Description

WARE TOWN

TL3514SE LEASIDE WALK
829-1/9/140 (North side)
Leaside Methodist Church and United
Reform Church

GV II

Church. Built as The Independent Chapel 1816, rebuilt as the
Congregational Church 1858-1859. Brick with stone window
surrounds, south facade coursed limestone rubble with ashlar
limestone dressings, bands, quoins and ornamental window and
door surrounds, Welsh slated roofs. 5 bay single cell meeting
room, with shallow gallery at south end, shallow `chancel' bay
at north end.
EXTERIOR: south facade in the Romanesque style, treated as 2
storeys with attic, and subdivided by shallow projecting
buttresses into 3 bays, with plinth and moulded bands below
and above first floor windows, which light the gallery within.
Central doorway, with twin leaf battened doors, with foliated
scrollwork wrought-iron hinges recessed with 2 semicircular
arches, the inner with ornamental discs, the outer with
interlaced zigzags, moulded extrados and impost carried on
twin colonnettes. Left and right colonnettes and semicircular
arches, bobbin mouldings on ground floor, relief zigzags on
first floor. Central triple-light window above entrance,
lancet, with billet ornamented head, flanked by semicircular
headed windows, with colonnettes at jambs, and separating the
lights. Circular wheel window above, with 8 radiating lights
and central oculus. Plaque above in apex of gable `1816
rebuilt 1859'. Brick sides divided into 5 bays by shallow
buttresses, with semicircular headed windows between.
INTERIOR: has yellow brick walls, with stone windows set in
red brick recesses and beneath red brick arches, lattice
glazing with etched and painted quarries by Powell of
Whitefriars. 3 light north window divided by colonnettes, in
one bay `chancel'. Stained and painted glazing of scenes from
the Resurrection. Below is foundation stone laid by David
Williams Wire, Lord Mayor of London on 25 November 1858. Roof
over church has exposed tie-beam trusses, braced below from
corbels, with queen posts, king post, curved braces, collar
and struts, supporting 3 purlins. Principal rafters, and
curved bracing exposed beneath boarded ceiling.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the Independent Chapel was established by a
dissenting group from the Old Independent Chapel in Church
Street in 1811, and their first chapel opened 5 years later.
The 1859 rebuilding was financed to half the cost by Joseph
Chuck of Widbury House, a leading Ware maltster. In 1972 the
United Reform Church was formed by amalgamation of the
Congregational and Presbyterian Churches, and in 1978 they
were joined by Ware Methodists to form the Leaside Church.
(Edwards E and Perman D: Ware's Past In Pictures: Ware: 1991-:
125; Heath C: The Book of Ware. A Portrait of the Town:
Chesham: 1977-: 77, 83; Lavender S: Churches, Chapels and
Faiths of Ware: Ware: 1989-: 38-9; Ware Tithe Map: 1845-; Ware
25" to 1 Mile. Surveyed by the Ordnance Survey Department:
1851-).

Listing NGR: TL3586314354

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26512166

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

• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)