Tabernacle Baptist Chapel

Cadw's description

Location

Set back from the road behind grassed and railed forecourt; beside the former Town Hall midway along the street.

History

Built 1861. Gothic style chapel with window tracery derived from that of the medieval Decorated period. The composition is dominated by the unusually tall spire said to have been built by Michael King, a mason from Dublin.

Exterior

The front is of snecked rubble masonry, said to been largely built out of ballast unloaded from the ships at Penycae. Penmon stone dressings including quoins and cill band; Prince of Wales feathers to apex. Broad 3-window gable flanked by doorways; corbelled parapet and gable topped buttresses with setoffs. Curved sided triangle attic opening over tall 5-light window with large petal pattern oculus; cavetto moulded surround with stopped label. Cusped Y-tracery side windows; similar window also to octagonal tower base - this is over the main entrance with double boarded doors; similar entrance to right end. The school room is lit to the centre by an almost triangular window, also 5-light but with double cusping and quatrefoil oculus.

The spire rises from an octagonal drum base with blind Y-tracery windows and implied lucarnes; ball finial and weathervane to top. An attempt to balance this has been made by the use of a miniature version at the right hand corner of the gable. Further recessed doorway at extreme left end.

Y-tracery side windows. Lower rubble vestry chamber to rear wit chimney stack and boarded up tall Gothic window to gable end. Chamfered gate piers with Gothic panels to front; iron gates with simple overthrow and lamp.

Interior

Rectangular Gothic interior with gallery to front end only; cast iron fluted piers with foliage capitals and cusped uprights to gallery front with sweeps outwards at either end. The pews with tall finials are slight raked. Deep triangular brackets and arched braces to coved ceiling with ventilation rubs radiating from large foliage ornamented central rose - smaller roses to either end; much of the detail is painted ironwork. Gothic balustrading around platform and ‘set fawr’ with lamp standards. Inscription to tall arched recess on end wall. Slender cast iron columns to basement hall.

Reason for designation

Group value.