- Nprn: 7347
- Summary: Maen-y-Groes Independent Chapel was built in 1828, due to the fact that many people were mambers of Penrhiwgaled which was some distance away. A piece of land was aquired on Maen-y-Groes, a smallholding owned by E Evans Esq. Of Neuadd, and a 'sturdy' chapel built. It was under the ministry of Mr Thomas of Penrhiwgaled, supported by students from Neauddlwyd until 1840. The congregation had grown so much by 1858, with many being from New Quay, thta it was decided amicably to split and a new chapel built in New Quay. The chapel was enlarged in 1873 however, and more land bought to provide a cemetary. It was again rebuilt in 1902 .
The present chapel, dated 1902, is built in the Classical style of the gable entry type with a large arch in the facade. There is a semi-circular central doorway with rendered pilasters, archivolt and keystone. There is a paired window above it, each window light is semi-circular and of small pane glazing, and above this a s a A slate plaque is inscribed:"Maen-y-Groes /Capel yr Annibynwyr /Adeiladwyd 1828 /ail /adeiladwyd /1902".
In 1905 (Royal Commission on the Church of England and other Religious Bodies in Wales and Monmouthshire) there were 470 sittings in the Sunday school which was valued at £1,950. - Description: 1. Chapel built 1828 & enlarged 1873; rebuilt 1902 . Built in Classical style, gable entry type. A prominent feature of this Chapel is the large arch in the facade. Status (1998): in chapel use.
2. The present chapel has a rendered 3-bay pedimented gable facade to the north west end with an arch rising from the centre pilasters over the centre bay. A semi-circular headed central doorway with rendered pilasters, archivolt and keystone. Paired window above it, each window light is semi-circular and of 5-panes depth; linked archivolts and common cill. The arch rising from the centre pilasters encloses keyed oculus containing a slate plaque inscribed:"Maen-y-Groes /Capel yr Annibynwyr /Adeiladwyd 1828 /ail /adeiladwyd /1902".
CD/Ecclesiastical/SN35NE.
CHN 11/05/04
3. Photographed from the air during RCAHMW aerial reconnaissance on 23 June 2005.
T. Driver, 15 June 2007.
Present chapel a rebuilding of 1902; about 10.35ms. Wide x 14.9ms. Deep. It replaced a lateral entry chapel of 1828 on the same site, but facing NE.; this had a small gallery window placed high over each end doorway and 2 tall pulpit windows nearer the centre, all flat-headed openings; the roof may have descended lower to rear. Present chapel with rendered 3-bay pedimental gable façade to NW.; end and centre pilasters with arch rising from centre pilasters over centre bay; 3 stone steps to semi-circular headed doorway in centre with rendered pilasters, archivolt and keystone. Paired window above it, each window light semi-circular and of 5-panes depth; linked archivolts and common cill. An arch rising from the centre pilasters encloses keyed oculus containing a slate plaque inscribed :"Maen-y-Groes /Capel yr Annibynwyr /Adeiladwyd 1828 /ail /adeiladwyd /1902". Above the centre arch, a semi-circular louvred roof vent; painted bargeboard and finial. Slate roof to rear. A semi-circular window in each end bay, of two-lights and nine panes depth, including semi-circular top panes, beneath glazed circlet and spandrels.
Rendered 3-bay NE. and SW. lateral elevations; segmental window openings below and semi-circular above, with grey-painted projecting cills; two-light windows, the lower windows of four-panes depth and the upper of three-panes depth, including semi-circular headed top panes under glazed spandrels. Rendered rear SE. gable end; semi-circular louvred roof vent.
NW. chapel forecourt bounded each side by stone wall with rendered coping; a square wall pier, with pyramidal coping, at junction with front rock-faced stone wall and iron railings along road: railings rise alternately to low-middle and top rails; tri-partite finials, resembling spear-heads below, & ivy leaves above. Gates of similar design but with scrolls between paired bottom rails, square chamfered iron gate piers with coved coping with gablets, ball finials. Forecourt wall and railings form a quadrant on NE. of gates and are also set forward on a curve on their SW.. Front path to chapel doors of block pavers of Ruabon type incised as ?stars. Stone step to chapel doors. A stone wall with rendered coping extends as far as iron gate to vestry with rock-faced stone gate piers with rendered and stepped pyramidal coping. Slate step to path of Ruabon-type pavers.
Vestibule interior: rectangular arch, high and wide, frames external doors with their stained-glass fanlight. Encaustic-tile floor: green, brown, white and beige tiles arranged in triangles, squares and hexagons with guilloche and chevron border. Outer walls of painted plaster; raked ceiling. Matchboarded dado to inner vestibule wall which has centre stained-glass window of two round-arched lights flanked in canted sides by chapel entrance doors of 2 moulded panels each, the upper panels taller; brass and porcelain handles. Wood gallery staircase at either end: lower flights of 7 steps, 1 diagonally-placed step on turn, gallery doors above bottom step of upper flights of 9 steps, and of 2 tiers of 3 moulded panels.
Chapel interior: carpeted aisles. Matchboarded dado. Later-C20 speckled painted walling. Window openings with chamfered jambs, flat brown-painted timber cills, splayed reveals painted white above impost in gallery windows, white-painted frames. 6-bay ceiling, similar to that at Brynrhiwgaled, but of varnished horizontal matchboarding; each bay subdivided into 4 panels by moulded ribs; white-plaster sloping sides. Three-sided gallery, the gallery front curved at intersections. Gallery beam with wood casing with beaded edges and with decorative string to its front face, to which are also affixed brass lamp-holders used originally for the former carbide gas lighting; beam supported by 5 iron columns, the column caps painted blue and gold with gold-painted helices. Projecting gallery front has openwork cast iron strip: panels containing crosses and flowers etc; integral clock: "Rhodd gan Jane Francis - J.W.Benson, Ludgate Hill, London".
Open bench seats with matchboarded panel backs and shaped ends; white plaques with black seat numbering. Paired centre block of seats with snecked pew divider: nos 17-26 on SW. & nos. 29-38 on NE.; front seat, 26 & 29, subdivided into 3, the centre subdivision behind the Viscount electronic organ (stops not seen). Two single lateral blocks of seats: nos. 7-16 on SW. and nos. 39-48 on NE. Each side at the front, 6 seats face on to side of Sedd Fawr & pulpit: 1-6 on SW. & 49-54 on NE..
Two lateral steps to curved Sedd Fawr enclosure faced externally with matchboarded panels in stopped and chamfered frame below short timber balustrade and 3/4 top rail; bench seat with blue velvet cushion strip. Flanking pulpit stairs to pulpit dais. Curved front ends of dais with balustrading above a moulded panel, in turn above a curved single-panel moulded cupboard door; central rectangular pulpit projection faced with 2 two-light panels of blind round-arched arcading with trefoil heads above black-painted columns; panelled diagonal matchboarding below. Bench seat in pulpit dais with matchboarding to rear, with white plaster arch over with moulded archivolt on carved brackets. Eisteddfod chair: Eisteddfod Llundain 1913" behind late-C19 or early-C20 communion table of pine with turned legs. Alongside the pulpit and aisle on SW. a carved and dark-stained ?Eisteddfod chair: "Cwmmair /1914". Memorials on NE. of pulpit to the chapel's former Ministers; 1st and 2nd World War memorial on SW..
Raked gallery seating, the bench seats similar to those below but with higher backs. Seats of 2 seats depth each side, plus wall bench. Each side from Sedd Fawr end, a single block of seats and, secondly, a paired block of seats , partly curved round gallery intersection. Three-bay wall bench with miniature seat dividers. At the end of the gallery, facing the pulpit, a paired block of seats of 4 seats depth, arranged partly round the gallery intersection and with seats of varying width; 4-bay wall bench and corner seats at back. Fluted brass standards & gas lamps for the carbide gas lighting formerly here, 2 each side and 2 at end of gallery.
Vestry & chapel house: 3 slate steps to NE. doorway in NW. lean-to vestry porch: wooden-boarded door and segmental fanlight. Above lean-to porch, plaque in NW. vestry gable: "Adeiladwyd /1904". Semi-circular headed windows of 2-lights and 4-panes depth, including 2 top quadrant panes: 3 in NE. elevation and 2 in SW., where there is a wide projection (part vestry kitchen, part chapel house) at SE. end. 2 storey Chapel house, facing SE., is attached to SE. end of vestry; early C20? Rendered; slate roof; yellow brick stacks; 3-bay SE. elevation with sash windows and lean-to slate-roofed porch in centre.
Vestry interior: porch with red and black tiles laid lozenge-wise; gas lamp and varnished? Matchboarded ceiling. 1 slate step through wooden-boarded doors to vestry interior with wooden-boarded floor, matchboarded dado, unpainted rendered walls, matchboarded at top. Matchboarded ceiling with matchboarded sloping sides. 4 moulded-panel door to chapel house. SE. wooden-boarded dais on which are pulpit-cum-reading desk with cupboards, iron & wood benches. Circular wall clock: "Rhodd Ysgol Sabothol" behind. Vestry seating: iron-framed wood benches with wood-plank seats and backs, convertible to desks, 7 on SW. and 12 on NE. An old photograph of the 1828 chapel above the piano.
Original burial ground containing C19 headstones - some of 1840s - on SE. and NE. of present chapel; bounded by trees and hedge along SE. and by dry stone wall and hedge along road; C19 entrance retained in NE. wall, marking also original entrance to chapel forecourt: massive stone piers, semi-circular ends with pyramidal pebble coping (as in Harbour Lane, Aberaeron) and white quartz stone at top; iron cattle grid below C19 iron gate with circular uprights alternately to lock and top rails; scroll and twist tripartite finials. A similar wall, gate piers and gate at entrance to a 2nd burial ground on NE. of road, with an extension beyond it.
OMJ
13/02/96
Visited 23/01/96 by kind permission of the Minister - Built: 1828 Source:Plaque
- Built: 1828 Source:1851 Census
- Date Of Chapel: 1902 Source:
- Rebuilt: 1902 Source:Plaque
- Rebuilt: 1902 Source:Evan James
- £ 1951: 1905 (RCCEORBWM)
- 234: 1851 ()
- 470: 1905 (RCCEORBWM)
- 160: 1905 (RCCEORBWM)
- 60: 1851 ()
- Chapel: 1998 (Blwyddiadur)
- Chapel: 6/12/2010 (Denominational website)
- Materials
- Rendered
- Monument Type: CHAPEL
- Form: Building
- Storey: Single Storey
- Style: Classical
- Gallery: On Three Sides
- Plan: Gable Entry
- Pulpit Position: Rear Wall
- Window Glazing: Florentine Tracery
- Windows: Tall Round-Headed
Key Details of this Chapel
Key Dates of this Chapel
Costs during this Chapels History
Capacities during this Chapels History
Changes of Status its History
Key Characteristics of this Chapel
6 thoughts on “Maen-y-groes Welsh Independent Chapel, Maen-y-groes”
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These photos are of my nephew’s wedding on 16 May 2015. The congregation came from the local area and from Holland, America and Australia.
One more!
One more!
Helen
Thank you for posting these lovely pictures, so nice to see them.
Diolch!
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