- Nprn: 7141
- Cadw Ref: 22/C/92&93(3)
- Cadw Record No: 10545
- Summary: Bethania Welsh Baptist Church was first built in 1775/6, but rebuilt/modified in 1819, 1843, and finally in 1846-7 to the design of Daniel Evans of Cardigan. Further modifications were made in 1868, 1882, 1900 and 1908. It is in the Classical style, with an unpainted stuccoed gable facade and blue lias rubble side elevations. The two storey chapel front has five bays, with the centre bays enclosed by a giant arch; the outer bays have a rusticated facade. There are three windows on the first floor, each with semi-circular heads and moulded archivolts. On the lower floor there are a pair of plain rectangular windows, flanking a central Greek Doric portico with fluted columns, under which there is a pair of panelled doors with tall rectilinear overlights. The side elevations have arched sashes above and twelve pane sashes below.
Within, the chapel has maintained much original detail, including rich plaster cornice, flat ceiling with classical plant motifs and central domelet, box pews, and a three-sided gallery with timber panelled front, mounted upon cast iron Doric columns. The pulpit, set fawr and organ, the latter by P. Conacher and Co., Huddersfield, date from 1900.
Source: Cadw Listed Building Record
RCAHMW Inventory Documents
K Steele, RCAHMW, 16 March 2009 - Description: Chapel built 1775/6; rebuilt/modified 1819, 1843 & again 1846-7 to the design of Daniel Evans (cost £1101). Further modifications/additions 1868, 1882, 1900 & 1908. Building style is Classical, gable entry type. Status (1998): in chapel use.
Particular Baptist.
Set on top of a low hill with frontage to William Street; garden slopes down to Priory Street at rear - a green oasis in the town. Built on leasehold land belonging to Mr Thomas Bowen and others. 1843-1847. Architect, Daniel Evans of Cardigan (payments for plans, marking out foundations). Plasterwork by Thomas Rees of Fishguard (information from Julian Orbach). Accommodation in 1851 (Religious Census): free 500, other 400. Later organ (1900?); window alterations of 1908 (information from J. Orbach); much stained glass of 1920s or 1930s. Vestry of 1882; vestry extension of ca. 1920.
Summary: classical style. Stuccoed gable façade to street; giant arch encloses centre Doric portico. Side and rear elevations faced with thin blocks of Cilgerran stone laid in regular courses. Paired bracket eaves cornice. Slate roof. Galleried interior. Box pews to ground floor. Fine plaster ceiling. End pulpit and Sedd Fawr enclosure and organ all of ca. 1900; baptism tank below Sedd Fawr. Except at the Sedd Fawr end, the box pews are not focussed on the pulpit. Rear vestry.
Exterior: front elevation: pedimented gable with bracket eaves cornice returning towards centre as broken pediment; giant arch rises into tympanum. 2-storey, 5-bay façade; the blind end bays project, are rusticated and there is a separate order of pilasters to each storey. On the ground floor at each end there is a blind semi-elliptical arch on pilaster jambs, the plain entablatures merging with the rendered Greek Doric entablature to the central pedimented tetrastyle porch; this has fluted and coupled painted stone columns and fluted stuccoed pilaster responds. 2 wide concrete steps to porch. Central doorway with 2 mid-C19 doors painted brown; each of 8 panels, with shallower panels at top and in 3rd tier down, the top 6 panels moulded and raised and fielded, and the bottom 2 panels flush. Tall rectilinear overlight of 2 lights, and of mid-C19 date: of clear glass, but with framework of double margin panes, angle blocks and oval centre panel. Porch flanked by flat-headed window openings with moulded architraves. On the 1st floor, the channelled pilasters to the end bays enclose blind sunk panels bearing in raised letters "Baptist", to l.h. and "Chapel" to r.h.. The inner pilasters support the giant segmental arch that rises into the tympanum above the centre bays. The three 1st-floor or gallery windows have semi-circular heads, the centre window set higher, and all with moulded archivolts on console brackets. Above the centre window a scrolled plaque bearing in raised letters: "Bethania/ 1847".
4-bay side elevations with stone plinth and narrow painted band at gallery level; cambered-headed ground-floor window openings and semi-circular headed windows to gallery. 12-pane sash windows on ground floor, the bottom 6 panes of frosted glass. 9-pane sash windows under radiating heads to gallery. Steps down to segmentally-headed doorway in 3rd bay from front in W. elevation; low boarded door in deep reveals behind segmental arch.
Rear gable has paired bracket cornice returning to centre as broken pediment, inset with 2 giant semi-circular stone arches, each containing a blind rectangular stone panel above a semi-circular headed window. A blind cambered-headed panel to each side. Vestry of 1882 built against SE. end of chapel, with later extension on NE.. Stone walls. Slate roof. 1882 wing unpilastered and faced with stone in snecked courses. SW.gable with a semi-circular headed sash window to each side of a lean-to porch with 12-pane sash window with stone reveals in its front wall and a wooden-boarded door with fancy strap hinges in its NW. return. Brown-painted bargeboard. W. end of SE. elevation with 3 semi-circular sash windows with radiating tracery in the heads, and flanked by lean-to on their NE.. NE. gable of vestry wing with window of 3 lights under segmental head. NW. elevation of vestry extension, visible from William Street, of 2 bays; segmentally-headed transomed and mullioned windows, separated by pilasters.
Interior: vestibule: tesselated pavement (as to Vestry lobby) of small square black and white tiles, laid in black crosses on a white ground. Beige-painted walls, but with white painted panels on inner & side walls; white plaster ceiling. Rear face of entrance doors with sunk and moulded panels; 19th-century lock. Window opening to each side with white-painted & splayed reveals and flat timber cill, each window containing stained glass of apparently 1920s or 1930s. In each end wall, a beige-painted and 8 moulded-panel door of mid-C19 date, resembling the rear face of the entrance doors. Stairs to gallery alongside; above the first step, 2 gallery doors each lined with purple felt with gilded moulding planted in a long vertical panel. The timber gallery staircases each of 22 steps rising in a rectangular chamber around a circular newel post. Three-sided balustrade at the top, of wood and iron, with stained wood handrail, columnar newel and partly stick and partly scroll balustrade. Inner wall of entrance lobby contains mid-C19 rectilinear window, of identical pattern to entrance overlights, but shallower and containing etched and coloured glass; gold and red centre panels with etched glass surrounds, double margin panes of orange and gold, and green angle blocks. Single, flanking doors to chapel aisles like those to gallery stairs (see above) but of 2 panels each.
Chapel interior: moulded-panelling as seat backs along NE. and SW. lateral walls; beige-painted plaster walling above & elsewhere. Flat-headed window openings with beaded jambs, and containing white-painted window reveals and frames; gallery openings similar, but with carved-leaf spandrels flanking semi-circular headed windows.
Flat and white-painted plaster ceiling with very pretty plaster decoration. Shallow coved cornice: rinceau frieze with urns, the cornice breaking forward and decorated with an urn above each window head. Triangular panel at each end and large lozenge panel in centre, all with projecting border with egg and dart moulding externally and with acanthus leaves internally; the triangular end panels each contain a segmental panel, in turn each containing an oblong ventilator panel. The centre lozenge contains pale-green painted tendril and palmette motifs, picked out in touches of dark green and blue and pink, including small forget-me-not-like flowers; an inset circular and a domical panel.
On ground floor, box pews throughout, painted and grained, on low wood-boarded platforms; carpeted aisles. Pews with flush-panel bench seat ends and moulded-panel doors; dark-stained & flat curved handrails, & centre seat dividers. Centre paired block of pews of 10 pews depth with extra paired seat in front. This last & the front 4 pews with seat backs of wide flush panels; 5th and 7th pews from front with moulded vertical-panel seat backs of 7 & 6 panel width (gallery columns also in 7th pew); the 4 other pews with vertical 6 sunk-panel backs. Centre seat divider ramped up through back 3 pews to rear chapel wall with its rectilinear coloured-glass window (see above, under vestibule).
Raked white-painted plaster gallery soffits above lateral pews, the soffits inset with small, circular, late-C20 lights. Lateral pews face centre pews and Sedd Fawr at right angles and thus, except at Sedd Fawr end, do not focus on the pulpit. On each side from Sedd Fawr end: 1) single block of pews, 5 deep; 6 sunk-panel backs except for moulded panels along along NE. & SW. walls (see above). 2) & 3): 2 blocks of pews, 4 deep, the 2nd block (on S.) with 6-panel seat backs and the 3rd with 5; moulded panel fronts to aisles as have 4): a single block of pews closest to vestibule, which is of 4 pews depth with 6-panel backs.
Sedd Fawr enclosure, pulpit and organ: 2 steps up each side to the carpeted Sedd Fawr enclosure; of ca. 1900; curved at front corners, faced with 2 tiers of panels, & divided into 5 bays by square and partly fluted newels with circular angle blocks below the handrail; shallow moulded panels below and open panels above. 8 Windsor chairs along front in lieu of bench seat, and 1 each side of pulpit. Varnished pine pulpit and organ platform, also ca. 1900. 2 flights of 7 steps to pulpit platform; fluted square newels with angle blocks as caps; arcaded balustrade to both stair and pulpit and organ platforms. Pulpit with curved front and shallow rectangular centre projection. Plain mid-C19 chairs of neo-classical influence in pulpit, like the bench seat below pulpit and 2 similar in vestibule; probably contemporary Communion table. Tank/bath for baptism below Sedd Fawr (not seen).
The later organ behind the pulpit is housed entirely in the chapel, like the Calvinistic Methodist Capel Tabernacl, Aberaeron. Organ platform with match-boarded panels to sides, partly used as cupboards; parapet as to pulpit platform (see above). Two-manual pipe organ by Peter Gonacher & Co. (The Old Firm), Huddersfield. Pine organ case; sunk-panel sides; panelling to front with boarded coving below painted pipes.
Registration: (l.h.:) Swell organ: Cornopean 8', Flute 4', Lieblich Gedackt 8', Double Diapason 16'; Swell to Pedal, Great to Pedal, Tremulant, Geigen Principal, Vox Angelica 8', Open Diapason 8', Couplers: Swell to Great.
(r.h.:) Great Organ: Piccola 2', Clarabella 8', Open Diapason 8', Trumpet 8', Stopped Flute 4', Dulciana 8'
Pedal organ: Bourdon 16', Flute Bass 8'.
Three white marble memorials to Ministers on lateral walls.
Three-sided gallery. Gallery front supported by 10 white-painted circular iron columns, produced by Lloyd & Co., Cardigan; plain lower shafts concealed by box pew fronts but in form of Roman Doric columns above, with bases on box pew tops, and marbled pedestals in front of pews. Gallery beam faced with moulding, performing as entablature to iron columns. Gallery front recessed above cornice, and made up of moulded panels, divided by pilasters into bays of five panels with wider centre panels; 4 bay fronts along gallery sides and 3 to NW. end, the last incorporating centre clock with circular face inscribed "W.A. Davies/ Cardigan/ 1847".
Lateral gallery windows of clear glass; coloured glass of 1920s or 1930s in the 3 windows above the entrance and in the 2 tall windows flanking the organ.
Gallery seating: long simple bench seat along each lateral wall, with plain wall panel of grained wood. A mixture of pews and bench seats, the latter resembling the former, but without doors. Along the sides of the gallery, the seating is 3 deep. Each side from the Sedd Fawr end: 1): a single block of lateral seats with 8-panel seat backs. 2): in the middle, a block of wide seats with front pews, only the front pews subdivided, & the 2nd & 3rd seats with 15-panel seat backs. 3): behind the rear intersections of the gallery, a right-angled block of 2-pews depth, with a bench seat in the 3rd row along the sides of the block. 4): at the back of the gallery (NW. end) there is a central, paired block of seats: the single front seat with 11-panel back, the paired 2nd & 3rd seats each with 5 & 6-panel backs; the paired 3rd seats have lateral extensions with 4-panel seat backs; the 4th and 5th bench seats are long, with 19-panel seat backs. There is a plain bench seat at the rear.
Vestry interior: flight of 5 steps down from chapel via purple baize door. Vestry subdivided into 4, and potentially into 5 rooms by full-height wood and glass partitions of early-C20 date with metal groove at base.
Larger subdivision on SW. comprising 1882 vestry: carpeted floor, matchboarded dado, cream-painted plaster walls, picture rail at window head height, moulded timber string at wall-plate height, 4-bay roof of white plaster, with shallow sloping sides, and ceiled flat at collar level. The 3 window openings in the SE. wall have chamfered jambs, splayed reveals and flat timber cills; translucent glass panes except where repaired; 2 intermediate wall ventilator boxes of late C19 or early C20. Wall clock with shallow scrolled case against NW. wall, the clock-face inscibed "Wm. Jenkins/ Pendre/ Cardigan". Against the SW. wall, two 3-bay C19 bench seats with shaped ends. In the centre of the SW. wall, a half-glazed 4-panel stopped and chamfered door to SW. vestibule, the last with black and white tile floor and translucent glass to its sash window. 4-panel door in SE. wall leads to SE. lean-to (lean-to shown on 1906 OS map). Carpeted dais on NE. with C19 table and late-C19 or early-C20 wood lectern.
8-bay glazed and timber screen of "moveable" partitions separates the SW. part of the Vestry from its middle room near the junction of the 1882 and ca. 1920 wings. The middle room has a wood block parquet floor, and its fittings include two 2-bay wood-framed bench seats, 3 late-C19 or early-C20 iron-framed benches-cum-desks with wood plank seats and backs, stamped "Kingfisher Ltd. West Bromwich 29"; late-C19 cupboard with glazed bookshelves over; upright piano-"Obermeier, Berlin". 2 "rooms" at NE. end of the vestry in the ca. 1920 wing; NE. end wall with a 3-light segmental window with straight reveals and sloping cill (similar to that in Capel Tabernacl Vestry) and containing stained glass of 1920s or 1930s. The SE. end room, in use as a kitchen, doubles back to the SE. lean-to. It contains a large 4-bay dresser of late-C19 or early-C20 against the NE. end wall and inside the dresser are chapel tea sets of 1897 (red and white) and 1935 (green on white). In the S. lean-to are toilets and and a former scullery with boiler and butler's sink; the corridor has a red herringbone tile floor, an early-C20 white tile dado with narrow green and white-patterned borders, and green, moulded-tile chair rail.
Grassed areas on NE. and SW. of chapel, with path leading from chapel forecourt along SW. side of chapel, forking to Vestry and then leading down through rear garden, laid to grass, to Priory Street. Garden bounded on SW. by hedges, by C19 gate stone piers and coping and iron gate to Williams Row, by gable end walls of adjacent properties in Williams Row and William Street. Garden bounded on E. by hedge, by red brick gable end of demolished house in Priory Street, by garden wall and gable end wall to the chapel house in William Street.
Dwarf wall, railings and gates bound both William and Priory Street frontages.
Dwarf wall, railings and gates along Priory Street: silver-painted centre gates and iron railings. Each side of gates, yellow brick dwarf walls with red brick plinth and painted stone or slate coping; 2 bays of iron railings with circular uprights with spiked finials; columnar iron standards, partly of twist pattern and partly banded; spiked ball finials. Square panelled iron gate piers, the sides panelled with centre paterae; fluted band as cap; coping with honeysuckle motif in segmental gablets; egg-shaped finial with gadrooning. Centre gates have square uprights with trefoil finials above lock rail; circular uprights with spiked finials above top rail.
Dwarf wall and railings along William Street: stone dwarf wall and coping; iron railings with circular uprights with fancy finials alternately above lock and top rails; open panelled standards of ironwork with anthemion finials; similar openwork to square gate piers with urn finials. Centre gates with uprights and finials similar to railings, and with curved braces; anthemion finials survive to right-hand gate.
Conclusion: an elegant chapel, its neo-classical exterior a derivative of the design at Hermon Baptist chapel, Fishguard (1832) which difers with its 2-bay centre above a portico in antis. With its good-quality plaster ceiling, partly box-pewed interior and gallery, Bethania is one of the finest chapels in Cardiganshire.
OMJ 1/11/95 & 20/11/96 - 1/97. Visited by OJ 27/10/95 & by DJR & OJ 19/11/96
See: Richard Edwards, Hanes Bethania, Aberteifi (Llandysul: Gwasg Gomer, 1947). Cardigan & Tivyside Advertiser, 3/7/1868, 21/5/1880, 3/2/1882, 18/5/1900, 17/1/1908, 12/3/1915, 23/11/1917, 23/8/1929 (refs from Dyfed CC index to C&TA)
1847 by Daniel Evans, Cardigan. Dressed Cilgerran stone, slate roof. Portico, Doric columns and pediment. Original interior. Very fine classical chapel (similar to Hermon). 1993 PCNPA.
Classical elements like the big Tuscan inspired portico but with a collection of odds and ends added - the San Andrea arch has never looked worse than here, feather motif over windows (as at Merthyr's Bethesda and Hermon at Fishguard).
Upper storey windows of fine leaded glass. (Anthony Jones) - Vestry Extension: c.1920 Source:Evan James
- Improvements: 1868 Source:Cadw
- Entrance Modifications: 1908 Source:Cadw
- Built: 1847 Source:PCNPA
- Built: 1843-1847 Source:Evan James
- Built: 1799 Source:Horsfall-Turner
- Built: 1846-1847 Source:Cadw
- Built: 1775 Source:1851 Census
- Built: 1847 Source:Jones, Anthony
- Built: 1775 Source:RCAHMW
- Church Formed: 1790 Source:Llawlyfr 1998
- Date Of Chapel: 1847 Source:
- Plaster: 1846-1847 Source:Cadw
- Railings: 1846-1847 Source:Cadw
- Organ: 1900 Source:Cadw
- Rebuilt: 1819 Source:RCAHMW
- Rebuilt: 1847 Source:RCAHMW
- Vestry: 1882 Source:Evan James
- Vestry: 1882 Source:Cadw
- Pulpit And Great Seat: 1900 Source:BOW
- School: 1882 Source:JO index
- Architect: 1847 Daniel Evans, Cardigan
- Architect: 1843-1847 Daniel Evans, Cardigan
- Architect: 1846-1847 Daniel Evans, Cardigan
- Architect: 1847 Daniel Evans, Cardigan
- Builder: 1846-1847 D. Davies, Cardigan
- Architect: 1882 John Owen, Liverpool
- Architect: 1882 John Owen, Liverpool
- £ 5000: 1905 (RCCEORBWM)
- £ 1040: 1847 Building (Anthony Jones)
- 400: 1851 ()
- 900: 1903 (Horsfall-Turner)
- 900: 1905 (RCCEORBWM)
- 500: 1851 ()
- Chapel: 1998 (Llawlyfr)
- Chapel: 2011 (Denominational website)
- Welsh: 1998 (Llawlyfr)
- Materials
- Rendered
- Monument Type: CHAPEL
- Form: Building
- Storey: Two Storey
- Style: Classical
- Gallery: On three sides
- Plan: Gable Entry
- Pulpit Position: Rear wall
- Window Glazing: Coloured Glass
- Windows: Round-Headed
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: SN17854618
- Address: WILLIAM STREET, CARDIGANCARDIGAN
2 thoughts on “BETHANIA WELSH BAPTIST CHURCH (BETHANY), WILLIAM STREET, CARDIGAN (BETHANY)”
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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