Description

SW 52 NE GERMOE BALWEST

6/207 Balwest Methodist Church,
adjoining courtyard walls and gate
piers
II

Methodist chapel. 1829. Slurried granite rubble with dressed granite quoins,
jambstones, sills, voussoirs, lintels, pediment string and gable copings. Low-
pitched grouted scantle slate roof with coped gable ends, the entrance front gable in
the form of a simple triangular pediment. Cast iron ogee gutters.
Plan: rectangular aisless plan with semi-circular-on-plan gallery on 3 sides, the
ritual east end, west, and the entrance front facing approximately east. Later
single storey room at the west end.
Symmetrical 2 window east entrance front: round-headed central ground floor doorway,
2 original round-headed hornless sashes to light gallery above and all surmounted by
a simple triangular pediment with central blind oculus (presumably for former date
plaque). The doorway has double doors and fanlight, the windows have integral.
fanlights. The round-headed arches have projecting granite keystones.
The sides are 2-storey 2-window elevations with circa late C19 or C20 4-pane horned
sashes in the original openings.
Interior : is largely complete. The gallery has been reduced so that it now reaches
only half way long each side but original panelling has been used to return the now
canted ends. The gallery is now carried on 5 of the original Doric columns. There
is a complex moulded cornice under the gallery front and the front has bead-mouldings
with scalloped corners to the rectangular panels. At the east end of the chapel, and
in the gallery over, the original box pews survive. The fine rostrum has a canted
pulpit and a short flight of stairs at either side. There are 2 memorial windows
with coloured glass in the west wall.
This building is a good example of an early C19 Methodist chapel, restrained
classical style with detail more domestic than ecclesiastical.
Sources : 150th Church Anniversary leaflet.
Nonconformist Chapels (manuscript) by Christopher Stell, R.C.H.M., to be
published by HMSO.

Listing NGR: SW5960329964

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26435004

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014