United Reform Church Including Front Area Wall And Railings To South

The United Reformed Church, along with its associated front area wall and railings to the south, was originally built in 1833, with substantial remodelling in 1869 and the addition of a Sunday school in 1922. The church is constructed from dressed stone rubble with limestone dressings to the front, brick dressings to the rear, a rendered west side, and brick for the Sunday school on the east side. The roof is slate, hipped at the rear, while the Sunday school has Bridgewater double Roman pantiles.

The church’s plan consists of a rectangular auditorium with an entrance located under a gallery at the south end. In 1869, the south front was given a new classical façade, and the interior was refurnished. A Sunday school, matching the classical style of the main front, was added to the right (east) side in 1922.

The two-storey south front features a gabled design with a 1:3:1 bay arrangement, the central bay being distinguished by a raised open pediment and pilasters. A central round-headed doorway is flanked by pilasters and has smaller round-headed sidelights, surmounted by a string course and a tripartite window on the first floor. This window has a riband inscribed "Congregational Church built 1833, rebuilt 1869" and a rounded top in the pediment. Flanking bays feature round-headed windows. The Sunday school to the right is similar in design but lower, lacking first-floor windows and featuring a plaque commemorating those who served and fell in the Great War 1914-18. The west side of the church has three tall round-headed windows and a moulded cast-iron gutter with lion masks. The rear elevation showcases two pointed arch windows with Y-tracery on the first floor, and a 12-pane sash window to the right of the doorway. Iron railings stand in front of a low stone wall, punctuated by arrow-headed shafts and small standards with finials.

Inside, the gallery at the south end is likely original, with a panelled front and slender cast-iron and wooden columns. The interior features a plain plastered ceiling and walls, with a moulded plaster three-bay arcade at the north end, the larger central arch situated behind a panelled and pilastered wooden rostrum. An organ is located in the northeast corner, and there are late 19th-century benches with round-headed ends.