Description

BRIDGWATER

ST2936NE ST MARY STREET
736-1/11/183 (South side)
24/03/50 Baptist Church

GV II*

Baptist church. 1837. By Edwin Down; galleries added 1870s;
partly refitted and extended to the rear c1902. Bath stone
ashlar with stucco recess and slate roof. Rectangular plan
with schoolrooms to rear. Classical style.
Single-storey; symmetrical 2-window range. A pediment over a
dentilled cornice spans the facade; it is supported by
full-height Ionic columns flanking the deeply recessed centre
which has Egyptian-style tapered 2-panel double doors with 2
panels above, set in a moulded architrave with cornice; dated
plaque above and smaller doors to sides of recess. The outer
bays are each flanked by Tuscan antae and have a semicircular
arched window with small panes, moulded architrave and
panelled apron above banded rustication. A moulded
string-course below the apron continues round central recess.
The moulding to base of columns continues round the building
as a plinth. Steps up to central range are flanked by c1837
cast-iron lamp standards with rope-pattern moulding on
octagonal bases and with C20 lamps.
INTERIOR: the church room is virtually complete, rear rooms
are being remodelled (1991). A richly moulded cornice to the
coved and panelled ceiling continues round a recess to the
north end which is curved at the inner corners.
Organ, at gallery level, is flanked by paired Corinthian
pilasters. Pulpit below is Classical style. The base has 3
semicircular arches with moulded archivolts and fluted
keystones over shallow fluted recesses; the central, larger
recess has 3 brackets to support projecting panel above; this
upper part has 4 moulded semicircular arches, the central 2
project, resting on vase columns. To each side the pulpit
stairs curve backward, with square fluted newels and thick
vertical moulding to stick balusters.
Gallery to sides and south end has a moulded wooden rail over
cast-iron trellised panels of leaves, coved beneath to rest on
cast-iron capitals with acanthus capitals. Gallery is steeply
raked with original numbered wooden pews; clock on south wall
reads "Rossiter Bridgwater".
Ground floor has wooden pews and c1902 tongued-and-grooved
panelling below dado-rail, pairs of double doors to north and
south ends may also be c1902; these are 2-panel, leaded panes
to top with narrow coloured margins and brass pull handles.
The 3 windows to each side reach from just above dado to
cornice, they have thin wooden glazing bars and circular
opening panels at gallery level. Entrance hall is C20.
(Stell C: Non-conformist Chapels and Meeting-Houses in SW
England: London: 1991-: 167-9; VCH: Somerset: London: 1992-).

Listing NGR: ST2979436922

Selected Sources

• Dunning, R W, The Victoria History of the County of Somerset, (1992)
• Stell, C, An Inventory of Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting Houses in South West England, (1991), 167-9

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