Abergavenny Baptist Church, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire

Entry Name: Abergavenny Baptist Church

Listing Date: 4 March 1991

Last Amended: 10 November 2005

Grade: II

Source: Cadw

Source ID: 2851

Building Class: Religious, Ritual and Funerary

Also known as: Abergavenny Baptist Church

ID on this website: 300002851

Location: On a very prominent corner site at junction of Frogmore Street and Pen-y-pound set in small yard behind balustraded dwarf wall.

County: Monmouthshire

Town: Abergavenny

Community: Abergavenny (Y Fenni)

Community: Abergavenny

Built-Up Area: Abergavenny

Traditional County: Monmouthshire

Tagged with: Chapel Protestant church building

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History

Dated 1877 above entrance doors. Architect, George Morgan of Carmarthen, (1834-1915). Cost of chapel £4200. Unaltered externally but the interior has been changed by the introduction in 1977 of a main floor at gallery level.

Exterior

Built in snecked bullnose local brown sandstone, pale Bath limestone quoins and dressings, natural slate roofs. Large rectangular chapel with gable end to the street. In a free version of Northern Italian Romanesque style. Gabled entrance front flanked by two 3-stage towers. Towers have steep hipped roofs with bell-cast and wrought-iron cresting, and clasping buttresses treated as superimposed pilasters in a semi-classical manner. The ground stage has a paired light with a colonette and stiff-leaf capital, heavy cornice band over. The second stage is taller and has a lancet with oculus above. Top stages treated as bell stages with open Romanesque stilted arches. In the central gable, arcading based on Lombardic Italian models, below this a large 8-light rose window is set under arched surround with oculi in lower spandrels. Single-storey open porch has round arched doorways with Romanesque shafts and stiff-leaf capitals, two openings to front, one to sides. Double entrance doorways with pierced tympana. Panelled doors.
Side elevations have six tall recessed bays in two clear storeys, the bays separated by thin pilaster buttresses. Bracketed cornice, enriched as floral capitals on tower buttresses. On first floor, pairs of round arched windows with central columns, on ground floor, pairs of square headed windows. End bay (north-west) is narrower with only one window on each floor. The end bay (south-east) is the return of the towers. These have an arched light on the ground stage and upper stages as on the main front. To rear (north-west), lower projection for vestries with gable chimney.

Interior

Now in two storeys with floor at former gallery level. Ground floor now school rooms and is very plain, and upper floor now chapel. Original seating, tiered on the former balcony, organ recess. Parts of former gallery balustrade reused in organ screen. Roof unaltered, coved and panelled with central recessed area, main ribs supported on large console brackets. Stained glass in rose window. Fine organ in arched recess with the arch inscribed 'GOD IS A SPIRIT WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH'.

Reasons for Listing

Listed for its special architectural interest as a fine example of George Morgan's Romanesque chapel style and for major townscape importance.

External Links

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

Other nearby listed buildings

II War Memorial
Facing up the street and situated at the road junction on an open island platform. Opposite the Baptist Chapel but with its back to it.
II Alandale, including attached wall and railings
On the corner of Pen-y-Pound and Park Road and one of the varied group of historic buildings on the main north-eastern access to Abergavenny.
II Entrance Gates, Boundary Wall and Railings at Whitefield Chapel.
Fronting the pavement outside the Whitefield Chapel on the east side of Pen-y-pound, some 30m north from the junction with Park Road.
II Whitefield Chapel (Presbyterian)
On the east side of Pen-y-pound, some 30m north from the junction with Park Road and one of the varied group of historic buildings on the main north-eastern access to Abergavenny.
II NO.4 Pen-Y-Pound Road, Gwent
On the west side of Pen-y-pound and one of the varied group of historic buildings on the main north-eastern access to Abergavenny.
II Gates and Railings of No. 4
On the west side of Pen-y-pound and one of the varied group of historic buildings on the main north-eastern access to Abergavenny.
II 46 Frogmore Street (Baileys)
Situated on the main commercial street which runs from south-east to north-west across Abergavenny.
II House, including attached gates and railings
On the west side of Pen-y-pound and one of the varied group of historic buildings on the main north-eastern access to Abergavenny.

British Listed Buildings

History in Structure

Abergavenny Baptist Church

A Grade II Listed Building in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire

Coordinates