26003

 

II  

Designated  

13/12/2001  

13/12/2001  

Congregational Chapel, Including Forecourt Walls, Piers and Railings  

 

Gwynedd  

Bala  

 

 

292738  

335994  

SE  

 

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

Congregational chapel, built in 1867 and replacing an earlier chapel and independent college, formerly located opposite. Michael Daniel Jones (1822-1898) and John Peters (1833-1877) were both ministers here. Jones was a significant nationalist whose attempts to set up a Welsh colony in Patagonia lost him a considerable personal fortune. He served for a time as principal of the Independent College at Bala. Peters served from 1855 as tutor at the Bala college and was a considerable scholar.  

Victorian chapel in eclectic classical style; of local rubble construction with slate roof and brick dressings to the sides. Symmetrical facade of snecked, quarry-faced blocks with limestone quoins and dressings. The facade is of 3 bays, with a recessed and pedimented central entrance bay. Round-arched, moulded entrance with 4-panel double doors; tripartite pseudo-Venetian window above, with triple arched lights, the central one larger. Tall, full-height arched windows to the outer bays, with plain sill-courses. Moulded and dentilated cornice across the whole facade, with parapets to outer bays above; these are coped and have voluted inner ends. Moulded central pediment with geometric stone finial. In the gable apex is a shaped tablet with the date 1867. Four tall arched windows to each side, with brick voussoirs and projecting sills. Plain modern glazing throughout. A single-storey, early C20 boiler house is attached to the rear of the chapel. The chapel has contemporary low forecourt walls with slate copings and gable piers, to L with rough-dressed pyramidal capping; surmounting railings with gates to the centre and L.  

Good, unaltered interior, with gallery on 3 sides supported on seven fluted, cast iron Corinthian columns. Panelled gallery front with blind-arched pilasters and dentilated soffit. Geometric patterned boarded ceiling with marginal and large central acanthus roses of plasterwork. Pitch pine box pews throughout, with painted numbers. Panelled octagonal pulpit with geometric decoration to its faces and a chevron-moulded cornice. Stair access to the Set Fawr, with turned balusters, geometric newels and moulded rails. Behind the Set Fawr is a large tripartite wooden arcade with fluted columns. This carries a large and imposing organ of 1914; by James Binns of Leeds. Adjoining to the rear of the chapel is the hall, with a stage at the far end.  

Listed as a mid Victorian town chapel retaining good unaltered external character and original interior and with associations with the C19 non-conformist ministers Michael D Jones and John Peters.