24793

 

II  

Designated  

16/02/2001  

16/02/2001  

Ebenezer Chapel including chapel house and hall  

 

Isle of Anglesey  

Llanfaethlu  

Holyhead  

Llanfaethlu  

231343  

386875  

 

Set back from the S side of a track leading off the Porth Swtan road near the centre of the village of Llanfaethlu.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Built and opened in 1908, the third of the Methodist Chapels to have been built on this site; the chapel house was finished 2 years later. The first of the chapel buildings on this site was erected in 1836 and formally opened in 1843, and a new chapel built in 1878 at a cost of £746, which was superceded by the present building 30 years later.  

Large early C20 chapel of unusual apsidal plan, and with essentially Art Nouveau detailing; single bay wings to E and W of the set fawr and canted end give an apsidal T-shaped plan with porch in left (NE) angle. Beyond (S of) the chapel is the vestry and chapel house; schoolroom and hall to the SW. Built of brick, pebbledashed elevations throughout, with smooth rendered plinth and dressings. Slate roof with red clay ridge tiles, the N gable with finial. The wings, porch and central face of apsidal end are enriched with shaped parapet gables surmounted by tall finials; each has Tudor-gothic window with hood mould; continuous sill band across apsidal end. The rest of the windows are square-headed, and all are transomed. The house and hall are simpler than the chapel; the hall has small paned sash windows, and buttresses along the W wall. Gabled entrance front of house to rear of chapel, with doorway to left, and 4-pane sash windows.  

Entrance into the N end of the chapel, the set fawr is at the opposite end. The main body of the chapel has pitch pine box pews arranged around the side walls, and a central rank with staggered divider. Roof of 3 bays, dividing beams with arched braces down to wall posts on shaped corbels; the E and W wings are of a single roof bay each. Each roof bay has recessed plaster panels with moulded dividers and central gridded and pierced ventilation grille. The set fawr is raised by 2 steps, rectangular with splayed corners and side entrances; the facing panels are recessed to form a Tudor-arch headed 'arcade' under a moulded rail. The pulpit is rectangular, raised by 4-steps with side entrances and similarly detailed panelling. The walls of the chapel are plastered, the lower half tongue and grooved, ramped up behind the pulpit under a Tudor-arch headed recess, set back in two stages and with moulded hood over. Flanking the set fawr are half glazed, and panelled doors which enter into a corridor leading to the other parts of the building. The windows of the chapel have leaded lights decorated with floriate motifs in an Art Nouveau style. The corridor beyond the chapel has doorways leading to the hall/schoolroom to the right, the vestry to front (and chapel house beyond) and external access to the left. The hall/schoolroom is raised by 2 steps, a huge room capable of being subdivided by folding half-glazed doors; of 3 roof bays to the N end and 2 roof bays to the S, each roof bay with pierced floriate ventilation grilles and moulded dividers. The hall has plain plastered walls, the lower half tongue and grooved panelling ramped up at the far (S) end. Each division has a simple dark brown glazed tile fire surround, with cast iron fires and floriate tiling to the hearths. The vestry, also with tongue and grooved panelling, has a small Art Nouveau style fire in the SW corner.  

Listed as a good early C20 chapel complex with consistent 'Art Nouveau' detailing. Forms a group with the adjacent outbuilding and railed walling to front.