Description

CALNE

ST9971 CHURCH STREET
755-1/4/99 (North side)
Calne Free Church

GV II

Church. 1867. By W Stent of Warminster. Squared, rusticated
limestone with ashlar dressings and quoins, crested plain tile
roof. Rectangular plan with bell tower to the front left (NW);
north aisle with higher north transept extending to the line
of the aisle (no south aisle) and angled buttresses. Gothic
Revival Middle Pointed style.
The front gable end has a cinquefoil opening to the apex over
a large pointed-arched, casement-moulded, 4-light window with
foliate capitals to shafts and geometrical tracery. The
planked doors with decorative hinges are set in a
pointed-arched doorway with hollow-moulded stops springing
from low offset buttresses, the intrados has soft red stone
colonnettes with floral caps and plinths. The bell tower has a
quatrefoiled parapet with dragon gargoyles; the 2-light bell
opening has floral stops to the hoodmould, quatrefoil and
trefoil tracery and scallop-edged slate louvres. A string
course over a single-light pointed-arched window with similar
tracery is above a smaller door than the main one, similar but
with a stilted arch.
The left return has a 2-light window to the tower, and the
north aisle which projects to the same line has 3 paired
trefoil-headed windows to the clerestory. The gabled north
transept has a 3-light pointed-arched window without a
hoodmould; the tall hipped square stair turret has circular
windows and a timber porch to a pointed-arched door. To the
rear the semicircular apse and curved hipped roof has a
moulded eaves cornice, 5 pointed-arched windows and cill
string. The right return is obscured by other premises, not
included.
INTERIOR: modest and virtually unchanged. 10-bay
scissor-braced planked roof over clerestorey of paired
coloured leaded windows; the north aisle is separated by an
arcade of 4 Transitional-style round piers supporting pointed
arches, smaller to the west end giving access to the belltower
and larger to the north-east transept. The arch to the apse is
supported by colonnettes on high corbels. The apse has small
polychromatic tiles to the floor and a dado approx 2m high of
brown glazed geometrical relief-pattern tiles below 5 tall
delicate geometrical-design stained-glass windows. These are
flanked by panels of glazed tiles painted with mottos on
scrolls around olive branches, after the style of William
Morris. The glass of the west window is similar to that of the
apse. The original painted organ, pinewood pews and pulpit
remain. An unusually complete interior.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the church was built under the patronage of
the Harris family (local wholesale butchers).
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N & Cherry B: Wiltshire:
London: 1975-: 154).

Listing NGR: ST9985671018

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26539652

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
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  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
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  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover