Tabernacl Welsh Presbyterian Chapel

Cadw's description

Location

Set well back from the road behind forecourt walls & railings, E of the junction of Well Street and Wynnstay Road.

History

Calvinistic Methodist Chapel, 1889-91, by Thomas G Williams, and Rev Emrys ap Iwan, architects, at a cost of £1841.

Exterior

Gothic-style chapel with an unusual plan. The main body is U-shaped, with narrow gabled entrance bay masking convex base of 'U', flanked by small lobbies; adjoining to rear, school-room and vestry block in form of a cross-wing. The main body of the chapel is single-storey, the school-room block and entrance bay 2-storey. Constructed of pale grey coursed rock-faced stone under slate roofs with tile cresting; metal cupola to main ridge. Asymmetrical gable-fronted entrance bay, with pair of doorways separated by an angle buttress. Pointed-arched doorways under heads of dressed stone voussoirs with hoodmoulds, containing double boarded doors with strap hinges, reached by splayed stone steps bound by widely-spaced iron railings with scrollwork. String course to upper storey which has a large 6-light Tudor-arched window with 3 cinquefoils under the arch, and a continuous hoodmould. String course to gable apex, which is of dressed stone with infilled ventilators; ball finial. Gabled front has buttresses to angles, that to L with gableted pinnacle, that to R larger and rising into a narrow pinnacle spire of cruciform plan, with flying buttress onto lobby to R. The low flanking lobbies are 2 window with narrow lights, that to L has lancets and a pyramidal roof; that to R has rectangular lights and a hipped roof. Beneath lobby windows, stone tablets with hoodmoulds; that to L is dated August 29th 1889, that to R is blind.

Main body of chapel has a high plinth and dressed stone eaves cornice. Each side is 4-window; 3-light wooden windows with horizontal glazing bars under 4-centred arched heads of stone voussoirs. The windows to L of W side and R of E side are taller with Geometrical tracery, under gables imitating transepts.

North front of school-room and vestry block is 5-window to ground floor and 6-window to upper floor. Transomed windows, with stained glass above transoms and horizontal glazing bars below; those to ground floor are 3-light with stone lintels and relieving arches; those to upper storey are 2-light and immediately under the eaves. West side has central lateral stone stack, with boarded door with overlight to R, and added single-storey bay to L. Upper storey has windows as N side flanking stack. East side has similar boarded door with overlight to L, and is 2-window to R.

The Chapel is set-back some distance behind forecourt gates, piers and railings, which front the road. Central entrance with square gate piers of coursed rusticated stone with large moulded overhanging capstones, 4-sided with trefoiled gablets surmounted by ball finials. Similar end piers. Between end and gate piers, walls of snecked rock-faced stone with dressed chamfered stone copings, surmounted by plain iron railings with scrollwork motifs to centre and decorative wave-moulded finials. Double cast iron gates with similar finials; dog bars, a lock rail with circle motifs, and a central arch and scrollwork motifs above lock rail.

Interior

Single-storey U-plan interior with very broad hammerbeam roof, on stone corbels, radiating across a wide roof. Wooden seats curve round rear and are arranged in tiers to sides and rear. Elaborate pulpit and Set Fawr enclosure, including pierced panelling and scrolled iron rails to Set Fawr. Above, exposed organ pipes arranged across broad rear wall in 3 blocks stepped up over pulpit.

Reason for designation

Listed as a very rare example in Wales of a part-round chapel, and for retention of good late C19 character and detail, including the Gothic frontispiece.