Wesleyan Methodist Church and Attached Walls and Railings is a Grade II listed building in the Somerset local planning authority area, England. First listed on 29 July 1976. Church.

Wesleyan Methodist Church and Attached Walls and Railings

WRENN ID
twisted-grate-hyssop
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Somerset
Constituency
Yeovil MP: Adam Dance (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
29 July 1976
Type
Church
Address
Wesleyan Methodist Church and Attached Walls and Railings, Fore Street, Chard Town
OS grid reference
ST 323 085
Coordinates
50.87276, -2.96231
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Wesleyan Methodist Church, along with its attached walls and railings, was built in 1895 by R Curwen. It is constructed of Flemish bond brick with stone bands and Bath stone dressings, with weatherboarding to the clerestory, and has a crested slate roof. The building is in the Geometrical Gothic Revival style.

The church has a symmetrical facade, dominated by a full-height coloured glass window within a gable. Double doors are located in set-forward gabled porches to each side, featuring pointed arches and quatrefoil tympana. Flanking these are cross wings with 2-light trefoiled windows with cinquefoil plate under pointed-arch hoodmoulds. At the rear, the east and west elevations feature coloured leaded 3-light windows with stone mullions and trefoil heads to the aisles, and similar wooden ones to the clerestory. A Sunday School and offices are located to the rear of the chapel.

Inside, a pointed arch with foliate capitals and engaged shafts defines the canted apse. The nave has a timber arcade supported by joists with shallow-arched bracing, and a quatrefoil frieze. The roof is arch-braced, with 2-centred arches to the bay flanking a rebuilt gallery. Aisle lean-to roofs have corbels supporting timber knees. All windows feature coloured glass with Art Nouveau patterns. Fittings include an organ, a wrought-iron sanctuary rail, a Gothic-style pulpit, and benches with a quatrefoil pierced dado rail. A rear entrance hall contains a turned baluster staircase, and a schoolroom has a plank dado, gallery, and a mock hammer-beam roof.

The attached walls and railings to the front are considered subsidiary features.

Local climate

Wesleyan Methodist Church and Attached Walls and Railings receives an average of 790 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 56% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 65% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 30 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 65% of listed buildings. Of these, 11 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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