20749

 

II  

Designated  

27/10/1998  

10/11/2005  

Whitefield Chapel (Presbyterian)  

 

Monmouthshire  

Abergavenny  

Abergavenny  

Abergavenny  

329748  

214567  

E  

On the east side of Pen-y-pound, some 30m north from the junction with Park Road and one of the varied group of historic buildings on the main north-eastern access to Abergavenny.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Presbyterian Chapel of 1907-10 by E A Johnson, Abergavenny's leading Edwardian architect. Contractor J G Thomas & Sons, Abergavenny. Names on foundation stones.  

Built of roughly dressed grey sandstone, laid in irregular courses, Bath stone ashlar dressings; natural slate roof with tile ridge. Large Tudor Gothic Revival chapel with good Arts and Crafts features; similar in style to some of the work of W Beddoe Rees, well known chapel architect. West (street) front has a large gable and, to the left, a big diagonally buttressed three-stage tower. The tower has a broad pointed arched doorway with drip-mould and decorative stops, five trefoil headed overlights: boarded double doors with Art Nouveau handles. The middle stage of tower has tall loop window rising from ashlar string course. Above, a well-designed Arts and Crafts belfry has broad 3-light bell opening with cambered head and stepped and chamfered cill. Diagonal buttresses terminate at angles of belfry in panelled gablets. The parapet is flamboyantly curved and indented. Hexagonal spire with collared copper finial. Big gable-front to chapel (to right of tower) is crowned by three stylised finials, also in Arts and Crafts idiom; shafts run down through coping into wall of upper gable. Below, a big late-Perpendicular-style window; six trefoiled lights, arranged in pairs; curvilinear-style tracery incorporates art-nouveau touches; hood-mould has label-stops. Ground-level has camber-headed 4-light window, with trefoil tracery. Porch (to right) is buttressed: entrance doorway similar to tower but with canopy; porch parapet pierced with trefoils. Side elevations have trefoil headed windows, with 2-lights in tracery, separated by tall battered buttresses. Low gabled-transepts with 3-light windows and Perpendicular tracery. Attached to east end, beyond vestry, is the schoolroom; big 4-light mullion and transom windows in gable-ends have 9 fixed panes above the transom, and 6 over 15-paned horned sashes below.  

Interior not inspected at resurvey. The listing description of 1998 has been reused. Small entrance lobbies have moulded cornice, and stylish art-nouveau wall lamps. Six-panel double-doors to chapel; upper two panels glazed (3-light each), lower panels diagonally boarded. Main chapel has handsome and complex 6-bay hammer-beam roof carried on stone corbels faced with shields. Upper and lower collars are both arch-braced, with upper collar also supported by octagonal crown post. Hammer-posts are continued downwards as pendants. Gable end hammer-beams decorated with cherubs. Panels to side of hammer-posts have pierced decoration of lancets and lobed trefoils. Boarded ceiling with square, patterned ventilators; wind-braced purlins in transept bay. Pews have close-boarded backs and shaped ends; centre block and aisle blocks each side. Balustrade of 'great seat' enclosure has curved ends and narrow trefoil headed panels. High pulpit raised on shaped angle supports; curved top rail and stairs each side. Canted pulpit, with pierced Gothic-tracery panels. Behind, full-height Gothic arch encloses organ gallery. Below gallery, glazed screen with doors left and right to vestry. Transepts have low Gothic arches.  

Included for its special interest as a handsome early C20 chapel with imposing Arts and Crafts front and fine interior roof that was designed by Abergavenny's leading Edwardian architect. It has group value with the other listed buildings in Pen-y-pound, including Frogmore Street Baptist Chapel, the Church of Our Lady and St Michael and the Drama Centre (former King Henry VIII Grammar School).