Full Report for Listed Buildings
The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.
Summary Description
Reference Number
4657
Building Number
Grade
II
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
20/10/1966
Date of Amendment
31/01/2001
Name of Property
Bethel Congregational Chapel
Address
Location
Unitary Authority
Gwynedd
Community
Llandderfel
Town
Bala
Locality
Bethel
Easting
298796
Northing
339812
Street Side
Location
At Bethel, on a minor road leading off the N side of the A494 to Tyn-y-Bwlch and Maerdy, close to the junction of the two roads. Set back in a narrow forecourt behind Art Nouveau-style cast-iron railings and gates.
Description
Broad Class
Religious, Ritual and Funerary
Period
History
Said to carry the date of 1816 on a slate slab to the rear, but substantially remodelled (though probably incorporating the earlier building) c1860-70. Used for storage when inspected.
Exterior
Gable end entry chapel with fine entrance facade. Lined-out render over brick, with moulded cornice band and hipped slate roof with red tiled cresting. Entrance front has pedimented centre-piece set forward of the main chapel body and separately roofed; main chapel body has hipped roof. Entrances set to either side of advanced centre-piece, into main chapel body, with richly-panelled, renaissance-style doors in moulded architraves with pediment hoods carried on brackets; blind keyed oculi over each doorway. Advanced centre-piece has bold modillion cornice to strongly projecting pediment, and contains 18-pane horned sash window with pedimented head clasped by coupled pilasters sprung from a string course at sill level. Return elevations each a 4-window range: 18-pane sashes in moulded architraves with pediments carried on scrolled brackets.
Interior
Vertically-boarded dado and counter-changed black/white aisle pavements between raised pew platforms (the pews themselves have been removed); simple ceiling with 3 decorative plaster vent roses. Inner porches with moulded plaster cornices having egg-and-dart decoration; pavements as before. The end wall has 3 classical niches: the central one has pilasters and frieze, and has a heavy segmental pediment with dentilations and plain projecting key. The flanking niches have blind windows with moulded architraves and pediments supported on consoles.
Reason for designation
Listed as a later C19 chapel (though with earlier origins), ambitious in scale and enrichment for a rural context, employing an especially finely detailed and consistent Renaissance style.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]
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