20740

 

II  

Designated  

23/10/1998  

31/10/2003  

Elim United Reformed Church and attached Schoolroom  

 

Torfaen  

Cwmbran Central  

Cwmbran  

Cwmbran  

329164  

194856  

S  

In a walled and gated burial ground, on the S side of Commercial Street in the centre of Cwmbran.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Independent Chapel erected in 1844. Elim split from nearby Penywaun in 1843. Schoolroom erected in 1872.  

Rendered externally, slate roof. S gable-front has well-proportioned stucco facade. External render incised with lines in simulation of ashlar. Monumental flat-headed neo-Grec doorcase; moulded architrave has projecting roundels and big hood-mould supported on elaborate consoles; panelled double-doors. Flanking entrance are tall round-arched windows with moulded architraves and aprons. Upper gable carries a stone tablet inscribed: ELIM INDEPENDENT CHAPEL 1844 Tablet has moulded architrave; base forms part of continuous string course at eaves level. Corners of gable-front emphasised by raised render at angles, in simulation of quoins. Single-storey Schoolroom is attached to right of main chapel. Render incised, as before; slate roof. Off-centre gabled porch has round-arched entrance doorway with plain overlight and 4-panel door. Tablet in gable dated 1872. Front wall of school has three 12-pane sash windows with segmental arched heads.  

Double doors into narrow panelled vestibule: round-arched leaded-light window in facing wall; gallery stair to right and 6-panel door to chapel, left. Medium-sized, single cell chapel with gallery across entrance-side only, and painted woodwork. Raked gallery, supported by slender cast-iron columns, has open backed benches and front of rectangular wooden panels; the inner faces of the middle panels curved around centre clock. Attached to panelling at back of the chapel are a pair of close boarded pews with shaped ends. Leaded-light windows with patterned glass, some modern secondary glazing. The 'set fawr', pulpit, and rear pulpit wall are modern, in contrast to the front end which is a relatively unaltered interior for the period.  

Chapel with imposing front and unusual Greek Revival doorcase which, despite interior changes, still retains a strong historic character.