Capel Soar, rear vestry, front railings and gates is a Grade II listed building in the Ceredigion local planning authority area, Wales. First listed on 29 September 2000. A Victorian Church.
Capel Soar, rear vestry, front railings and gates
- WRENN ID
- strange-steeple-plover
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Ceredigion
- Country
- Wales
- Date first listed
- 29 September 2000
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Victorian
- Source
- Cadw listing
Description
Capel Soar is a chapel built of rubble stone with grey cut stone dressings and some moulded yellow brick, beneath slate roofs. Foundation stones are marked 'Gosodwyd dydd Nadolig 1874' (Built Christmas Day 1874). The building features a gable front in round-arched style with a tower and octagonal spirelet to the left and a hipped wing to the right.
The facade displays a coped gable with an iron cross finial. Below this, the facade is recessed with yellow brick mouldings following the gable line, with angle piers having flush quoins. Square-cut voussoirs sit above yellow brick. A ground floor lean-to three-bay porch with gabled centre features small recessed two-light windows each side with a centre pilaster and small-paned glazing with arch heads. The centre has a coped gable with iron finial, a moulded segmental-headed doorcase with fanlight over double six-panel doors, and yellow brick chamfering to the plinth.
The first floor displays three large windows with pilasters between and moulded capitals, repeated each side as a moulded band that breaks forward over the angle piers. Each window is square-headed but with chamfered top corners to accommodate pilaster cornices. Above are three large plate-traceried grey stone roundels recessed in moulded surrounds, unglazed as they sit above internal ceiling height. The centre roundel has a punched quatrefoil; the outer ones have five holes in a cross pattern. A triple-arched head with stone voussoirs and keystones crowns this section. Above sits a large plain roundel with a timber louvred eight-pointed star and stone voussoirs.
The right wing has a roof hipped at right angles to the facade, with yellow brick eaves mouldings matching those on the main gable. It features a single long arched light with flush quoins, a moulded impost band, and a moulded arch. Small-paned windows are divided by a panelled ashlar piece with marginal bars to the glazing.
The tower to the left has a similar long window but undivided, with a lower head and the impost band carried around the tower at the level of the base of the centre windows. A small roundel above has a broad ashlar surround and yellow brick outer ring, positioned at the level of the main facade roundels. The tower broaches to octagonal at gable springing level, with ashlar dressings. Each face has a small louvred rectangular opening with a bull-nosed band above, then plain stonework under the moulded brick eaves of the steep octagonal slated spirelet.
The chapel sides have five large full-height arched windows in yellow brick surrounds with yellow brick moulded eaves. A low single-storey vestry to the rear is built of stone and yellow brick with a brick end stack. Cast iron cresting runs along the rubble front wall with slate coping, and elaborate scrolled and floriated ironwork adorns the centre gates.
The large interior contains no galleries. Plastered walls are lined as ashlar with bead-moulded window surrounds. A moulded cornice and ceiling features five small roses linked by moulded plaster ribs. Behind the pulpit is an unusually large stucco recess with pilaster sides, a moulded arch keystone, moulded spandrel panels, full cornice and blocking course above. Numbered pitch pine pews, slightly raked towards the front, have shaped bench ends and roll-moulded tops. A large set fawr with centre canted outward has a back panelled in horizontal panels under low turned balustrades with heavy corner newels and ball finials. An ornate platform with similar balusters to steps up each side has stair rails scrolled under themselves onto turned newels. The platform features short balustrades over panels like the set fawr, with newels and ball finials. The projecting pulpit front is heavily arcaded with two bays to front and one each side, featuring squat columns, moulded arches and keystones. Carved capitals and small spandrel panels decorate the space, with arch-headed figured wood panels within each arch and carved brackets to the bookrest. Vestry doors each side of the set fawr are six-panelled. A memorial plaque commemorates Reverend Humphrey Jones (1832–1895), minister here and a leading figure in the 1859 Revival. The entrance end has tall blank panels to the tower, three doors into a lobby, three large windows above, and narrow superimposed windows to the left.
The vestry has a three-sided ceiling with exposed trusses and purlins, and a boarded dado.
All glazing throughout features small panes with coloured glass margins.
Detailed Attributes
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