High Street URC, Wellingborough
High Street URC, Wellingborough
High Street United Reformed Church is a Grade II* former Congregational church on the east side of High Street, Wellingborough, built about 1875 to an unusual ovoid plan.
- Location
- Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Northamptonshire
- City / town
- Wellingborough
- Address
- High Street, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, NN8 4HW
- Postcode
- NN8 4HW
- Built
- c.1875
- Architect
- E. Sharman, to a plan by Caleb Archer; builder J. Boddington
- Denomination
- United Reformed Church
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Gothic Revival; ovoid plan
- Materials
- Rusticated lias with ashlar dressings; truncated-cone roof
- Grid reference
- SP 889 680
- Opening hours
- Monday to Friday 10am to 12 noon (except if there is a funeral). Can be opened at other times on request.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby
Overview
Historic England records a Congregational church, now United Reformed, of about 1875 by E. Sharman to a plan by Caleb Archer, built by J. Boddington. The fabric is rusticated lias with ashlar dressings. Porches stand on the north, south and west axes, with a vestry hall attached to the east. The entrance front has a two-storey gabled porch with a pointed arch and paired detached columns with foliated capitals, and a three-light window with roundel and cusped tracery above. The roof is a truncated cone with central cast-iron railings around iron ventilator chimneys. Inside, a gallery stands on cast-iron columns; original seating and a Hill organ survive, and all windows have stained glass. Cast-iron sliding gates close the main porch.
Northamptonshire’s Historic Environment Record traces the cause to the ejection of vicar Thomas Andrews in 1662. A first meeting house in Silver Street was succeeded in 1746 by a building in Cheese Lane; the 1875 church followed the 1873 reunion of the Cheese Lane congregation with that of Salem Chapel, which had seceded in 1811.