Baptist Church Including the Front Area Walls and Gate Piers

Details

TIVERTON

SS9512 NEWPORT STREET, Tiverton
848-1/6/233 (North side)
Baptist Church including the front
area walls and gate piers

GV II

Baptist church. 1876 by GS Bridgman of Torquay. Front of
squared grey Westleigh stone rubble with dressings of Bath
stone; some details in a reddish Paignton stone and in cream
brick. Rear and side walls in red brick with cream brick
dressings. Tarred slated roof with crested ridge-tile and red
terracotta finials.
STYLE: Italianate medieval design.
EXTERIOR: front is 2-storey with dominant gabled centre
flanked by lower, narrower wings. Centre has round arched
doorway with broad pilasters having foliated capitals; arch
has carved spandrels and a gabled hood. Panelled double doors;
stone tympanum inscribed in raised letters ENTER INTO HIS
GATES WITH THANKSGIVING. Above the doorway a large round
arched window containing 4 round arched lights, these arranged
in pairs under 2 larger round arches, in the tops of which are
2 blind round panels containing green balls. In the head of
the window is a multi-cusped round light, flanked by 2 blind
round lights containing red balls. The relieving arch of the
window has alternating grey and red voussoirs. Beneath the
window, around the head of the doorway below, is a panel of
imitation slate hanging in stone. The window contains coloured
glass. The gable is finished with 3 large finials, 1 at the
apex and 1 at each side, these designed like square columns
with friezes above them resembling little belfries, the whole
topped by pointed roofs covered with imitation slates. The 2
ground storey windows flanking the centre doorway are round
arched, as are the 2 doorways in the wings and the 2 windows
above them; all the ground storey openings have gabled hoods
echoing the main doorway. Doors are panelled and have
traceried fanlights. Windows are of 2 lights with wooden
glazing-bars, the lights round arched with a circular light in
the window head. Front area wall is of coursed stone with
chamfered coping. In it are set 3 pairs of stone gate piers
with a matching pier at each end. Piers are square with shaped
tops, these designed with gables facing in all 4 directions.
Iron gates and the railings on top of the walls are mid or
late C20; for a photograph of the original arrangements see H
B Case, `History of the Baptist Church in Tiverton, 1607-1907,
1907, opposite p.68. Set into the wall face of the chapel are
2 inscribed stone tablets. That to left reads THESE MEMORIAL
STONES WERE LAID BY J LANE ESQRE. JP ON MONDAY APRIL 17th
1876. GLORIO DEO; in smaller letters at the bottom are written
G.S. BRIDGMAN ARCHITECT and W. BARRONS & SON BUILDERS. The
right-hand tablet reads THE PREVIOUS CHAPEL ADJOINED THIS
BUILDING AND WAS BUILT IN 1730 ON THE SITE OF THE OLD MEETING
HOUSE. CHURCH FOUNDED 1607. Side walls have in the upper
storey round arched windows like those at the front. Beneath
them are panels of patterned stonework; ground storey windows
have flat stone lintels. Giant pilaster-strips between the
windows. Rear wall (clearly visible from The Works) has a
3-bay projecting with pent roof having a gable in the centre,
the openings (a doorway flanked by 2 windows) matching the
side-walls.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
HISTORY: the facade is a prominent and notable feature in the
surrounding townscape. `The Exeter Flying Post', 19.4.1876,
p.7 described it in these terms: `The chapel proper will form
one large parallelogram, sixty nine feet long and forty five
feet wide, irrespective of organ loft and vestries; and so
designed that at any future time the vestries and organ loft
can be easily removed, and the platform carried back - forming
a chapel eighty one feet long by forty five feet wide'.
Woodwork was to be of varnished red deal and pitch pine. Organ
loft was to be behind the platform, flanked by 2 vestries with
classrooms above. There was to be a separate Sunday School;
this fronts The Works and is separately listed.
According to M Dunsford (Historical Memoirs of the Town and
Parish of Tiverton, 1790, p.375), the Civil War fortifications
of Tiverton Castle extended as far as the site of the Old
Baptist Meeting House.




Listing NGR: SS9549312811

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

485323

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Dunsford, , Historical Memoirs of the Town and Parish of Tiverton, (1790), 375
Case, HB, History of the Baptist Church in Tiverton, 1607-1907, (1907)
Exeter Flying Post in 19th April, (1876), 7

End of official list entry

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