Building record MDO43711 - Poole Methodisy Church, Poole

A large Victorian Gothic stone church built in 1878, replacing the Georgian chapel which then became the church hall. The 1878 church was designed by Charles Bell. It is a robust Victorian Gothic style design with Gothic portals, tracery pointed arch windows, turrets and a stone spire over the south east corner. Unfortunately, the tracery of the large windows on the south and east windows has been removed. However, the interior of the Victorian church is essentially complete.

Poole Methodist Church was built in 1878 on land donated by Lord Wimborne of Canford Magna. The architect was Charles Bell and the builder was Samuel Clarke. The church is depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1890 and its roughly square footprint appears to survive unaltered. Charles Bell (1846-99) was an architect who specialised in designing Wesleyan Methodist chapels and designed over 60, of which fourteen remain in use. Four of these churches are listed, including Spilsby Methodist Church (1877-8, Grade II) and Wesley Memorial Church (1888-9, Grade II), both in Lincolnshire. In addition to his church architecture, Bell was an architect to the Tottenham School Board and therefore designed a number of their schools.

Poole Methodist Church is built in the free Gothic style and has a typically Non-Conformist auditory plan to its interior. It is constructed of coursed Somerset Black Rock with ashlar Bath stone dressings and a slate roof. The asymmetrical principal elevation (east) faces the High Street and consists of a central gable end flanked by angle buttresses rising to octagonal pinnacles. To the ground floor are two groups of three lancet windows. Above are two tall pointed arch windows with hood moulds to the gables. The tracery has been removed and replaced with plate glass. There is a small circular window to the apex. To either side is a two storey bay: to the left hand bay is attached the octagonal spire and to the right hand bay is a one and a half storey bay. There are pairs of entrance doors to the outer two bays, each set within a pointed arch with foliate details to the arch and pier capitals. There is decorative relief work to the gables above the entrance doors. To the side elevations are three gabled projections with groups of three lancet windows with coloured glass below pointed arch windows which have lost their tracery. To the west elevation is a central rose window.

Internally, the gallery continues around three sides and polished Shap granite stone piers with foliate capitals support the galleries and pointed arcade arches with imposts and hood moulds. The chancel arch has a chamfered impost supported on single polished Shap granite piers, on corbels, with foliate capitals. Above the chancel arch hood mould is painted text. The organ, which dates from 1872, was relocated from the former Methodist Chapel and is by Sweetland of Bath. The pulpit, located to the centre of the chancel, is constructed of Bath stone and is intricately carved and includes bas-relief of the four Evangelists, the Transfiguration, a Bible, a Star of David and John Wesley, the grandfather of Charles and John Wesley.

Places of worship are among our most iconic buildings, and are highly valued by the communities at whose heart they stand. In common with all buildings considered for listing, those examples which date from after 1840 are subject to rigorous selection, due to the much larger numbers of buildings constructed in this period, and the consequently larger numbers which survive. Selectivity becomes even more stringent the closer in time to the present the buildings were designed. With reference to the Revisions to Principles of Selection for Listed Buildings (2007) and the Places of Worship Selection Guide (2007) churches are assessed particularly on the basis of their special interest in design and craftsmanship; the quality of their architectural or artistic embellishment; their association with a nationally significant architect, designer or artist; the completeness of an architectural or decorative ensemble; the architectural expression of distinctive or innovative liturgy or worshipping practice; uncommon building materials or innovative construction; early date; and rarity value.

Methodism experienced its greatest growth rate up until about 1840, but continued to expand up until the early 20th century, going into decline after the First World War. In 1850, Gothic was formally advocated as suitable for Methodist buildings by Frederick James Jobson, secretary of the Chapel Committee, in his seminal 'Chapel and School Architecture', a publication that exerted influence on chapel design for a generation. The free gothic style employed by the Methodists, typically gives the external appearance of a traditional aisled church, but actually follows a Non-Conformist auditory plan form internally, complete with galleries. Of the hundreds of Methodist chapels that were built nationally between 1840 and the First World War, only a small proportion are considered to be of special interest and to merit statutory listing. Those selected for listing exhibit a high level of architectural distinction to separate them from the large numbers of well preserved but unlisted examples nationally.

Poole Methodist Church displays a degree of architectural quality and is a robust example of the free Gothic style as employed by a number of architects of Methodist churches from the mid-19th century onwards. It makes a positive contribution to the conservation area and is an important landmark building locally; its 30m spire reputedly used by mariners as a guiding point. However, its architectural treatment, whilst of good quality and exhibiting attention to detail, is in a national context relatively standard in its design. Furthermore, the loss of the tracery and stained glass windows to both the south and east elevations have had a significant detrimental impact on its architectural intactness, overall integrity and character. For churches in the Gothic style especially, the tall tracery windows are the focus of the design.

Internally, the church is exceptionally intact, retaining its auditory plan with galleried seating. However, the internal finishes are not of particular high quality, and despite the artistic embellishment to the pulpit there are no internal fixtures and fittings by nationally renowned craftsmen. The church was built 21 years after the Wesleyan Methodists Association and the Wesleyan Reformers merged in 1857 to form the United Free Methodist Church and as such its construction and internal layout cannot be seen as a response to the first flowering of this unification. Moreover, its design, having an undivided interior space, but giving the external impression of an aisled church, is wholly typical of the movement: the structural division into nave, chancel and aisles was irrelevant to Methodist worship, while provision of ancillary spaces for meeting rooms, Sunday schools and so on, was of paramount importance. Many Methodist chapels therefore had a Gothic style street front, the articulation of the façade suggesting an aisled planform, while inside the Protestant auditory plan prevailed. Therefore its design or planning for a church of its date cannot be seen to be innovative in a national context.

It is important to assess the Poole Methodist Church in the context of Charles Bell's oeuvre, and in that of other contemporary Methodist churches. Charles Bell is best known for his design of Methodist churches which includes Wesley Methodist Church, Epworth, North Lincolnshire (1888-9, Grade II). This church has rich architectural detailing to the exterior and interior including Geometric tracery, gargoyles to the spire, hammer-beam roofs to the transept and decorative pointed wooden arches to the arcades with slender iron columns. It also retains its internal fixtures and fittings and is part of an unusually ornate group of Methodist buildings, erected in commemoration of John Wesley and the Wesley family of Epworth. Other listed examples of late 19th century Methodist churches include Perranwell Station Methodist Church, Cornwall (1878, Grade II) and Windsor Methodist Church, Berkshire (1876, Grade II) both of which exhibit an architectural competence in their overall massing and are exceptionally intact to the exterior and interior. In Poole Methodist Church is clearly of local historic importance and continues to be an important building within the High Street Conservation Area. However, its standard architectural treatment, the loss of the tracery windows, and the erosion of the significance of its value with the Former Methodist Chapel which has been substantially altered, means that it lacks the necessary degree of special interest to merit listing in a national context. In comparison with the above mentioned churches, Poole Methodist Church has a relatively standard architectural treatment with typical massing and it lacks the high quality finishes such as that, for example, exhibited at Epworth. This, together with the significant loss of the tracery and stained glass windows, demonstrates that for a church of this date, of a relatively standard design, it lacks the level of intactness and integrity of the listed examples. Unfortunately, its intact interior does not outweigh this loss.

The juxtaposition of church and Sunday school is characteristic of the Methodist arrangement and holistic views of theses ensembles are an important consideration in an assessment for designation. The chronology of the site, however, was often complicated by the reuse of an earlier chapel as the Sunday school when the congregation outgrew its premises. This is the case at Poole as the former chapel to its west (NMR No. SZ 09 SW 144), which was built in 1793, was adapted to a Sunday school and latterly the church hall. The two buildings illustrate both the development of the Methodist movement in Poole and the changes in architectural styles deemed suitable and appropriate for Methodist worship. However, the former chapel has been substantially altered in the mid-19th century and 20th century both internally and externally and this has severely affected its claims to special architectural and historic interest and had a detrimental impact on the special interest of the ensemble.

Therefore, whilst the evolution and development of Methodism in Poole is evident on the site and this is of clear local historical importance its interest has been diminished by the accretive erosion of the former chapel. As such, despite being an interesting late 19 century example of a Methodist church by Charles Bell, it is, in a national context, of a relatively standard design and has not survived sufficiently intact to merit designation on a national level. <1>

<1> English Heritage, English Heritage Schedule Entry, 507521/001 (Scheduling record). SDO17387.

Advisor's report on case 168991 in file 507521/001.

<2> Stell, C, 1991, An Inventory of Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting-Houses in South-West England, 125 (Monograph). SDO11597.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1486580 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 29 2024 3:38PM