Description

PAIGNTON

SX8860 DARTMOUTH ROAD
1947-1/5/28 (North East side)
United Reformed Church and adjoining
school

GV II

Non-conformist chapel. 1886 to the designs of GS Bridgman,
contractor HP Raddich (datestone).
MATERIALS: Local grey snecked limestone with Bathstone and red
sandstone bands and dressings; slate roof; crested ridge
tiles.
PLAN: Sited on the corner of Dartmouth and Commercial Roads,
chapel and school roofed on a W/E axis, chapel faces W onto
Dartmouth Road, school to N Chapel has SW tower.
EXTERIOR: Free Decorated Gothic style. Gabled W front to
chapel with coped gable; shallow gabled projection to left and
tower to right. Large 4-light traceried W window with
hoodmould and red sandstone apron, moulded string rises below.
Shallow gabled porch with a shoulder-headed W doorway with red
sandstone detached shafts with carved capitals and a sexafoil
in the tympanum. One-light shoulder-headed windows to left and
right of porch. Projection to the left has shoulder-headed
doorway with relieving arch over and original plank doors with
elaborate strap hinges. Decorative gable over doorway below
stone panel with blind roundel decoration; pair of lancets
above.
The tower to the right is square on plan to the lower stage,
octagonal above with a waterleaf-carved corbel frieze below a
stone spire with bands of yellow and red stone. On the W face
the tower has a shoulder-headed doorway with original doors
below a shallow gable with a sexafoil in the tympanum; stone
panel with roundel decoration over. Tall 2-tier 2-light window
above with plate tracery, trefoil in head and frieze of blind
cinquefoils and polished stones across the centre. Other faces
of tower similar; blind lucarnes to spire.
S side of chapel with buttresses with set-offs and 5-window
elevation, 2 windows with gables above the eaves. Toothed red
brick frieze below moulded stone cornice. Tall 2-light windows
with 2 transoms, the upper lights with shouldered heads. Those
with gables have arched heads with red sandstone voussoirs and
sexafoils and polished stones in the tympana. Vestry block to
right gabled to the S with 2-light window with transom and
shoulder-headed lights. The E end has a coped gable and small
canted slate-roofed projection.
The school is linked to the chapel by a small porch block
facing W. Gabled schoolroom, slightly broken forward in the
centre with a tall arched 4-light mullioned window with
moulded mullions and 3 transoms. Apron of decorative brickwork
below window. Doorway to right with shouldered doorframe below
deep overlight with a hoodmould. To left lower block with one
3 and one 2-light transomed windows.
INTERIOR: Remodelled in C20.
An imposing group by GS Bridgman, a developer architect who
was responsible for many of the buildings of late C19
Paignton.
(Buildings of England: Cherry B: Devon: London: 1952-1989:
P.839).

Listing NGR: SX8879260605

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26502831

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

• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)