Listing Text

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