English Congregational Church

English Congregational Church

A Gothic style congregational chapel built in rock-faced rubble stone with ashlar dressings and a steep slate roof with coped gable and crested ridge tiles.

The gabled front is prominently detailed. The gable apex contains a curved-sided triangle vent above a tall pointed traceried window of four cusped lights with three foiled circles over, all with bi-colour voussoirs. The gable descends low to the left over a pointed doorway with raised gabled coping and finial; the coping is oddly raked steeply upward to the right to join the side of an inner buttress. The doorway has double doors with notched cusping to the head and bi-colour voussoirs, with a small quatrefoil above.

A slender stepped buttress between the left and centre bays carries numerous set-offs and a gablet under a square finial with cross gables. The left angle has a similar finial rising from a gable kneeler. The right side features an extravagantly detailed slender tower rising to mid-height of the gable, carrying an octagonal ashlar fleche with a gabled open lower stage and a sharp ashlar spire above with weathervane. The tower has angle buttresses at both front angles with set-offs and a gable; the bases flank a doorway with cusped head and bi-colour voussoirs under a segmental-pointed arch with hood. Similar detail appears to the left side in the angle to the main front. An ashlar band above consists of two chamfer courses before two very acutely pointed traceried lights. Just under the fleche, the tower is broached to octagonal with cross-gabled caps on diagonal angles.

The six-bay side walls contain pointed single-light windows between buttresses and chamfered stone eaves. The openings nearest the façade end are small trefoils set high, while the remaining openings are tall pointed lancets. The rear gable has a tapered ashlar finial and blind trefoil in the apex. A metal-clad apsed roof of an organ-chamber is masked by a single-storey schoolroom across the rear with coped gables. The rear contains a four-window opening with buttresses between two-light windows with segmental-arched heads.

Interior: The broad interior contains a four-sided six-bay panelled roof on deep arch-braced trusses rising from decorative corbels. A large gallery at the entrance end features diagonal boarding arranged in triangles to the front, carried on a beam and joists, with the beam supported on small end corbels and a single squared timber upright with braces. A clock by H. J. Williams of Carmarthen is installed. The gallery has raked seating. Box pews in pine with vertical slats to the pew backs remain in place. A polygonal Gothic pulpit, moved to the left side from its original base, features trefoil panels with Gothic leaf scroll to the spandrels. An apsed organ recess contains a large pipe-organ by W. Charles of Bristol, with panels supporting the pipes angled to the ends with a taller centre section, all within timber frames having pierced quatrefoils to the top bars and spandrels beneath the centre. The pointed arched recess has plaster vaulting and coloured glass to the apex. A scroll around the arch bears raised letters in painted stucco reading "Enter Into His Gates With Thanksgiving And Into His Courts With Praise". Coloured glass appears in the front window. A stained glass window to the left side centre serves as a First World War Memorial window inscribed "Come Unto Me". The turret contains a high boarded ceiling and a narrow timber stair to the gallery.

The schoolroom has pointed four-panel doors and a small timber stage.