Interior Description

Porch

The walls and ceiling of the small porch are fully panelled to the same design and of the same materials as used in the main church and Bible Study rooms.

The floor immediately inside the porch entrance is of concrete, with the remainder of wooden tongue & grooved boards 4" wide (115mm). The inner double doors are wooden, narrow and rectangular.

Main Church area

The east, west and front gable end walls of the main church area are fully panelled as in the porch with the exception of an area between the entrance doors and the first windows on each side. Here, the original panelling from floor level to the height of the window sills, has recently been replaced with plain boarding following building repairs (Williamson, 2003, pers.comm.).

An equilateral-arch window with a broken light above the inner porch doors has been partially covered by a sheet of hardboard (in addition to being covered by corrugated iron sheeting on the outside of the building).

The roof is supported by five principal trusses and scissor braces (Fig.7); two are fully exposed and one partially exposed while the two gable end trusses are hidden by panelling. The exposed trusses are strengthened by three iron straps while the second truss is further braced by a horizontal tie-rod.

Each truss supports three single and one paired set of longitudinal timbers on each side; these carry 6 " wide (170mm), tongue & grooved sarking boards.

The corrugated iron roofing sheets and tarred or mineral felt lining are fastened directly to these longitudinal timbers, which may be reasonably referred to as purlins, even though no common rafters are present.

Fig.7 - Roof truss

On the eastern side of the main room ceiling, between the first and second joists, a circular hole cut in the boarding indicates the location of the flue of an earlier "pot-bellied" heating system; a second potential hole is covered by a circular patch. Four plain panels close to the apex of the roof and two small, associated though non-functioning pulleys, suggest their use as vents; short lengths of additional iron sheeting on the roof appear to correspond with these openings.

Separating the main church area from the Bible Study area is an eight-panel folding partition. Each panel measures 8' 10" high and 3' 1" wide (2.70m x 0.95m), the easternmost of which forms the door between the two areas. Above the panels the remainder of the partition wall comprises vertical 4" (115mm), tongue & grooved boarding which is fastened to and masks the timbers of the scissor braces; a number of these boards have been cut to fit around the iron straps.

Bible Study area

The walls here are panelled as in the main church area. A low panelled ceiling has been constructed in this room, to a height of 3.4m, using what appears to be hardboard sheeting and decorative beading to give a squared effect.

A second partition comprising five folding wooden panels separates the Bible Study area from the Prayer room. A simple wooden door (with a glass upper panel), in the easternmost partition panel provides access between these rooms. Above the folding panels the remainder of the partition is panelled completely masking the former gable end truss. This panelling is partly as per the original walls though with the centre section comprising a later decorative moulding.

Prayer room

The Prayer room essentially comprises the later extension to the building. The walls and sloping ceiling are panelled with 4" tongue & grooved boards. The west and adjacent rear windows are of the same type. 

Boundaries 

The front property boundary comprises an eight brick-course wall topped with shaped sandstone coping stones showing evidence of having held vertical iron railings set in lead-filled recesses. Square brick and sandstone pillars, topped with ornate capstones, form each end of the wall and also provide gateposts in front of the porch. 

The eastern boundary wall has been partly demolished probably at the same time as the construction of the adjacent boundary wall for the village's War memorial; the northern part of this wall appears to be more or less intact. 

Two later right-angled brick walls have been constructed; one from the south-west corner of the building to the front boundary wall and the other from the north-west corner of the building to the rear boundary wall. These walls have not been bonded to the existing brickwork and are therefore essentially free-standing. 


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