3850

 

II  

Designated  

31/03/1983  

03/05/2002  

Ebenezer Methodist Church  

 

Gwynedd  

Caernarfon  

Caernarfon  

Caernarfon  

248056  

362626  

NE  

Set back from the street on the corner with Wesley Street.  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

The Wesleyan cause was founded in Caernarfon in 1805 and the present chapel built in 1826 (date on building) by John Lloyd, architect of Caernarfon and member of the chapel. This original chapel is shown on the 1834 town plan. An engraving by the architect shows it to have had triple doorways to the front. However this arrangement was altered when an entrance portico was added in 1875-6 by Richard Davies, architect of Bangor and Hugh Rowlands of Caernarfon, contractor. At the same time the interior was redesigned to seat 900-1000. The portico was altered in 1893.  

An early C19 Gothic style chapel with a 3-bay gable-end front of coursed stone and slate roof behind a moulded coped gable. The front has diagonal buttresses at the angles with pinnacles and a similar apex finial over a gabled panel corbelled out. An added ashlar 3-bay entrance portico in Gothic style has diagonal buttresses with pinnacles, a coped parapet and gabled central bay with 'Ebenezer' inscription and apex pinnacle sprouting foliage. It has approach steps with flanking walls and square piers at the base carrying cast iron gas lamp holders. The portico has 3 stepped arches, the central bay being wider and higher, on ringed columns and responds, moulded arches and a linked hood mould with foliage stops. Set back on each side is a lower, narrow single-bay porch with similar parapet to the portico, angle buttresses, and lancet window. The R side of the R-hand porch has a blind lancet. Inside the portico are 3 stepped pointed lights to the main chapel over a central memorial tablet. The doors R and L have diagonal boarded panels and mullioned overlights, while the porches have similar panelled doors. Above the portico are gallery windows with cast iron tracery, and a sill band. In the central bay is a hooded 3-light 4-centred window with intersecting tracery, while the outer bays have narrow windows with Y-tracery. A star-shaped recessed slate panel in the gable is dated 1826. The 4-window R side wall is scribed roughcast. The pointed lower and gallery windows have cast iron Y-tracery, while school rooms in the basement have wooden cross windows, of which the 2 to the R retain original small-pane glazing. The L side wall is coursed stone with brick arches to the main chapel windows, which have Y-tracery, and small-pane cross windows under cambered heads with stone voussoirs to the basement. The gallery windows have a sill band. The rear is rubble stone and has a central projection with slate-filled bullseye window in the gable and 3 blocked stepped pointed lights with brick surrounds. A former cottage is attached to the L side of the rear.  

The side porches lead to the gallery stairs, while the inner doors lead into vestibules with separate small cloak rooms. These have half-lit panelled doors. The chapel has a 4-sided gallery with a rounded-front, which is stepped down to continue on the fourth side behind the pulpit and in front of the organ. The gallery is carried on cast iron posts, from which the front projects out and has a tier of diagonal boarded panels beneath openwork iron panels with foliage decoration. The heavily ribbed and panelled ceiling has rope mouldings and bosses to the ribs, and ceiling roses in the panels. The set fawr has benches to the sides with boarded backs, while to the front it forms a communion rail in the form of a balustrade with turned balusters and nail-head frieze beneath the top rail. A bowed pulpit has an open balustrade and is flanked each side by curved steps with fretwork balusters and square moulded newels with pyramidal caps. The organ recess is arched to a flat centre, with continuous mouldings. The pine pews have moulded ends and panelled doors, those on the outer side of the main aisles being set at right angles. The window facing the front has memorial glass to Albert Jones (1887-1914) depicting SS Michael and Martin, and is by Jones & Willis. The basement hall has cast iron posts supporting cross beams, and has panelled doors to class rooms on the R side.  

Listed as a rare early C19 chapel in Gothic style retaining distinct early character, with well-detailed and well-preserved later C19 additions and interior, and for its substantial contribution to the historic townscape.