- Nprn: 7134
- Cadw Ref: 22/A/220(2)
- Cadw Record No: 10130
- Summary: Tabernacl Methodist chapel was first built as a long-wall entry building in 1833, being shown on the 1840 Tithe Map. In 1853 a gallery was inserted: 'gallery y morwyr', and in 1869 the chapel was further extended and refronted. This work was carried out to the designs of the eminent chapel architect, Thomas Thomas of Landore, at a cost of c. £1000. An organ and a new pulpit were installed in 1897, the organ console then renewed in the 1940's.
According to the 1851 Religious Census the chapel could accommodate free 60, other 248; standing, "none but alleys". In 1905 (Royal Commission on the Church of England and other Religious Bodies in Wales and Monmouthshire) there were 800 sittings in the chapel and 250 in the "schoolroom adjoining".
The current chapel is a gable entry building built in the Classical style of snecked stone with Bath stone dressings. It has two entrances with Iconic doorcases and circular headed windows with florentine tracery.
Inside the chapel is furnished with box pews, a curved sedd fawr and polygonal pulpit decorated with wood fret panels. The pulpit and organ, which is by P.Gonacher & Co. Ltd., Huddersfield, back onto the lobby entrance rather than the rear wall. The five sided gallery has a front of cast-iron openwork panels, and an intergal clock with circular face, of ca. 1981, in memory of Miss Elaine Lewis, organist and member, and has written under it: "Cofiwch y Morwyr" (Remember the sailors). The flat ceiling has large decorative centre rose with white acanthus leaves and guilloche border.
There is a vestry of 1897 and a chapel house of mid 19th century date. The chapel is now Grade 2 listed
RCAHMW, October 2009 - Description: 1. First chapel built 1833; enlarged 1853 and again 1869 to the design of Rev. Thomas Thomas of Landore. Further additions 1897. Building style is Classical, gable entry type. Sunday School founded 1807. Status (1998): in chapel use.
2. Front elevation: SW. pedimented facade with 2 pedimented doorways with entry to 2 lobbies. Facade of snecked stone to pediment level; rendered tympanum with blind bullseye. 3 recessed stone panels to ground floor, with wider centre panel. The panels flanking 2 Ionic doorcases of ashlar with open pediments and enclosing semi-circular headed doorways. The doors are of 4 moulded panels with plain fanlights. Gallery is lit by 4 semi-circular headed window openings, with ashlar frames and with lugs beneath the cills. Each window contains 2 semi-circular headed lights of 3 panes depth, with a glazed circlet and 2 spandrels.
CD/Ecclesiastical/SN46SE from O.M. Jenkins.
CHN 14/05/04
History and development: 1st chapel built in 1833 (The Religious census, 1851), the SW. limit of the chapel shown on the 1840s Tithe Plan. A gallery - "Gallery y Morwyr" - inserted in 1853. Extended on SW. and refronted in 1869 to the design of The Reverend Thomas Thomas, Glandwr, at a cost of œ1000. Organ and pulpit installed and vestry added 1897 (information from Mr Julian Orbach; also John Evans, Hanes Methodistiaid (1904)), the organ console renewed in 1940s. The Cymdeithasfa yn y De met first in the old chapel in 1867 and first met in the new chapel in 1884. Accommodation: in 1851, free 60, other 248; standing, "none but alleys". In 1905 (appendices to the Royal Commission on the Church of England and other Religious Bodies) there were 800 sittings in the chapel and 250 in the "schoolroom adjoining".
Summary: stone-built lateral-façade chapel, refronted in 1869 to a gable-entry exterior but with end lobby-cum-gallery stair entrances; post 1869, the chapel still had pulpit backing on to the façade (extant remains of wall panel to rear of pulpit); organ now backs on to façade with pulpit in front of organ. N. and S. side, and end galleries with 5-sided gallery front. Box pews. Attached vestry at rear.
Exterior: Front elevation: SW. pedimented façade with 2 pedimented doorways with entry to 2 lobbies, the last containing stairs to gallery, and also flanking the organ and Sedd Fawr. Façade of snecked stone to pediment level; rendered tympanum. Contrasting ashlar dressings - Bath stone? - as plinth band, quoins, modillion cornice, door impost band, window dressings and pediment. 3 recessed stone panels to ground floor, with wider centre panel, the panels flanking 2 Ionic doorcases of ashlar, partly painted, with open pediments, and enclosing semi-circular headed doorways with pilasters, entablature, moulded archivolt and keystone, plain painted reveals; 2 steps lead to doors of 4 moulded panels with plain fanlights infilled with opaque panels of frosted glass in trellis pattern. Gallery lit by 4 semi-circular headed window openings, with ashlar frames similar to the doorways and with lugs beneath the cills. Each window contains 2 semi-circular headed lights of 3 panes depth, with a glazed circlet and 2 spandrels above (see former Capel Siloam, North Road, Aberaeron, NPRN 7133). Pediment with modillions and a blocked keyed oculus in the tympanum; raked cornices and vase finials. Slate roof.
NW. and SE. return elevations: projecting eaves; SE. elevation of pebbledash; each with 3 window openings to both ground floor and gallery, the ground floor window openings flat-headed and with semi-circular headed window openings to the gallery. 16-pane sash windows, with frosted glass in lower panes of ground floor windows, and with 2 tiers of radiating panes in the heads of the gallery windows.
Rear NE. gable wall of considerable width and height. Pebbledash cladding. 2 flat-headed 16-pane sash windows on the ground floor, the NW. window visible only from chapel interior and vestry. 2 semi-circular gallery windows in alignment; 16-pane sash windows with some radiating tracery in the head. A brick-clad flue rises almost the full height of the gable, past a circular louvred vent near the apex of the elevation; plain bargeboard.
Interior: entrance lobbies: the 2 entrance lobbies flank the organ and, like the latter, project into the present chapel interior. Entrance lobbies with black and white terazzo floors, pale painted-plaster walls; ca. mid-C19 gallery stairs rise on NW. and SE. The entrance lobby partition walls that flank the organ each contain a mid-C19 rectilinear glazed panel with margin panes. Similar panels, as overlights, and with margin panes of red, blue and gold glass over pairs of plain doors with porcelain and brass handles to chapel interior.
Chapel interior: red-patterned carpet to main aisles, brown linoleum elsewhere. Painted plaster to walls and flat ceiling. Window openings with splayed reveals and raked cills. The upper flights of the gallery stairs cut across the ground-floor windows internally. On the ground floor of the NE. end wall, a mid-C19 moulded 6-panel door at NW. end, connecting with the rear vestry. Front chapel windows contain frosted glass of trellis pattern of ?late-C19 or early-C20. Moulded ceiling cornice, picked out in shades of pale blue and beige. Plain white plaster ceiling with large decorative centre rose with white acanthus leaves and guilloche border picked out in pale beige and blue, and with pale blue and white moulded edging. Square corner panels with loft access in SW. and SE. corners.
Seating: box pews throughout; finished with gold-painted graining with flat and moulded dark-stained handrail, the last ramped up with changes in pew heights at sides and rear of ground floor and gallery.
Ground-floor seating: centre paired block of pews of 7 pews depth with bookrests, lateral doors, and moulded panel sides; canted at rear angles, echoing canted gallery intersections above (see Capel Tabernacl, Cardigan, NPRN 7143); continuous pew divider in centre. Carpeted aisles to sides and back. The seats face straight ahead. The front 2 pews have been cut away in the middle to make room for the organ console, with the organ pipes behind the pulpit.
Raked lateral and end pews, the end pews facing straight ahead and the lateral pews facing at right angles on to the centre block of pews. Each side from Sedd Fawr end, the lateral pews comprise 1. a paired block of pews, the S. part 3-pews deep, with curved corner alongside its access steps; the N. part 4-pews deep. 2. a paired block of pews 4-pews deep; 3. a paired block of pews arranged round part of the intersection of rear and side aisles, 4 deep but of 5 pews depth along the rear diagonal aisle with part of the corner pew behind. 4. a paired block of pews arranged round the rest of the intersection of side and rear aisles and extending to rear centre of chapel, this last of 5 pews depth along the rear diagonal aisle with part of the corner pew behind; of 4 pews depth along the rear centre aisle which faces on to the pulpit.
Sedd Fawr, pulpit and organ: the Sedd Fawr enclosure is curved at the front and faced with wood-panelling below a balustrade of turned balusters under a moulded handrail; square panelled newels with moulded caps and Jacobethan-type finials. The Sedd Fawr bench seat has a red plush strip cover and is supported by turned wooden legs.
2 flights of curved pulpit stairs with slender turned balusters lead up to the pulpit, the sides of which are set on a sinuous curve with similar turned wood balusters above a curved wood 2-panel base. The polygonal pulpit is faced with wood fret panels, and tapers down to a panelled centre pier; wood lectern.
Organ pipe case behind pulpit faced with matchboarded panels with shaped tops, with 2 tall panels to each side, and with 2 tiers of 3 panels width in centre. Silver-painted organ pipes.
Two-manual organ by P.Gonacher & Co. Ltd., Huddersfield. Organ console at front of centre block of pews.
Registration: Swell: Violon diapason 8, Stopt flute 8, Echo gamba 8, Gamba celeste 8, Gemshorn 4, Clarinet 8, Oboe 8, Cornopean 8, Swell octave, Swell sub octave, Tremulant
Pedal: Bourdon 16, Bass flute 8, Swell to octave, Great to pedal, Swell to great, Swell octave to great, Swell sub octave to great
Great: Bourdon 16, Open diapason 8, Wald flute 8, Dulciana 8, Principal 4, Flute 4, Fifteenth 2, Clarinet 8
Gallery: 5-sided gallery front, canted at intersections. Gallery beam with modillion cornice supported by circular cast iron columns with caps (founder?). Gallery front with stained wood handrail and faced with shallow cast-iron openwork panels, of late-C19 date?, separated by short panelled pilasters with console caps, the pilaster panels round-arched and containing a cross and picked out in gold paint. 4 gallery front panels to each side and 1 to each gallery intersection and to NE. end. NE. end of gallery front, facing Sedd Fawr, has integral clock with circular face, of ca. 1981, in memory of Miss Elaine Lewis, organist and member, and has written under it: "Cofiwch y Morwyr" (Remember the sailors).
Mid-C19 gallery stairs in 2 flights: lower flight of 7, 3 on turn and 11 steps above; wooden stick balusters and columnar newels; lower flight with closed string and panelling below it. Mid-C19 door on the turn, a moulded 6-panel door with the top 2 panels glazed.
Galley seating: raked gallery pews. Iron-framed bench seats along lateral walls. Each side from the Sedd Fawr end: 1. a single block of pews of 3 pews depth; 2. a single block of pews of 2 pews depth; 3. a paired block of pews of 3 pews depth; 4. a paired block of pews fanning out in width along rear diagonal aisle; of 3 pews depth; 5. a paired block of pews of 4-pews depth behind canted face of gallery front, with corner pew at rear; 6. a paired block of pews, at the back of the chapel and facing the Sedd Fawr; of 4 pews depth and fanning out in width along the rear diagonal aisles.
Vestry exterior: vestry of 1897 (not shown on Tithe Plan). Pebbledash SE. wall contains 3 flat-arched window openings with projecting (slate?) cills and plain reveals, and containing 18-pane sash windows; ventilator grilles. Slate roof with upwardly projecting centre vent; brick gable stack over NE. gable wall of stone, with kitchen lean-to built against it.
Vestry interior: flight of 5 steps of late C19 or early C20, with turned wood balusters and heavy turned wood newels, descends from chapel to vestry. The vestry has a wooden-boarded floor, with brown linoleum to asles; matchboarded dado; painted plaster walls with dark-stained band with hooks along NW. and SE. walls. Dark-stained band also at window-head level. Roof trusses exposed up to collar level; 5-bay ceiling with sloping sides, the sloping sides largely of painted plaster and partly matchboarded; above collar level, flat and matchboarded centre panel inset with ventilators. Window openings with raked timber cills; one 12-pane sash window in NW. lateral wall; 3 tall 18-pane sash windows in SE. lateral wall. NE. end wall behind dais contains an 18-pane sash window, with cupboard with two 2-panel doors by NW. corner; a further door on r.h., with 4-pane overlight, leading to kitchen. Two steps up to dais at NE. end; turned wood balustrade. In main body of vestry, iron-framed benches arranged in 3 blocks; benches with wood plank seats and backs, the seats with red felt strip covers with fleur-de-lys pattern. Old pew seat with shaped ends and four-panel back at rear.
Chapel house: the chapel house is of mid-C19 date (shown on 1840s Tithe Plan) and is sited on SE. side of Tabernacle Street. 2 storeys. 3 bays. Pebbledash cladding, painted plinth and end pilasters under a slate roof with stone gable stacks. A plate-glass sash window each side of centre flat-headed doorway with plain reveals and overlight. 3 12-pane sash windows on 1st floor also in plain reveals.
Conclusion: a pulpit-backing-on to entry chapel appearing externally with a gable-entry, its seating arrangement and gallery close to the pulpit-backing-on to entry Capel Tabernacl, at Cardigan. The Cardigan chapel has curved rather than canted gallery intersections, but both these Calvinistic Methodist chapels have been extended and remodelled at the front, the front of Tbernacl, Cardigan extended in 1902-03 to accommodate an organ, but Tabernacl, Aberaeron, extended and refronted in 1869 and accommodating the later organ inside its re-front. An interesting example of a re-facing by The Rev. Thomas Thomas; of interest also for its dated gallery.
OMJ. 9/11/95, 8/1/96 and 2-5/97. Visited 3/10/95 and 25/2/97 with the permission of the Minister
References: John Evans, Hanes Mthodistiaeth: Sir Aberteifi (Dolgellau: 1904); Eglwys Bresbyteraidd Cymru, Y Gymdeithasfa yn y De, Sasiwn y Gwanwyn, Ebrill a Mai 1990. - Gallery Added: 1853 Source:Evan James
- Built: 1833-1837 Source:Welsh Office
- Built: 1833 Source:1851 Census
- Built: 1833 Source:Cadw
- Date Of Chapel: 1869 Source:
- Enlarged: Post 1869 Source:Cadw
- Extended: 1869 Source:Evan James
- Sunday School: 1807 Source:Evan James
- Organ: 1897 Source:BOW
- Architect: 1869 Thomas Thomas, Landore
- 248: 1851 ()
- 60: 1851 ()
- 250: 1905 (RCCEORBWM)
- 800: 1905 (RCCEORBWM)
- Chapel: 03/10/1995 (Site visit/ Blwyddiadur)
- Chapel: 01/2011 (RCAHMW)
- Welsh: ()
- Materials
- Rendered
- Monument Type: CHAPEL
- Form: Building
- Storey: Two Storey
- Style: Classical
- Gallery: On Four Sides
- Plan: Gable Entry
- Pulpit Position: Rear Wall
- Window Glazing: Florentine Tracery
- Windows: Round-Headed
Key Details of this Chapel
Key Dates of this Chapel
Key People in this Chapel 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: SN45716302
- Address: TABERNACLE STREET, ABERAERONABERAERON
2 thoughts on “Tabernacl Chapel (welsh Calvinistic Methodist), Tabernacle Street, Aberaeron”
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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