6056

 

II  

Designated  

21/06/1971  

15/10/1997  

Ffynnon Baptist Chapel  

 

Pembrokeshire  

Llanddewi Velfrey  

 

Llanddewi Velfrey  

213648  

216898  

N  

1 km W of Llanddewi Velfrey village  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

 

In 1720 local Baptists, having previously travelled to Rhydwilym or Molleston, established a local meeting house at Ffynnon farm; here they had a spring, reputed to be unfailing, known as 'ffynnon well na buwch'. The local Baptist church was incorporated in 1794. In 1831/2 they rebuilt their chapel and at the same time leased land from Henllan for a cemetery. In 1840 the Tithe Survey apportionment shows the chapel site as a tenancy under Henllan. The building is still little altered apart from the window details and a new ceiling.  

A plain building oriented N/S but entered at the centre of the long E wall. Rendered walls with a slightly projecting plinth. Hipped slate roof. Front and side elevations of two storeys; full height windows to the W (behind pulpit). The front elevation has decorative arches, with limestone voussoirs, over the door and the two flanking windows. C20 replaced joinery: Boarded door with glazed fanlight incorporating a mullion; windows with thin mullions and transoms; leaded glazing.  

The building is entered by a wide shallow lobby, separated from the main interior by a panelled timber screen. This has two central windows glazed with patterned glass and coloured margin lights. Symmetrical doors to the main interior set at an angle and symmetrical stairs each side to the gallery. The interior has a fine gallery on three sides, supported by five thin round columns of cast iron. Two columns, at corner positions, are wider than the others, and the central column carries the date 1832 in embossed figures. These columns are clearly from the same foundry as those of Carvan (Lampeter Velfrey). The balcony front is in plain fielded panels.The seating below is contemporary, in three blocks, with a central division marking the symmetrical layout of the interior. Fine pulpit at the W, flanked by 2 full-height windows with small leaded panes and coloured margin glazing. The pulpit has a panelled centre with an overhang supported on two timber columns. At each side is a balustraded extension of the pulpit and curving symmetrical balustraded stairs. Swept handrails and turned newels. Below the panelled and balustered front is a vertical-boarded lower stage.  

Listed as a chapel with an almost unaltered interior of 1832, incorporating a fine gallery and pulpit.