Description

HARBERTON
SX75NE
ZION HILL
5/446 HARBERTONFORD
Zion Chapel

II

Nonconformist chapel. Circa 1799. Slate rubble and local metamorphic
stone rubble. Slate hung from just above window cill level on south and
west sides only. Hipped roof with cement slurried scantle slates.
Plan: Rectangular plan on a north-south axis with entrance at the south
end below the gallery which is entered by external stairs on west side.
Built high above lane which is in deep cutting on east side. The rostrum
is at the north end. Situated in a small burial ground.
Exterior: Two pointed arch windows on east and west sides of two lights
with Y-tracery bars. The windows on east side have red brick arches.
External stone rubble steps with slate treads to gallery doorway to right
of west side, with pointed arch and plank door with Y-tracery cover moulds.
Doorway at south end with straight head double flush panel doors and slated
wooden canopy on shaped brackets. Small oculus above with radiating
spider-web tracery. Similar oculus on north end.
Interior: (28 feet by 17.5 feet) is simply plastered with flat ceiling and
matchboarded dado. Gallery at the south end on pair of thin columns;
gallery front panelled and with moulded architrave and cornice. The back
of the gallery is partitioned off to form vestry, with doorway at centre
with cornice on console brackets set on this shafts supported on a second
pair of consoles. Fragments of original seating in the gallery. The
simple rostrum at the north end appears to be later C19 but the front has a
small board inscribed 'Zion Chapel 1799' and the dado panelling behind the
rostrum might be original. The C19 portable benches are of pleasingly
simple design.
The earliest monument in the burial ground appears to be a tomb chest to
Thomas Goodman 1833, the pastor.
The chapel was built in 1799 for a Baptist Congregation but now serves a
Brethren assembly.
It is a good and largely complete example of a small Georgian nonconformist
chapel with an unusual external gallery stairs.
Source: C Stell, draft for RCHM inventory of non-conformist chapels.

Listing NGR: SX7844855915

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26511017

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)