Forecourt wall, gates and gateposts to Tabernacle Congregational Church

Cadw's description

Location

In front of the chapel, on the S side of Main Street some 50m W of its E junction with East Back, opposite Hamilton Terrace.

History

Forecourt walls, railings and gates to Tabernacle Church, probably contemporary with the church, built 1867-8 by the Rev. T. Thomas.

Exterior

Forecourt low walls with railings and wide centre gateway. Low rock-faced sandstone squared rubble walls with chamfered rock-faced limestone coping carrying low railings which had Gothic leaf finials to every second upright, most broken off. Square standards with larger finials. Outer tooled stone square piers, the W pier partly covered by the end of the long rubble boundary wall which runs down the W side of the church grounds to Common Road.
Centre Gothic panelled cast-iron gatepiers, with cusped heads to panels, moulded bases and caps and ornate Gothic cross finials. Two cast-iron gates with row of three-leaf finials over top rail, double mid-rail and double bottom rail, each with quatrefoils in the square panels, dog bars between. Between mid-rail and top rail are two pointed cusped arches each divided into two 'lights' over three-leaf finials.

Reason for designation

Included as fine ornate example of Victorian cast-iron Gothic railings with original cast-iron gatepiers.