Description

SE 7803-7903 EPWORTH HIGH STREET (south side)

20/77 Wesley Memorial Church

GV II

Wesleyan church. 1888-9 by Charles Bell. Rock-faced ashlar, apart from south side of yellow brick; ashlar dressings throughout. Welsh slate roof. Aligned north-south: 4-bay nave with north entrance, 3-bay aisles, single- bay east and west transepts and small sanctuary, square tower with octagonal stair turret adjoining north-west angle. Adjoins school to south-east (qv). Chamfered plinth, angle buttresses and buttresses between bays with offsets, all with ashlar quoining. North side: flight of 5 stone steps to central entrance with central pointed-trefoil doorway in pointed double-chamfered arch with hoodmould and carved stops, flanked by single pointed 2-light traceried windows with hoodmoulds and carved stops, all beneath a triple- gabled hoodmould carried on corbelled wall shafts, with trefoil finials to each side and taller carved finial over door attached to central mullion of pointed 4-light plate-traceried window above, with sill string course, hoodmould and head stops. String course and small pointed ashlar window to gable with narrow stepped triple lancets beneath hoodmould. Coped gable with finial. Angle buttresses to left rise to octagonal ashlar turret with blind lancets and spirelet with finial. 3-stage tower adjoining to right: first stage with pointed double-chamfered doorway with hoodmould and carved stops, single trefoiled lancet above, moulded ashlar frieze with blind roundels; splayed second stage with string course; octagonal belfry with louvred double-chamfered lancets, foliate capitals to angles supporting hoodmoulds; moulded string course with gargoyles to angles, and octagonal spire with trefoiled lucarnes, ashlar quoins and flush bands, wrought-iron finial. 2-stage west stair-turret adjoining lower stage of tower has sill string course and 3 lancets to upper stage, half-octagonal roof. Aisles: square-headed 3-light traceried east and west windows, pointed 2-light traceried north window to east aisle. Transepts: pointed 3-light traceried east and west windows with flush ashlar impost bands, hoodmoulds with carved stops, and single needle lancets above. South side has pointed 3-light traceried window to sanctuary. All windows with Geometric-style tracery. Board doors with ornate wrought ironwork. Coped gables with shaped kneelers and finials, crested ridge tiles throughout. Interior. Series of inscribed tablets in entrance lobby includes record of architect Chas Bell, builder H Kelsey, and laying of memorial tablets in September 1888. 4-bay nave arcades of pointed wooden arches with pierced spandrels on slender iron columns. North gallery. Pointed moulded sanctuary arch with corbelled inner order and hoodmould. Ceiled roof to nave, 2-bay hammer-beam roofs to transepts. C19 marble wall tablet in east transept to Rev John Wesley and his parents with pediment and dove above; series of mid C19 pedimented wall tablets in transepts by Bailey of Hull. Ornate octagonal carved wooden pulpit and altar rails of 1860 brought from the Kilham Memorial Chapel on the opposite side of the road (qv) in 1949. Part of an unusually ornate group of Methodist buildings, erected in commemoration of the founder of Methodism, John Wesley (1703-91), and the Wesley family of Epworth. N Pevsner and J Harris, The Buildings of England: Lincolnshire, 1978, p 233; Church Guide, c1980, 4pp.

Listing NGR: SE7811003856

External Links

• Wikidata Q26364473

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Recommended Books

• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)