20754

 

II  

Designated  

27/10/1998  

10/08/2005  

Monmouth Baptist Church  

 

Monmouthshire  

Monmouth  

Monmouth  

Monmouth  

350981  

213020  

E  

In the centre of Monmouth, on east side of Monk Street, directly opposite the Church of St. Mary.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Early C20 Gothic chapel built in 1906-7 (foundation stone) and designed by Benjamin Lawrence of Newport.  

Rock-faced red sandstone with Bath limestone ashlar dressings, Welsh slate roofs. Mixed Gothic style. Gable-front has (left to right): bell tower; large centre gable with projecting two-storey porch; short end-bay with corner pier. Slender octagonal bell tower has sheer vertical walls to belfry; ground-level 1-light window, with rounded trefoil window above. Ashlar belfry has tall louvred ogee-arched openings; engaged columns at angles support moulded architrave; roof oversails at eaves and has decorative iron finial. Gable-front (to right) has gabled 2-storey porch (with entrance steps to north); tall plinth, ashlar buttresses with offsets, ashlar kneelered coping. Gable carries semi-circular arched panel and shield inscribed in raised letters BAPTIST CHURCH 1906 Below are two lancets separated by engaged column and three badly eroded foundation tablets in wall above plinth. Behind porch, centre gable is buttressed and has big Perpendicular style window of five cinquefoiled lights with tracery incorporating large multifoil circular window in head. Upper gable has kneelered coping; pair of small trefoil headed windows set between ashlar string courses. End-bay (to right) is narrow with lancet below and single-light trefoil window above; octagonal corner pier rises in two stages with moulded ashlar coping. Gabled transepts to side elevations project only slightly. Side elevations have quatrefoil and cinquefoil headed windows separated by brick buttresses and camber headed basement windows with stone voussoirs. The left elevation is partially attached to the Manse and the right elevation is hard against the already existing (former) Working Men's Institute. East elevation not seen.  

Raised porch; encaustic tile floor. Grained 6-panel double doors to entrance: top panels plain; middle, diagonally boarded; bottom, fielded. Entrance lobby has elaborate hexagonal ribbed pine-boarded ceiling; centre panel with pierced floral design. Lobby doors left and right lead to main chapel. Large open space, without galleries. Five bays. Complex arch-braced hammer-beam roof rises in two stages to upper collar. Wall posts carried on shaped corbels. Baluster-like posts rise between upper collar and ceiling, also between the upper arch-braces and the principal rafters. Pews have close-boarded backs and shaped ends; centre double-block and two aisle blocks. Pulpit platform raised on boarded base. Stairs each side with turned newels, slender turned balusters. Centre pulpit has lozenge panelled front, flanked each side by balustrade of cast-iron panels with stylised foliate ornament, marked JAMES ALLAN & SON GLASGOW. Corner newels carry brass lamps with torch-shaped glass shades; mounting brackets have spiral turned shafts with fleur-de-lys finials. Back of pulpit enclosure boarded; attached bench has curved arm rests. Raised panelling behind pulpit with broken pediment supported on panelled pilasters, pyramid-shaped angle blocks. Organ installed in 1933. Reset monument to Reynold Rogers (d.1824) on north wall; obelisk and urn mounted on rectangular tablet with curved apron. C20 stained glass window in porch.  

Included for its special interest as an intact example of a post 1905 revival Gothic chapel in the Monmouth town centre and for its group value with neighbouring listed buildings.