Description

SO 8802-8902 CHALFORD CHALFORD HILL

13/29 France Congregational Church and Hall 16.5.86

II

Former Congregational chapel and school room, now disused. Datestone: 'FRANCE MEETING / REBUILT 1819'; school room added 1854. Squared and dressed limestone front, coursed rubble sides and rear; concrete tile to chapel, Welsh slate to school room. Rectangular double-height chapel; single-storey school room on east side with additional rear wing. Front: 3-window fenestration to chapel, outer keyed round arched sashes with glazing bars; central upper level Venetian window with oval date plaque above and clock-face below. Central round-arched doorway with C20 door, side-lights and large plain fanlight. Plain upper level band; plain parapet with moulded cornice. Tall hipped roof. Five-window round arched sash fenestration to school room to right, all with glazing bars. Moulded stone eaves; hipped roof. West side: 4-window fenestration on 2 levels, all round arched sashes with glazing bars. East side: similar fenestration as to west side of chapel. Central round arched doorway to school room with blocked fanlight; flanking round arched windows. Moulded eaves continued from front; central date plaque below, now illegible. Forecourt iron railings to school room have iron tops to principal posts with acorn finials. Rear: 2 round arched windows to chapel with Romanesque dividing colonnette. Interior: not accessible at time of survey (August 1986) but records show panelled gallery around 3 sides with later Cl9 seating. Central panelled pulpit at north end is original with later stairs. Various late C18 and early Cl9 monuments, many transferred from an earlier chapel. Sketch plan and interior view in NMR. (RCHM, An Inventory of Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting-Houses in Central England, 1986; and D. Verey, Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds, 1979).

Listing NGR: SO8984102976

External Links

• Wikidata Q26624605

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