- Nprn: 11386
- Cadw Ref: 62/B/157(3)
- Cadw Record No: 8371
- Summary: The Zion Congregational Church was founded in 1824, but demolished and rebuilt in 1878, to the design of architect John Humphries of Morriston, and described as the ‘Cathedral of Welsh Non-Conformity’. The chapel has an Italianate Classical Renaissance style, with giant Corinthian columns supporting three semi-circular ‘triumphal’ arches and gabled pediment above. The church is constructed from bull nosed rubble with freestone columns and dressings, and has Italianate narrow rectangular slit windows with twin small pane lights and arched entrances with panelled doors. The interior, which was altered slightly in the 1960's, includes a gallery supported on cast iron columns with plain foliage capitals, and a rare example of a hollow eighteenth century bureau in which priests were able to hide. A red brick school room was built to the rear of the chapel in 1932. Zion is now Grade 2 Listed bacause of its specially important façade.
RCAHMW, November 2010 - Description: First chapel opened 1824. Present building dates from rebuild of 1878/9. Cost £1550. Classical style by John Humphrey of Morriston. Gable entry type. Present status [1997] : chapel. 2004 Name canged to Trinity Church with merger of Zion and Bethel Street English Presbyterian
Built 1878 to the design of John Humphrey of Morriston, its precursor built 1824 (information from the Religious Census of 1851). Accommodation: in 1905 (appendices to the Royal Commission on the Church of England and other Religious Bodies) in Llanidloes Congregational Church (no name given) there were 500 sittings with 60 in the schoolroom.
Summary: a gable, "temple" façade chapel for the Congregational cause by J. Humphrey, his Tabernacl chapel of ca. 1872 at Morriston one of its precursors, and his Tabernacl, Llanelli (1873), another. Like both chapels, Zion, Llanidloes, has a projecting giant portico beneath a triangular pediment, with arches over its composite columns, but also also shows variations on the Tabernacl, Morriston, theme. Pulpit against rear gable. Open bench seats arranged on a curve. Formerly 4-sided seating in both ground floor and gallery? If so again like Tabernacl, Morriston. Some later-C20 stained glass.
Exterior: 3-bay façade of rock-faced snecked stone with ashlar dressings. Projecting giant portico beneath a triangular pediment. Giant order of columns with composite capitals under arches that rise to above gallery windows; entablature; pediment with raked modillion cornices, partly missing, a wrought-iron finial and an inset, stepped triangular panel echoing the shape of the pediment and inset with a circular opening with inset circlets. The high pedestals beneath the 4 columns are set against the front wall and rise out of a wide flight of steps which, to each side of the 2 centre columns, rise further to the 3 entrances.
The 3 semi-circular ground-floor doorways - comprising entrances to centre vestibule and flanking stair lobbies - are set in arcading with disks in the spandrels of each door head. The centre doorway is inset with a pair of 2-moulded panel doors, the top panels quadrant shaped.In the side doorways, single doors of similar appearance, but of 4 panels. Above the arcaded doorways, a mezzanine storey punctuated by oblong window slits: 4 to the centre vestibule, and 3 to each of the flanking stair lobbies; dentil cornice over; finely lettered inscriptions below the window slits: "Founded AD 1826" below the 3 NW. lights; "Zion Congregational Chapel" below the 4 centre lights, and "Rebuilt 1878" below the 3 SE. lights. Tall semi-circular headed gallery window openings, each containing 2 semi-circular headed lights, each light further subdivided and with glazed circlet and spandrels over, the circlet subdivided into 4 quadrant panes.
To left and right of centre, 2 inscribed stones below the column pedestals, laid in commemoration on June 14th, 1878.
The front façade is set to the rear of a long forecourt with centre path between raised lawns, & enclosed from Short Bridge Street by walls and railings and centre gate. Brick walls with stone coping; 2 bays of C19 iron railings each side of the gate. Railings have chamfered uprights and pierced spear-headed finials with side projections; square standards with similar finials. Similar standards as gate piers. Gate comprises square uprights rising alternately to above top and mid rails; thinner uprights to above lower mid rail; similar finials; iron wheel for tracking below bottom gate rail.
Side elevations: rendered side elevations with thick bands at impost and cill levels of ground-floor and gallery windows. On ground floor, 4 pairs of plain semi-circular headed window openings, containing window lights of 3 panes depth. Gallery window openings of 2 plain semi-circular headed lights with circular light over, subdivided by radiating tracery. Projecting bracket eaves cornice.
Rear gable: plain bargeboard with 4 eaves brackets. 3 windows at gallery level, the centre window blocked, with rendered band at cill level. Blocked semi-circular headed roof vent above. Gable stack. 1-storey red-brick vestry of 1932 attached to lower part of rear gable (see below, after "Chapel interior").
Interior: centre vestibule and 2 stair lobbies: these are both lit externally by the slit windows of the mezzanine storey. The centre vestibule is entered externally via the centre doors in the portico; inside the centre vestibule, 2 doors on the NE.lead into the chapel, and 2 doors on SE. and NW. connect with the 2 stair lobbies and with the adjacent under-stairs sub-basements (see plan).
Centre vestibule has a blue lino floor, a matchboarded dado, and cream, pale-yellow painted-plaster walls; sloping ceiling of pale-blue painted plaster with moulded cornices on SE. and NW. sides. Centre vestibule has a three-quarter moulded architrave to its external doorway which is set in a plain segmental recess; a further segmental recess over with deep, splayed reveals to the 4 mezzanine lights. 2 doors in both the SE. and NW. side walls, each of 4 moulded panels. Internal doorways to chapel with three-quarter moulded architrave and C19 doors of 2 vertical panels. 2 oblong windows also in vestibule/rear chapel wall, infilled with stained glass (readable from chapel side) by Maile & Son Ltd., Bayham Street, London, in memory of Thomas Wilfred Benbow (died 1963): depicting "The Good Samaritan" and "Suffer the little children......."
Stair lobbies: lit by 3 mezzanine lights within a segmental head; sloping ceiling (as over centre vestibule). SE. and NW. gallery stairs of wood, each comprising an oblique bottom step, 2 straight steps, 1 step on the turn and 12 steps above, the lowest of the last set below the gallery door of 4 stopped and chamfered-panels and with brass handles. Lower staircase walls with painted-plaster walls above matchboarding; upper flight with matchboarded enclosure and late-C20 handrail.
Chapel interior: raked wood floor; matchboarded dados at ground floor and gallery. Painted-paster walls. Flat cills to ground-floor window openings and to SW. window openings in gallery; slightly raked cills to side gallery window openings. Gallery windows with semi-circular moulded heads above a continuous moulded string; pair of broach corbel stops each side below, also a continuous sunk band. Translucent glass panes, also some etched glass, e.g., gold etched flower heads in circular top light in the side gallery windows. A 4-moulded panel door in segmentally-headed doorway to each side of pulpit, on N. leading into store room, and on S., into the small vestry. Moulded and dentil ceiling cornice along SE. and NW sides, below a coved ceiling, now faced with later-C20 boarding and incorporating C20 circular ceiling lights.
Ground-floor seating: the centre and 2 side blocks of seating are set on a continuous curve, like The Rev. Thomas Thomas's Capel Seion, Llandysul of 1870-71. Open bench seats: curved shaped bench ends, numbered and with sunk circular panels at the top; shallow matchboarded-panel seat backs with three-quarter moulded top rails; similar top moulding to discontinuous seat dividers to centre block, which is numbered 41-51 on the SE. and 81-91 on the NW.. The SE. side block, with seats 53 and 54 removed, is numbered 55-65 and the NW. side block 66-76 with seats 77 & 78 removed.
Gallery: gallery beam supported on 7 cast-iron columns with gold and beige-painted foliage caps. 4-sided gallery, the gallery front curved round the 4 intersections. Gallery front with top and bottom moulded cornices and inset with openwork cast-iron panels above shallow matchboarded panels. Integral circular clock bearing legend: "Wm Edwards/ Llanidloes".
Gallery seating: open-ended bench seats of varnished pine with matchboarded pine backs and shaped bench ends; matchboarded panel seat dividers. Unusual asymmetrical seating plan - was the seating originally round 4 sides of the gallery? Along NW. & SE. sides, the gallery seating is of 2 seats depth with a continuous wall bench at the rear. Seating arrangement in NW. side of the gallery, from Sedd Fawr end: 1. curved and narrow single block of seats; 2. & 3. 2 paired blocks of seats. Seating arrangement in SE. end of gallery: 1. A wide block of seats of 5 seats depth, curved, especially in its front seat, round the W. intersection of gallery and extending beyond the centre point of the chapel's width. 2. A narrow curved single block of seats on the SE. side, roughly a third of gallery width, except for the seat at the front which curves round the S. gallery intersection and is physically part of the S. block of bench seats along the SE. side of the gallery (see below). Seating arrangement along SE. side of gallery: 1.Block of seats with the front seat curved right round the gallery intersection and with single seat to rear: see 2. above under "seating arrangement in SE. end of gallery"; 2. A block of paired seats; 3. Ditto but the N. portion is narrower and curved round the E. gallery intersection. Seating at NE. end of gallery: there appears to have been seating at the NE. end of the gallery, since replaced by the organ (see below) and its flanking timber screens.
Sedd Fawr, pulpit: 2 steps up from sides to Sedd Fawr enclosure which is curved at the front and enclosed from the congregation by twisted cord links depending from low C20 standards of turned wood. Straight flights of flanking pulpit stairs with further top step to rectangular pulpit platform. The balustrades to pulpit stair and pulpit platform echo the arches of the exterior with their arcaded columnar balusters and circlets in the spandrels; pairs of top and bottom newels: colonnettes beneath square caps with sunk 4-petal motifs and tiered pyramidal finials. The polygonal pulpit is faced with blind arcading with circlets in the spandrels. On the pulpit platform there is a pine chair with ornate back; there is a similar chair each side of the pulpit in the Sedd Fawr enclosure, with a larger ornate chair of pine in between. Curved pine communion table.
Musical instruments: 1. the pipe organ is sited in the NE. end of the gallery, above the pulpit. A 2-manual organ by Wadsworth and Br., Manchester, with panelled wood casing and painted organ pipes; contemporary brass rail in front of organ.
Registration: Swell; Tremulant; ?horn 4; (illeg.) 8; Open diapasom 8; Oboe 8; Voix celestes 8; Lieblichgedahf.
Couplers: Great to pedal; Swell to pedal; Swell to great; Swell sub-octave; Swell octave; Swell to great sub octave; Swell to great super ocatve.
Great: Principal 4; Dulciana 8; Harmonic flute 4; Hohl flute 8; Open diapason 8.
Pedal: Bass flute 8; Bourdon 16.
2. Musical instruments in ground floor of chapel: C20 upright Niemeyer piano and Casio electronic keyboard, CTK-450.
C18 hollow oak bureau, thought to have been used as a hiding place for priests: sloping desk lid above a pair of shallow drawers and in turn above 3 single drawers.
Wall memorials: On NW. wall: 1.In N. corner, memorial to John Jenkins of Pen-y-green, Llanidloes (d. 1896), comprising a gabled trefoliated arch on corbelling. 2.Further SW., memorial to Edward Jenkins (d. 1840), flannel manufacturere, and to his wife. 3. Memorial to Thomas Davies Currie, "flannel manufacturer of this town" (d. 1863) and his family; a pedimented white marble tablet. On SE. wall: 1. Memorial to the pastor's baby, Evan Kinsey Evans (d. 1845). 2.Memorial to Charles Benbow (d. 1913). 3. Memorial to chapel organists.
Small vestry interior: moulded panel dado; painted-plaster walls hung with chapel photographs; picture rail; irregular, white-painted ceiling (below organ). Fireplce projection in NE wall with dark-grey and pilastered fireplace with semi-circular cast-iron grate; 4-panel wall cupboard on its W., and on its E., a 4-pane semi-circular window above a part-glazed door (2 moulded wood panels below 4 glazed panels). In the SE. wall, a segmentally-headed 12-pane sash window with translucent glass panes and raked cill. Harmonium of late C19 or early C20, by W?w Putnam & Co., Sta?unton, Va., USA.
1932 vestry wing: reached internally via a low flight of timber stairs beside the chapel kitchen. Externally this has red-brick walls, the NW. wall with 3 wood-framed windows (2 frosted-glass panes below transom, and 3 plain-glass panes above) and a gabled porch; 2 windows and brick stack to NE. gable; windows also in SE. wall. Interior: with high matchboarded dado; white boarding to upper wall surface and to ceiling. 5?-bay ceiling with 3 trusses visible & supported by console corbels; ceiling with sloping sides, ceiled flat at collar level. Stage at SE. end, over chapel kitchen.
OJ. 3/-5/97. Visited 6/3/97 with DJR, DP & PI. - Some Alterations: c.1960 Source:Cadw
- Built: 1824 Source:Religious Census
- Built: 1821 Source:Plaque
- Built*: 1824 Source:
- Founded: 1824 Source:Cadw
- Name Change: 2004 Source:Capel Info 27
- Stained Glass: 1980A Source:Jenkins, O.M.
- Organ: 1934 Source:Capel Info 27
- Rebuilt: 1878 Source:Plaque
- Rebuilt(1): 1878 Source:Cadw
- Rear School Room: 1932 Source:Cadw
- Vestry Built: 1932 Source:Plaque
- Date Of Chapel: 1878 Source:
- Architect: 1878 John Humphries, Morriston
- 100: 1851 (Religious Census)
- 208: 1851 (Religious Census)
- Chapel: 06/03/1997 (Site visit - OMJ)
- Chapel: 07/2011 (R Scourfield)
- Materials
- Stone
- Monument Type: CHAPEL
- Form: Building
- Style: Classical
- Gallery: On three sides
- Plan: Gable Entry
- Pulpit Position: Rear wall
- Window Glazing: Florentine Tracery
- Windows: Round-Headed
Key Details of this Chapel
Key Dates of this Chapel
Key People in this Chapel History
Capacities during this Chapels History
Changes of Status its History
Key Characteristics of this Chapel
Images from Coflein
Map
- Grid Reference: SN95348459
- Address: SHORT BRIDGE STREET, LLANIDLOESLLANIDLOES
3 thoughts on “ZION CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH (SION;LLANIDLOES UNITED REFORMED), SHORT BRIDGE STREET, LLANIDLOES (SION, TRINITY CHURCH)”
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Capel Sion
Hello
My great great grandparents were married in Kinnerton Chapel in Old Radnor on 21st May1850. I have been searching for information on the Chapel, so was pleased to find this website. I have now located it on Google Street View – looks like someone is ‘doing it up’ to live in: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.2612635,-3.1095337,3a,90y,232.95h,84.26t/data=!3m9!1e1!3m7!1s-8DWPORkq2RFVNXBLde_-g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!9m2!1b1!2i53?hl=en-GB
The marriage record of my ancestors Abraham Bounds and Elizabeth Williams is attached. I hope it is of interest.
All the best
Saira
Dear Sara
Thank you for the information. I am glad to hear that it was some help to you.
Good luck on your continued search
Christine