History

Independent Chapel rebuilt in 1883-4 by the Rev Thomas Thomas of West Cross, Swansea, one of the last designs by this leading Welsh chapel architect. The cause began c1825 meeting in the brewhouse of the Plough Inn, then in a barn in Backway. The first chapel on this site was built in 1840, on Glansawdde land. This chapel was advertised for tenders as 'rebuilding and enlarging including vestry and dwelling house'. It cost £900.

Exterior

Chapel, vestry and chapel house. Chapel is rock-faced squared Pennant stone with sandstone ashlar dressings, slate roof with bargeboards to gable. Gable front has ashlar plinth, flush quoins and ashlar surrounds to openings and raised course under pedimental gable. In gable is affixed date plaque and two louvred small keyed roundels. Main facade is 3-window with long arched side windows, broad elliptical arched centre window and broad arched door. Timber glazing of Florentine type, 2-light with roundel in head, centre window has 4 lights, all arched, but roundel over 2 centre ones. Stone sills. Centre panelled double doors with crescent overlight and roundel.
Side walls are unpainted stucco with 3 long arched windows, moulded impost band and arches. At NE corner is attached vestry, with basement under. Entrance gable echoes chapel gable, but with left side and centre only visible. Centre cambered-headed door with similar overlight, one long arched window left with moulded arch and impost band. Keyed roundel in gable, with quatrefoil timber tracery. Side wall has basement window, door, window, door, under schoolroom of 4 cambered-headed sashes with marginal glazing bars. Moulded band stepped over window heads. Plain band between floors. Rear similar, but with wall-face chimney.
Chapel house to left of vestry has left end stack, two-storey, one-window range and door (C20 PVC) to left.
Forecourt has spearhead railings and gates with ornate openwork square piers made by the Coalbrookdale Iron Company.

Interior

Chapel interior all of 1883, with 3-sided gallery and plastered ceiling, the big centre rose with gasolier (now electric) and moulded ribs extending diagonally out to a herring-bone boarded border with pierced wood ventilation panels at corners. Outer plaster border and plain cornice. Gallery on 3x1x3 cast iron columns with leaf capitals, painted marbling. Marbled cornice with fretwork under front panelled in long panels divided by pilasters with arched panels and moulded capitals. Centre clock by E Parry, Llangadog. Short panels each side, curved angles. Pitch pine pews in 3 blocks, outer blocks canted with inward-facing pews at front. Curved gallery pews. Curved 'set fawr'. Pulpit with canted front, fretwork decoration and curving stairs up each side with plain balusters. Plaster pulpit-back with panelled pilasters, console brackets and moulded arch with keystone.
Canted lobby with traceried 2-light window with coloured and etched marginal glass. Tiled floor, painted grained stairs to galleries, 2 lobby doors.

Reasons for Listing

Included as a complete work by one of the leading Welsh designers of chapels, with good interior.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29499245

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

• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)