Bethel Chapel, Gatepiers And Retaining Wall With Steps Fronting Property

Bethel Chapel is a Congregational church built in 1890. It features roughcast over rubble, a rendered plinth, and rusticated quions. The clay tiled roof has a slight bell-cast, decorative ridge tiles, and decorative terracotta finials at the gable ends. The chapel is a single cell structure set into the hillside, parallel with the road, and is approached from the south corner by a lateral flight of steps. There are gate piers with a lamp overthrow and a retaining wall that runs the length of the building.

The entrance has two windows to the left and one to the right, with rusticated jambs, voussoirs with inverted arch heads, and a decorative keystone above the doorway. The windows are arch-headed, 2-light with marginal glazing bars and Gothick tracery tops, while the doorway has a plain fanlight above a plank door. A wrought iron lamp bracket is located to the left of the entrance. The right return was inaccessible during the survey in May 1985, but the left return has two similar arch-headed windows with rusticated jambs and plain voussoirs, along with a date stone in the gable end reading "AD 1890". There is a flat-roofed addition on the left with a 20th-century window above a plank door. The interior was not seen.

The gatepiers are made of brick with inset moulded decorative glazed panels and concrete pyramid tops. They feature a modillion cornice, which is damaged on the right pier, and a plinth, with a wrought iron overthrow that includes a lamp. The flight of steps has a ratio of 1:4:5, with slate treads and unglazed tiles on the landings, which are in poor condition. The retaining wall is constructed of squared, irregularly coursed local stone, with moulded brick coping at the top and stands about 2 meters high at the east end, stepping down to the gate pier at the south end. This chapel is a notable example of a non-conformist chapel and Waterrow was the most significant settlement in the parish during the 19th century.