United Reform Church And Hall With Attached Gates And Railings At Front

The United Reform Church and Hall, with its attached front gates and railings, comprises two main phases of building, alongside 20th-century alterations. The original chapel, dating from 1800, now serves as the church hall, while the main church was built between 1874 and 1875. The 1800 chapel is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, with some glazed brick and gauged red brick arches, and has a hipped Welsh slate roof. The 1874-5 chapel is of red brick with blue-brick bands and ashlar dressings, also with a Welsh slate roof.

The 1874-5 chapel is two storeys, three bays wide by five bays long, with a lower, single-storey, three-bay former chapel set back behind. An iron gate and railings run along the front, fixed to a dwarf brick wall with a stone coping. The 1874 chapel is designed in an Italianate style. The west elevation features a chamfered plinth and broad banded corner pilasters that support a pediment with a stepped soffit and a modillion cornice with ashlar coping. This is topped by a moulded obelisk with a decorative metal finial. Round-arched openings contain doors and windows, which have stepped brick reveals and continuous hoodmoulds carried on ashlar columns in niches with decorative capitals and ashlar plinths. These windows have cinquefoil-decorated imposts and keystones, with circular glazing bars to the windows and fanlights. Three steps lead to a triple doorway, featuring late-20th century part-glazed double doors and fanlights; central columns are set on plinths dated 1874 and 1974. The first-floor windows are offset below five linked windows. The right return is similar but plainer, with pilaster buttresses and stepped dentilled eaves. A projecting lower bay at the right end has a lean-to that links to the former chapel. The former chapel has three round-arched windows with margin glazing bars and radial glazing bars to the fanlights. A 20th-century entrance and porch have broken into the left window. An early-20th century, single-storey, gabled addition sits at the right end. The left return has a single-storey 1874-5 addition to the 1800 chapel, featuring its original door with flanking windows and a gable stack.

Inside the 1874-5 chapel is a horseshoe gallery supported on fluted columns with an anthemion-decorated rail, alongside original pews and cinquefoil-decorated dados. The altar podium has a panelled rail, and a wooden lectern has dwarf columns supporting a deep cornice. Attached to the front of the 1874-5 chapel are double gates and railings, decorated with a herring-bone and fleur-de-lis design. The attached gates and railings are fixed to a low brick wall with a stone coping. The building represents a good-quality 1870s Nonconformist chapel, retaining contemporary interior features, with the earlier chapel of 1800 attached.