History

According to the inscription, Zion C. M. Chapel was built in 1828; however, the Sunday School of the chapel is recorded to have commenced in 1824.

The day-school at Zion commenced in 1845, and was known from the teacher's name as Phillip Gunter's School. Gunter was a disabled ex-miner; in 1847 18 children were enrolled in his school. The chapel was said in the Education Report to be in tolerable repair, apart from the floor and some joinery. It had a square table and a pulpit at one end (so it does not belong to the early class of chapels with pulpit against the long wall).

In 1851 it was reported that "a gallery is in course of erection for 50 more sittings".

The rebuilding of the chapel in 1866 saw the pulpit position at the gable end retained. New pews were installed, those at the S half of the room, to the right of the entrance door, being ramped up. An American organ was installed in the centre of the room. Probably the new schoolroom was added at the S of the chapel at this date.

The single-storey house, probably for a caretaker, was added between 1866 and 1888. It was later enlarged at the rear.

Exterior

The chapel is a nearly-square building parallel to the street. Built of local rubble stonework, rendered. The front elevation is dry-pebble-dashed with a rendered plinth. Slate roof. The door is central, with one window each side, all with round heads, white-painted dressings, emphasised keystones and emphasised stones just above impost level. Double doors with vertical boarding and a fanlight above with deep section glazing bars. Windows of small panes with margin lights in coloured glass, amber, blue or red.

Large oblong central tablet above the door, with name and dates in an oval. Plain gabled end walls and rear, rendered and unpainted. The rear windows are similar to those at the front, but without the surround of dressed stones. The school, attached at the right, is also parallel to the street. Door and two windows. The door is vertically boarded and the windows glazed with margin-light sashes. The house at the right of the group is of one storey, with two windows and a central door to the front. It is not quite on the same building line as the other two structures. White-painted low stone piers at front of the chapel with a central iron gate and two flanking lengths of iron railings on a low wall, with similar piers at the extremities. Railings of a slightly different pattern at front of the schoolroom on a low wall.

Interior

The chapel is entered by a small internal porch, which is framed and glazed, with chamfers to the frame, frosted glass and coloured margin lights. The pulpit is at the N gable end, with an arched-headed wall recess behind it. There are twin stairs. Small table. In the front half of the room, N of the entrance, are two blocks of pews, and in the rear half, three ramped blocks with a contemporary American pedal-organ at the centre. There are also two more recent organs at the front of the room.

The schoolroom has a plain interior. The cottage is planned with a central entrance and lobby between two rooms. A small bedroom and a scullery in a rear lean-to. The rooms have bead-jointed boarded doors and ledges. Both front rooms are separated from the central lobby by a boarded partition.

Reasons for Listing

A fine early grouping of chapel, school and caretaker's house.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29495788

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

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)