22210

 

II  

Designated  

27/08/1999  

27/08/1999  

Calvinistic Methodist Chapel  

 

Carmarthenshire  

Llandybie  

Ammanford  

Llandybie village  

261672  

215270  

W  

At west side of Blaenau Road, about 300m south of the Parish Church. Grassed forecourt with part paved; stone surrounding wall.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

The Calvinistic Methodist cause here was fostered by the members of Capel Hendre; by 1820 they had a Sunday School here. A small stone on the front reads 'Llandybie Chapel built for the Welch Calvin Methodist 1829'. The chapel was built on land of Lord Cawdor, for which a rent of 1s (5p) a year was initially paid; but the site is recorded in the Tithe Survey as Glebe land. Dr Roberts found no proof for the view that the Biblical name of the chapel had been Gosen. Mid-late C19 interior fittings. A large vestry was added at the north end in 1970.  

A side entry chapel with two high windows between doors. Rendered and painted cream at front; slate roof with tile ridge. rusticated corners worked in the render. Slightly projecting plinth. Side elevations rendered but uncoloured; small round ventilator in right gable. Round headed doors and windows in the front elevation, the arches decorated with a label moulding. Eight-pane timber windows. Boarded double doors with fanlights. Similar windows in rear elevation. The vestry (in tandem to north) is similarly rendered and coloured at front. Lower roof level. Concrete roof tiles, three round-headed UPVC windows. Boarded door at right.  

Twin porches framed and boarded in pine, with crenellated cornice; patterned tile paving; six-panel semi-glazed doors with overlights to chapel. The main interior is without gallery, the pulpit positioned at the side opposite to the entrance porches. Four ranges of mid/late C19 pews, eight rows, two passageways; the rear two rows slightly raised, the front pew later altered to insert the harmonium (the present instrument installed in 1966). Straight centre division. The side pews near the front are turned 90º to face the pulpit. Each pew end carries a metal number. Simple sedd fawr with canted corners. A dado around the interior rises behind the pulpit, where it has painted decoration on its frieze. Late C19 pulpit and flanking staircases in pine. The pulpit front canted, with boarding within stilted arches. Dentil pulpit cornice, panelled base. Swept handrail to the stairs balustrades; turned balusters and newels. Behind the pulpit is a pedimented form in painted plaster, standing on the raised section of dado, and framing the words 'Molwch Yr Arglwydd'. Pilasters enriched with a floral trail and painted, carrying an architrave and dentil cornice. Painted block above cornice. Decorative centre feature to the ceiling; surround of strip diagonal boarding. Door in north wall to vestry.  

A well-preserved side-entry village chapel with intact mid/late-C19 interior joinery of good quality.