Former School Room, New Bethel, and attached wall

Cadw's description

Location

On the steep lane, the boundary between Newbridge and Pontllanfraith communities, ascending from the valley to Mynyddiswlyn; opposite New Bethel Chapel.

History

Inscription Islwyn School Erected 1847. New Bethel Chapel opposite built 1765, rebuilt 1855. New Bethel founded as an Independent Chapel by Thomas Waters of Pant yr Esk, meetings first held at a house near Church Farm near Mynyddislwyn church. Schoolroom built under Revd Moses Ellis in 1847. Original list description dates school as 1817, a mis-reading of the inscription, as building does not appear on the Tithe Map of 1846 and histories confirm date of 1847. Appears on Ordnance Survey First Edition Map 1886 as 'Islwyn School (Boys and Girls)'. In 1920s school was rented by Monmouthshire Education Committee as a Day School. Converted to house since original list description, when windows were described as a mix of sash and casement with small and larger panes, with yellow brick stacks to the roof. Interior formerly a hall with stage and smaller room with grate.

Exterior

Single storey former Nonconformist school. Stone walls with some yellow brick dressings; slate roof with decorative terracotta ridge tiles, half-hipped at SW end. Stone rubble in snecked courses. Six window front, with porch to SW of centre and with the three windows to SW more closely spaced; all windows 10/10 pane casements with stone sills. Gabled porch with doorway and moulded 6-panel door; now barely legible stone plaque over doorway inscribed "Islwyn School Erected 1847". At NE end, an adjoining and smaller single storey outbuilding with stone walls and slate roof. Ground in front (NW) of front elevation set high above road and enclosed by stone rubble boundary retaining wall with rounded stone coping extending to N as far as chapel house with flight of stone and brick steps ascending between stone walls to school; iron railings. To SW boundary wall descends in height as ground rises. Rooflight to front elevation.

Interior

Converted to dwelling.

Reason for designation

Included although altered as an uncommon surviving early-mid C19 school and for group value with chapel, churchyard monuments and railings at New Bethel Chapel opposite in Pontllanfraith Community.