France Congregational Church And Hall

The France Congregational Church and Hall is a former chapel and school room, now disused, located in Chalford. The chapel was rebuilt in 1819, as indicated by the datestone, with the school room added in 1854. The building is constructed from squared and dressed limestone to the front, with coursed rubble to the sides and rear, and features concrete tile roofing on the chapel and Welsh slate on the school room.

The chapel is a rectangular, double-height structure and is joined to a single-storey school room on its east side with a rear wing attached. The front of the chapel has a three-window arrangement, with keyed round arched sash windows with glazing bars. A central upper-level Venetian window stands above a plaque displaying the date and below a clock face. A central round-arched doorway is equipped with a 20th-century door, side lights, and a large plain fanlight. A plain upper level band is topped by a plain parapet with a moulded cornice. It has a tall hipped roof. The school room to the right features five round-arched sash windows with glazing bars and moulded stone eaves, sitting beneath a hipped roof. The west side presents a four-window arrangement across two levels, with round arched sash windows and glazing bars. The east side mirrors the west side's fenestration with respect to the chapel, and includes a central round arched doorway to the school room with a blocked fanlight and flanking round arched windows, along with a now illegible date plaque. Iron forecourt railings to the school room are topped with acorn finials on the principal posts. The rear of the chapel displays two round arched windows separated by a Romanesque dividing colonnette.

The interior, inaccessible during a 1986 survey, is known to contain a panelled gallery around three sides with 19th-century seating. An original, centrally located, panelled pulpit exists at the north end, accompanied by later stairs. Various late 18th and early 19th-century monuments are present, many of which were moved from an earlier chapel.