Tabernacl Chapel, Goat Street, St David's, Pembrokeshire

Description

Name: Tabernacl

Denomination: Welsh Calvinistic Methodist
: now Presbyterian Church of Wales

Built: 1785
Rebuilt: 1815 and 1877

Photography: Google StreetView
Date: Aug 2011

Note 1: Tabernacle Methodist Chapel was built in 1785, rebuilt in 1815 and rebuilt again in 1877. The present chapel, dated 1877, was designed by architect Richard Owens of Liverpool. It is built in the Gothic style with a gable entry plan, basement Sunday School and small spire. Tabernacle is now Grade 2 Listed. [Source: Coflein database (NPRN 11217)] Note 2: Tabernacl is the earliest Nonconformist foundation in St Davids. Meetings were held in the Black Lion Inn and various houses during the 1740s and a temporary meeting room set up in a loft in Non Street – when this collapsed, the society used the cellar instead. Eventually a chapel was built three miles away on the parish boundary at Caerfarchell in 1763, suitably removed from the influence of the Bishop of St Davids. In 1785, a chapel was built in New Street, near the junction of Gospel Lane, and in 1817 a new chapel was built in Goat Street. This was rebuilt 1874-77 in a striking Gothic style, designed by Richard Owens of Liverpool, costing the grand sum of £3678.19s.4d. The builder was James Stephens, whose work is of outstanding quality. The Chapel dominates the skyline of the city with its spirelet and prominent east gable window fittingly designed as a Star of David. The interior is galleried on three sides with all of the original fittings intact. The chapel is Grade II listed and in excellent repair. [Source: Discovering Chapels in St Davids published by Capel: Chapel Heritage Society, 2009 (accessed 28 Feb 2015)]

• http://www.jlb2011.co.uk/walespic/churches/st-davids4.htm (link opens in new window)