Former Workhouse chapel, now used as hospital
chapel. 1866, with mid and late C20 alterations. By Charles
Lynam of Stoke-on-Trent.
Red brick, with ashlar and blue brick dressings.
Perpendicular style, complementing the contemporary School
block, also by Lynam.
Plinth, string courses, buttresses, moulded
eaves. Single range, with apsidal end, stair turret to NW, and
west porch. Plain tile roof with canted east end with gabled
ventilators and finial. At the west end, a square wooden bell
turret with pyramidal slate roof and finial. Windows have stone
cross-mullions and cusped 4-centred arched heads with hood
moulds.
Apse has regular fenestration, with blue brick
diaper work below the windows. Four-centred arched mullioned
opening to basement below NE window. Main body, 5 bays, has 5
windows to north and 4 to south. In the west bay, on each side,
a gabled through-eaves dormer for the gallery window. North side
has a tall coped stack rising from the east buttress. South side
has in the east bay a square lean-to porch with shouldered door
to basement, and a single window. At the SW corner, a
crenellated octagonal stair turret. Coped west gable has a
3-light window and above, a small light under a hood mould.
Crenellated square west porch has a 4-centred arched opening
covering 2 shouldered doorways, the left doorway blocked. Right
doorway has original board door. This layout reflects the
segregation of the sexes which was common in churches and
workhouses in this period.
INTERIOR: rendered, with moulded sill band and
arch-braced hammer beam roof on corbels. The details are similar
to the contemporary scholl block, qv. North east window has
stained glass, 1920, the remainder leaded glazing. At the west
end, a wooden gallery with blind tracery, carried on wooden
posts. Mid C20 glazed screens and doors below the gallery,
forming small rooms. Stone winder stair with iron balustrade in
the stair turret.
FITTINGS: All late C20, as chapel remains in use
for worship.
MEMORIALS: Wall tablet, 1983.
HISTORY:
Provision of a detached chapel for Christian worship was a
significant step in C19 social policy. This is an early example
of such a workhouse chapel.
