Survey Data
Reg No
40402804
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Social
Original Use
Church/chapel
Historical Use
School
Date
1835 - 1840
Coordinates
271215, 302752
Date Recorded
07/08/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestandind four-bay double-height Presbyterian church, built 1836, having recessed entrance bay to north and two-bay two-storey school wing to rear. Now disused. Hipped slate roof, rendered chimneystack to gable extension, sections of cast-iron rainwater goods. Ruled-and-lined rendered walls to front and south elevations, having cut-stone quoins to front corners. Cut stone plaque with moulded frame to centre of front elevation inscribed 'A.C / MDCCCXXXVI'. Historic roughcast rendered walls to north and rear elevations. Row of pointed arch multiple pane timber windows in stone surrounds with intersecting switch-line tracery to heads, similar windows to rear, pair of pointed windows to south gable having margin panes, coloured glass and X-divisions to head, all externally boarded up. Pointed arch door opening having square-headed sheeted timber door with stone lintel and intersecting tracery to overlight, also blocked externally. Square-headed openings to school wing with blocked windows and sheeted timber door. Internally tiled floor, two carved stone plaques to walls, bench pews, and centrally placed canted timber pulpit with gabled back panel and flanking steps. Set back from the road with cut stone grave markers. Site entrance shared with adjoining former manse having two sets of wrought-iron gates with rendered convex quadrant walls and square-plan piers.
Appraisal
An unassuming Presbyterian church retaining its balanced historic form of dignified simplicity, characteristic of this building type. Although disused the building retains its historic fabric intact, including sash windows, external render finish and timber door. Its unadorned interior is also largely intact with historic pews and axially placed pulpit reflecting the centrality of Scripture to Presbyterian worship. Along with the former manse on the neighbouring site, it stands testament to the long history and heritage of the Presbyterian community in the area. The church has a small graveyard to the front with nineteenth and twentieth-century cut stone memorials of artistic merit.