18564

 

II  

Designated  

18/07/1997  

18/07/1997  

English Presbyterian Chapel  

 

Isle of Anglesey  

Menai Bridge  

Menai Bridge  

 

255672  

371869  

 

Prominently sited on the south side of Bridge Street, next to the Victoria Hotel.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Preaching in English first started in the New Hall in 1867, with services given by the pastor of the Welsh Presbyterian Chapel, Reverend Joseph Jones. He continued to serve in both chapels for 12 years but in 1878 became pastor of the English one alone. The congregation grew and in 1882-3 the site for new premises was secured. In 1888 the chapel was built through the generosity of the Davies family of Treborth Hall. Richard Davies was MP for Anglesey 1868-1886 and Lord Lieutenant for the Island 1884-1896 and was a businessman who contributed to the development of the town of Menai Bridge in the C19. His brother, Robert Davies, of Bodlondeb, was the builder of the chapel and the architect was R G Thomas FRIBA, of Menai Bridge.  

A cruciform plan chapel planned in the style of a Decorated Gothic church, and with lower storey housing vestry, schoolroom etc. Main body of chapel in form of 'nave' of 3 bays with shorter, narrower 'chancel' at W end, canted vestry in SW angle, and tower and spire incorporating the entrance in the lower stage, in the angle between nave and N transept. Built of snecked granite (darker in the lower storey) with limestone ashlar dressings and offset buttresses, articulating the elevations by dividing them into regular bays. Slate roof with decorative red clay ridge tiles and stone copings, crosses at each gable. Tower has angle buttresses and stepped chamfered angles in the upper stage, providing a link to the spire which surmounts a polygonal bell-chamber stage with lancet lights between engaged shafts. Pointed arched windows with geometric tracery to upper storey, with relieving arches and labels with floriate stops: single and 2-light windows to 'nave', 3-light windows to transepts, and richly traceried 4-light window to 'chancel'. Transept and chancel have wheel or trefoiled windows towards their apexes. Simpler windows in lower storey.  

Walls are plastered and painted, lower half with tongue and groove panelling below a panelled dado. Wagon barrel roof of tongue and groove forming chevron pattern. Nave of 2.5 roof bays (4 panels per bay), central 2 panels with decorative pierced metal ventilation grilles. Chancel and transepts each a single bay with vaulting at intersection, floriate bosses. Trusses are carried down to colonnettes supported on moulded corbels, some with shield on facing panel. Chancel is raised by 3 steps, through a pointed arch of two orders, supported on marble colonnette above a moulded corbel. Label above with floriate stops. Arches of 3 chamfered orders above engaged Tuscan style columns to transepts. Reredos is limestone, now painted, formed by an applied order of cusped pointed arches across E wall. A square headed doorway SW end of the chancel opens to stairs leading down to vestry, schoolroom, kitchen and toilets below. Fittings: Font, C20, octagonal. Pulpit, octagonal with 4 facing panels, applied order as for reredos with composite pillars of marble colonnettes and small engaged marble spheres between arches, under a floriate frieze. Raised by 3 curving steps with brass handrail supported on iron balusters and floriate brackets. Pews and choir stalls of pitch pine, organ in chancel with ornate pipes, fitted when the church was built and the first blower organ on the island. Glass: W gable window in 'chancel'; biblical scenes, erected to Robert Davies of Bodlondeb, d.1905. Monuments: N transept (also known as the Davies Chapel) series of white marble tablets with peach and green borders; to members of the Davies family of Treborth Hall, on W wall, pink veined marble with inscription tablet surrounded by angels set within a moulded surround with floriate design, to Richard Davies d.1896. Chancel, brass plaque (and W window) to Robert Davies d.1905. Nave, N wall, white marble plaque to R G Thomas, architect of the chapel, d.1909; S wall, 2 marble plaques to those who fell in 1914-18 and 1939-45 World Wars.  

Included as a distinctively designed late C19 chapel, notable for its consistent and richly detailed Gothic character and quality of interior fittings. The building has a very clear connection with the development of Menai Bridge as a thriving town in the C19. It also forms a prominent feature of the approach to the town from the S.