Capel Brynseion

Cadw's description

Location

Situated in the centre of Glanamman some 25m S of A474 on the E side of High Street.

History

Independent chapel built 1909-10 and designed by the local architect Henry Herbert of Ammanford. It cost £4,784, including the organ; seating capacity 800.

Exterior

Big gabled rectangular chapel with Gothic facade and wings; built of rubble stone laid in coursed blocks, with Forest of Dean ashlar dressings and slate roof. Centre ridge of roof has lead base for lantern. Coped gable parapets with obelisk capped urns at pediment ends, foliate finial at apex. Below pediment, banded string courses, frame tablet bearing chapel name and denomination. Hood moulds to windows with plain block label-stops. Broad 4-light centre window has a quatrefoil head between simplified intersecting tracery, flanked on either side by lancets. Double porch with twin gables, also flanked by lancets, with stepped buttresses at the gable ends. The wings are two-storied with angle buttresses and have cornice and crenellated parapets with small turrets and spires at the outer angles; double lancets on the ground floor with round trefoil headed windows above. Two-storied side elevations to E and W. The N ends form part of the gable wings, and are stone and crenellated with 2 lancets on each floor. Elsewhere the sides are unpainted roughcast; big Y-traceried centre window with double lancet below.

Interior

Grand interior with exceptionally fine carpentry work. Double doors into broad but very narrow lobby, stairs to gallery at either end. Lobby wall curved with boarded base and shaped glass panels above, with doors left and right to main chapel. Main chapel has deep-coved and ribbed ceiling with boarded herringbone panels at the outer margins; elaborate circular ventilator in centre and two smaller ventilators either side. Deep cornice with egg and dart moulding. Coloured art nouveau style glass to upper gallery windows. Gallery is steeply raked and supported on 7 cast iron columns, the capitals decorated with stylised foliage. Gallery front has curved angles and is swept around the organ loft. Unusual solid wood front to gallery with ornate projecting Gothic arched panels alternating with broader recessed sections which have a single large panel below and four small fielded panels above. Pews close boarded; shaped ends with simple moulded edging, double centre block and side blocks. First three rows of centre block curve to echo the curve of the deacons' seat. Back of deacons' seat has panelled decoration which echoes gallery front, with single panel below and two fielded panels above. Gothic pulpit with fielded panels; centre breaks forward with quadrant curves set back into angles. Steps either side of pulpit have panelled newels and turned balusters. Organ recessed into giant fluted Gothic arch forming apse behind pulpit, organ case with painted pipes by Norman and Beard 1911. Fine quality painted graining on the panelled pulpit and deacons' seat. A large school and meeting room forms the rear of the building; the interior space divided by a big sliding screen made of 10 folding doors each half-glazed with 18-pane upper windows.

Reason for designation

Listed as a rare late Gothic chapel, and graded Grade II* for its lavish detail. Historically significant as illustrating the richness of chapel architecture, associated with prosperity of local coal and tinplate industries before 1914.