The Wesley Methodist Church is in St John Street,
Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
,
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
, England. It is an active
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
church in the
circuit of Chester. The church is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
History
The church was built in 1811. The original plan was prepared by
Thomas Harrison, but this was inadequate for the full church. The plan was completed by William Cole II, who was also the main contractor for building the church. The original entrance to the church was on the west side, with an
apsidal
In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...
east end facing towards St John Street. In 1906 the church was extended and re-ordered by P. H. and W. T. Lockwood. As a result of this the church was re-orientated, replacing the apse with an entrance front. At the west end a
chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ove ...
was created, possibly from the original porch.
[ The authors of the '' Buildings of England'' series describe the new east end as a "show front in Chester style".]
Architecture
The original part of the church is constructed in brown brick, the later parts in red Ruabon brick
Ruabon ( cy, Rhiwabon ) is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The name comes from ''Rhiw Fabon'', ''rhiw'' being the Welsh word for "slope" or "hillside" and ''Fabon'' being a mutation from St Mabon, the original church ...
. The roofs are in slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
. The entrance front is symmetrical with a central gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
containing a nine-light round-arched window. This is flanked by two-storey pavilions at the corners. Along each side of the church are three tall windows and three lunette
A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void.
A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc take ...
s. Inside the church are galleries on the sides that are carried on four-bay
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...
arcades with Ionic piers Piers may refer to:
* Pier, a raised structure over a body of water
* Pier (architecture), an architectural support
* Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name)
* Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
, and a round chancel arch.[ There is a large stained glass window dating from about 1914 by Gamon and Humphrey, and a war memorial window of 1926 by H. G. Hillier.][ The organ originally had two manuals and was made by J. J. Binns in 1926. A third manual was added by the same builder in 1948. The organ was cleaned and renovated in 2000 by David Wells.]
See also
* Grade II listed buildings in Chester (east)
References
External links
{{Churches in Cheshire
Methodist churches in Cheshire
Grade II listed churches in Cheshire
Grade II listed buildings in Chester
1811 establishments in England
19th-century Methodist church buildings
Churches in Chester
19th-century church buildings in England