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Summary

Baptist chapel dated 1876, two-storey with dominant gabled centre flanked by lower, narrower wings. Centre has round arched doorway with panelled double doors and a stone tympanum inscribed in raised letters above.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1384864: BAPTIST CHURCH INCLUDING THE FRONT AREA WALLS AND GATE PIERS

Other References/Statuses

• Old Listed Building Ref (II): 485323

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• BAPTIST CHAPEL (XIX - 1876 AD to 1876 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

"Bapt. Chap. (Par.)" shown.

English Heritage, 2010, Historic Houses Register (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV154869.

Tiverton Baptist Church including the front area walls and gate piers.
Baptist church. 1876 by GS Bridgman of Torquay. Front of squared grey Westleigh stone rubble with dressings of Bath stone; some details in a reddish Paignton stone and in cream brick. Rear and side walls in red brick with cream brick dressings. Tarred slated roof with crested ridge-tile and red terracotta finials.
Style: Italianate medieval design.
Exeterior: front is two-storey with dominant gabled centre flanked by lower, narrower wings. Centre has round arched doorway with broad pilasters having foliated capitals; arch has carved spandrels and a gabled hood. Panelled double doors; stone tympanum inscribed in raised letters ENTER INTO HIS GATES WITH THANKSGIVING. Above the doorway a large round arched window containing four round arched lights, these arranged in pairs under two larger round arches, in the tops of which are two blind round panels containing green balls. In the head of the window is a multi-cusped round light, flanked by two blind round lights containing red balls. The relieving arch of the window has alternating grey and red voussoirs. Beneath the window, around the head of the doorway below, is a panel of imitation slate hanging in stone. The window contains coloured glass. The gable is finished with three large finials, one at the apex and one at each side, these designed like square columns with friezes above them resembling little belfries, the whole topped by pointed roofs covered with imitation slates. The two ground storey windows flanking the centre doorway are round arched, as are the two doorways in the wings and the two windows above them; all the ground storey openings have gabled hoods echoing the main doorway. Doors are panelled and have traceried fanlights. Windows are of two lights with wooden glazing-bars, the lights round arched with a circular light in the window head. Front area wall is of coursed stone with chamfered coping. In it are set three pairs of stone gate piers with a matching pier at each end. Piers are square with shaped tops, these designed with gables facing in all four directions. Iron gates and the railings on top of the walls are mid or late C20; for a photograph of the original arrangements see H B Case, `History of the Baptist Church in Tiverton, 1607-1907, 1907, opposite p.68. Set into the wall face of the chapel are two inscribed stone tablets. That to left reads THESE MEMORIAL STONES WERE LAID BY J LANE ESQRE. JP ON MONDAY APRIL 17th 1876. GLORIO DEO; in smaller letters at the bottom are written G.S. BRIDGMAN ARCHITECT and W. BARRONS & SON BUILDERS. The right-hand tablet reads THE PREVIOUS CHAPEL ADJOINED THIS BUILDING AND WAS BUILT IN 1730 ON THE SITE OF THE OLD MEETING HOUSE. CHURCH FOUNDED 1607. Side walls have in the upper storey round arched windows like those at the front. Beneath them are panels of patterned stonework; ground storey windows have flat stone lintels. Giant pilaster-strips between the windows. Rear wall (clearly visible from The Works) has a three-bay projecting with pent roof having a gable in the centre, the openings (a doorway flanked by two windows) matching the side-walls.
Interior: not inspected.
History: the facade is a prominent and notable feature in the surrounding townscape. `The Exeter Flying Post', 19.4.1876, p.7 described it in these terms: `The chapel proper will form one large parallelogram, sixty nine feet long and forty five feet wide, irrespective of organ loft and vestries; and so designed that at any future time the vestries and organ loft can be easily removed, and the platform carried back - forming a chapel eighty one feet long by forty five feet wide'.
Woodwork was to be of varnished red deal and pitch pine. Organ loft was to be behind the platform, flanked by two vestries with classrooms above. There was to be a separate Sunday School; this fronts The Works and is separately listed.
According to M Dunsford (Historical Memoirs of the Town and Parish of Tiverton, 1790, p.375), the Civil War fortifications of Tiverton Castle extended as far as the site of the Old Baptist Meeting House.

Ordnance Survey, 2010, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV344030.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

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