23075

 

II  

Designated  

29/03/2000  

29/03/2000  

Gorphwysfa Chapel  

 

Neath Port Talbot  

Coedffranc  

 

Skewen  

273038  

197411  

N  

Set back from the street behind forecourt gates and railings W of the junction with Drymau Road.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapel erected in 1893 by Benjamin Williams, architect of Swansea, and said to have been built to the same design as 'Y Goppa' in Pontardulais.  

Classical style chapel with a 3-bay gable-end front of coursed rock-faced stone on a plinth of larger coursed stones and mainly with rusticated, lighter stone dressings and pilasters, and a slate roof with a single cupola to the ridge. The pilasters are fluted with moulded capitals to the upper half, and below a moulded band they are rusticated and have marble foundation tablets above the bases. The central bay is wider and has 2 round-headed doorways with keystones and double panelled doors beneath overlights. Above is a triple round-headed window with sill band lighting the gallery. The outer bays have a single round-headed window with sill band. The pedimented gable has a moulded cornice. A roundel is inscribed with the date of the building, with the name inscribed around the border. The coped gable has prominent urn finials on moulded bases. The 5-window R side wall has 2 tiers of round-headed windows, beyond which the large 2-storey rear Sunday school and hall projects in front of the wall of the chapel under a hipped roof. An outshut facing the side wall of the chapel houses the stair and has 2 stair lights in its side wall. The side wall of the hall otherwise has 3 round-headed windows in the lower storey, above which are 2 sash windows under segmental heads and a single tripartite sash window to the L at a higher level. The rear of the hall has 6 round-headed windows in the lower storey, grouped 1+4+1 and 5 segmental-headed sash windows in the upper storey grouped 1+3+1. The hall also projects on the L side of the chapel, with a door to the front in a flat-roofed vestibule. The L side wall of the hall is similar to the R side.  

Opposite the main doorways the vestibule has 3 round-headed lights with etched glass and coloured margin lights. Flanking panelled doors open to the main chapel, while round-headed arches with panelled soffits lead to the gallery stairs on the L and R sides. The main chapel has a panelled roof with heavy ribs and 3 central fret-cut stellar panels, and a more delicately moulded cornice. The windows have shafted rere arches. A 4-sided raked gallery, lower behind the pulpit where the organ is placed, is carried on the remaining 3 sides by cast iron columns with foliage capitals. The cast iron gallery front is sinuous in cross section and has openwork panels of leaves and scrolls. The pews have moulded ends. The set fawr is raised higher and is defined by a rail with cast iron columns sprouting foliage scrolls and a moulded hand rail. The polygonal pulpit has round-arched panels and flanking stairs with turned balusters and fluted newels. Panelled doors flank both the pulpit and the organ in the gallery, leading to the hall and Sunday school behind. In the upper storey the doors open to a full-width corridor opening to 5 small school rooms. Stone stairs are housed in an outshut at the R end. In the lower storey is a hall with stage and 3 plain cast iron columns carrying the organ and gallery directly above.  

Listed for its architectural interest as a well-designed late C19 chapel, with a fine interior including a 4-sided gallery, retaining original character and detail.