Sion Independent Chapel

Sion Independent Chapel

A chapel with stucco exterior and slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and small finial. The two-storey gabled facade dates possibly to 1864, with pedimental gable, bracketed moulded timber cornice and moulded verges. Raised letters on the facade read: 'Sion Addoldy'r Annibynwyr. Adeiladwyd 1860. Helaethwyd 1864. Adnewyddwyd 1908' (Sion Independent Chapel. Built 1860. Extended 1864. Renewed 1908).

The upper storey has four arched windows of equal height with a narrower gap between the centre two, featuring channelled rustication up to the level of a moulded impost band carried around the arched heads with keystones. Angle quoins flank the facade. A larger stucco string course runs between the storeys. The ground floor is rusticated with two cambered-headed windows flanking a broad cambered-headed doorway, all with voussoirs and keystones. The doorway contains panelled wooden double doors with stained glass leaded lights above. All windows are 2-light with transom and leaded lights throughout.

The right side wall is plain rendered with plinth, comprising five bays over two storeys. The upper storey has cambered-headed windows with smaller square-headed windows below; the first bay has no ground floor window. The left side is similar. The rear is obscured by an attached vestry.

The highly ornate interior is largely of 1908 and features an exceptional three-sided gallery supported on seven painted cast iron fluted columns with florid capitals, possibly of an earlier date. The gallery projects far out from the columns on deep horizontal brackets. The gallery front, curved at the angles, has a fine wrought-iron balustrade, double-curved in profile and elaborately scrolled. The main motif is a large beaten copper cartouche in scrollwork with scrolls on each side, then plain vertical bars; two such motifs appear on each long side and one at the rear. The gallery has a deeper rear section with raked pitch-pine pews with boarded backs. Lower pews are similar with two aisles.

A balustraded great seat with ball-finial newels dates probably to 1908, as does the pulpit, which shares similar detail with twin stairs. The pulpit is of fine quality with convex and concave curves to either side with low balustrades over panels. A deep top cornice with moulded dentils, a distinctive feature of much internal woodwork, spans a two-bay front with unusual triangular heads over three panelled pilasters. The woodwork features fine quality painted graining in four shades. The pulpit back of 1908 has six-bay panelling with long panels beneath square panels, all diagonally-slatted in opposed directions. Pilasters divide the bays, except to the centre pair which rise a further stage under a curved cornice with keystone support for a clock. A painted scroll on the back wall reads: 'Sancteiddrwydd a wedda i'th Dy, O Arglwydd, Byth' (Holiness befits thy house, O Lord, forever).

The decorative panelled ceiling, also probably of 1908, is executed in timber and plaster. Moulded timber beams with dentils form five main panels with narrower panels flanking. Large pierced cusped gothic timber brackets rise from wall corbels to beam intersections where pendant finials are set. Plaster panels have moulded timber borders with rebated angles; each centre panel bears a raised octagonal timber vent with moulded dentilled surround to a pierced fretwork inset panel.

The vestry of 1864, to the left of the pulpit and probably refitted in 1908, has a panelled folding screen with glazing above. A three-sided slatted ceiling is ceiled at collar level with arched braces rising from small corbels.