English Methodist Church with former Sunday School

Location

On the corner with Morley Road.

History

Designed by C O Ellison, architect, of Liverpool, and built in 1868, with the Sunday School added in 1878, also to the designs of Ellison. English Wesleyans had been established in North Wales since c1860, and a new circuit was formed to include Rhyl in 1861. Originally, English services were held in the town hall, but the decision to build a chapel was taken in 1865, with some of the money for it coming from a special fund ‘for the erection and enlargement of chapels in watering places’.

Exterior

Random black granite rubble with ashlar dressings and steep slate roof with scalloped bands, some ridge cresting and coped gables with cross finials. Simple Early English style. Main body of church is articulated as 5 bays divided by buttresses, each with wide lancet window with margin-light glazing. Gabled porch towards NW, with chamfered and cusped timberwork, and wrought-iron finial on gable. Stepped lancet windows to transepts and in north gable, where the window is carried in a raised central panel, with oculus towards gable apex. Small corridor to S with chamfered arched door and paired foiled lancets gives access to vestry and Sunday School, dated over the doorway, 1878. Stepped 3-light window in lower gabled bay to W, and in the S elevation, paired central stepped lancet windows beneath dormer gables are flanked by 2 3-light mullioned windows to either side.

Interior

Wide single space with shallow transepts and sanctuary; gallery at west end, added in 1871. Roof of 5 bays, the collar trusses sprung from wall posts carried on stone corbels, and with short king post below boarded and pierced ceiling. Wrought-iron tie bars. Over the crossing, the trusses are set diagonally with a central king-post. West gallery is carried on cast-iron columns with foliate capitals, with chamfered panelling to gallery, and trefoiled glazed panelled screen forming separate room below (originally used as Sunday School). Plain panelled arcading to sanctuary (with painted texts concealed behind), and small marble font, the basin carried on clustered shafts. Heavy wood pulpit is probably contemporary, octagonal with trefoiled panels. Organ occupies E transept, and has pedimented case. Stained glass in both transept windows, with heraldic emblems and floral motifs (undated). Seating appears to be late C19. Sunday School beyond vestry to the south, a single hall with a lower bay screened off to the W.

Reason for designation

A good example of Early English style chapel architecture, which is of particular historical significance for its very clear connection with the development of Rhyl as a holiday resort for a predominantly English market.