Capel Ffynon

Cadw's description

Location

Situated in the centre of Pentregat on the S side of the A487 and near the junction of that road and the B4321.

History

1848-9 former Calvinistic Methodist chapel by Charles Davies of Cenarth, converted to house c1990.

Exterior

Gothic style. Tooled sandstone ashlar front with slate roof. Ornate gable front with unusually rich detail. Centre big timber-traceried pointed 5-light window with traceried head and moulded stone hoodmould with carved stops. Curved triangular gable plaque. Pointed door in gabled projection with moulded coping, shoulders and 2-step side buttresses. Shafted pointed door surround wirh chamfered head, stone voussoirs and hoodmould with carved stops. Moulded plinth and band at porch coping level, both continued around flanking buttresses, carried up straight above first string to second under tall panelled Gothic upper part, the panelling with cusped head under stone gable. To each side, buttress gable is echoed as set back under eaves, before recessed side bay with narrow pointed lancet, hoodmould and moulded string above, under short band of triangular panelling. Small paned sashes with marginal glazing bars and intersecting tracery to heads. Raised plain outer pier up to eaves.
Rubble stone sides and rear, three-window sides with long pointed windows, stopped hoodmoulds and margin-glazed sashes. Rear has stepped triplet, with stepped hoodmoulds, outer lights with similar small-paned glazing, centre light blank. Short pieces of ashlar each side rising from moulded caps at eaves level and finished with sloping tops, like buttresses.

Reason for designation

A very unusual use of Rickmanesque Gothic in an early Victorian chapel. The plain roof suggests that the design was either not completed to its original form, or that gable features were removed. It is suggested that there were problems due to the designer not understanding the style `nid oedd y celfyddwr yn deall y ffurf, nid oedd y cynllun yn ateb ar le mor uchel ac agored i ysturmydd..'