20653

 

II  

Designated  

21/10/1998  

21/10/1998  

Penuel Chapel  

 

Powys  

Llanfihangel Cwmdu with Bwlch and Cathedine  

 

Rhiangoll Valley  

318561  

224734  

 

Approximately 1km NNE of Cwmdu church on N side of minor road from A479 to Cwm Rhos. The chapel is within a walled graveyard with a steep embankment at rear.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

A Welsh Independent community formed in 1785 built its first chapel in Cwm Rhos in 1805. The present building probably dates from c1840.  

Small chapel of rubble stone painted white, with slate roof and stack at L end. The front has large 12-pane hornless sashes R and L of centre above which at R and L ends are 16-pane windows with central pivot (lighting the gallery inside). The doorway is to extreme R inside an added gabled porch, boarded inside, and has a boarded and ribbed door. In the R gable end is a continuous drip stone at eaves level.  

Inside doorway is a small vestibule leading to the interior. A straight stair leads to a 3-sided gallery on slender cast iron columns and which has a ribbed and panelled front. The pews have similar panelling. The pulpit is between the large windows and is similarly panelled. Its steps have turned balusters and newel. (The set fawr has been removed.)  

A good example of a plain earlier C19 rural chapel retaining its interior character.