King’s Church (former Congregational Chapel and Schoolroom)

The King’s Church, formerly a Congregational Chapel and Schoolroom, was opened in March 1809. It was re-fronted between 1865 and 1866 in the French Romanesque style, designed by J P Pritchett of York. It is now a King’s Church.

The building is constructed of fair-faced polychrome brickwork, including yellow stock bricks, with ashlar dressings, cement rendered side and rear elevations, and Welsh slate roofs with grey ridge tiles. It has a rectangular plan.

The chapel’s main elevation is a two-storey, three-bay design, raised on a chamfered and rendered brick plinth, with stock brick piers projecting from the front gable. An attached single-bay school room is located to the left. The tall, gabled central bay is flanked by lean-to bays creating aisles. The ground floor has a framed and ledged double door in each outer bay, with elaborate wrought iron hinges, beneath a semi-circular polychrome brick arch supported on carved ashlar colonettes, with moulded bases and decorative volute impost stones featuring a moulded cornice. A brick band runs across the building at impost level and acts as a sill band. A central four-bay arcaded leaded window sits above the doors, featuring semi-circular polychrome brick arches resting on ashlar colonettes. A string course is formed by another brick band above the doors. A large plate tracery rose window is positioned in the central bay, set within a circular polychrome brick surround with eight diamond-set leaded panels and an ashlar quatrefoil centre. This window is flanked by foiled oculi windows in matching surrounds that illuminate the aisles. The school room has a three-bay arcaded window to the ground floor and a two-bay arcaded window to the first floor. A secondary two-light casement window with a segmental brick arch has been inserted at first-floor level, tightly against the brick pier of the south aisle. The chapel’s gabled roof and the school room’s semi-hipped roof both have saw-tooth brick cornices and ashlar coping.