Mount Zion, Upper Brockholes: Salem's Sister?

Our chapel building is something of a mystery. Two doors at the front set between round, arched windows and a sundial. Yet it’s not unique. This afternoon, I went a-chapel hunting. A couple of chapels look fairly like ours, although they are two-storied. Mount Zion is from 1819, the same period as ours, so perhaps we shared an architect. Rimington was in Yorkshire back then, and Georgian architects were not especially innovative- a design that suited one church pretty much suits another.

Mount Zion Chapel is at Upper Brockoles. Notice the sundial, doors and windows. It’s a Methodist chapel built on a spot upon which John Wesley preached. Surprisingly, it has a website: http://www.mountzionhalifax.org.uk/summary.php .

This other chapel is a few miles further up the Keighley Road, but I was unable to read the inscription and it appears to be absent from Google maps.

Nonconformist chapels are often square or rectangular- they felt no need to have churches in cross-shapes like Catholics and conformists. Windows were large and unstained, to allow plentiful supplies of light to aid Bible reading. Double doors allowed more people in more efficiently to hear the gospel preached.

In short, they are practical and no-nonsense, yet elegant in their simplicity.