Falstone : United Reformed Church

The former Presbyterian Church at Falstone consists of a simple rectangular block, its longer axis east-west, with a small ministers room set centrally at the west end and an added tower at set centrally on the east. The building is built of coursed roughly-squared stone with tooled-and-margined quoins and dressings, with Welsh slate roof.

There are coped gables on moulded kneelers, the western with the baser of a finial. The main body has four round-arched windows on each side, with imposts, keystones and alternating-block jambs; the wider central two are original to the 1807 structure, a tablet with the date in an oval panel being set above and between them.

The narrower end windows probably date to the 1876 remodelling; this is obvious in the case of he western window on the north side, which can be seen to have older dressings to its lower half. The west end has a pair of lancet windows on either side of the pent-roofed Minister's Room with its central 8-pane sash window'; the outline of a lower-pitched gable, presumably of 1807, can be seen above. The church is now entered by a two-centred arched doorway on the south side of the tower, which has some quirky detail.

Above the door is a tablet the incised inscription

FALSTONE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
1709 1807 1876

The entrance lobby has a two-light Gothic window on the east, and the stage above keyed roundels enclosing cruciform openings on all three exposed sides; the belfry, above a string course, has a pair of round-arched lights on its three sides, then a series of ashlar corbels carry the eaves of the pyramidal spire of Welsh slate that has a weather-vane finial.

The present internal arrangements are largely of 20th century date; the eastern bay of the building is now partitioned off to form a separate meeting room. The main body of the church has a panelled pulpit at the north-west corner and a communion table set centrally against the west wall. It is not quite clear what the original internal arrangements were; the arrangement of original windows suggests that there may have been galleries at each side, the pulpit perhaps being set centrally against the north wall. The roof, probably of 1876, is of four bays, with arch-braced collar-beam truss