Description

BIDEFORD

SS4526 HIGH STREET
842-1/5/140 (South side)
Methodist Church including
schoolrooms and hall

GV II

Methodist church. 1912-13. By W Beddoes Rees of Cardiff. Front
of rough-faced, grey and brown coursed Welsh stone rubble with
dressings of limestone (probably Bath stone). Side and rear
walls rendered; dressings of limestone and cream brick. Slate
roofs with pierced red crested ridge-tiles. Cream-brick
chimneys at rear.
Church oblong in plan with galleries on north, east and west
sides. Schoolrooms behind, and then the hall, lying at
right-angles to the church. Arts and Crafts Gothic style.
Front consists of a gabled centrepiece flanked by octagonal
buttresses, these rising almost level with the apex of the
gable. Lower battlemented wings at either side with
steeply-pitched hipped roofs facing sideways. Centre has
moulded doorway with pointed arch; double plank doors with
ornate iron handles and strap-hinges. Flanking the doorhead a
band of limestone panels with pointed, cinquefoiled arches,
the second panel from each end glazed.
In the upper stage a large, traceried 7-light window with
pointed arch; mullions flanking the 3 centre lights are
developed into buttresses which cut through the hood-mould and
turn into 6-sided shafts; these then rise above the roof-line
and are finished with capitals and scroll-buttressed finials.
In the centre of the gable is a niche with cusped ogee arch;
above it on the point of the gable is a large foliated finial;
the octagonal buttresses at either side are banded with
limestone, having limestone tops with trefoil-headed panels
and ogee caps with ball-finials.
The wings have plain, tapered ashlar diagonal buttresses:
doorways and doors similar to those in the centre; in the
upper stage bands of traceried windows, 5 lights at the front,
3 at the sides.
Across the base of the front a series of memorial plaques in
blue Forest of Dean stone.
Side-walls of church have cream-brick buttresses; 2 rows of
2-light limestone windows with blind trefoiled arches to the
lights. Windows at both front and sides have patterned
coloured glass. Windows of schoolrooms and hall are mostly
plain with cream-brick surrounds. West gable-wall of hall
(visible from Providence Row) has doorway and door similar to
those at front of church. Stone window above with pointed
arch; 2 mullions and patterned coloured glass. Mock
timber-framing in apex of gable. Plain bargeboards.
INTERIOR: very well-preserved. Galleries on cast-iron columns
with moulded caps; bowed, patterned cast-iron fronts. From the
side-galleries rise further columns with foliated caps, these
supporting 4-centred arches carrying the main roof. Ceiling
barrel-vaulted with panelling on both ribs and spaces in
between. Apse has piers with moulded imposts from which
springs a 4-centred arch, the piers with traceried Gothic
panels. Elaborate Gothic and Georgian-style wooden rostrum.
Screen to vestibule and several doors half-glazed with
patterned coloured glass. Schoolrooms not inspected in detail,
but they include 2 staircases with turned balusters.
The memorial stones were laid on 26 June 1912 and the church
was opened on 2 July 191
(Bideford Weekly Gazette: 1912-1913: 2.7.1912; 10.12.1912).

Listing NGR: SS4516426574

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26504542

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

• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)