Description

PORTLAND

SY6871 EASTON SQUARE, Easton
969-1/4/39 (West side)
Easton Methodist Church with
boundary walls

GV II*

Methodist church with boundary walls. 1906 to designs of
Latrobe and Weston of Bristol at cost of »7000; Wakeham
Brothers of Plymouth, builders. Rock-faced snecked Portland
stone with ashlar dressings, or rubble, plain tile roof.
Twin-towered E front on broad nave; transepts with
semi-octagonal apse containing organ gallery; attached to W
end a low flat-roofed vestry and a lofty 2-storey range. All
carried out in a mixture of late muscular Gothic with Art
Nouveau detailing. Entrance (E) front has square towers
carrying set-back octagonal turrets with stone spires; corners
of towers carried through to frame deep-set openings under
moulded segmental arches and to glacis-like cills. Central
broad coped gable with decorative stone apex cross over
vertical vent and paired set-back windows with 4 lancets under
octofoil rose with superimposed cross, all in plate tracery,
to broad central pier and deep glacis cills. Central doorway
with gable breaking into main cill, in French High Gothic
style with deep arched opening to tympanum carved with Christ
in Glory over paired plank doors with double colonnette
responds, all on 5 steps with nosings. Tower returns have side
doors set under small upright lights, 2 to N and 4 to S, in
raised 'crenellation'. North side, to Reforne, has 3 paired
lancets under quatrefoil in plate tracery to deep pointed
recesses, above 3 x 3 small flush lancets. Parapet has 3 pairs
of small slits, reminiscent of crenellation. Transept arm to
coped gable over 3 ventilation slits and 3 stepped lancets to
moulded arches and drip on colonnette responds; below are five
small close-set flush lancets. N side of apse, which is partly
in rubble construction, has 3 stepped lancets. South side of
building has similar detail. From W end a flat-roofed vestry
connected by tiled canopy over glazed door with pointed arch
above canopy, to lofty 2-storey 2-window range with 2-light
casements, those to ground floor with transom; end gable wall
in rubble has high lunette; return front to SE has 3 windows,
2-light leaded iron casements above 2-light casements with
transoms. Interior has 3-bay nave with 2-bay transepts, with
composite wood trusses to planked ceiling, and semi-octagonal
domed apse in similar detail, on plastered walls to stone
dressings, and mosaic floors. Galleries on three sides on
cast-iron columns to leaf capitals; gallery front a repeated
series of Art Nouveau tree and wheatfield decorations in cast
plaster. Windows with inner screen on polished elvan columns;
the lancets at ground floor with semi-circular arches. Dado
panelling to cill levels all round. Grand organ and case
behind tall moulded painted arch, and surrounded by choir
seating; plain pews throughout. Interesting pulpit and reading
desk with Portland stone bowed front with high relief carving
of The Last Supper, by Mr. Sheppard, flanked by vertical stone
responds. Stairs to pulpit with brass handrail, backed by
stone organ gallery front with 4 vertical panels each side in
Art Nouveau detail. Octagonal stone font. Entrance lobby
flanked by open-well stone stairs with some Art Nouveau
decoration, has mosaic floor and wall panel below large
segmental-headed opening with leaded stained glass. All door
handles, finger plates and escutcheons in polished brass.
A somewhat mannered design, but the robust exterior conceals
an unusually rich interior, all of which has been retained
unchanged and helps to demonstrate the strength of Methodism
on the island. Subsidiary features: Across E front and return
to Reforne a low stone wall with square section coping, with
series of rectangular piers to large plain cappings with sunk
circle and cross decoration; opening to main porch on one
step, and small opening at W end with iron gate.

Listing NGR: SY6911271845

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Easton Methodist Church at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q18159826

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

• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)