and features a two-leaf panelled door at the centre with openings to each side, all beneath flat ashlar heads. A storey band forms the plinth to two pairs of fluted, engaged Ionic columns at first-floor level, supporting an entablature and pediment. These columns are symmetrically arranged either side of a wide central bay containing a Venetian window with Ionic order dressings of paired engaged columns with glazing between, supporting entablature on both sides. The flanking openings have flat heads and 12-over-12 pane timber sashes with plain relief panels above.

To the right corner, set slightly back from the main façade, stands a circular two-storey entrance hall and stair tower. This features a bowed, panelled two-leaf door with a five-pane fanlight. The moulded doorcase has engaged Tower of the Winds columns on each side. The ground floor is banded rustication whilst the first floor, above a deeply projecting cornice, is finely-jointed ashlar with fluted Corinthian pilasters, entablature and dentil cornice. A leaded dome surmounts the tower, topped with a glazed cupola and cross finial. The side and rear elevations are of coursed ashlar with tall round-arched windows to the first floor (the three in the rear apse are sealed) and square flat-arched openings to the ground floor with timber sashes.

The principal entrance is accessed from the stair tower, which contains a stone winder stair with cast-iron handrail, providing access to first-floor and second-floor (gallery) levels. At first-floor level, a timber-panelled lobby leads into the worship area, which comprises four bays plus an apse at the ritual west end. The space contains oak pews and an oak gallery supported on three sides by cast-iron columns encased in plaster, with the west end supported by an oak-panelled vestry. The 19th-century pews are numbered and fitted with brass umbrella holders at the ends. The walls below cill level are lined with pine wainscoting, much of which is diagonally-set. The south-west wall displays a Roll of Honour of 1919, executed as a timber triptych. The central panel is square with a moulded cornice and round pediment featuring a carved wreath in relief. It bears a St George Cross with a Tudor Rose to each corner, and is inscribed: IN SACRED MEMORY OF OUR MEN WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1919. NAMES "THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVER". The side panels are inscribed: THE FOLLOWING ALSO SERVED NAMES. The gallery features oak box pews and an organ loft in the apse end, next to which is a timber gallery stair with turned balustrade and handrail. The other sides of the gallery, dating from 1851, are supported on cast-iron columns with dentil detailing to the lower gallery front. Both gallery ends are supported on oak console brackets with relief panels to the gallery fronts.

The bay adjacent to the apse contains a circular oak pulpit of 1837 mounted on a two-stepped stage with attached oak balustrade. To the right are oak box pews for the choir. The pulpit features Classical decoration including engaged columns with Corinthian capitals, with steps to the rear fitted with a slender handrail and stick balusters. Behind this are opposing sets of stairs from the floor below, winding to both sides of the pulpit and lined to the rear by oak panelling to the vestry. The vestry panelling is hinged to allow former openings in the apse end wall to light the worship space. A former gas fitting is fixed to the panelling. The vestry contains timber partitioning, panelled doors and sealed fireplaces. The ceiling to the worship area is decoratively finished into polygonal panels and fitted with floral cast-iron ventilators.

Multiple entrances to the lower-level former schoolroom are provided: from the stair behind the pulpit, a semi-circular corridor in the apse, the stair tower and the lobby behind the central door in the façade. The lower floor is partly partitioned with modern facilities, having been refurbished in the early 21st century. The principal space features evenly-spaced cast-iron columns with bases in relief stamped: JACKMAN & COOKE / KINGSHOLM FOUNDRY / GLOUCESTER.

Pursuant to section 1(5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, it is declared that the aforementioned early 21st-century features, along with the lift and stair lift, are not of special architectural or historic interest.