Capel Caersalem

Capel Caersalem is an Italianate chapel, dating from the 18th century, demonstrating group value. The front features a scribed stucco gable-end with painted tooled stone dressings and a slate roof. A coped gable is topped with moulded kneelers and an apex gabled finial with sunk circles. The central bay has approach steps to flanking gabled porches with coped gables. These have round-headed, two-light windows set within roll-moulded surrounds and a chevron-moulded arch on stiff-leaf capitals. Quatrefoil windows are set in the gables. The inner sides of the porches have panelled doors, and between them is a glazed lean-to roof above a pair of two-light mullioned windows. Above, an upper tier of gallery windows includes two two-light windows with Italianate tracery, and a quatrefoil tracery light with a keyed moulded surround that serves as a hood mould over the outer windows. The outer bays contain narrower round-headed windows.

The side and rear elevations are pebble-dashed. The five-window left side wall has two-light gallery windows with Italianate tracery, while below are two three-light windows and replaced basement windows. The rear gable end features two-light Italianate windows in the upper right and left corners, above a ledge, with plain windows below. A central, shallow, and narrow apse has a slate roof and three bullseye windows. The right side wall has similar gallery windows to the left side, but is roughcast and incorporates a reduced, corbelled stack set back from the rear end. The lower level is of rubble stone with slate lintels to windows right and left of centre; a basement retains small-pane sash windows.

The porches lead to vestibules containing curved wooden stairs that ascend to the gallery, and bullseye windows with etched glass providing views into the rear of the main chapel. The main chapel is characterized by a three-sided raked gallery with polygonal posts, a projecting panelled front on cusped open brackets, and a clock by Roberts & Owen of Caernarfon. The ceiling is composed of large square panels with narrower marginal panels, ornamented with subsidiary triangular relief panels bearing foliage decoration. A concave coving rests on a moulded plaster cornice, with principal ribs supported on corbels. A late 19th-century “set fawr” (choir area) and baptistery are enclosed by open arcading with square corner posts. Similar detail is present in the stairs and balustrade flanking the pulpit, which itself features a bust of Christmas Evans. Behind the pulpit, the shallow apse contains a keyed, richly moulded round arch on Corinthian pilasters and a segmental-arched tympanum with plaster panels. Its three windows contain stained glass depicting Alpha, Omega, and a dove. A tablet commemorating a former minister is positioned beneath the windows, and pine pews include panelled doors. The basement hall is supported by cast iron posts.