23305

 

II  

Designated  

19/05/2000  

19/05/2000  

Salem Baptist Chapel  

 

Neath Port Talbot  

Briton Ferry  

 

Briton Ferry  

274268  

194582  

N  

Set back behind a railed forecourt from Vernon Street on the W side of Neath Road.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

A Welsh Baptist Chapel begun in 1876 (date on foundation stone).  

Classical-style chapel of coursed rock-faced stone and ashlar pilasters and dressings, and a slate roof. The gable-end front is divided into 5 bays by pilasters, with tall arched recesses in echelon to the 3 main bays. The windows have hood moulds with foliage stops and stone sills that terminate with foliage carving. A roughcast plinth band has, set into the L side, a slate foundation tablet. The central bay has a round-headed doorway with a single order of attached shafts with foliage capitals, and a plain arch with the name of the chapel inscribed and a hood mould pressed against the flanking pilasters. The double boarded and ribbed doors are beneath an overlight with geometrical tracery. Above is a single round-headed window. The pilasters have foliage capitals at cornice level. The bays R and L of centre have single round-headed windows while the narrower outer bays are blind, but have foliage friezes at cornice level. The cornice also bears an inscription in Welsh recording the denomination. The pediment is enriched with 3 blind round-headed arches springing from the pilasters of the central bays, and has ashlar spandrels. A cusped oculus has a moulded surround and hood mould similar to the windows below. There is a moulded eaves cornice. The 4-window L side wall is roughcast with round-headed windows. At the rear is a low L-shaped extension of the vestry with hipped slate roof and boarded door. The R side wall faces a side alley and is similar to the L. Behind the chapel is an integral lower vestry with its gable at right angles to the chapel. The gable end facing the alley has a segmental-headed 2-light window. The side wall has added lean-tos.  

The vestibule has a 4-light glazed panel opposite the doorway with coloured margin lights. It is flanked by plain replaced doors to the main chapel and gallery stairs. The main chapel has a 3-sided raked gallery on cast iron columns with moulded capitals. The front is inset with cast iron panels which have openwork palmette friezes. A boarded and ribbed ceiling frames a large central panel and smaller outer panels. Pews have moulded ends. The set fawr, also incorporating a baptistery beneath floorboards, is raised up and, although it has no permanent seat, is framed by fluted balusters and moulded hand rail. The pulpit front has 2 round-arched panels. It is flanked by balustrades with turned balusters that are integral with the staircase balustrades. An elliptical arch behind the pulpit incorporates a single order of foliage, and springs from abaci above leafy consoles. Panelled doors flanking the reredos open to the vestry. On the R side of the rear wall is a plain marble tablet on a black wooden background commemorating the first minister, John Jones (d. 1878).  

Listed for the architectural interest of its fine classical front with arched recesses and tall windows (in the style of Thomas Thomas) and good original interior detail.