Description

BRIXHAM

SX9255 BOLTON STREET, Lower Brixham
1946-1/7/133 (East side)
10/01/75 United Reformed Church, including
schoolrooms, front wall and gates
(Formerly Listed as:
BOLTON STREET
Congregational Chapel)

GV II

Congregational chapel. 1843-5, restored and altered 1872 and
1908. Schoolrooms probably a mid/late C19 addition. Stone
rubble; front of chapel and upper storey of schoolrooms
rendered. Slated roofs; schoolrooms hipped to front.
Chapel lies at right-angles to street with front lobby flanked
by staircases. Original or near-original galleries on 3 sides,
later extended behind the pulpit. Behind this is a recess with
organ, probably added in 1908. Set forward to right, and
linked to the chapel by a lobby, are the schoolrooms.
Chapel has a gabled, projecting centre with pointed-arched
doorway having a hoodmould. Above it a large round window,
also with hoodmould, filled with quatrefoiled tracery. Over it
is a very small quatrefoiled window. Flanking the centrepiece
are 2 pointed-arched doorways with matching single-light
windows above them. The corners are splayed and each contain a
similar pointed-arched window. Prominent eaves-cornice on
large shaped brackets, across the whole front. Schoolrooms
2-storeyed on a high battered plinth decorated with a single
course of red bricks. Each storey has 3 close-set
pointed-arched windows at the front, those in ground storey
with arches of alternating red and cream brick. A single
matching window in left side wall of ground storey. Rounded
stone sill-band in ground storey; similar band just above
window heads.
The buildings stand on a raised terrace with a small garden,
also raised, in front of it. Along the street frontage is a
rendered retaining-wall surmounted by a simple iron railing
(replaced after World War II). In the centre are 2 square gate
piers with elaborately scrolled iron gates (probably
original). Matching pier at each end of frontage with
intermediate pier to right of gates. There was originally a
further railing at rear of garden.
INTERIOR: galleries are carried on quatrefoil-section iron
columns; gallery fronts panelled with diagonal planking;
handrail raised on scrolled iron brackets. The pointed-arched
side-windows ignore the galleries, as if these were an
afterthought. In the upper end at either side, are 2 similar
windows, now painted over, with small-paned glazing, the heads
with pointed, intersecting arches. Panelled pulpit with open
quatrefoils at the top; steps up at either side with patterned
iron railings. Organ recess has pointed arch in alternating
red and yellow brick. Tie-beam roof-trusses infilled with
arcades of 4-centred arches. Schoolrooms plain with row of
simple iron columns down centre of ground storey.
(Gregory C: Brixham in Devonia: Totnes: 1896-: 52; Kelly's
Directories: Directory of Devonshire: 1910-: 106; Kelly's
Directories: Directory of Devonshire: 1923-: 107).

Listing NGR: SX9241855843

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26489763

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

• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)