Bethesda Baptist Church is a Grade II* listed building in the Swansea local planning authority area, Wales. First listed on 30 March 1987. Mill. 1 related planning application.
Bethesda Baptist Church
- WRENN ID
- leaning-pinnacle-wagtail
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Swansea
- Constituency
- Swansea West MP: Torsten Bell (Lab)
- Country
- Wales
- Date first listed
- 30 March 1987
- Type
- Mill
- Address
- Bethesda Baptist Church, Castle, SA1 2EX
- OS grid reference
- SS 657 938
- Coordinates
- 51.62784, -3.94048
- Source
- Cadw listing
Description
Bethesda Baptist Church is a Neo-classical chapel featuring an elaborate Renaissance porch with a segmental plan. The south front has three bays of coursed ashlar, which is decayed, a modern pantile roof, and cemented and painted side elevations. The frontispiece is pedimented and includes a dentil cornice, balustraded parapets, and openwork domed turrets with finials at the corners. The entablature is supported by paired pilasters on tall panelled pedestals, featuring an interrupted string-course. The pediment has triple openings, with three round-headed lights below an inscribed frieze, moulded architraves, keyblocks, and linked impost bands, along with panelled fields that have roundels above the windows. The outer bays feature longer lights.
The porch has a segmental plan with three canted and richly carved doorpieces leading to round-arched openings, segmental pediments adorned with foliage finials and dove tympana, foliage spandrels, and Corinthian pilasters. There are paired round-arched doors beneath the porch.
The west elevation features a dentil cornice and an entablature that continues from the entrance front, with four pilastered bays and windows on two levels, while the north end is blank due to the removal of the chapel hall. The east elevation is two-storey with seven windows but lacks pilasters, although it has linked impost bands.
The north front is pedimented and includes a chimney at the apex, with domed turrets connected by solid parapets.
The interior is said to be excellent. Christman Evans, a notable preacher who died in 1838, was buried near the original chapel.
Local climate
Bethesda Baptist Church sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,380 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 97% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 98% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 14 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 87% of listed buildings. Of these, 5 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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