MEM22337 - United Reform Church, Lee Road, Lynton (Building)

United Reformed Church, formerly Congregational. 1904. For Sir George Newnes, patron, at cost of £1,500. Snecked rubble, limestone ashlar dressings, tile roof. A single 4-bay nave, with vestry to southwest, and squat tower above porch to the northeast; the church is set gable to Lee Road. An Arts and Crafts building with Art Nouveau overtones. The main gable has decorative timber-framing with cusping, and a brattished bottom 'tie', with plastered panels, above a 5-light window with transom and flat segmental head with decorative spandrels; the lights are cusped. The gable eaves has a cusped barge-board and a small finial. To the left, brought forward, is a gabled porch with similar barge-board, over a pair of plank doors in a segmental moulded arch. Set back behind this is the tower, square, with corner turrets and sunk lancet panels, with an undulating crenellated parapet above blind 'Perpendicular' panelling, and a 2-light casement with transom. The pyramidal roof has a lead finial. The E side of the tower has a 3-light casement. The right (west) return is in 4 bays, with 3-light casements with transom, cusped lights under a flat segmental arch, and small-pane leading, divided by square buttresses with 2 offsets, but diagonal at the gable end. To the right is the gabled vestry, set forward towards the street, with decorative barge-board and timber-framing containing a 5-light timber casement. The S gable is plain, with a small ridge stack, and with an attached low apse with conical roof, and a diagonal buttress to the right corner. The E side has four 3-lights and buttresses, as the W. The deep eaves carries the original cast-iron ogee gutter. INTERIOR: 4 arched-braced collar trusses with decorative square baluster kingposts. Plastered walls, panelled dado, plain glass. A central octagonal pulpit with Art Nouveau carved decoration, flanked by rails and a platform on 2 steps. There was formerly an organ in the apsidal recess. An austere interior to a simple but dignified exterior. The building is another example of the generosity of Sir George Newnes as patron in the town, and is similar in style to the Town Hall (qv); an inscribed stone reads: 'Erected by Sir George Newnes. Dedicated August 23rd 1904'. (Allen NV: Churches and Chapels of Exmoor: Dulverton: 1974-: 63). [1] The United Reform Church, another gift of George Newnes, was completed in 1904, with half-timber gables. It replaced an earlier chapel of 1850 on the same site. Although the architect is not recorded, there are some similarities with the Town Hall. The listing details describe this as “an Arts and Crafts building with Art Nouveau overtones,” and the boundary walls, piers, railings and gates, though separately listed, are an integral part of the original design. [2] The building was visited in April 2012 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. It received a BAR score of 6. [3]