Building record 1475400000 - Ivinghoe Methodist Chapel

Historic building recording (level 2) carried out by Thames Valley Archaeological Services in April 2014 concluded that chapel and Sunday School were built in Italianate style in 1865 as a single build which may also have included the office and kitchen lean-to at the rear. The building is partly of two stories and built in yellow brick with decorative band courses and window detailing in red brick, round arched windows and doorways, carved foliage capitals and decorated bargeboards. The chapel had a shallow entrance lobby with staircases at each side accessing the first floor gallery, and a pulpit on a raised railed dias at the far end of the chapel, flanked on each side by dorways through to the Sunday School hall behind. A side entrance set back from the frontage gave separate acces to the Sunday School and to three first floor rooms. It is suggested that the side entrance stairs, upstairs rooms, and the seating inside the chapel may be slightly later additions as they obscure some of the chapel windows. See report for detail (B1).
The Wesleyan Chapel was founded in the High Street in 1837 and replaced by the present structure in 1865, funded by the Hawkins family of Pitstone Green. The chapel is constructed of buff coloured bricks with decorative orange brick detailing. Arched windows at ground level flank a central doorway with an arched window flanked by narrower arched windows above. Decorative painted wooden verge boards articulate the eaves level. The chapel is now closed and there is planning permission to convert it to domestic accommodation [2015]. The Wesleyan Chapel is an attractive and visually eye-catching building which is prominently positioned on the High Street. Its form and articulation is characteristic of non-conformist chapels dating from the mid to late 19th century and it is significant both in terms of the visual contribution it makes to the street scene, but also to our understanding of the social and spiritual history of the village. A local note building within the conservation area of Ivinghoe (B2).