Hermon Baptist Church including forecourt walls and steps

Hermon Baptist Church

This is a Baptist chapel with a painted stuccoed front elevation, rubble stone sides, and slate roof. The building dates from 1776 with a major remodelling in 1832, and further additions in 1906-07.

The front elevation is notable for its fine, large open-pedimental design, with the pediment deeply overhanging on paired brackets. Within the centre arch is a large oval gable vent panel featuring a cross within quadrants of Adamesque fan-patterned plaster. The cross is pierced with tiny lozenges and a centre circle. Two fine first-floor 9-pane sashes are set under arched blind fans of similar Adamesque plasterwork, recessed within broad arched surrounds with long sills.

The ground floor features a fine recessed portico of four bays, comprising three Roman Doric columns and a half-column at each end, carrying a full entablature. The portico is reached by three broad slate steps. Within the portico are encaustic tiles and a six-bay panelled ceiling carried on arches from three pilaster responds and two outer console brackets. The middle arch is panelled with a rosette. On each side of the pilasters is a fine arch-headed door with a blind traceried fanlight and double three-panel doors with fielded panels. At each end, eight slate steps rise to a landing with six-panel doors providing access to the chapel gallery.

The centre is framed by windowless sides that rise to support the returns of the open pediment. The rusticated ground floor carries a full entablature over from the centre, with stucco above. The elevation is roughly square, with inset square datestones bearing '1776' to the left and '1832' to the right.

The side elevations are of rubble stone. Each side originally comprised two storeys with a three-window range of 12-pane sashes with stone voussoirs and tooled stone sills. The left side has an added section dating from 1906 with three first-floor 12-pane sashes, one to the right of a door and two to the left. A modern single-storey room has been added against the south end of the south-west elevation.

The forecourt is enclosed by a stuccoed wall curving inwards at the centre around a flight of six steps from the pavement to gatepiers with double iron gates leading to the raised forecourt. Old photographs show a different earlier arrangement with iron railings on each side and a wrought iron overthrow between stuccoed gatepiers on the street line.

The interior is mostly of 1832 date, though the pulpit and south end with organ gallery were added in 1906-07. The ceiling is a fine original composition featuring a swirled Adamesque centre rose bordered by swirled acanthus, a plain outer ring, and then a double border with nine square panels each containing an X-shaped leaf-motif.

The three-sided gallery has vertical panels with slightly rebated corners. Seven wooden columns with bases raised above pew-height support the structure. A fine set of painted grained panelled box-pews occupies three blocks: the outer blocks comprise two raked inward-facing pews, whilst the centre ones are raked upwards towards the rear, first one step and then three steps under the gallery, with bench-ends ramped up in curves. One pew at the front has been lost where a total immersion font was inserted. Panelling encloses the sides of the pew block.

The pulpit and small platform are of remarkable painted wood construction. The platform is balustraded with curved angles and is reached by a curving flight of steps from the right with a scrolled rail. The pulpit itself projects on a wine-glass type stem consisting of a single Ionic short column with carved acanthus-leaf to the outswept underside. It is square in plan, panelled, with rebated concave angles, the panels matching those on the gallery.

The 1906 organ gallery behind the pulpit features an openwork iron frontal to a double-curve profile. The ironwork was made by William Isaac of Carmarthen. The gallery contains a plain recess for an organ by Grey and Davison in a painted panelled case, probably of the earlier 19th century, which was brought from Shrewsbury. Behind the chapel are rooms and a hall added in 1906.