Sheppards Barton Baptist Church And School Rooms And Forecourt Area Railings And Gates And Gate Piers

The Baptist chapel and school rooms at Sheppards Barton were built in 1850, with the school rooms added around 1860, designed by J. Davis. The building is constructed of coursed limestone with ashlar dressings, and has a slate hipped roof with a parapet at the front; the school rooms feature rusticated ashlar and red brick.

The chapel is of Italianate style and presents a two-storey, 1:3:1 bay facade to the southeast, with a parapet and cornice. The flanking bays are slightly advanced, and the central recess is supported by large console brackets. The ground floor features a three-bay arcaded entrance, with imposts extending to round-arch windows. The first floor has five double-recessed round-arch windows with moulded archivolts, keystones, continuous impost mouldings and balustrades to the cills, containing round-headed sash windows with arched glazing bars. The recessed porch has moulded fielded panel double doors with cornices in the side returns. The sides of the building display round-headed first floor windows and segmental ground floor windows.

A forecourt area is enclosed by railings, gates, and stone gate piers with arched panels and caps.

The school rooms, at the rear (northwest) facing Wine Street, have a pedimented gabled front. The ground floor is rusticated ashlar with arched recesses; a wide segmental arch at the centre contains three round-headed windows, while flanking recesses house doorways with moulded segmental-headed overlights, keyblocks, and panelled doors. The first floor is of red brick with stone pilasters, supported by moulded modillions above with a segmental arch in the gable and tripartite round-headed windows, the flanking bays with smaller round-headed windows; all are sash windows with margin glazing bars.

The chapel interior features a gallery on three sides supported on thin iron posts, though much of the front panelling has been removed. The interior also has dado panelling, formerly with seating and a rostrum, the latter of which was salvaged from an earlier chapel built in 1708. The auditorium ceiling is divided into compartments and includes a central skylight and an elliptical arch recess on the northwest side. Wall monuments from the former chapel are present, commemorating John Sheppard (1806), Thomas Bunn (1775), and the Rev Edward Cooper Daniell (1828). The first-floor school room has exposed arch-braced trusses resting on corbels.