United Reformed Church, Newport Pagnell, Milton Keynes

Description

NEWPORT PAGNELL

SP 84 SE HIGH STREET
645/1/10022 United Reformed Church
14-FEB-00

GV II

Congregational, now United Reformed, Church. 1880-81, by John Sulman of London. Built of red brick in Flemish bond with Bath stone dressings. Steep plain slate roof with serrated ridge tiles, and, at the centre, a small slate-hung bellcote with slated spire and decorative iron windvane. Entrance elevation (facing north): wide central section between two buttresses which provide end stops to a lean-to porch. This consists of two identical 2-centred stone arches with stiff-leaf trail mouldings, and a hood moulding extending as a moulded string. Within a raised shallow porch, 2 pairs of part-glazed doors under a segmental brick arch. Above the entrances, a moulded stone cornice enriched with formal flowers. Above, a large rose window of 6 cinquefoils in roundels set around a central quatrefoil. A narrow vent opening to the roof void. The diminutive side bays are hipped. The sides consist of 3 bays to the nave, defined by offsetting brick buttresses with stone detail, and 4 high-set windows to each bay, each light with trefoil tracery. Beyond the nave, a flush gabled bay representing the transepts, and a narrow bay for the chancel. The S [ritual E] end is a high square block between buttresses, terminating in a hipped roof. The ground floor, containing the church office, has 3 modern windows. Attached to the walls, a memorial stone to Rev William Bull, minister for 50 years d.1814, and Rev Thomas Palmer Bull, his successor, d.1859, together with their wives. (The Bull family are of considerable importance to the history of Newport Pagnell.) The foundation stone, laid by Miss French, is set in the first buttress on the W side.

Interior: The entrance lobby, which has a glazed screen with leaded lights and trefoiled heads, divides off the body of the church. Open roof of 3 bays to the nave and a narrow crossing bay at the S end. Arched braces on stone corbels with sloping boarded soffit carrying tie beams, above which is the boarded open roof, ceiled at collar level. The walls are plastered below the sill strings. Wide S (ritual E) end, with the organ mounted at upper level behind the pulpit. Arched doors lead to lobbies either side, with 2-light openings into the body of the church. Square panelled reredos, and the pulpit is similarly panelled, approached by steps each side. At the N end, a canted balcony with similar panelled front above the entrance screen. Three banks of pews.
Affixed to the walls, a number of monuments taken from the former chapel, mostly corniced tablets of white marble of the late C18 and early C19, from left around the church to the right:
Marble tablet by Bacon. An inscribed tablet with curved apron, fluted side pilasters, and on the cornice a draped urn against a streaked grey marble field. To Walter Beaty, d.1791;
Tablet, draped urn over, to Amelia Higgins, d.1834;
Profile head in a shaped top, with a poppy scroll, to Rev Thomas Palmer Bull, d.1859;
Flat profile head in a circular panel, ribbons over, a prostrate cross and book on a bed of leaves, to Rev William Bull, d.1814;
Shaped tablet to the Rev John Gibbs, ex University of Cambridge, who was ejected for his Protestant views in 1660, d.1690, the tablet erected in c.mid C19, with a draped eastern crown over;
Tablet with sprays of leaves over, to Mary Ward, d. 1850, wife of the vicar;
A simple tablet, with a Grecian urn emitting flame over, to Joseph Ward, d.1771;
Tablet with open book over, to Elizabeth Kilpin;

On the S wall -
Aedicule with yellow marble slips and Ionic columns, Greek key frieze, to William Bull, solicitor, d.1884;
Tablet between fluted pilasters, grey backing, apron with sprays, and a draped urn on the cornice against a shaped back between acroteria, to George Osborn, d.1857;
Marble tablet on a painted panel, Grecian urn over, to Rev Thomas Jones, d.1795;
A panel with a simple pediment, fluted sides, to Joseph Cripps, d.1829;
Cast bronze tablet to Arthur George Percy French, corporal in the City of London Volunteers, d.1900;
Sarcophagus shaped tablet with gable and ball feet, to Jones Millas, secretary to the British and Foreign School Society in the town, d.1852;
Tablet with urn over, on brackets, to John Rogers, surgeon, d.1858;
On the W wall:
White marble tablet with a shaped apron, a cornice carrying an urn against a grey marble field, to Ann Greatheed (nee Hamilton) d.1807;
Tablet, a book against a shaped grey pediment.

On the upper level:
(r) Acroteria gabled pediment on a streaked grey marble field, to Thomas Hackett, student of Newport Evangelical Institution, died unexpectedly, 1821.

History: The Congregational community was originally founded in Newport in 1662 with the ejection of the vicar, Rev John Gibbs, who took a licence as a Presbyterian preacher. The foundation stone of the new church was laid on October 26 1880; it was opened in 1881, the cost being ?4000, and it seated up to 400 members. The large rose window in the N gable end was the gift of Dr Rogers of Exeter.

Reference:
Bull F W, A History of Newport Pagnell, 1900, pp 138-149;
Martin R G, The Story of the Congregational Church, Newport Pagnell, 1960;
Pevsner N and Williamson E, Buckinghamshire, Buildings of England Series, 2nd edition, 1994, p 576.
Stell C, RCAHME, Chapels and Meeting Houses, Buckinghamshire, p 22.

Listing NGR: SP8757743858

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United Reformed Church

A Grade II Listed Building in Newport Pagnell, Milton Keynes

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