No 64 Manod Road

Former chapel and attached No. 64

History: Built as the Bethesda Methodist Chapel in 1819; called St. Martin's Hall earlier this century when used as a church hall, apparently with seating for 750 persons. The contemporary No.64 was the former minister's house.

Exterior: Rectangular chapel of rubble construction with shallow-pitched renewed slate roof; half-hipped gable to the front. Symmetrical 2-storey, 3-bay facade with plain 2-storey rubble pilasters to the sides and dividing the bays. Central arched entrance with projecting keystone ; modern part-glazed doors. Similarly-arched tall flanking windows with fan glazing to upper segments and plain late C19 glazing below; projecting slate cills. Small-paned arched windows with fan glazing to upper floor; cills as before. Plain slate string-course above, terminating the pilasters. Half-hipped roof to rear and further small-pane fenestration (flat-arched) on 4 levels in the arrangement: 2 outer, 2 inner, 2 outer and at the apex a central window.

Interior: Simple gallery to road side on plain cast-iron columns; accessed via a later C19 single-flight stair with turned balusters and newel. Pine joinery throughout. All windows except those facing the road on the upper floor were externally boarded at the time of inspection (June 1995).

Adjoining the chapel and both stepped-down and set back, the former minister's house (No.64). Construction as before with plain gable end chimney to R; plain capping and weather coursing. Part-glazed, 4-panel Victorian door (arched, glazed upper panels) with single window to R on 2 floors; plain C19 sashes (restored).

An unusual and restrained earlier C19 chapel in a prominent road-side location.

Reference: G.J Williams, Hanes Plwyf Ffestiniog, p.147.