Cromer Methodist Church and Church Hall including boundary walls, piers and gate piers to West Street and Holt Road, Cromer, Norfolk

Summary

A Wesleyan Methodist Church and church hall, including boundary walls, piers and gate piers to West Street and Holt Road, built 1909-10. It was designed by Augustus Frederic Scott and constructed by Henry Bullen of Cromer. Not included in the listing is the 1970s hall and office addition adjoining the left-hand return of the church hall.

Description

MATERIALS: of knapped flint with terracotta dressings, brick stacks and late-C20 concrete-tiled roofs. The church hall also re-uses some of the sandstone dressings from the late-C19 church which formerly stood on the site.

PLAN: the church stands at the corner of West Street and Hall Road and is aligned north to south. It comprises an aisled nave, chancel, transepts, tower, balcony, north porch and vestibules. Adjoining its south side is a contemporary church hall, aligned east to west, to which a 1970s hall and office range is attached on its south side.

EXTERIOR: the church is of the Decorated Gothic Revival style. Its gabled north elevation to West Street (the liturgical west end) is flanked by offset angle buttresses rising to octagonal pinnacles with domed caps. To the centre of the ground floor there is a recessed porch with a pair of pointed arches set within paired gables ornamented with fleuron-patterned tiles. The arches are supported by a central marble column and marble responds, all with stiff-leaf capitals, and have a double chamfer with fleuron ornamentation to a large hollow mould. Flanking the porch are diagonal buttresses rising to octagonal shafts. To the north wall of the porch there is blind arcade of cusped ogee lights with quatrefoil tracery. It lies beneath a triplet of lancets with ogee trefoil heads. The re-entrant angles contain pointed doorways with late-C20 uPVC doors. Flanking the porch are lancets with cusped ogee lights and vesica-shaped quatrefoil tracery. Over the porch is a large six-light window with a pointed arch, cusped ogee lights and curvilinear tracery. All openings have hoodmoulds with human head label stops while the buttresses are topped with gablets ornamented with blind ogee trefoils.

The corner to West Street and Hall Road is turned by a two-stage tower with offset diagonal buttresses rising to pinnacles over a crenellated parapet. The two street elevations have a tall lancet with cusped ogee lights and vesica-shaped quatrefoil tracery to the first stage. Above, all four sides of the second stage have lancets with ogee trefoil heads. All the window openings have hoodmoulds with foliated and animal head label stops.

The left-hand return to Hall Road has a three-bay nave divided by offset diagonal buttresses rising to terracotta gablets with blind ogee trefoil tracery and fleur-de-lys finials. Each bay has a pointed, two-light window with cusped ogee heads and vesica-shaped tracery with cusped quatrefoils. Projecting to the left is a gabled transept with offset diagonal buttresses rising to octagonal pinnacles with domed caps surmounted by fleur-de-lys finials. At its centre is a pointed, four-light window with cusped ogee heads and curvilinear tracery. It is flanked by lancets with cusped ogee lights and vesica-shaped quatrefoil tracery.

The right-hand return, which fronts onto a small grassed area, is identical to the left-hand return but has an additional vestibule bay at the left-hand side containing a lancet with a cusped ogee head and vesica-shaped quatrefoil tracery; the left-hand vestibule is accommodated within the tower. All the nave and transept windows have hoodmoulds with human head label stops.

Adjoining the rear (south side) of the church is a contemporary church hall whose Early English Gothic Revival design imitates that of the church of 1881 which formerly stood on the site. Its gabled entrance elevation to Hall Road, which re-uses sandstone dressings from the late-C19 church, is flanked by diagonal buttresses rising to large conical pinnacles. At its centre is a kneelered gable which forms a projecting porch within which is a pointed and double-chamfered doorway with ledged and braced doors with large decorative strap hinges. Above the porch is a triplet of lancets while single lancets flank it on each side of which that to the right-hand side is truncated by the organ chamber. Re-set within the façade are four date stones from the late-C19 church. The left-hand return has four sets of paired lancets, the rear (west) elevation has a further two sets along with a bricked-up doorway, while the north face has a pointed doorway and two lancets with ogee trefoil heads. All openings, except the blocked doorway, have hoodmoulds with foliated label stops. Both the church and hall also display exposed rafter ends to the eaves.

Linked to the left-hand return of the church hall by a short corridor-cum-entrance bay is a single-storeyed hall and office range of 1970s date. Of brick with a flat roof of bituminous felt, it is architecturally modest and is therefore excluded from the listing.

INTERIOR: the porch doorways lead into vestibules at the east and west sides of the church. Both have terrazzo floors and painted and plastered walls with a roll-moulded dado. The left-hand vestibule also has a concrete, dog-leg staircase which rises to the balcony. From each vestibule double doors within pointed surrounds provide access to the nave.

The nave is spanned by a hammer-beam roof supported on stone corbels carved with human heads. Although one of the heads is reputed to be that of the church’s builder, Henry Bullen, its exact location is unknown. The hammer-beams are ornamented with dentils while the spandrels have a traceried infill of trefoil-headed lights. Diagonal timber boarding lines the ceiling while walls are clad with vertically-boarded wainscoting.

At the south end of the nave (the liturgical east end) there is a raised chancel with a moulded communion rail with holes for individual communion cups. Between the rail and posts there are crocketed spandrels with ogee trefoil tracery. The chancel projects from a recessed section framed by a pointed and double-chamfered arch with marble responds with stiff-leaf capitals. Set within the recess is a raised pulpit with backboard and sounding board, all of oak. Both the pulpit and backboard have a similar stepped projection ornamented with blind-traceried lights with cusped ogee heads and a combination of geometric, curvilinear and panel tracery. Both also have crocketed finials and a moulded cornice with fleuron ornamentation.

To the left-hand side of the chancel, built against the liturgical east wall, is a pipe organ of 1913 by Norman and Beard Ltd of Norwich. Its oak cabinet is also ornamented with blind-traceried lights with cusped ogee heads, quatrefoil tracery, moulded cornice with fleuron ornamentation and a triangular-shaped pediment with blind-traceried quatrefoil. Above, the windchest rises in five sections of which three are topped with moulded cornices with fleuron ornamentation.

To the right-hand side of the chancel there is a pointed doorway leading through to the church hall. Above it is a pointed and double-chamfered arch with marble responds and stiff-leaf capitals. At the centre of the arch is a stone corbel with a carved head. All the pews in the nave were removed in 2016.

The north side (the liturgical west end) has a cantilevered balcony with a canted oak front embellished with blind traceried lights with cusped ogee heads and quatrefoil tracery. Its raked floor was levelled in 2016 and the pews removed.

The church hall has a scissor truss roof and vertically-boarded wainscoting to the walls. Its west end has now been annexed to create a kitchen. To the west side of the kitchen there is a north-south aligned corridor with late-C20, oak veneer doors to the vestry and toilets. At the south end of the corridor a flight of steps rise to the 1970s hall and office addition.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: to West Street and Hall Road there are low boundary walls with stepped piers and gate piers, all of knapped flint with terracotta coping stones. The stepped section of each pier is comprised of a large terracotta block with fleuron ornamentation. The original gates and railings are now missing, having been removed during the Second World War, though the entrance to the church hall now has a replacement cast-iron gate. These structures contribute to the special interest of the ensemble and are included in the listing.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 10/05/2016

History

The first known Methodist church in Cromer opened in 1813 in a converted schoolroom on the north side of Hall Road. In 1881 the church was rebuilt by Edward Boardman (1833-1910), a Norwich-based architect, with a gallery and partition that could be removed to accommodate the larger summer congregations. At this time the plot adjoining the church on its north side, at the corner of Hall Road and West Street, was occupied by a row of cottages along with a detached dwelling known as Prospect House, all of late-C18 to early-C19 date. In 1909 these buildings were demolished to make way for a larger church and church hall designed by Augustus Frederic Scott (1854-1936). Although Scott was primarily based in Norwich, he opened a practice in Cromer to capitalise on the building boom brought about by the arrival of the railway in 1877. By the late C19 he had also become surveyor to Cromer Urban District Council. The building work was undertaken by Henry Bullen of Cromer and some of the sandstone dressing material from the late-C19 church was incorporated into the new church hall. A plaque inside the church records that it was opened for public worship by Mrs Arthur B Hodge on 7 July 1910. A further plaque records that it was built under the ministry of the Rev Ernest D Green at a cost of £5,000. In the 1970s a new church hall and office range (not of special interest) was added to the rear. The church roof was repaired in 1982. In 2016 the pews to the nave and balcony were removed, with the balcony also being levelled to form a storage area.

Reasons for Listing

Cromer Methodist Church and church hall, built in 1909-10 to designs by Augustus Frederic Scott, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural interest: as an accomplished example of Nonconformist church architecture that has a good exterior with flushwork detailing;

* Interior: it has a well-proportioned nave which is spanned by an elaborate hammer-beam roof;

* Fixtures and fittings: although the pews have been removed, the church retains many original features including the pulpit, along with its backboard and sounding board, the communion rail and an original organ in a fine wooden case;

* Group value: it forms a small group with a Nos 1 to 7 Chesterfield Villas (listed Grade II) and Chesterfield Lodge (listed Grade II), a series of late-C19 dwellings standing opposite the church on the north side of Holt Road.

External Links

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