- Nprn: 7268
- Cadw Ref: 22/C/11(2)
- Cadw Record No: 10433
- Summary: The early members of the Independent church in Lampeter held services in an old brewery building, located near Harfod Square which they rented for £5 a year. When David Davies was ordained as the minister in 1841, there were 45 members and the brewery room was decided to be too small. The local squire, J S Harford at Falcondale, donated land on the Commons, on the condition that the members would support him for parliamentary election. The plot measured 32 by 24, and the cost of constructing the first chapel was £160.
By 1850 there were 120 members, and the original seating arrangement of a few pews surrounding the pulpit with standing to the rear was considered unsatisfactory. The chapel was therefore extended with further pews to the ground floor and the insertion of a gallery. The Religious Census of 1851 records 180 free seats, 36 others and room for 150 to stand and on 30th march 1851 53 were present in the morning Sunday school, 350 at the afternoon service and 150 at the evening service. The congregation grew rapidly during the 1859 Revival, with 50 new members being admitted on one Sunday alone. 98 new members in total were admitted for the year and the ministers stipend was increased from £27.
A new minister, the Rev. John Thomas was inducted in 1872, and the following year a new chapel was built at a cost of £700. In 1896 the building was extended and renovated at a cost of a further £1000, in 1900 a vestry was added, a pipe organ purchased for £250 in 1904. In 1920 the Victoria Inn purchased at a cost of £525 and adapted for use for the chapel caretaker, and in 1931 a new vestry was built to celebrate the 100th anniversary at a cost of £1,400 and to the design of C. Jay Evans.
The present chapel is built in the Sub-Classical style of the gable entry type, with a Venetian Renaissance Façade. The front has a three bay façade covered in roughcast render, and with white quartz chippings decorating the spandrels and panels. Giant pilasters rise to a giant arch in the gable. There are two panelled doorways to the centre, above which is a slate plaque with the inscription "Soar/ Addoldy yr Annibynwyr/ Adeiladwyd 1842/ Helaethwyd 1874 eto 1895". The elevation is lit by tall, round-headed windows and a circular occulus in the pediment.
Internally a vestibule leads to the main body of the chapel, and to a staircase at either end leading to the gallery. There is a rectangular Sedd Fawr, decorated with openwork iron scroll paneling. From this stairs lead to a raised pulpit platform with a carved wooden pulpit front. The organ is set in an arched organ loft behind the pulpit, and is a two-manual organ by Peter Gonacher & Co. (The Old Firm) Huddersfield.
There is three sided gallery supported on cast iron columns, decorated with acanthus leaves and stamped "Iron and marble Co. Ltd., Bristol". The gallery front is of moulded wooden panels, and there is an integral clock facing the pulpit.
Sine 2009, the rear vestry has been rented out for use by the Greek Orthodox Church, the Lampeter branch of which holds a morning service theer every Sunday morning.
There is a burial ground to the south-west side of the chapel, enclosed from the commons by a rendered boundary wall and a pair of wrought iron gates of late 19th century date.
Soar is now Grade 2 listed.
RCAHMW, May 2011 - Description: Cause begun 1831; chapel and schoolroom built 1842. Enlarged 1872/4 & modified 1895. Building style is sub-Classical, gable entry type. Vestry added 1931 to the design of C. Jay Evans. Status (1998): in chapel use.
This has a duplicate record, 12134. This is the prime record to use.
The cause was established in Lampeter in 1831, services being held initially in rented accommodation. The date plaque states the chapel was built in 1842 and enlarged in 1874 and 1895. Pedimented gable façade to The Commins with centre entry to vestibule across the rear of the chapel; flanking gallery stairs; organ loft and small vestri projection to rear to which is attached the 1931 vestri (C.Jay Evans, architect).
Front elevation to NW. shows late-16th century European influence. Roughcast three-bay façade with rendered dressings; white quartz chippings to spandrels and panels. Giant pilasters rise to an entablature, the entablature replaced by a depressed arch over centre bay, the arch with spandrels and crowning pediment over; half-pediments in place of scrolls over end bays.
Block and wrought-iron finials as acroteria. Two steps lead up to projecting and semi-circular headed doorway in centre with pilasters, caps, moulded archivolt, projecting keystone and panelled spandrels; slate date plaque in typmanum: "Soar/ Addoldy yr Annibynwyr/ Adeiladwyd 1842/ Helaethwyd 1874 eto 1895". Behind plain reveals, doors of two moulded panels under a segmental head, glazed circular light and spandrels in fanlight. Two tall semi-circular headed windows over with pilasters, moulded archivolt and keystone, the windows five-panes deep with two additional quarter lights under the rounded head. A glazed oculus above, under the crowning centre arch, and circular panel of white quartz chippings in the typmanum. Each end bay with a tall semi-cicular window opening with moulded and eared architrave with keystone, containing a similar window, but of six panes depth beneath the top two quarter lights; shallow octagonal panel over with rebated angles.
Four window openings to each side elevation. Two-light windows of three-panes depth, the ground-floor windows flat-headed; semi-circular headed gallery windows with two additional quarter lights at the top, as in the front façade. Slate roof.
Rear elevation of chapel with vent in gable. The two-storey organ loft and small vestri is built against the rear chapel wall; a four-pane sash window lighting the organ loft stair at first floor on SW., with a doorway below.
The 1931 vestri is attached to the NE. end of the small vestri and to the SE. end of the chapel. Its NW. entrance elevation has a pentice roof extending over a porch; three large and three-light 36-pane windows to left hand or NE., with opening sub-lights at the top of the end lights. Slate roof with red ridge tles and terracotta finial. Two similar windows and a small loft window to the NE. gable; four similar windows to the SE. lateral elevation. A contemporary and lower kitchen and toilet wing of similar style extends from the SW. end of the 1931 vestri.
The chapel has a burial ground on the SW., enclosed from th Commins by a rendered boundary wall and a pair of 19th-century iron gates on NE., adjoining the wall pier and railings in front of the chapel; these have uprights with spear-headed and scroll finials, rising alternately to above top and lock rail, and with additional scrollwork panelling below the lock rail.
The narrow tarmacadamed space between the chapel and the Commins pavement is enclosed by centre gates and by flanking dwarf walls and railings terminating in rendered wall piers with coved coping and ball finials, the wall piers in line with the front angles of the chapel façade. The railings have circular uprights with tripartite finials, the two centre gates with uprights and finials rising alternately to above top and lock rails; gate standards with spear-headed finials. Beyond the NE. end pier, a short stretch of walling and then a pair of 19th-century iron gates with similar finials before the path leading to the 1931 vestri. To NE., and also fronting the Commins pavement, an outbuilding (formerly the chapel stables?) and the Chapel House (see below).
Interior:
Vestibule: with patterned encaustic tile floor made up of beige, blue-grey, red and white tiles. Matchboarded dado, painted-plaster walls, raked plaster ceiling with corbels along external chapel wall. Wood gallery staircase rising from opposing ends, the red-carpeted lower flights of eight steps, and each with a four-panel painted and grained wood door and an upper flight of eight steps also above the turn. Inner wall of vestibule with three-sided canted projection, the canted sides each containing a varnished and stopped and chamfered four-panel wood door with glass handles in brass frames. The flat centre facet contains a rectangular 19th-century window with moulded frame; this has a large glass centre panel of etched glass; margin lights with panes of white floral pattern etched on dark-blue glass; angle blocks in the form of white stars on a red ground.
Chapel interior: matchboarded dado. Painted-paster walls. Ground and first-floor window openings with chamfered jambs, splayed painted reveals and raked timber cills; wood mullions, with three-quarter mouldings; a pivot-opening light to some of the windows; the gallery windows with dripstones with foliage stops. Painted-metal ventilator cases on lateral walls, with clasped hands as handles.
Ceiling: coved sides above lateral-wall ceiling cornice. Large inner rectangle with matchboarded "margin lights", similar to window margin lights and complete with decorative plaster panels at corners and centre of lateral sides. Inner rectangle contains a large panel at either end with ventilator occulus in decorative plaster frame with guilloche border. Large centre panel with decorative plaster spandrels enclosing a circular panel with decorative plaster.
The open-sided varnished pine seats have simple shaped Gothic ends, rounded at the top; numbered in black paint; wood-bench seats with panelled backs and three-quarter moulded and black-painted top rail. Lateral bench seats set askew with their outer ends inclined towsards the Sedd Fawr and with their seat backs of two panels width. The paired centre bank of bench seats has seat backs of two and two and a half panels each, depending on the position of the discontinuous pew dividing board in the centre. Some bench seats with covers of red felt with cross and fleur-de-lys motifs. Seats 1 and 2 removed; seats 3-6 face on to Sedd Fawr at right angles, as do 67, 69 and 70-72. The banks of single lateral bench seats are numbered 7-20 on SW. and 53-66 on NE.; the paired bank of centre seats is numbered 21-36 and 37-52.
There is a three-sided gallery, the gallery fronts curved at the intersections. Gallery beam supported by circular cast-iron columns with acanthus leaf caps, and stamped: "Iron and marble Co. Ltd., Bristol". The projecting wood gallery front is faced with eighteen moulded panels, divided into single-panel bays by short pilasters; moulded cornice with chevron course below. Circular clock face with wood moulded edge is integrated into the end gallery front.
Rectangular Sedd Fawr with curved front intersections, and on a dais two steps high; faced with openwork iron-scroll panelling that is set between moulded wood panels below and a moulded wood handrail. Sedd Fawr bench with red felt cover and sloping matchboarded back. Circular newels above square bases and with fluted shafts at lateral Sedd Fawr entries; square chamfered caps with sunk quatrefoils and ball finials. Similar but taller newels to the four-step pulpit staircases which have wood-turned balusters and moulded and ramped handrails. Curved sides to pulpit dais, with moulded panel below and with balustrade above, as to pulpit stairs. Pulpit front with moulded panel below and two arched panels above, the last set in round-arched arcading with black-painted columns. On pulpit dais, a three-seater bench with shaped ends.
Polished Communion table and Minister's chair of 1937 in memory of Mrs Anne Evans of Maesyhaf. A Windsor chair to each side. Memorial plaques on organ loft and on wall to either side, to, for instance, Nurse Ella Richards (d. 1918, in Salonika), and to the "plant yr eglwys" killed in the Second World War, and to organists of the chapel.
Cream-painted end wall of plaster, scribed to resemble ashlar. Organ set in arch above pulpit; organ loft front on a level with gallery front, and faced with similar panelling. Wide semi-circular arch above Gothic column shafts; dripstone with vine-leaf stops. Beige and grey organ pipes, gilded and painted; organ pipes arranged in five bays with five pipes at either end, the pipe tops swept up towards the centre, five pipes on a timber oriel projection nearer the centre and fifteen pipes in the middle. Two-manual organ by Peter Gonacher & Co. (The Old Firm) Huddersfield.
Registration: l.h.: Swell organ: tremulant gemshorn 4, saucional 8, violon diapason 8, oboe 8, vox angelica 8, rohr flute 8.
Couplers: swell to pedals, great to pedals, swell super octave, swell to great
r.h.: great organ: harmonic flute 4, open diapason 8, principal 4, clarabella 8
pedal prgan: Bourdon 16.
Gallery seating: high-backed gallery bench seats of two panels in height; elongated shaped bench ends; rear benches fixed to matchboarded dado. From the Sedd Fawr end, each side of gallery with three paired banks of seats, of two seats depth; each seat with three-panel back. Single bank of seats close to gallery intersection. NW. end of gallery with wide paired bank of seats in centre, flanked by a single bank of seats at either end with three-panel backs.
Small Deacons' vestri with painted-plaster walls and ceiling; red-carpeted floor; black fireplace against SE. wall; wall cupboard on opposite wall; wood chairs set against the lateral walls; photos of Deacons on walls in, for instance, 1920, 1927, 1949; stair to organ loft near SW. end.
A four-panel door leads into the 1931 vestri corridor. This has a wood-block floor laid in herring-bone fashion, a gold-painted dado; a dark-painted "chair rail" and painted plaster walls above. Door to 1931 vestri with saltire-framed glass panel at the top. 1931 vestri with pink-painted dado; between windows, pink-painted wall panels with bead edging; flat ceiling with sloping sides, divided into panels by flat-dark-painted ribs. Iron ties to roof trusses. Vestri subdivided by full-height screen of folding three-panel doors. Stage at SW. end. Bronze plaque on SE. wall: "Codwyd yr Ffestri hon I Ddathlu can mlwydd yr achos yn y lle".
The probably-19th century Chapel House has a two-storey, three-bay rendered façade to The Commins, under a slate roof with gable stacks. Three sash windows of four panes with horns on first floor, and two similar windows below; centre door with overlight. Front garden patch enclosed by dwarf wall. Catslide roof to rear.
Single-storey outbuilding between Chapel House and chapel has painted front wall with a wooden-boarded door and a small window to left hand; slate roof.
OMJ
19/11/95
Visited 13/10/95 and met at the Chapel by the Chapel Secretary
Sources: T. Eirug Davies and the Chapel Secretary, 1831-1931: trem ar ganmlwydd eglwys Soar, Llanbedr (Llanbedr: R.R.Evans (pr.), 1931).
NPRN 12134 was incorrectly deleted by OMJ. The duplication link has been removed to avoid confusion. (DJP 4/02/98) - Altered: 1895 Source:Cadw
- Built: 1842 Source:1851 Census
- Built: 1842 Source:Cadw (plaque)
- Cause: 1831 Source:Evan James
- Date Of Chapel: 1895 Source:
- Rebuilt: 1872 Source:Cadw
- Enlarged: 1895 Source:Evan James
- Enlarged: 1874 Source:Evan James
- Vestry: 1931 Source:Evan James
- Architect: 1931 C. Jay Evans,
- £ 2300: 1905 (RCCEORBWM)
- 36: 1851 ()
- 600: 1905 (RCCEORBWM)
- 180: 1851 ()
- 150: 1851 Standing ()
- Chapel: 1998 (Blwyddiadur)
- Chapel: 2011 (Blwyddiadur)
- Welsh: ()
- Materials
- Rendered
- Monument Type: CHAPEL
- Form: Building
- Storey: Two Storey
- Style: Italianate
- Gallery: On Three Sides
- Plan: Gable Entry
- Pulpit Position: Rear Wall
- Window Glazing: Small Pane
- 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: SN57684795
- Address: Y COMMINS/THE COMMON, LAMPETERLAMPETER
2 thoughts on “Soar Welsh Independent Chapel, Y Commins/the Common. Lampeter”
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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