Moriah Calvinistic Methodist Chapel

Cadw's description

Location

Dramatically-sited in the centre of the streetscape; raised up and set back from the main road on a revetted bank.

History

Built in 1880 as the Moriah Calvinistic Methodist Chapel, the third non-conformist chapel to be built at Dolwyddelan and with a capacity of up to six hundred, the largest.

Exterior

Large storied chapel of snecked, rough-dressed slatestone with Penmaenmawr stone dressings; slate roof with dentilated eaves to the sides. Symmetrical 'showpiece' facade in Italianate classical style. Tripartite, on a moulded plinth, with wide, projecting and pedimented central entrance bay and narrow flanking bays. Plain pilasters frame the bays, rusticated to the lower stage and quoined to the upper storey above a plain stringcourse. Paired round-arched entrances with pilasters, keystones and shared, heavily-moulded entablature; original and unusual 6-panel sliding doors. Dedication inscription above: 'Moriah Calvinistic Methodist Chapel AD. 1880'. Triple-arched-window group to upper stage with projecting moulded pediment over central window, with console supports. Tall windows to both ground and upper floors of the flanking bays. Those to the former have lugged architraves, those above are arched; 3-pane original glazing. Pierced decorative balustrades to outer bays.

5-bay sides, that to the W slate-hung. Recessed sash windows with marginal glazing, those to the ground floor with flat triangular lintels, those above arched; dressed quoins and lintels to E side, projecting cills.

Interior

Galleried interior with boxed pew seating; polished pitch pine joinery throughout. U-shaped gallery with raked seating in 6 tiers at the back and 3 at the sides, in numbered box pews. Curved, panelled gallery front, moulded and with fluted dividing pilasters forming compartments; narrow, painted cast iron tracery panels below mahogany rail. In the centre a clock face by G. Owen. The gallery is carried on cast-iron columns with stiff-leafed capitals. Simple plaster cornice and coving to boarded ceiling; simple geometric compartmentation with moulded wooden ribs. Cast-iron tracery rose to centre, with four smaller, flanking roses. The gallery retains its original oil-cloth runners, with key-pattern borders. Access to the gallery is via well stairs at both sides with panelled dados and rails; 6-panelled doors. The ground floor is accessed via 4-panelled, part-glazed doors. Ground-floor boxed pews angled at sides towards the 'set fawr'. This is enclosed by panelled rails of mahogany, with iron tracery detailing, as before, and columnar newel posts with ball finials. 2-tier 'set fawr' with geometric panelled front, moulded rail and flanking, sweeping stairs. Twin pilasters flank the recessed seat and support a heavily-moulded and dentilated entablature with inscised foliate frieze; a swan-neck pediment surmounts this, itself crowned with geometric finials.

Reason for designation

Listed Grade II for its special interest as a large, imposing late Victorian chapel with unaltered exterior and interior detail.