Capel Rehoboth (Capel Goffa), also known as Capel Newydd

Cadw's description

Location

The chapel lies in Abercorris, built at right angles to the road on steeply shelving land below the road to Aberllefenni.

History

The present ambitious chapel was built in 1924 for the strong Calvinistic Methodist community in Corris and as a memorial chapel for Parch. John Roberts, a missionary in India, who translated the Bible into the local language. It replaced earlier chapels, the first of 1813, the second of 1834 and the third of 1869, destroyed by a water burst on Abercorris in 1922. It is now the church for the Ministry of Love and Joy.

Exterior

The chapel is built of slate with gritstone dressings, built into the steep slope below the road with the vestry at the lower level. The body of the hall is of 5 bays, 2 storeys, with a narrow single bay E end. The bays are divided by tall buttresses rising nearly to the corbel table and angled buttresses at the corners, and very tall canted buttresses to the corners of the E end. Stone mullioned and transomed windows with leaded glazing; 3-light double transomed to the lower level set back in a shallow moulded slightly-arched frame; the upper level windows are generally 2-light and single transomed, but alternate bays have double transoms, the window heads rising above the eaves and crowned by small pebble-dashed gables. The main front to the road is also pebbledashed between stone bands and features. A central wide hipped entrance porch with two Tudor-arched entrances and angle buttresses to the corbel table. Various foundation stones. Above, the gable end of the body of the chapel is lit by a 4-light arched window with pillars each side rising to gabled terminals above the verge of the roof, and form buttresses to a small pent roof. The corbel table of the main block returns at the W end to part-octagonal features each side.

On the N side of the chapel, a single storey schoolroom set low down the site.

Interior

The main large and wide hall is of 5 bays, roofed with 4 arch-braced collar beam trusses with king posts and struts, springing from corbels set low in the side walls. Open raftered roof. The walls are plastered, with a high panelled dado and cornice shelf. The floor is slightly raked, with pews in 4 banks and 2 aisles. The pulpit is set against a wide arch, approached by railed steps, rising from within the enclosed set fawr, which has a central reading desk. The lower sections of the windows have stained glass. Doors at the side of the E end lead to a stair descending to a high vestry below, with cast iron columns.

Reason for designation

Included as an ambitious and robustly designed chapel in an early C20 Elizabethan Civic or Art-nouveau style popular at the period.