Congregational Church

GRASSINGTON GARRS LANE SE 0064- 0164 (south side, off) 8/17 Congregational Church. II Chapel. Dated 1811. Gritstone rubble, rendered on front and left return, graduated stone slate roof. A tall 2-storey building of 3 x 3 bays: C20 windows throughout. Entrance front: incised angle pilasters. Board doors to left and right, each having fanlight with radial glazing bars and round- arched architraves with tie-stone jambs, keystone and hoodmould. Rectangular window between them in stone surround, a plaque above with the inscription "Congregational Church AD 1811" under a sun-ray moulding. 3 windows in plain surrounds to upper storey; stone gutter brackets, kneelers and gable coping, short ridge stack to right. Left and right returns: 2 tiers of 3 rectangular windows the same size as those to entrance front. Interior: both entrances are into a boarded inner porch with a wooden staircase opening off, giving access to the balcony. An inner door opens into the chapel, with raised platform on the north-east side and 6 slender cast-iron columns supporting the balcony on the other 3 sides. The balcony is original, with raised panels, fluted pilasters and dentilled cornice. The balcony area is now closed off from the main body of the hall but retains its 5 or 6 tiers of benches and pews with balustraded partitions and fielded panels to the doors. There is a memorial on the north wall to Robert Harper, the minister reponsible for the building, who died in 1829 after 40 years in the ministry. Rendering possibly applied when the infants school added to rear in 1857. Non-conformity grew rapidly in Grassington after John Wesley's visits in 1780-82. The chapel was built by the Independents and the first service held on Christmas Day 1811, a period when the population was expanding rapidly due to the influx of leadminers to the Yarnbury mines. S. Brookes, A History of Grassington, 1979, p49.

Listing NGR: SE0035264062