- Nprn: 7271
- Summary: Brondeifi Unitarian Chapel was established as a daughter house of Caeronnen, and the first chapel and schoolroom were built in 1876. this building cost c. £1000 to build and seated 400 people, but severe structural problems caused by the sandy soil and inadequate foundations meant that the chapel had to be completely rebuilt in 1902. the rebuilding work cost £1,899, the toal expenditure being £2,043, but the fact that 1,164 familes are said to have contributed financially meant that the chapel was left without a debt. The 1905 Royal Commission on the Church of England and Other Religious Buildings in Wales and Monmouthshire records this chapel as seating 300, with a Sunday school capacity of 50.
The chapel is notable in the fact that since its foundation it has had only three ministers. The first, Rev Rees Cribyn Jones served from 1876 to 1915, the second, Rev T Oswald from 1915 to 1963 and the current minister, Rev. D J Goronwy.
The present chapel is built in a mixture of the Gothic and Art Nouveau styles, of the gable entry type with a tower and a spire. The windows have glazing of good Art nouveau design, although theer is one window of later design by john petts, in memory of Tecwyn Williams who was killed in action in northern Ireland.
The old vestry was dmolished in 1995, and the new one built and opened in 1996. It was designed by the Owen Davies partnership, Aberystwyth and built by J and E woodworks.
RCAHMW, November 2009 - Description: Cause begun 1800 & chapel & schoolroom built 1875-6. Rebuilt 1902-3. Building style is Gothic, gable entry type with tower & spire. Status (1998): in chapel use.
eo-Perpendicular and Late (i.e. 16th and 17th-century) Gothic style, in an early-20th century idiom. Gable facade with two entries via two small flanking vestibules, the west vestibule set beneath a small octagonal bell tower with spirelet. Faced externally with thin bands of rock-faced stone, with terracotta dressings to windows and doors and as bands and coping. Front gable with plinth band rising above tablet which reads: "Brondeifi/ Eglwys yr Undodaidd/ Adeiladwyd 1878-80/ Ailadeiladwyd 1902-03/ Y Parch Goronwy Evans". Wide three-light window with deep and moulded segmental head above smooth splayed jambs; similar mullions; dripstone; Perpendicular-style panel tracery in the head, the lower glazing in two tiers with three sub-lights in the centre portion and one at each end. Ventilator slit in the gable, with continuous terracotta bands at head and cill levels; raking gable coping.
CD/Ecclesiastical/SN54NE from O.M. Jenkins.
CHN 17/05/04
Set prominently on a hillock and in its own burial ground; separate vestri on SE., currently (October 1995) in the course of construction.
Built 1902-03 to replace the former church of 1876, its walls insufficiently secure, hence the new building of 1902-03, opened on June 28th and 29th, 1904.
Neo-Perpendicular and Late (i.e. 16th and 17th-century) Gothic style, in an early-20th century idiom. Gable façade with two entries via two small flanking vestibules, the west vestibule set beneath a small ocatgaonal bell tower with spirelet. Faced externally with thin bands of rock-faced stone, with terracotta dressings to windows and doors and as bands and coping. Front gable with plinth band rising above tablet which reads: "Brondeifi/ Eglwys yr Undodaidd/ Adeiladwyd 1878-80/ Ailadeiladwyd 1902-03/ Y Parch Goronwy Evans". Wide three-light window with deep and moulded segmental head above smooth splayed jambs; similar mullions; dripstone; Perpendicular-style panel tracery in the head, the lower glazing in two tiers with three sub-lights in the centre portionand one at each end. Ventilator slit in the gable, with continuous terracotta bands at head and cill levels; raking gable coping.
To either side, vestibule doorways with deeply-moulded segmental heads and jambs of terracotta, and containing pairs of wooden-boarded doors, the east doorway set in a lateral vestibule wall with parapet and swept terracotta coping. The west vestibule entrance below a slate plaque incribed: "Brondeifi Unitarian Christian Church built 1875-6 Rebuilt 1902-03. Gweinidog Rhys Cribyn Jones", the plaque at the base of an octagonal tower with terracotta coping, recessed octagonal belfry with two-light segmental openings with luffers; spirelet.
East and west lateral elevations each with four terracotta-framed two-light windows with moulded segmental heads and dripstones, the lower two lights in two tiers with cusped heads with centre mullions. Slate roof.
Against the rear elevation of the chapel, a narrower, shorter, but apparently contemporary wing in similar style, containing the organ loft with flanking vestries, its west elevation with a wooden-boarded door in stopped and chamfered ashlar doorway with flat head. East elevation with a two-light window with flat head. North gable with another two-light window to right hand and a similar door and dorway to left hand. Iron railings enclose steps down to cellar (boiler house?), the uprights to the railings with finials above the top rail enclosed within arched flanking uprights, meeting at the top in pairs.
Burial ground on N., W., and SW.. New vestri on SE. in course of construction. The chapel grounds enclosed from road by boundary wall and gates. Brick gate piers. Ornate 19th-century gates have uprights with fleur-de-lys and spiked finials; scrollwork between lock and bottom rails; overthrow and lamp, the latter with downward-tapering sides.
Chapel interior: floor raked down to Sedd Fawr; floor of wood blocks arranged in squares in aisles; wooden-boarded floor to shallow dais beneath both lateral and centre banks of seats. Matchboarded dado; plaster finish to walls. Lateral window openings with splayed reveals and raked cills; beige-painted panel with black border above matchboarding between each window. Frosted glass of pale green, blue and gold with gold margins, art-nouveau touches to glazing in window heads. Five-bay hammer-beam-cum -tie and collar beam roof, the trusses expoed to collar level with matchboarding on rear; bolted arch braces to collars descend as hammer beams on stone corbels. Three ceiling ventilator panels. Small white-painted ventilators on lateral walls below each ceiling corbel [E.H.Shoreland & Bro., Drake Street Works, Manchester].
Varnished wood seats with simple shaped and chamfered Gothic ends bearing number plaques; arranged as two single lateral banks of seats (1-12 and 49-60) and one paired centre bank of seats (17-29 and 30-44). Four seats (13-16) in NW. corner, face Sedd Fawr at right angles. Four similar seats on NE. have been removed and a further dais inserted and the space re-used.
Retcangular Sedd Fawr faced externally with wood panels in two tiers; Sedd Fawr bench with red carpet strip cover. Sides of pulpit stairs and sides and front of pulpit dais of two tiers of wood-framed panelling, the upper panels open with cavetto mullions as part of the timber frame; square newel posts with caps. Wood pulpit with canted sides; two tiers of panelling, the two upper centre panels with applied Gothic traceried heads; upper open panels in the canted sides. Two-seat settle of early-20th century date on pulpit dais, its cornice merging with cornice to matchboarded dado at rear of pulpit. In middle of Sedd Fawr enclosure, Communion table and chair in memory of Dafydd Thomas Lloyd Jones (died 1988); later-20th century lectern in memory of Mr and Mrs Thomas Lloyd; Eisteddfod chair of 1935 on l.h. of pulpit; cupboard in front of pulpit centre; lower wood chair to right hand.
High semi-circular headed arch behind pulpit, the arch moulding picked out in blue, white and gold, and with painted pilasters below. Set within the arch, a single-manual pipe organ by Griffin & Stroud of Bath.
Registration: Melody Bourdon 16, Open Diapason 8, Violon(in?) , Diapason 8, Stopped Diapason 8, Salicional 8, Gemshorn 4, Octave coupler, Tremulant.
A segmentally-headed doorway each side of pulpit dais contains a door of six stopped and chamfered panels and leads to rear vestries.
Memorials: on E. of pulpit, early-20th century memorial to men of Capel Brondeifi killed in First World War; Second World War memorial to Bdr. David Evans, died 1945 in Osaka Camp. To W. of pulpit, memorial to Rees Cribyn Jones, Minister at Brondeifi from 1874-1915 and to T.O.Watkins, Minister from 1915-63. Stained glass window by John Petts, Llanstephan, as memorial to Tecwyn Williams killed in the Ardoyne, Belfast, in 1972 while on military service (D.Elwyn Davies, Y Smotiau Duon, p.69).
OMJ
10/95 and 13/11/95
Visited 5/10/95 with the permission of the Minister
Sources: D.J.Goronwy Evans, Hanes Eglwys Undodaidd Brondeifi, Llanbedr Pont Steffan, 1874-1974 (Llandysul: Gwasg Gomer, ?1974); - Built: 1876 Source:Horsfall-Turner
- Built: 1875-1876 Source:Evan James
- Cause: 1800 Source:Horsfall-Turner
- Date Of Chapel: 1902 Source:
- Rebuilt: 1902-1903 Source:Evan James
- Minister: 1876-1915 Rees Cribyn Jones,
- Minister: 1915-1963 T Oswald Williams,
- Minister: 1964- D J Goronwy Evans,
- £ 2800: 1905 (RCCEORBWM)
- 50: 1905 (RCCEORBWM)
- 300: 1905 (RCCEORBWM)
- Chapel: 1997 (Welsh Unitarian Handbook)
- Chapel: 8/12/2010 (Denominational website)
- Welsh: ()
- Materials
- Stone
- Monument Type: CHAPEL
- Form: Building
- Storey: Single Storey
- Style: Gothic
- Plan: Gable Entry
- Pulpit Position: Rear Wall
- Window Glazing: Tracery
- Windows: Perpendicular
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: SN58134786
- Address: LAMPETERLAMPETER
2 thoughts on “Brondeifi Chapel (unitarian), 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