Description

ILMINSTER

ST3414 WEST STREET 1939-1/6/144 (South side) Wesleyan Methodist Church and Church Room

GV II

Methodist church and church room. Dated 1887. Coursed limestone rubble with freestone dressings and crested slate roof. Vigorous Decorated Gothic Revival style. EXTERIOR: Facade of the church is symmetrical; the forward-facing gable has a crocketed finial, moulded and corbelled kneelers, buttresses to the sides and, in the apex, 3 small pointed-arch louvres grouped under one dripmould; a string course divides this from a rose window flanked by, and grouped with, two 3-light pointed-arch windows with geometrical tracery; a dripmould follows the contours of the 3 windows and continues horizontally at springer-level; a central gabled entrance breaks through the base of the windows and the upper part of it reflects the design of the gable above; a pointed-arch moulding with a recessed trefoiled circle in the tympanum contains double doors under a shouldered arch. Side wings, gabled to east and west, have similar but smaller gabled entrances linked to the central entrance, the left typanum has "A.D." in it, and the right one has "1887"; all 3 are connected by lean-to sections with stone roofs, each with a 2-light mullioned window. The spire, to the rear of the right-hand door, is broached, with a crocketed finial and small gabled niches on the diagonal facets near to the top; similar taller louvred ones near the base, and 3-sided ones with crocketed finials to the corners of the base. The wall below it, and the set-back buttresses, are offset; it contains a lancet window with moulded pointed arch and colonnettes. The door to the left (west) is in front of a hipped-roofed wing with a canted bay and lancet windows. 5 bays to side elevation, segmental arches to mullioned and transomed windows. The Church Room to left (west) has a hipped slate roof. U-shape plan. 2 cross-gables to the front-left; the left-hand gable has a circular window in the apex and 2 pointed-arch windows with hoodmoulds below; ground floor has 2-light windows with flat arches. Gable to the right has one similar 3-light window with similar flat-arch ones below. To the right is a 2-storey pointed-arch 2-light window with stone mullions but without a dripmould. The entrance is to the right through a lower wing. All gable ends have terracotta scroll finials. INTERIOR: Virtually unchanged, with a polychromatic tiled floor to the entrance, cast-iron columns supporting the gallery. Moulded corbels, flanked by smaller ones, support the roof trusses. Gothic-style pointed-arched panelling to almost all the woodwork, including the gallery-front, communion-rail and the central pulpit to the south end with stairs to each side; original pews to nave and re-positioned ones in the gallery; doors have chamfered arrisses to the panels and cross-joints to the architraves; and coloured glass in the windows. The Church Room, said to have been the site of the original church, was rebuilt in a similar style.

Listing NGR: ST3578114716

External Links

• Wikidata Q26489785

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