20751

 

II  

Designated  

27/10/1998  

12/11/2002  

Chepstow Methodist Church  

 

Monmouthshire  

Chepstow  

Chepstow  

Chepstow  

353212  

193779  

N  

Prominently sited on the N side of Albion Square.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Wesleyan Methodist Church of 1855, designed by James Wilson of Bath. Wilson was a pioneer of the use of correct Gothic in non-conformist chapels and this is a particularly good example of his style. Gate probably contemporary from Bristol. Modern enlargement and remodelling. R G Thomas' contemporary Charles Street chapel in Cardiff is similar.  

Gothic Revival Chapel. Sandstone, dressed and coursed to front, with ashlar dressings; steep-pitched slate roof. Gable front faces S with 4-light Decorated window with drip-mould and large foliated stops. Angle buttresses are topped by multi-gabled pinnacles and fleur-de-lys finials. Gable coping crowned by pinnacle with crockets. Tiny roundel with quatrefoil tracery in upper gable. Below window, two moulded string courses enclose band of ornamental scrolls in relief. Entrance porch has crocketed canopy with fleur-de-lys finial and square tablet with multifoil cusping dated 1855. Pointed-arched doorway has engaged side columns with circular capitals and dripmould with foliated stops. Boarded door with decorative cast iron strap hinges. Each side of porch are wall arcades of cinquefoils arranged in triplets; centre opening glazed, outer two blind. Chamfered ashlar plinth. N gable masked by rear extension has truncated 3-light window with pointed trefoils. Side elevations are buttressed and have three 2-light pointed trefoil windows with quatrefoil tracery.  

Modernised interior. Medium-sized single space, with gallery across entrance-end only. Six-bays, open roof with no collar, intersecting rafters and purlins create a panelled effect. Alternating principal rafters have short moulded arch-braces carried on corbel blocks. Big blind gothic arch frames gable window at altar-end. Vestibule, though alternative main entrance is now through C20 extension at rear.  

Included as a good mid-C19 Gothic chapel, the focal building in Albion Square. Group value with buildings in the lower part of Moor Street and Welsh Street, Albion Square, and the Town Gate.