- Nprn: 6904
- Cadw Ref: (WO)4/172
- Cadw Record No: 3371
- Summary: Seilo Methodist Chapel was built in 1813, modified in 1855 and rebuilt in 1861. A gallery was added in 1874 nd then a chapel house and schoolroom in 1884. The present chapel is a rebuild from 1905, designed by architect George Alfred Humphries of Llandudno and built in the Classical style of the gable entry type. A prominent feature of this Chapel is the flanking towers. The chapel is the largest in Llandudno (with seating for 1000 people) and is now Grade 2 listed.
RCAHMW, September 2009 - Description: First chapel built 1813; modified(?) 1855 & rebuilt 1861. Gallery added 1874 (cost £550); chapel house & schoolroom added 1884. Rebuilt 1905 in Classical style, gable entry type, to the design of G. A. Humphries (cost £8500). A prominent feature of this Chapel is the flanking towers. Largest chapel in Llandudno with seating for 1000. Status (1998): in chapel use.
1905; designed by G.A.Humphries. Apart from its architectural interest, a building that is important to Llandudno's townscape. A picture in the front committee room shows the chapel in existence from 1813-63: a rectangular, lateral-entry building. Walls faced externally with limestone with red sandstone dressings. Slate roof with two ridge vents, hipped behind blaustraded parapet at NE. end and half-hipped at SW. end. Red sandstone Venetian window at centre of NE. elevation and at SW. end of the SE. lateral elevation; square corner stair towers on NE., their cupolas also of red sandstone.
Centre entry at NE. end to external vestibule at rear of chapel. This NE. elevation faced with red sandstone ashlar on ground floor, the gallery storey above faced with limestone but with red sandstone ashlar dressings.
Tetrastyle portico of paired and engaged Doric columns with entablature and narrower segmental pediment, the entablature bearing the inscription: "19 ADDOLDY METHODISTIAID CALFINAIDD 05", and in the segmental pediment, the name "SHILOH". Tall four-pane transom and mullion window with keystone, lintel and shallow apron to each side, lighting the vestibule. Inset basket arch to narthex porch, with flanking pairs of half-glazed and panelled doors and with a window in the rear wall. Above the porch, a broken pediment and Ionic pilasters, their bases serving visually as acroteria to the porch pediment, and all of red sandstone ashlar, enclose the Venetian window at gallery level, also of red sandstone ashlar, and with Doric columns and pilasters with blocking. To each side at gallery level, there is a tall leaded window of four panes above a balustraded apron and with a single top pane, in an opening with pilasters with blocking, the balustraded apron continuing across the elevation. Gallery stair towers project at either end, also of sandstone ashlar on the ground floor, and of limestone with red sandstone ashlar dressings above; in a central projection, with red sandstone quoins above ground floor, there is a four-pane transom and mullion window at ground floor, a window at gallery level with architrave with blocking, and also with keystone, broken pediment and apron; a segmental pediment at eaves level, and an ashlar and domed Doric cuploa above, the drum with aedicule projections over round-arched windows.
In the lateral elevations, the NE. corner stair tower bays have similar articulation to their adjoining counterparts in the NE. end elevation, but with differences: each minus a centre projection, with a segmentally-headed doorway instead of a window on the ground floor, with plain upper window architrave and each with a triangular pediment at eaves level. Otherwise the recessed middle section of the lateral elevations each has four flat-headed windows on the ground floor and four semi-circular windows over, with plain window openings in the NW. elevation but, in the SE. lateral elevation, with ashlar voussoirs, keystones, window head band and shallow aprons to the ground-floor openings and pilasters with blocking, archivolts on consoles and elaborate triple keystones to the gallery windows. The SW. end bays comprise projections, with a four-pane transom and mullion window on ground floor and a Venetian window on first floor, the last plain in the NW. elevation but, in the SE. elevation, with Doric columns and pilasters with blocking in a framework of Ionic pilasters and broken pediment.
The large vestry projects N. at the SW. end of the NW. elevation; NE. wall of limestone and containing a window of two Caernarfon arched lights and a flat-headed doorway.
The chapel forecourt is enclosed from Arvon Avenue by a limestone boundary wall with ashlar coping; 20th-century red brick gate piers. Iron gate, uprights to top rail and scroll and fancy finials; vertical scroll panel in centre; the boundary wall curves on the corner and continues into Gloddaeth Street where there are iron gates.
In Gloddaeth Street, the mid or later-19th century pair of houses attached to the SW. end of the chapel have a front wall of snecked and rock-faced stone, and a slate roof, hipped to SW. with central limestone stack. Plate-glass sash windows with horns. Three bay windows on the ground floor, all with lights with Caernarfon arched heads and slate canopies, the end windows each of shallow, rectangular projection and of two-lights, the centre bay with canted sides; in line above, three window openings with paired and pointed two-light heads. Two doorways with stone lintels, the door to no. 18 wooden boarded.
Limestone boundary walls in front of both houses; ashlar coping. Two stone wall piers with ashlar coping; lower and chamfered ashlar gate piers with pyramidal coping and ball finials to no. 18; little wooden gate.
Chapel interior: the chapel has a handsome, well-articulated and finely finished interior. Ground floor with matchboarded dado to timber window cill height. Below the gallery, grey-painted plaster walls at ground floor below a white-painted cornice; pale-grey painted plaster gallery soffit. The ground-floor windows are inset with earlier-20th century frosted glass. The gallery has grey-painted plaster walls with
grey-painted wall vents; white-painted framework of pilasters (bases at window cill level and caps at ceiling cornice level), archivolt to windows and impost string. Behind the pulpit, a lofty and double semi-elliptical arch encloses the organ; white archivolts supported by white-painted Ionic pilasters, with wide pale-green and white panelled strip between the two arches, with a square panelled cross at the top. The organ accessible by balustraded stairs leading down from the gallery and up from the pulpit, the stair balustrades from the galleries with barley-sugar twisted balusters, with newels with Jacobethan type finials. The lateral gallery windows have flat timber cills and coloured stained glass, with art nouveau touches, of pink, pale blue and green and gold in semi-circular heads; similar details in Venetian windows at SW. end, nearest Sedd Fawr. Similar detailing to Venetian window at NE. end.
White framework (linked to SW. and NE. end pilasters) to panelled ceiling, incorporating circular ventilator grilles as part of the design. Pale-green circular panels in a square frame at four corners and in centre of each long side; "margin lights" made up of pale-green panel strips with pale-green circular centre panels, in a grey border, along sides; mauve panel strip at ends. A large octagonal panel with surrounding panelled "spandrels" over Sedd Fawr end; towards NE. end, a large square panel containing panelled spandrels and a large circular panel containing panelled segments.
Downstairs, the chapel has a raked floor, carpeted aisles and low wooden platforms to open bench seats with stopped and chamfered panel backs and shaped chamfered ends with flat tops; numbered brass plaques to seat ends, plus brass umbrella holders with stands below. Ninety-eight numbered seats in all. Paired centre bank of seats. Lateral seats: each side from the Sedd Fawr end, there are two paired lateral banks of seats facing at right angles on to sides of Sedd Fawr and to centre of chapel. Thirdly, a qaudrant of four semi-circular shaped seats with the remaining lateral seats curved behind them. Doorways from the vestibules at the NE. end of the centre aisles; finely detailed doors, half-glazed with coloured-glass borders and half-wood panelled. Vestibule window in centre. Doors in outer corners to gallery stairs.
Three-sided gallery with gallery front curved at intersections. Wood-cased gallery beam supported by slender, white-painted and fluted iron columns with caps; projecting gallery front supported on carved brackets. Gallery front of varnished wood, faced with moulded and raised and fielded panels between dentil cornice at top and bottom; bays of varying width marked by projecting panels. Circular clock with metal rim at NE. end with "T?Jones/ Conway" on the clockface. End gallery staircases accessible externally from NE. doors in lateral elevations or from end doorways in rear, internal wall of chapel at ground and gallery levels. Wood staircases with lino treads; balustrade with moulded and closed string, turned balusters and turned newels with ball finials; square stairwells with grey-painted walls and white ceiling cornice, pale-green painted ceiling and purple loft access.
Open-sided gallery seats with stopped and chamfered vertical panel backs and three-quarter mouldings at the top; panelled seat dividers; shaped ends. Eighty-eight numbered seats. Each side of gallery from Sedd Fawr end: a paired bank of seats of four and a bit panel backs and of four seats depth, a second and a third paired bank of seats with four-panel backs; fourthly, a paired bank of seats curved round the gallery intersection, with narrower seats at the front; gallery entrance doors and rear gangway across end of gallery behind the curved part of this bank of seats, with a bank of three seats behind the gangway. Finally, at the end of the gallery, behind the clock, there is a paired bank of seats of four seats depth, with a gangway behind it, and then a paired bank of seats of three seats depth rising up to the rear window.
The Sedd Fawr is faced externally with wood panelling and with wooden balustrading at the top, the newels with Jacobethan type finials; curved front angles and a curved centre projection, the last with lectern in memory of The Reverend H.H.Hughes, Minister from 1925-45. Sedd Fawr sofa benches with turned legs and pink plush upholstered seats and backs.
Flanking stairs to pulpit with barley-sugar twisted balusters set on a curve. Central five-sided pulpit projection with canted sides; three tiers of panelling; egg and dart mouldings; cherub's head carved in relief in top centre panel. Lectern. In pulpit, wide wooden bench seat with shaped ends and pink upholstered seat and back.
A pink-upholstered and wood-framed chair of Gothic influence to either side of pulpit, in Sedd Fawr enclosure.
Grey and gold-painted organ pipes arranged in seven bays; tripartite centre portion with taller and wider centre bay with broken pediment; pipes arranged in oriel projection at ends. Two-manual organ by Peter Gonacher & Co. (The Old Firm), Huddersfield.
Registration: Swell organ (l.h. side): Oboe 8, Wald? Flut(?)4, Viol d'orchestre 8, Open diapason 8, Tremulant, Cornopean 8, Piccolo 2, Voix celestes 8, Rohr flote 8, Bourdon 16
Couplers: Swell to pedal, Great to pedal, Swell to great
Great organ (r.h. side): Clarionet 8, Mistre, Principal 4, Cliarabella 8, Open Diapason 8, Trumpet 8, Piccolo 2, Harmonic flute 4, Dulciana 8, Double diapason
Pedal organ: Octave diapason 8, Trombone 16, Bourdon 16, Open diapason 16.
A door on the N. of the Sedd Fawr connects the chapel with the large vestry, small vestry and kitchen, all contained in wings on SW. of the chapel; the Committee room is at the front of the house attached to the SW end of the chapel in Gloddaeth Street.
Large vestry: matchboarded dado; pink-painted walls of irregular height beneath an open roof of two bays with end hips, the trusses descending to wall corbels; ceiled flat at collar level with sloping sides and exposed joists. Iron-framed benches with wood plank seats and backs by May May & Co., M? Triumph Works, London Road, Sheffield. Wood dais at SE. end with upright piano beside it (Ernst Paul, Berlin & Manchester).
Small vestry interior: herringbone parquet floor. White-painted skirting; pink-painted walls to white-painted picture rail height, white painted above and white-painted ceiling with inset glazed lantern. White-painted glazed cupboard against narrow wall to rear, by door to kitchen.
The committee room (Elders' Vestry?) at the front of the adjoining house has grey-painted walls to grained picture rail height; white-painted over. Moulded ceiling cornice and white-painted ceiling. Matchboarded lobby in SW. corner; mantleshelf along SE. wall with large two-sided glazed cupboard as part of SW. wall and much of NW. wall and on its shelves a picture of the former Shiloh chapel, in existence between 1813 and 1862. Eight rush-seated chiars along NE. wall.
OMJ
25/9/95 and 1-4/1/96
Visited 25/9/95 and met at the chapel by the Minister
Photos:
NMR: 9500370/2-36A - Gallery Added: 1874 Source:Capel Notes
- Gallery Added: 1874 Source:Capel 30
- Built: 1855 Source:Capel Notes
- Built: 1813 Source:Jenkins, O.M.
- Built: 1813 Source:
- Founded: 1806 Source:RCCEORBWM
- Chapel House Built: 1884 Source:
- Chap Ho And Schoolroom: 1884 Source:Capel Notes
- Date Of Chapel: 1905 Source:Welsh Office
- Rebuilt: 1901-1905 Source:Capel Notes
- Rebuilt: 1905 Source:Plaque
- 2nd Chapel On Site: 1905 Source:Morris, Glynn
- Rebuilt: 1854 Source:A Jones index
- Rebuilt: 1861 Source:
- Rebuilt: 1905 Source:Capel 30
- Schoolroom Added: 1884 Source:
- Architect: 1901-1905 George Alfred Humphries, Llandudno
- Architect: 1905 George Alfred Humphries, Llandudno
- Architect: 1905 George Alfred Humphries, Llandudno
- Architect: 1854 William Davies, Liverpool
- Architect: 1874 Richard Owens, Liverpool
- £ 10600: 1905 (RCCEORBWM)
- £ 8779: 1905 Rebuild (Capel Notes)
- 200: 1905 Sittings (RCCEORBWM)
- 950: 1905 Sittings (RCCEORBWM)
- Chapel: 03/09/1998 (Site visit - Glynn Morris)
- Chapel: 2010 4 churches in one (Denominational Yearbook)
- Welsh: 03/09/1998 (Site visit - Glynn Morris)
- Welsh: 1995 (Blwyddiadur)
- Materials
- Stone
- Monument Type: CHAPEL
- Form: Building
- Storey: Two Storey
- Style: Classical
- Gallery: On Three Sides
- Plan: Gable Entry
- Pulpit Position: Rear Wall
- Window Glazing: Leaded
- Windows: Mixed
Key Details of this Chapel
Key Dates of this Chapel
Key People in this Chapel History
Costs during this Chapels History
Capacities during this Chapels History
Changes of Status its History
The Languages of the Chapel during its History
Key Characteristics of this Chapel
Images from Coflein
Map
- Grid Reference: SH77958245
- Address: ARVON AVENUE; GLODDAETH STREET, LLANDUDNOLLANDUDNO
3 thoughts on “SEILO CHAPEL (WELSH CALVINISTIC METHODIST;SHILOH;SILOH), ARVON AVE./GLODDAETH ST., LLANDUDNO (SHILOH; SILOH)”
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Capel Seilo
Hello
My great great grandparents were married in Kinnerton Chapel in Old Radnor on 21st May1850. I have been searching for information on the Chapel, so was pleased to find this website. I have now located it on Google Street View – looks like someone is ‘doing it up’ to live in: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.2612635,-3.1095337,3a,90y,232.95h,84.26t/data=!3m9!1e1!3m7!1s-8DWPORkq2RFVNXBLde_-g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!9m2!1b1!2i53?hl=en-GB
The marriage record of my ancestors Abraham Bounds and Elizabeth Williams is attached. I hope it is of interest.
All the best
Saira
Dear Sara
Thank you for the information. I am glad to hear that it was some help to you.
Good luck on your continued search
Christine