page_title: Robertsbridge United Reformed Church
section_title: Architecture and description
hierarchical_section_title: Robertsbridge United Reformed Church / Architecture and description
caption_attribution_description: Moulded pilaster on the doorway of Robertsbridge United Reformed Church, High Street, Robertsbridge, Rother District, East Sussex, England. Designed in 1881 by Thomas Elworthy of St Leonards-on-Sea. Listed at Grade II by English Heritage (NHLE Code 1221451)
context_page_description: Robertsbridge United Reformed Church is a former United Reformed Church place of worship in Robertsbridge, a village in the district of Rother in the English county of East Sussex. Built for Congregational worshippers in 1881 following their secession from a long-established Wesleyan Methodist chapel, it was the third Nonconformist place of worship in the village, whose nearest parish church was in the neighbouring settlement of Salehurst. Like the former Strict Baptist and Methodist chapels in the village, which have both closed, it no longer serves Robertsbridge as a place of worship. Local architect Thomas Elworthy's distinctive design—a "rich" and highly decorated blend of several styles—has divided opinion amongst architectural historians. English Heritage has listed the church at Grade II for its architectural and historical importance.
context_section_description: Congregationalism was traditionally "a prosperous denomination [that] built well-finished and well-furnished buildings"; by the late 19th century, the quality of some exceeded even that of contemporary Anglican churches, and as of 2006 26% of the surviving 1,115 such churches in England had listed status.  Thomas Elworthy, the local architect commissioned to design the church at Robertsbridge, was closely associated with the Hastings area and Nonconformist ecclesiastical architecture.  Most of his commissions were for Congregationalists, and most of his works reflect the localised reaction against the Gothic Revival style seen in several parts of Sussex in the 1880s.  His Congregational churches at Croft Road, Hastings (1877) and Mount Pleasant Road, Hastings (1878–79; both demolished) were Free Renaissance Revival and Early English Gothic Revival respectively; his St Leonard's Baptist Church of 1883 at St Leonards-on-Sea was a "rich Italianate"; and the Robertsbridge church displayed an eclectic mix of styles.  It has elements of the Classical, Renaissance Revival and Italianate styles with some Gothic Revival features.  As an architect, Thomas Elworthy is "often maligned", and critical reaction to the building has varied: Nikolaus Pevsner called it "truly horrible" and "most dissolute", whereas a more recent analysis by English Heritage saw it as a "rich and fruity example of a Nonconformist church".  Sussex church historian Robert Elleray described the church as "very Victorian" and "an unexpected Renaissance intrusion into the predominantly 18th-century High Street", and thought Pevsner had made "a harsh judgement".
  The church is principally of red brick with extensive use of terracotta dressings.  The façade, on an elevated section of the High Street known as High Pavement, rises to two storeys and has three bays with a four-window range.  A stone cornice separates the lower and upper storeys, and another runs below the parapet upon which a central brick pediment stands.  This was originally surrounded by a balustrade with stone urns.  The bays are divided by brick pilasters.  The windows are all casements and are set below semicircular fanlights in ornately moulded round-headed surrounds.  The outer bays have single windows, but those above the entrance are paired.  The doorway has moulded pilasters and a cornice topped with stone urns, and the door is panelled.
caption: The doorway has moulded pilasters.
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