English Presbyterian Chapel

English Presbyterian Chapel

A cruciform plan chapel designed in the style of Decorated Gothic, with a lower storey containing vestry, schoolroom and other ancillary spaces. The main chapel body comprises a 'nave' of 3 bays with a shorter, narrower 'chancel' at the west end, a canted vestry in the southwest angle, and a tower with spire incorporating the entrance at its lower stage in the angle between the nave and north transept. The building is constructed of snecked granite—darker in the lower storey—with limestone ashlar dressings and offset buttresses that articulate the elevations by dividing them into regular bays. The slate roof is finished with decorative red clay ridge tiles and stone copings, with crosses mounted at each gable.

The tower has angle buttresses and stepped chamfered angles in the upper stage, providing visual transition to the spire which surmounts a polygonal bell-chamber stage. The bell-chamber is lit by lancet lights positioned between engaged shafts. Windows to the upper storey feature pointed arches with geometric tracery, relieving arches, and labels terminating in floriate stops. The 'nave' is lit by single and 2-light windows, the transepts by 3-light windows, and the 'chancel' by a richly traceried 4-light window. The transept and chancel apexes are lit by wheel or trefoiled windows. The lower storey has simpler fenestration.

Interior walls are plastered and painted, with the lower half clad in tongue and groove panelling below a panelled dado. The ceiling comprises a wagon barrel roof of tongue and groove boards forming a chevron pattern. The nave extends for 2.5 roof bays with 4 panels per bay; the central 2 panels incorporate decorative pierced metal ventilation grilles. The chancel and transepts each form a single roof bay with vaulting at the intersection, decorated with floriate bosses. Roof trusses are carried down to colonnettes supported on moulded corbels, some bearing shields on the facing panel. The chancel is raised by 3 steps and accessed through a pointed arch of two orders supported on a marble colonnette above a moulded corbel; the label above terminates in floriate stops. The transepts are spanned by arches of 3 chamfered orders above engaged columns in the Tuscan style.

The reredos is formed of limestone, now painted, comprising an applied order of cusped pointed arches across the east wall. A square-headed doorway at the southwest end of the chancel opens to stairs leading down to the vestry, schoolroom, kitchen and toilets below.

The font is a 20th-century octagonal example. The octagonal pulpit features 4 facing panels with applied order decoration matching the reredos, composed of composite pillars of marble colonnettes and small engaged marble spheres between arches, surmounted by a floriate frieze. The pulpit is raised by 3 curving steps with brass handrail supported on iron balusters and floriate brackets. Pews and choir stalls are of pitch pine. The organ in the chancel features ornate pipes and was installed when the chapel was built; it was the first blower organ on the island.

The west gable window in the 'chancel' contains stained glass depicting biblical scenes, erected to the memory of Robert Davies of Bodlondeb, who died in 1905.

Monuments include a series of white marble tablets with peach and green borders in the north transept (also known as the Davies Chapel), commemorating members of the Davies family of Treborth Hall. The west wall bears a monument of pink veined marble to Richard Davies (died 1896), with an inscription tablet surrounded by angels set within a moulded surround featuring floriate design. The chancel contains a brass plaque (complemented by the west window) to Robert Davies (died 1905). The north wall of the nave displays a white marble plaque to R G Thomas, architect of the chapel, who died in 1909. The south wall bears two marble plaques commemorating those who fell in the 1914–18 and 1939–45 World Wars.