- Nprn: 7192
- Cadw Ref: 22/E/94&95(1)
- Cadw Record No: 10828
- Summary: The cause for Towyn Independent Chapel began 1858, with the first chapel built 1860 to the design of Thomas Jones of Pencnwc. The chapel was then rebuilt in 1865-9 to the designs of Rev. Thomas Thomas of Landore. A vestry/schoolroom was built in 1899 & an organ chamber was added 1909 to the design of F.W. Child of Aberaeron.
The current chapel is a gable entry type built in the Classical style, with a central entry, the original doorway now masked by the present porch of ca. 1899. The façade is decorated with four giant pilasters, moulded cornice and pedimental gable with kneelers and ball finial. Behind the porch, the semi-circular headed centre doorway has a fanlight with coloured-glass margin lights. The stone built porch also has a semi-circular headed doorway with a fanlight. Semi-circular headed windows flank the porch and there are three similar above to gallery. The 1860 windows in the right hand bay are masked by the ca. 1899 vestry, so that the right-hand ground-floor window is painted over and visible now only from the interior. There is a slate tablet with semi-circular head in the gable, inscribed: "Towyn Congregational Chapel/ built/ AD 1860/ Rev. T.Rees/ Minister".
At the south-east end of chapel is the old grammar school and the sunday, both contemporary with the chapel and in a similar round-headed style. At the north-east end is a later vestry of c.1899.
Internally the vestibule leads to two gallery staircase, and has a vestibule window into the interior, etched and with coloured-glass margins and an oval pane in the centre depicting a dove with a twig in its beak. On the ground floor are box pews and a rectangular sedd fawr which is wider to the rear, and fronted with moulded and painted panels. Two curved staircases lead up to a two tiered pulpit projection. There is a chair from the Byrgwm? Eisteddfod of 1913, in memory of the Reverend T. Orchwy Bowen (died 1948), Minister of the Chapel for 25 years. Behind the pulpit, an organ sits in a tall organ arch. This is a two-manual organ of 1909 by Alex Young & Sons, organ builders, Manchester.
There is a three sided gallery supported on eight cast iron columns, painted and marbled, and one stamped "T.Thomas Cardigan".There is an integral clock face marked "Thos. Webb/ New Quay". The gallery seating is of open, high backed pews. The ceiling is of horizontal matchboarding, divided into 24 panels;with a large white decorative centre rose and two circular vents.
In 1905 (Royal Commission on the Church of England and other Religious Bodies in Wales and Monmouthshire) there were 800 sittings in the chapel, which was valued at £3,800.
RCAHMW, November 2009 - Description: 1. Cause begun 1858; chapel built 1860 to the design of Thomas Jones of Pencnwc. Rebuilt/modified 1865-9 to the design Rev. Thomas Thomas of Landore. Building style is Classical, gable entry type. Schoolroom built 1899 & organ chamber added 1909 to the design of F.W. Child of Aberaeron. Status (1998): in chapel use.
2. A three-bay north west gable facade to the chapel, with central entrance to vestibule. The original centre entry is now masked by the present porch of ca.1899. Behind which is a high semi-circular headed doorway, probably of 1860. It has a fanlight with radiating tracery and inner and outer coloured-glass margin lights. The present rock-faced and snecked stone porch covers the semi-circular headed entrance which has two wooden-boarded doors under a segmental head and fanlight. It is flanked by semi-circular headed windows; three similar windows are located above, to the gallery. The 1860 windows in the right hand bay are masked by the ca.1899 vestry. There is a central slate tablet with a semi-circular head at the base of the pedimented gable, inscribed: "Towyn Congregational Chapel/ built/ AD 1860/ Rev. T.Rees/ Minister".
CD/Ecclesiastical/SN35NE from O. Jenkins.
CHN 11/05/04
Independents had met in the New Quay area since the 17th century, the first meeting house opened in 1781 in Penrhiwgaled. In 1828 a chapel was built at Maenygroes; with over 500 members, many from New Quay, the present plot of land at New Quay was then rented and Towyn Chapel built, the name derived from Towyn Farm, on whose land it stood. Opened in July 1861. Former grammar school and Sunday School of contemporary date and attached to SE. end; organ of 1909; NW. vestry (also originally Sunday School) extension of ca. 1899 with contemporary porch, the latter built in the angle between the vestry and the front elevation of the chapel. Stone walls. Slate roof.
Three-bay NW. gable façade to chapel, with centre entry to vestibule, the original centre entry now masked by the present porch of ca. 1899. Plinth, four giant pilasters, moulded cornice and pedimental gable with kneelers and ball finial. Behind the present porch, the high, semi-circular headed centre doorway, probably of 1860, has a fanlight with radiating tracery and inner and outer coloured-glass margin lights. Two doors, one folding and two-leaf, and the other single-leaf; each leaf of four-panel depth, with similarly panelled frieze of timber over. The present NW. porch is faced externally with rock-faced and snecked stone with moulded cornice and blocking course; in both its NW. and NE. faces, a semi-circular headed doorway, with two wooden-boarded doors under a segmental head, fanlight with glazed circlet and flanking spandrels. Semi-circular headed flanking windows and three similar above to gallery. The 1860 windows in the right hand bay are masked by the ca. 1899 vestry, so that the right-hand ground-floor window is painted over and visible now only from the chapel vestibule and in the rear wall of the vestry; the right-hand, first-floor window opening is obscured apart from its voussoirs. There is a slate tablet with semi-circular head in the centre at the base of the pedimental gable, inscribed: "Towyn Congregational Chapel/ built/ AD 1860/ Rev. T.Rees/ Minister"; roof vent in occulus above it.
The Chapel has a two-storey, three-bay NE. lateral elevation to Towyn Road; also faced with snecked stone and articulated by giant end pilasters. Cambered-headed ground-floor window openings contain eighteen-pane sash windows with margin lights; similar windows in semi-circular headed first-floor window openings; with clear glass margin lights and also with five-pane radiating heads, plus keystones.
Rendered SE. end gable with roof vent in occulus, ashlar kneelers, coping and finial. Built against it is the semi-polygonal organ loft, built in turn on top of the old grammar school. The organ loft has rendered walls and a slate roof with finial behind a plain parapet with cornice. In each of the three facets visible from the street, there is a semi-circular headed sash window with radiating head and etched and blue-coloured glass margin lights. The old grammar school has a NE. facing gable façade of snecked stone with scalloped bargeboard, and is accessible from the street by a flight of ten steps, four of slate, and flanked by a boundary retaining wall of stone. The central semi-circular headed doorway has a wooden-boarded door and a five-pane radiating fanlight. The flanking semi-circular headed window openings each contain an eighteen-pane sash window with three-pane radiating head. Roof vent in occulus. Slate roof with red tile cresting.
The NE.-facing lateral elevation of the vestry is faced with snecked stone; slate roof. Six semi-circular headed window openings, each containing a two-light window of five-panes depth with glazed spandrels in the head. Rendered NW. gable end; semi-circular headed window, similar but of five panes depth; rectangular vent in gable. Also attached to this gable is a lower kitchen wing; rendered; NE. elevation with wood-framed window and, to right hand, half-glazed wooden-boarded door. Attached to the lower end of this is a lower toilet wing.
Chapel forecourt paved with "diamond block paviours" of Ruabon type. Strip of land in front of NE. side elevation is set above the road and enclosed from it by 19th-century stone retaining wall and iron railings, the last with square uprights set lozenge-wise and with bi-partite finials, and with standards with spear-headed finials; the railings are swept up at each end to square open-sided iron piers with scroll finials, from which the railings then return to the chapel. On NW., and in addition, the railings continue obliquely to NW., in front of the chapel forecourt and up to the chapel gates and, beyond them, to a stone wall extending NW. to a 19th-century gate and gate piers at the entrance to Towyn Farm. Similar square and open-sided iron piers to the chapel gates which have square uprights with scroll-panel bottom rail, lozenge and quatrefoil panel lock rail, and scroll overthrow.
Interior:
Porch of ca. 1899: matchboarded dado, painted-plaster walls. A stopped and chamfered doorway in each wall, one to the vestry, two external doors and one to the chapel vestibule.
Chapel vestibule:plain plaster walls above a wood skirting. Raked white-painted plaster ceiling with moulded cornice and plaster rose. A white-painted plaster arch at each end over gallery staircases. The staircases each of wood, with a lower flight of 11 steps rising to a turn; at base of anupper flight of ten steps, a painted and grained gallery door of four moulded panels, their rear face to the gallery with beige-painted panels in a brown-painted frame; beige and brown-painted and panelled parapet at top of the gallery stairs.
Flat inner vestibule wall has a centrally-placed 19th-century rectilinear window, with its frame painted and grained towards the vestibule and painted white towards the chapel; etched and coloured-glass margin lights; oval pane in centre surrounded by panes of etched glass; etched centre pane depicts a dove with a twig in its beak; rinceau border. Flanking doors to chapel each of eight moulded panels.
Chapel interior: panelled dado; pale-green painted walls; heavy moulded ceiling cornice. Later? Ceiling of horizontal matchboarding, divided by ribs into 24 panels; along the centre rib, a large white decorative centre rose picked out in green and two circular vents. Ground-floor window openings with beaded jambs, flat cills and splayed reveals. Centre NW. gallery window opening with archivolt and with coloured-glass double margin lights of red, green, blue, mauve and brown. The flanking window on NE. with three coloured-glass panes (green, brown and orange) in its radiating head.
Box pews throughout on ground floor. Centre bank of pews (21-33 on SW., and 34-46 on NE.) of 13 pews depth; five-panel seat backs, the panels beige-painted in brown-painted frames, the sides to the aisles faced with two tiers of moulded panels, painted and grained; flat handrails, ramped up along aisles to Sedd Fawr at SE. end.
Lateral pews with six-panel seat backs, beige-painted in brown-painted frames; faced with moulded panelling, painted and grained towards the aisles. Numbered 10 to 20 on the SW., and 47 to 57 on the NE.. By the Sedd Fawr, two single banks of box pews, similarly painted beige and brown, but set at right angles towards the centre of the chapel; numbered 2-5 and 6-9 on SW., and 58-61 and 62-64 on NE..
Rectangular Sedd Fawr, but wider at rear at SE. end, on either side of pulpit; lateral doors to Sedd Fawr in canted angles between wider rear and narrower front parts. Front part (NW. side and N. part of NE. and SW. sides) of Sedd Fawr faced with painted and grained and moulded panels in two tiers; sides at rear faced with single tier beige-painted panels in a brown frame. Bench seat with red felt cover.
Curving and flanking pulpit staircases; seven steps, balustrade of turned balusters with moulded handrail, and panelled newels with Jacobethan-type finials. The two-tier pulpit projection has double curved sides, with wood panelling below and open parapet above centre stringcourse, the parapet made up of balusters and newels as to pulpit stairs, and hung internally with a red curtain; centre round-arched panel in upper tier, the panel and fame faced with contrasting coloured woods. Lectern with tasselled cover.
In the Sedd Fawr enclosure and behind the communion table, the chair from the Byrgwm? Esteddfod of 1913, in memoory of the Reverend T. Orchwy Bowen (died 1948), Minister of the Chapel for 25 years. A 19th-century wood-framed and upholstered chair to each side, the left hand chair with a wood lectern with Gothic detailing in front of it.
Behind and above the pulpit, the organ is framed inside a lofty arch faced with white-painted plaster, with panelled soffit, fluted pilasters and decorative plaster spandrel panels. Parapet at base of arch made up of round-arched wood panelling and bearing two paired, early-20th century? Metal lamp-brackets with tall barley-sugar twisted columns and ivy leaf decoration. Two-manual organ of 1909 by Alex Young & Sons, organ builders, Manchester; tuned and maintained by W.G.Vowles. Panelled organ case with some fret panels and bands; silver-painted organ pipes arranged in five bays: thirteen pipes in centre bay, flanked by five pipes in narrow oriel projection and, at each end, by a narrow bay of seven shorter pipes.
Registration: Swell organ (l.h.): Cornopean 8, Picolo 2, Voix celestes 8, illegible (Echo gamba?) 8, Oboe 8, illegible (Gemshorn?) 4, Open diapason 8, Lieblich gedacht 8
Couplers: Swell to great, Octave, Great to pedal, Swell to great, Swell to pedal.
Great organ (r.h.): Principal 4, Open diapason 4, Harmonic flute 4, Dulciana 8, Hohl flute 8.
Pedal organ: illegible, Bourdon 16, Bass flute 8, Open diapason 16.
Three-sided gallery, with five-sided gallery front, including canted intersections. Gallery beam with panelled soffit and moulded front, and supported by eight circular cast-iron columns, painted and marbled green and black; one shaft at least stamped "T.Thomas Cardigan" (works extant to 1850). Projecting and panelled gallery front: six-panel sides, one panel each to gallery end and to flanking canted intersections; circular clockface with "Thos. Webb/ New Quay" on the face; metal rim, wood-carved lozenge frame.
Raked gallery seating; open-ended, high-backed seats made up of beige-painted single-tier panels, in brown-painted frames; plain ends with curved handrails; some pews retain numbered lateral doors. Lateral banks of pews of three-pews depth and, in addition, a bench along the external walls. Seats arranged in complex rhythm around canted gallery intersections and across back of gallery. At the end of each side and around each gallery intersection, an obtuse-angled and paired bank of pews of three pews depth, arranged partly round the end of each side and partly round the gallery intersections, the latter seats with an aisle to rear which extends across the back of the gallery. Behind the clock, three pews (see above for clock); behind these but set slightly to each side, three further seats, but arranged in a paired bank with three seats that extend to the rear of the front seats behind the gallery intersection. A six-pane door leads from the SW. side of the gallery to the organ loft.
Old grammar school interior: on SW. of the pulpit, a pointed-arched doorway at the entrance to the old grammar school; mid-19th century door in deep reveals, its face towards the school with diagonal boarding and strap hinges. Four steps down to the present floor level. Plaster walls; flat plaster ceiling under the floor to the organ loft. Front windows with splayed reveals and flat cills; single semi-circular headed window in rear wall, resembling the chapel windows, but plainer. Doorway to rear yard (inaccessible) behind it. Currently in use as a store.
Vestry and former Sunday School interior: wooden-boarded floor, Matchboarded dado. Cream-painted walls with coathooks on wood band along SW. side; timber string at top of each lateral wall. Ceiling with sloping sides of white-painted plaster and flat matchboarded centre, the latter divided by ribs into ten panels (two panels width), with two circular ventilator panels along centre rib. SE. end wall contains original chapel windowand, on its SW., a window as in front wall of vestry.
Green-painted NW. end wall; door of two stpped and chamfered panelsto kitchen; dais with matchboarding along rear wall, with bench fitted against it; balustrade along two sides with turned balusters and turned newels with finials. Lectern at front of dais. Upright piano on SE. odf dais. Wall clock with short case on SW. wall, the circular clockface with the words: "Seth Thomas Clock Coy. Thomasto?wn Conn. USA". Single-manual late-19th or early-20th century harmonium, the wooden case ornamented with fretwork, carved brackets, ball finials etc.. By Ernest Crichton, Bristol & Clifton.
Registration: (l.h.): Clarion (?), Basson, Q--?, Sub-base, Viola?, Diapason, Baritone
(r.h.): missing, illegible, Gamba, Octave coupler, Cremona, Hautboy, Roman pipe, Vox hmana.
On SW. of centre aisle, ten iron-framed benches by Pearson & Browne, Salford with wood plank seats and backs-cum-desks; five by the same firm but with non-convertible plank backs. Thirteen of the latter kind on NE. side.
A handsome chapel on raised ground above Towyn Road and important to New Quay's townscape; a fine, box-pewed interior.
OMJ
12/10/95 and 25-31/12/95
Visited 12/10/95 by kind permission of the Minister and of the Chapel Secretary - Alterations: 1865 Source:Cadw
- Organ Chamber: 1909 Source:Cadw
- Established: 1858 Source:Evan James
- Built: 1860 Source:Plaque
- Built: 1860 Source:Welsh Office
- Built: 1861 Source:Evan James
- Built: 1860 Source:Cadw
- Date Of Chapel: 1909 Source:
- Modified: 1865-1869 Source:Evan James
- Vestry/sunday School: 1899 Source:Evan James
- Rear Apse For Organ: 1909 Source:BOW
- Gallery Lowered 2'8": 1865 Source:SRH
- Platform Pulpit And Flanking Windows: 1865 Source:SRH
- Architect: 1909 F.W. Child, Aberaeron
- Architect: 1861 Thomas Jones, Penycnwc
- Builder: 1860 Thomas Jones,
- Architect: 1865-1869 Thomas Thomas, Landore
- Architect: 1909 F.W. Child, Aberaeron
- £ 3800: 1905 (RCCEORBWM)
- 800: 1905 (RCCEORBWM)
- Chapel: 1998 (Blwyddiadur)
- Chapel: 6/12/2010 (denominational website)
- 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: Fan Headed
- 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
Key Characteristics of this Chapel
Images from Coflein
Map
- Grid Reference: SN38745971
- Address: TOWYN ROAD, NEW QUAYNEW QUAY
2 thoughts on “Towyn Welsh Independent Chapel, New Quay”
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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