Carmel (Bryn Sion) Chapel

Location

On sloping site at a splayed angle to the road flanked by Mount Pleasant Street and Margaret Street and facing down Llewellyn Street. Railed forecourt.

History

Opened in 1862 following the revival of Dafydd Morgan. Rebuilt in 1899 by Thomas Roderick, architect of Aberdare; builder David Davies of Trecynon; cost £550; reopened on l6th September 1899. Elaborate coffered ceiling installed in 1930. The chapel became a Baptist Chapel in the 1970s when the immersion font was installed.

Exterior

Snecked rubble gable front with quoins, gallery sill band and plinth. Slate roof with boarded eaves and plain bargeboards. Roundel over freestone date plaque. Central small pane bipartite segmental headed window with surrounding stones raised in the form of an architrave. This detail is repeated on the entrance and the other windows which are small pane sashes with marginal glazing bars; round arched headed to gallery, square headed below. Round arched central entrance with fanlight over panelled double doors. 3-bay cement render side elevations with small pane sash windows with marginal glazing bars, round arched headed over square headed.

Interior

The relatively plain exterior is in complete contrast to the strongly classical interior with unusually lavish ceiling and 'reredos' for a comparatively small chapel. Panelled ceiling, coffered to the sides; central rose and small rosettes to the ribs; foliated borders to the rectangular panels down the middle and strapwork to those at ends. Coved and bracketed cornice with egg and dart. Panelled reredos, behind the 'set fawr', framed by twinned Ionic cabled pilasters with deep dentil cornice; Welsh inscription. 'Set fawr' came from a chapel in the Rhondda; total immersion Baptistry to right. Raked gallery, with wood panelled front, carried on cast iron columns; impost band links gallery windows - there were formerly two more flanking reredos before enlargement.

Reason for designation

Prominent late C19 chapel with particularly elaborate inter-war classical ceiling. The chapel contributes to the unusual density of this building type in the area, a vivid indication of the vigour of C19 nonconformity in the valleys.