Billy Bray'S Three Eye Chapel

This is a Bible Christian Chapel, initially built around 1835 and subsequently rebuilt or remodelled around the mid-19th century and again around the late 19th century. The original chapel was constructed by Billy Bray, largely by his own hands. The building is of cement-rendered rubble, with rusticated quoins, granite sills, and polychrome brick detailing, topped with flipped asbestos slate roofs. It has a rectangular, aisleless plan, with a west-facing entrance and an east-facing rostrum. It is a single storey with a symmetrical arrangement of three windows on both the north and south walls, each featuring horned 12-pane sashes. The west entrance front has a late 19th-century gable-ended porch constructed of banded brick, with brick acroteria on the gable. A central doorway has a shallow brick arch, leading to a four-panel door. Round-arched windows with marginal panes flank the porch. The interior contains mostly late 19th-century fittings, including a bowed rostrum with a turned balustrade, a projecting pulpit supported on octagonal columns, and winder stairs to the left and right, featuring stick balusters. It also has ornate cast iron panels to the communion rail. A noteworthy feature is a wooden chair with a seat inscribed 'BRILLY BRAY BALDHU 1839'. Some pews are earlier benches with shaped ends added. Billy Bray was a popular and respected local preacher who built several chapels, largely by his own hand, alongside his work in the mines and family responsibilities. According to a story recounted by F.W. Bourne in "BILLY BRAY" (1890), the chapel was originally mocked as "THREE EYES" due to its three windows, but was later enlarged to six windows. The book provides further details about Bray, including an amusing account of how he acquired a three-cornered cupboard to function as a pulpit for this very chapel. Further information can be found in “NONCONFORMIST CHAPELS” by Christopher Stell.