11350

 

II  

Designated  

22/09/1988  

03/03/1999  

Bryn Sion Presbyterian Chapel  

 

Vale of Glamorgan  

St. Bride's Major  

 

St Brides Major  

289607  

174968  

 

Located on the E side of Pen-y-lan Road on the hillside above the village centre. The chapel is cut into the hillside within its own enclosure of rubble stone walls surmounted by iron railings.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

The chapel is dated 1859. The Calvinistic Methodists are said to have first met at St. Bride’s Major in 1794 at Pen ucha dre Farm. A chapel was erected in the village in 1824, though it is not clear whether it was on the same site as the current chapel, which was built at a cost of £400 through the endeavours of the Rev. Edward Matthews. It would seem that the first full-time minister was the Rev. Charles Williams who was inducted to the pastorate in 1883.  

Small Gothic-style chapel. Gable-end entry with lateral side facing road. The N gable end is in snecked masonry, whilst the W side and S gable end are rendered over. Fish-scale slate roof, freestone quoins and dressings, wide boarded eaves. Diagonal buttresses to NE and NW angles. Central boarded double doors under pointed arched head, with fanlight containing intersecting tracery. Flanked by tall windows with similar pointed heads, with intersecting tracery under the head and small panes. In the gable is a recessed stone tablet bearing the inscription ‘BRYNSION / 1859’. The S gable end has 2 windows as to the N. The W side has 1 window with intersecting tracery under the head and large panes below. One window to E.  

Gallery at N end supported on 2 cast iron piers with staircase to E. No other features in situ.  

Listed as a good example of a small Gothic-style chapel.