Calfaria Baptist Chapel, Upper Ann Street, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire

Description

Name: Calfaria Baptist Chapel

Denomination: Baptist

Built: 1881 (original chapel, later schoolroom)
Built: 1887/88 (later chapel alongside)
Closed: October 2003

Photography: John Ball
Date: 29 March 2012
Camera: Nikon D50 digital SLR

Note 1: The congregation decided to buy a plot of land in Ann Street to build a chapel. It was a modest red-brick building which cost £500 and was opened in January 1882. [Source: Capeli Llanelli: Our Rich Heritage, by Huw Edwards, Carmarthenshire County Council (Libraries and Heritage Section), Carmarthen, 2009; ISBN 978-0-906821-77-0]

Note 2: Calfaria Baptist Sunday School was built in 1881 and the Chapel built alongside in 1888. The building is Lombardic/Italian in style with a gable entry plan and was designed by architect George Morgan of Carmarthen. The chapel was still in use in 1998 but by 2006 was disused. The building is Grade 2 listed (1992). [Source: the Coflein database, where many more details are provided (NPRN 6434)] When photographed in March 2012, the building was obviously derelict.

Note 3: Minimal Romanesque, in the local grey-brown stone with Bath stone. Bald unmoulded windows, mainly narrow arched lights. The ascending set each side of the door express the line of the gallery stair in a nicely functional way. Galleries with cast-iron panels, and a later organ behind the pulpit (blocking the rear wheel window). [Source: The Buildings of Wales: Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, by Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach, & Robert Scourfield, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2006; ISBN 0-300-10179-1]

Note 4: Until recently, the view from the southeast (above) would show a wheel window in the south wall. However, rampant growth of common ivy has now all but obscured the window (see detail below left).

Note 5: The memorial stone (right), situated between the two front entrance doors, was laid by Mrs Wm Thomas, Wellfield, on 30 May 1887. Wellfield, at 60 New Road, Llanelli, shown below, is now a Grade 2 Listed building.

Image 6: Wellfield, residence in 1887 of Mrs William Thomas [Photograph by Google StreetView, January 2009]

Note 6: The big, plain, red brick first chapel next door to the main chapel (see below), probably by G. Morgan, is dated 1881, which seems a very short interval to the new chapel. [Source: The Buildings of Wales: Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, by Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach, & Robert Scourfield, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2006; ISBN 0-300-10179-1]

Note 7: To the right of the present chapel (above) is the brick-built schoolroom, which was the original Calfaria chapel until the new building was erected in 1887. The circular plaque in the gable end (right), shows that the earlier building was erected in A.D. 1881. Huw Edwards notes, "Such was the rapid expansion [in the congregation] that a new chapel was needed within a few years. . . . The impressive new building was unveiled in July 1888. It was designed by George Morgan of Carmarthen, a prolific designer for the Baptists in Wales." [Source: Capeli Llanelli: Our Rich Heritage, by Huw Edwards, Carmarthenshire County Council (Libraries and Heritage Section), Carmarthen, 2009; ISBN 978-0-906821-77-0]

• http://www.jlb2011.co.uk/walespic/churches/llanelli1.htm (link opens in new window)