Methodist Chapel

Cadw's description

Location

Located in an elevated position on the SE side of the B4545, at the SW end of the village of Four Mile Bridge.

History

Late C19 Methodist Chapel.

Exterior

Large single storey, gable entry, Calvinistic Methodist chapel in gothic style; lean-to vestibule to front with gabled porch. Built of local rubble masonry with freestone dressings. Four bays, articulated by offset buttresses; angled, offset buttresses to front and flanking the porch entrance. Slate roof with stone copings, decorative red clay ridge tiles and gable crosses. Entrance through a stepped, basket-headed doorway set into a depressed pointed-arched frame with a quatrefoil light flanked by 2 circular lights set in the tympanum; outer arch with voussoirs. Above the lean-to vestibule is a plate -traceried rose window set in round-arched recess. A band of ashlar masonry articulates the gable apex. In the return elevations each bay contains a single recessed lancet window; 2 similarly detailed windows in the rear wall and a shorter lancet window to either end of the lean-to vestibule.

Interior

Entrance through the panelled double doors in the porch leads to vestibule beyond also with panelled doors to either side; all doors have diagonally set tongued and grooved panelling, creating a chevron design. Main body of chapel beyond with set fawr at entrance end, between entrance doors. The roof is of 4 bays with a depressed wagon ceiling formed by plastered panels, 2 panels to each roof bay. Panels are recessed with wooden dividers decorated with carved floriate bosses at the intersections. Bays are articulated with 'trusses' carried down to wall posts on moulded corbels; chamfered soffits are decorated with repeated blocks of nail head carving to angles. Fittings are of pitch pine with 3 banks of raking pews, the central with staggered divider. Set fawr raised by 1 step is rectangular with opposing side entrances; recessed panels with moulded surrounds to the lower part, with pierced panels above; lower pierced panel with band of trefoils, upper panel with circles under a moulded rail. Pulpit raised by 1 step is canted with opposing side entrances; facing panels with tall recesses with moulded surrounds, set under a moulded cornice. The walls are plastered, painted, with tongued and grooved panelling under a dado rail to the lower part. Behind the pulpit the panelling is broken by a tall ogee-headed panel with a moulded surround; the sides with moulded capitals to the piers, the top decorated by scrolled carvings extending from the surround and with a carved fleur de lys at the apex. The panel below is recessed with an ogee-headed recess set in from the moulded surround and an inner trefoil-headed recess containing tongued and grooved panelling set in a chevron design.

Reason for designation

Included as a good example of a late C19 Methodist Chapel, with bold gothic design and of an ambitious scale for its rural village location, retaining contemporary interior fittings.