Listed Building: EASTON METHODIST CHURCH WITH FORMER MANSE AND BOUNDARY WALLS (381933)

PORTLAND SY6871 EASTON SQUARE, Easton 969-1/4/39 (West side) Easton Methodist Church with boundary walls GV II* Methodist church with boundary walls. 1906 to designs of Latrobe and Weston of Bristol at cost of »7000; Wakeham Brothers of Plymouth, builders. Rock-faced snecked Portland stone with ashlar dressings, or rubble, plain tile roof. Twin-towered E front on broad nave; transepts with semi-octagonal apse containing organ gallery; attached to W end a low flat-roofed vestry and a lofty 2-storey range. All carried out in a mixture of late muscular Gothic with Art Nouveau detailing. Entrance (E) front has square towers carrying set-back octagonal turrets with stone spires; corners of towers carried through to frame deep-set openings under moulded segmental arches and to glacis-like cills. Central broad coped gable with decorative stone apex cross over vertical vent and paired set-back windows with 4 lancets under octofoil rose with superimposed cross, all in plate tracery, to broad central pier and deep glacis cills. Central doorway with gable breaking into main cill, in French High Gothic style with deep arched opening to tympanum carved with Christ in Glory over paired plank doors with double colonnette responds, all on 5 steps with nosings. Tower returns have side doors set under small upright lights, 2 to N and 4 to S, in raised 'crenellation'. North side, to Reforne, has 3 paired lancets under quatrefoil in plate tracery to deep pointed recesses, above 3 x 3 small flush lancets. Parapet has 3 pairs of small slits, reminiscent of crenellation. Transept arm to coped gable over 3 ventilation slits and 3 stepped lancets to moulded arches and drip on colonnette responds; below are five small close-set flush lancets. N side of apse, which is partly in rubble construction, has 3 stepped lancets. South side of building has similar detail. From W end a flat-roofed vestry connected by tiled canopy over glazed door with pointed arch above canopy, to lofty 2-storey 2-window range with 2-light casements, those to ground floor with transom; end gable wall in rubble has high lunette; return front to SE has 3 windows, 2-light leaded iron casements above 2-light casements with transoms. Interior has 3-bay nave with 2-bay transepts, with composite wood trusses to planked ceiling, and semi-octagonal domed apse in similar detail, on plastered walls to stone dressings, and mosaic floors. Galleries on three sides on cast-iron columns to leaf capitals; gallery front a repeated series of Art Nouveau tree and wheatfield decorations in cast plaster. Windows with inner screen on polished elvan columns; the lancets at ground floor with semi-circular arches. Dado panelling to cill levels all round. Grand organ and case behind tall moulded painted arch, and surrounded by choir seating; plain pews throughout. Interesting pulpit and reading desk with Portland stone bowed front with high relief carving of The Last Supper, by Mr. Sheppard, flanked by vertical stone responds. Stairs to pulpit with brass handrail, backed by stone organ gallery front with 4 vertical panels each side in Art Nouveau detail. Octagonal stone font. Entrance lobby flanked by open-well stone stairs with some Art Nouveau decoration, has mosaic floor and wall panel below large segmental-headed opening with leaded stained glass. All door handles, finger plates and escutcheons in polished brass. A somewhat mannered design, but the robust exterior conceals an unusually rich interior, all of which has been retained unchanged and helps to demonstrate the strength of Methodism on the island. Subsidiary features: Across E front and return to Reforne a low stone wall with square section coping, with series of rectangular piers to large plain cappings with sunk circle and cross decoration; opening to main porch on one step, and small opening at W end with iron gate. Listing NGR: SY6911271845

Record last edited

Mar 6 2014 4:31PM