Capel Heol Awst

Capel Heol Awst is a Grade II* listed chapel of outstanding architectural and historical significance. Built primarily in 1827, it exemplifies the early adoption of Gothic detail in Nonconformist chapel design.

The building is constructed of unpainted roughcast with stucco dressings, roofed in slate with a deep-eaved hipped roof and bracketed eaves. The two-storey front elevation presents two windows across its width, with a striking ground floor featuring a pair of timber doorcases. Each doorcase is embellished with Ionic columns, entablature blocks, and open dentilled pediments above paired three-panel doors with flush panelled reveals and fanlights displaying enriched radial tracery. The stucco ground floor extends from the plinth to a moulded string course at pediment level, with channelled strips flanking the doors. The bay to the left of the left door is now obscured by an added schoolroom, while the bay to the right has channelled strips continuing up to the first floor impost course. Two arched first floor windows have wide heads with small panes and interlacing glazing bars, set within moulded stucco arches with keystones and plain raised sides. A centre plaque in an eared stucco frame breaks the string course between the windows. Cast iron rainwater goods are present throughout.

The right side is built in rubble stone with red brick dressings to openings, presenting a three-window range across two storeys with paired brackets to the eaves and cast iron rainwater goods. The windows are arched with small panes and Gothic interlacing tracery to the heads, with stone sills. The left side is similar in construction, though a lean-to addition obscures two ground floor windows. The rear elevation is rendered with two tall arched windows containing early 20th century stained glass.

The interior is of outstanding quality and represents a very early example of Gothic detail applied to a Nonconformist chapel. A three-sided galleried interior dates mainly to 1827, featuring painted grained gallery fronts with round arched panels decorated with simple Gothic cusping (comparable to contemporary work at Gwynfe chapel in Carmarthenshire). A clock by D Levy of Carmarthen is mounted in the gallery. Sharp curves define the gallery angles, and gallery seating is raked. The gallery is supported on fourteen marbled Ionic columns.

The chapel floor is fitted with box pews arranged in two large centre ranks and raked side blocks facing inward beneath the galleries. Additional inward-facing pews flank either side of the pulpit. Pew backs and doors are decorated with square panels. A panelled early 19th century pulpit stands on the back wall, accessed by sweeping curved stairs to either side fitted with a ramped handrail terminating in swirls and topped with stick balusters. The pulpit itself is of wine-glass type, mounted on a concave ribbed pedestal supported by a single timber Ionic column, which may originally have been taller. The pulpit back features a taller centre panel with lower flanks and Gothic detail matching the gallery panels.

Two large stained glass windows by Abbott & Co of London stand behind the pulpit, dating to 1922, with an additional window on the west side of circa 1946. The ceiling, apparently dating to 1860, features a good centre rose decorated with acanthus spiral and four lacy radiating pendants, with a coved plain cornice beneath. The lobby is fitted with six-panel internal doors surmounted by three-light overlights with large octagonal lamp-housings. A pair of ogee-headed lobby windows from 1827 retains contemporary stained glass.

Monuments within the chapel include one to John Corrie (died 1731) with moulded frame and inscription noting his burial beneath his own seat in the original meeting house; one to Reverend Samuel Thomas from 1766 with shaped top; and one to Edward Bowen Jones (died 1879), a Gothic composition with cusped frame and coloured marble colonnettes, created in 1885 by Burke & Co of London.

A large pipe organ by James J Buis of Bramley Organ Works, Leeds, is positioned in the gallery.