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Summary

Non-conformist church. 1883, with school and church hall of 1903. Squared grey Plymouth stone with cream freestone dressings, complex slate roofs, some crested, and octagonal towers either side of porch.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II*) 1269098: UNITED REFORM CHURCH AND ATTACHED WALL

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SX97SW/34
• Old Listed Building Ref (II): 461109

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• NONCONFORMIST CHURCH (XIX to XX - 1882 AD to 1903 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1855-1895, First Edition 1:500 Town Map (Cartographic). SDV338879.

'Congregational Chapel Seats for 511' shown. 'Sunday School' attached to north-west.

Department of Environment, 1983, Teignmouth, 14 (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV338952.

United Reform Church. Dated 1882. Built of stone with slate roof with spirelet. North and south transepts. Octagonal turret to front. Two storey school of 1903 in matching materials to rear. Included for group value.

Ordnance Survey, 2012, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV348725.

English Heritage, 2012, National Heritage List for England (National Heritage List for England). SDV348729.

Non-conformist church. 1883, by John Salman; with school and church hall of 1903. Squared grey Plymouth stone with cream freestone dressings, complex slate roofs, some crested. Complex rectangular plan.
Exterior: windows are leaded with coloured glass. The main front has steps into a right-of-centre high coped gabled porch with a crocketed finial. The richly-carved apex incorporates scrolls, a rose and a shield flanked by the dates 1790 and 1883. Below is a deeply-moulded pointed arch with foliate moulding to an outer course, supported by four colonnettes with stiff-leaf moulding to the caps. At the top of the steps wrought-iron gates roll back into the wall when open. The double half-glazed entrance doors are in the right-hand wall (not seen from the street). To the right of the porch is an octagonal tower in four stages, the south-east facet has a defaced gabled stone plaque with the dates 1790 and Sept 28 188- (probably 2 or 3); above is a tall empty niche with a swept stone roof and pendants; the third stage has lancets to each facet; the top parapet has pierced square quatrefoil panels under a moulded cornice. To the left of the porch is a large octagonal tower in two stages with a hipped roof, ornamented coved cornice, engaged colonnettes to the angles topped by freely-carved foliate capitals. The upper stage has wide pointed, almost semicircular, arches with dog-tooth moulding to three-light windows with circular windows to the apexes. The transomed lower windows, approx three metres above the ground, are paired; between them engaged colonnettes to the south-west and south-east facets rest on the high plinth and terminate on the aprons of the upper windows with lively carved griffins. The left return (west side) is a series of canted bays, some with blocked windows. The west transept (toward the front of the building), seen high above them, has a moulded stack to the apex of the gable and a circular window above paired pointed-arched windows. The right return (east side) has a similar transept; offset buttresses to the rear end articulate two mullioned and transomed windows which have deeply weathered sills. To the far right a taller gabled range with quatrefoil window has a rectangular single-storey project bay (possibly later) with a hipped roof and a three-light mullioned and transomed window. To the right of the south-west corner tower is a stair range with lancet windows. The coped gable to the rear has two loop-holes to the apex over paired pointed-arched windows under a similar arch. To each side are buttresses each with two gabled offsets which project to the front of a single-storey lean-to flanked by eight-panelled doors glazed to the tops.
The three-bay 1903 schoolroom attached to the north-west has a separate hipped roof with elaborate terra-cotta finials. The north facade is articulated by pilasters gabled above the eaves. The gabled central bay has a two-light window to the top over a gabled doorcase with a circular window over double doors set in a shouldered arch. Two and three-light mullioned and transomed windows to each side, those to the first floor with trefoil heads. The returns are canted bays.
Interior: unusually fine and well-articulated for a late 19th century Gothic style nonconformist church, with deeply undercut capitals to arcades, original rostrum and other details; triple arcade to the rear gallery. Original plans indicate a central rostrum with organ behind, now moved to one side.
Subsidiary features: the projecting bays to the north and south ends of the east side are connected by a rock-faced wall approx 1.5 metres high and 15 metres long which steps down toward the south.
Historical note: founded in 1790, the church was rebuilt in stone in 1883 for £3,700. A very fine and imaginative example of a late 19th century non-conformist church in the Gothic Revival style, built for a prosperous urban congregation. The description in the Congregational Year Book (1881) shows that the design was modified slightly during construction with the use of larger traceried windows in place of lancets and the intended school may have been completed to a different plan. (Kelly's Directory: 1902-; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Cherry B: Devon: London: 1989-: 797; Congregational Year Book (1881)).

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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