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Hope Baptist Peverell,
Gothic in Style
The Church was built in free Gothic style. Externally the walls are of
local limestone with stucco dressings and internally the walls are stuccoed
with a stone finish. The windows are in keeping with the building. They
are traceried and are of bathstone and glazed with lead lights. The building
is entered by N.W. and S.W. doors through spacious lobbies designed to
minimise external noises.
It consists of a nave, north and south aisles with transepts, and choir
chancel,the aisles being separated from the nave by six boldly moulded
arches supported on columns. The seating is in selected pitchpine, and
there is accommodation for 433 adults, or a mixed congregation of 500.
There is a wide central aisle and two side aisles and ample space in the
east and west ends of the nave. In the east end of the nave, immediately
in front of the chancel steps, is the open baptistery in terrazzo. There
are no galleries.
The memorial pulpit, on the north side of the chancel, the reading desk,
hymn board, and communion furniture (table and three chairs) are gifts
to the Church, and are in richly carved oak. The open timber roof, matching
the other architectural features, is of oregon pine.
On the north side of the choir chancel is the organ chamber, and on the
south the minister's vestry.
The two manual organ, which was in use in the old church, has been adapted
for the new building and brought thoroughly up-to-date by Messrs. He1e
and Co., Ltd., of Plymouth, and is electrically blown.
Through a door in the east end of the south aisle the Church is connected
with the school hall, primary room and ladies' and gentlemen's cloak rooms.
There is also a large class room adapted for kitchen use when necessary,
and on the first floor, above the minister's vestry and primary room,
is the deacons' vestry and the caretaker's apartments. The heating throughout
is by improved gas radiators, and the lighting is by electricity. Ventilation
is on an approved system.
First Sunday Services
The first Sunday services in the church were conducted by the Pastor on
29th January, 1928. At a special afternoon service the Ancient Order of
Foresters (Devon and Cornwall District), presented an oak communion table
to the Church Secretary, Mr. Chas. H. Prust, to mark his election to the
office of High Chief Ranger of the Order. Mr. Prust asked the Church to
accept the gift and to dedicate it to the use of the Church. On Sunday,
5th February, the first service for the enrolment of all Sunday School
scholars over eight years of age as Probationary Members of the Church
was held, and in the evening of the same day the first baptisms took place.
Miss Mary Damerell was the first to be baptised in the new building and
Mr. and Mrs. W. Thomas (the Pastor's sister) were the first to be married
there.
Additional Buildings
The work of the Church in its new home had begun well but it was not yet
established. The expected debt of from £2,600 to £2,800 had
been suddenly reduced by £1,500 by the gift of the site. There was
a Manse, but the Beginners and Primary rooms and the Church Hall were
still to be built and paid for.
The debt having been reduced to £150 (interest free) by 1931, it
was resolved to go ahead with the erection of the Beginners and Primary
rooms.
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The Memorial
Stone was laid on 6th July, 1931 by scholars of these departments, and the
block was opened on Wednesday, 4th December, 1931, by the late Mr. J. H.
Beckley, J.P., of Messrs. John Yeo & Co. Dr. H. C. Mander, who had preached
the first sermon in the new church was the special preacher and speaker,
and the President of the Devon and Cornwall Baptist Association, Mr. A.
H. Roberts, was the chairman of the evening Thanksgiving Meeting.
The cost of these rooms was £1,600. They were so built that a further
room or rooms could be added on top and approached by a stairway which would,
however, make the Beginners room smaller. |