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

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26489785

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: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)