Bethesda Chapel

Cadw's description

Location

In Bank Road in Llangennech village about 150m north-west of St Cennych's Church. Large graveyard with stone wall and wrought iron gates to street.

History

The Independent Church in Llangennech originated as a branch of Llanedi, and built its first Bethesda chapel here in 1831. They achieved full independence in 1858 and set up the new Bethesda close to the old building in 1881. The new chapel was designed to seat 700 to 800 members, and built at a cost of about £2000.

Exterior

A large chapel elaborately designed with Gothic detailing. Local sandstone with rock-faced finish, steep slate roof. The masonry dressings, including door and window openings, plinths, string courses and the quoins of buttresses, are all in contrasting oolitic limestone. The buttresses are a prominent feature, crossed at the corners. At front there are five buttresses, at rear three, and at each side six.
The front gable elevation is articulated as three bays by its main buttresses, and busily designed with numerous openings. These include a central traceried window of five lights above a short central buttress which rises to its sill, between the twin doors; the doors are recessed deeply in the masonry, with two-centred stone arches above incorporating lintel and circle. Two-panel door leaves with central ribs to the panels. Circular roofspace-vent at high level with louvres within four small circles and name and the date of the chapel carved on the surround. Two-light outer windows with traceried heads; circular quatrefoils above. The doors and windows have label mouldings terminating on floral stops. The crossed corner buttresses at the front rise to support octagonal pinnacles with wrought-iron finials. Similar pinnacle at the apex of the gable. The side elevations are each of five bays defined by buttresses, with tall windows incorporating two stages of tracery.

Interior

Twin entrance doors from the anteroom to the chapel. Fine galleried interior dominated by the quality of the joinery. The chapel main seating in four main blocks, the outer blocks angled to face inwards or, at front, turned 90 degrees. All the seat ends have umbrella stands and painted numbers. Fine pulpit carved in Gothic style with intricate traceried panels at the front; heavily moulded top-rail; tall newels with curved handrails to side stairs; panelling in similar style at rear. Set fawr with moulded rail on decorative cast-iron standards. The gallery is on all four sides, and its seating returns almost to abut the organ behind the pulpit. An extra row of seats across the organ front at slightly lower level completes the gallery seating at the rear of the pulpit and provides a visual link with it. The gallery front is panelled, with a small openwork band in cast iron, and is carried on nine fluted cast-iron Corinthian columns. The front and the seating are curved at the corners. At the rear, to the left of the pulpit, is an additional staircase linking the gallery to the minister's room and vestry sited in a small extension at the rear of the pulpit. The ceiling is partly flat and partly sloping, and is divided by larger and smaller ribs into square or nearly square panels. The organ is by Norman and Beard (1908); Gothic organ case, painted organ pipes.

Reason for designation

Listed as a richly detailed large-scale chapel in a Gothic idiom, including fine interior with all-round gallery and joinery of high order.