21373

 

II  

Designated  

18/02/1999  

18/02/2003  

Bethania Independent Chapel  

 

Rhondda Cynon Taff  

Mountain Ash  

Mountain Ash  

Mountain Ash  

304830  

199290  

SE  

On the corner of Phillip Street and Jeffrey Street some 150m north of the parish church of St Mary.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Independent Chapel of 1859, built for a congregation first gathered about 1850 when the first coal was extracted and houses built at Mountain Ash. First chapel opened 30/1/1855, and cost £320. Rebuilt in the 1859 for £950 including Sunday school.  

Independent Chapel in Victorian classical style. Painted stucco with slate roof and crested ridge tiles. Broad 2-storey 3-bay gable facade with rock-faced stone plinth. Stucco quoins, window dressings and first floor sill course. Moulded dentil cornice under pedimental gable with date plaque and plain bargeboards. First floor has arched windows, one each side of a stepped triplet, all with moulded surrounds, small panes and marginal glazing bars. Outer windows are same size as triplet centre window. Ground floor has rusticated openings with keystones. Square-headed windows with stone sills either side of a large round-arched doorway. Half-glazed grain-painted double doors with radiating-bar fanlight. Iron railings to front on dwarf stone wall. Side walls are rendered with four windows each floor, upper and lower as facade. Two similar windows are on each floor at rear.  

Attractive broad interior with painted grained woodwork and ornate ceiling. Three-sided gallery with curved angles on 3x1x3 simple painted iron columns. Alternating long and short horizontal moulded panels to gallery front over painted cove. Clock faces pulpit. Brass hand rail on gallery front, curving to start of long sides. End wall has very large arched recess with pilasters and moulded head, subdivided by centre pilaster with two pointed arches above. Roundel in spandrel, cornice at impost level and painted grained panelling between pilasters. Painted inscription over main arch. Pulpit has twin stairways to sides with turned balusters and newels with finials. Short balustrade each side of projecting canted pulpit front. This is panelled with pair of arches and column shafts to front and single arches on each canted side. Deep cove to recessed base. Dentilled top rail. Three-sided great seat with curved angles and moulded horizontal panels. Pews in three blocks with similar panels and shaped bench ends. Centre asymmetrically divided, side blocks set square to aisles with inward-facing pews flanking pulpit. Raked gallery pews with close-boarded horizontal panels. Space for orchestra instead of first two rows of gallery pews opposite pulpit. Ornate ceiling has deep cove over dentil cornice, then moulded border with floral bosses to main ceiling. This has 3 large inset rectangular panels with dentil cornices. Main centre panel has ornate plaster rose, outer panels have 2 pierced vents with circular mouldings around, and also have moulded panels in corners, quadrant curved on inner side. Wall to lobby has extensive glazing. Two half-glazed doors with very large rectangular window between and similar large square window each side. All have acid-etched glass and marginal glazing bars.  

Listed as an early chapel for the area, with fine well-preserved interior.