Salem Church Including Boundary Walls And Assembly Room

Salem Church was built as a Presbyterian chapel and later served as a Congregational chapel, becoming an Evangelical Church in 1975. Construction occurred in 1719, with refurbishment in 1836, as indicated by a date plaque. The building’s walls are thick, likely cob on stone rubble footings, and it has a slate roof. It is a square structure facing south-east, with entrances on both sides of the front, positioned below a gallery. A vestry, dating to the 19th century, projects at right angles from the rear on the north-eastern side.

The front wall has two panelled doors set within low, segmental-headed arches. A rectangular limestone plaque, inscribed "Salem Chapel, built 1719," is positioned high in the wall's centre, with the sill inscribed "enlarged 1836" (referring to an increase in seating, not structural changes). The wall is lightly incised as ashlar, with stucco quoins at the corners. The hipped roof slopes down on all sides. Two tall, segmental-headed windows with replacement mullion-and-transom windows containing glazing bars are present on each side wall. The rear wall features two tall and narrow round-headed windows with a pattern of glazing bars intersecting at the top, characteristic of 1836.

The original gallery across the front end features fielded panels over a dentil cornice. Side galleries were added in 1836 and are supported by slender, cast iron circular columns with moulded caps. These galleries have a lower frieze with a fret pattern below panels with concave corners containing rosettes. The original moulded and bracketed cornice remains, along with the vaulted ceiling which rises from a central iron post, replacing an original timber post. The preaching desk and benches are likely from the late 19th century, although some earlier box pews are retained in the galleries. An 18th-century painted clock-face is on the north-east gallery. The small vestry contains a late 19th-century four-panel door and a three-light casement featuring glazing bars.

An assembly room, located in the eastern corner of the churchyard, has a two-window front with early 19th-century 30-pane sash windows, one on either side of a later four-panel door. Another 30-pane sash is at the left end, and a wide doorway leads to a basement on the right end. The small churchyard is enclosed by a whitewashed rubble and brick wall, with more brickwork towards the front. The front wall has plain square gate piers and contains 19th-century cast iron double gates with spear-headed rails alternately full height and to the lock bar. An elaborate wrought iron overthrow, enriched with scrolls and including a lamp holder, tops the gates.

This is a well-preserved and unusually early Non-Conformist chapel.