Peniel Welsh Presbyterian Chapel

Cadw's description

Location

Strikingly located in the centre of the town, set against the hillside above and to the SW of the parish church; raised up on a revetted and railed terrace with simple gates and gatepiers.

Exterior

Built 1910 in well-designed Gothic style. Of snecked, rough-dressed stone with sandstone dressings; slate roofs with slightly oversailing eaves and tiled ridges. Symmetrical showpiece W front with tall gabled central bay; parapeted gable with Celtic cross at apex. Twin ogee arches to stepped-up vestibule, in early C14 Decorated style. Compound piers with fine naturalistic foliage capitals and labels with crocketted foliate finials to ogee apexes; similar treatment to central and outer applied shafts. Large 4-light flowing tracery window above moulded cill band; widely-splayed pointed arch with returned, moulded label and complex naturalistic foliate stops. Full-height flanking buttresses, stepped to the sides at the top. The upper gable projects slightly above the window and has a heavy moulding with 5 foliate bosses. Flanking the central bay are lower, storied semi-octagonal projections with hipped roofs; these are stair turrets and give access to the internal gallery. Tudor-arched entrances with double-moulded jambs to central faces and simple 2-light arched leaded windows to flanking sides; similar windows to upper floor. Twin entrances within vestibule, with shouldered arches and ribbed oak doors; these flank a central dedication plaque in sculpted sandstone. Further, similar entrances to return walls. Plain N and S sides each with 5 windows on both ground and gallery floors. Those to the latter are of 3 lights and leaded, with Tudor-arched heads and wooden mullions, whilst those to the ground floor are similar though with flat arches; stepped buttresses divide the bays.

To the rear, an adjoining, flush hall range with simple one, two and three-light mullioned windows as before and, on the N side, 2 large modern windows to the upper floor. The upper level is accessed on both sides by external bridges, that to the S via a long, simply-railed ramp; the bridge access here is in the form of an enclosed porch. A narrow access passage beneath leads around the irregular rear of the building which faces a high revettment; simple windows as before.

The church is approached by a majestic flight of twenty curved sandstone steps.

Interior

The interior was not available for inspection at the time of survey ( February 1996).

Reason for designation

Listed as a well-preserved and imposingly sited chapel with a fine facade for the period and for group value with the Parish Church of St. Mary.