MSO12139 - Former Methodist Chapel, West Street, Dunster (Building)

Former Methodist Church, 1878 by Samuel Shewbrooks of Taunton (Pevsner p 158). Dressed and coursed red sandstone, dressings to windows and doors rendered. Steep gabled slate roof, ridge tiles, brick stacks. Two storeys plus attic. Ornate Dutch gable with moulded coping, cornice and scrolls, spiked ball finial. Doric pilasters, cornice. Large central window, semi-circular rusticated voussoirs, glazing bars. Triple louvred opening to gable. Ground floor windows with moulded architraves, cill on brackets. Double panelled door, moulded architraves, modern basrelief panels above. Chapel House adjoins to right. Two storey gabled roof behind parapets with moulded cornice. Rusticated quoins. Semi-circular window with glazing bars, cill on brackets. Ground floor window with moulded architraves glazing bars. Front to St George's Street with brick dressings to windows, segmental arches. Plain boarded door. [1] The chapel was closed in 1968 and is now in use as a studio. [2] English Heritage Listed Building Number: 264734. First Listed on 04/08/1983. [3] The 2002 Conservation Area Character Appraisal for Dunster states that "On the west side of West Street, the former Methodist Church, built 1878 by Samuel Shewbrooks of Taunton is a dominant feature built of coursed red sandstone with dressings to windows and some frontage rendering. Other detail includes an ornate Dutch style gable with scrolls and spiked ball finial, a large central window with rusticated voussoirs. The Chapel house adjoins to the right." [4] "METHODIST CHURCH of 1878… with an odd rather Flemish-Baroque façade (by Shewbrooks of Taunton)." [5] 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. [7] The building is depicted and labelled "2" on 2018 MasterMap data. [8]