Ebenezer Congregational Chapel

The Ebenezer Congregational Chapel, built in 1808 and significantly altered in 1844 and 1880, is constructed of coursed, square, rock-faced grey stone with extensive yellow terracotta dressings. The building exhibits a Romanesque style, with the ground floor slightly projected and featuring a large arched doorway containing a keystone, panelled double doors, and narrow round-arched sidelights, all accentuated by an impost band. The upper façade is set back upon a terracotta sloping plinth and mirrors the ground floor’s motif with a large round-arched central window and narrow sidelights, but with longer proportions. This upper window contains heavy wooden plate tracery of three lights and a large rose. The arch of the window is inscribed with “Congregational Chapel”. Above the window is a pedimental gable featuring an apex finial, heavily moulded coping, and a tympanum plaque that reads “Ebenezer Built 1808, Rebuilt 1844, Enlarged 1880”. The quadrant curved walls are of plain stucco, punctuated by a very long arched stair light on each side, along with arched hoods and raised bands at sill and impost levels. A stone parapet is topped by terracotta plinth and coping.

A shallow forecourt is enclosed by iron railings set upon a low, coped wall supported by square piers. The inner piers are rendered and whitewashed, corniced with ball finials, while the outer piers are of coursed stone.

The spacious interior, largely dating to 1880, retains earlier side windows. A large, curved-ended gallery is supported by seven thin iron columns with florid capitals, featuring a coved underside and a timber front with an inset continuous pierced iron section beneath the handrail. Decorative star and leaf-scroll motifs adorn the ironwork. Curved gallery pews and unusual barrel heads to the tops of the gallery stairs are also present. The ceiling is coved with a dentilled cornice and three large roses. An elaborate High Victorian Gothic pulpit, complete with a stilted arched frontal and balustrades leading to stairs on each side, dominates one area. A very large organ, installed in 1925, covers the rear wall and obscures the original rear windows.