Hope Independent Chapel

Hope Independent Chapel

A gable-fronted Independent Chapel of 1872 built in Gothic style, constructed of coursed brown rock-faced rubble stone with Bathstone dressings and a slate roof. The facade is dominated by a raised coped gable bearing an iron finial.

The front elevation is two storeys with a four-window arrangement. Outer clasping buttresses at the angles rise as octagonal ashlar pinnacles from square bases. Paired first-floor openings are separated by a central mid-buttress and feature paired Y-traceried ashlar windows with pointed heads. Corresponding ground-floor doors sit in gabled ashlar doorcases. Between the first-floor windows is a small ashlar trilobe with a double hoodmould inscribed "Hope Chapel Built 1872", beneath which runs a flush band. The mid-buttress itself has a coped gable with finial beneath the band, with set-offs at first-floor sill level and another coped gable with finial at ground level. The outer buttresses are articulated with three set-offs, then square plinths rise to octagonal ashlar shafts topped with steep pointed octagonal caps bearing iron finials. The centre recessed paired pointed ashlar windows have outer quoins, a centre pier, and paired hoodmoulds with carved stops, together with stone voussoirs, ashlar sills and a thin band on each side. The doorcases feature flush ashlar surrounds beneath gabled hoods with finials. Blank trefoils appear in each gable. The doors are boarded timber with leaded overlights.

The right side is rough rubble stone with a pitched slate roof, containing a seven-window range interrupted by three buttresses. All windows are tall and pointed-headed with brick dressings and reveals.

The left side is similar but built in rock-faced rubble with flush ashlar heads to the windows, which are glazed with timber Y-tracery.

To the rear is a vestry, possibly the original chapel of 1869, with a pointed-headed window flanking a door on each side, glazed with Y-tracery, and a stucco-rendered rear wall.

Beyond this stands a two-storey vestry dating to 1909 with unpainted stucco facades at each end, featuring three arched windows to the first floor (with the central window larger), a ground floor of two cambered-headed 12-pane sashes with a centre pedimented door, and hoodmoulds to all windows. Recessed side windows carry hoodmoulds, and a roundel vent with the date "1909" appears in the gable. The two-storey side wall contains four windows.

Interior

The unusually long chapel interior is spanned by a seven-bay roof with arch-braced collar trusses rising from corbels. The ceiling is lined with narrow boarding following the line of arch braces and collars, with a flat centre section containing four fretwork diamond-shaped vents. A long three-sided gallery with curved angles runs the length of the chapel, supported on four iron columns (4x1x4 section) with leaf caps, with an additional column set back beneath the deep raked rear gallery.

The gallery front is painted with long inset cast-iron panels of intricate pattern, separated by pilasters bearing raised motifs. A deep cornice with widely-spaced shaped brackets runs below, surmounted by a moulded upper cornice with pilaster caps broken forward. Pine pews with round finials to bench ends occupy three blocks, with outer pews canted. A canted three-sided lobby with three windows and half-glazed doors leads to the chapel; this section and the large main windows above the gallery are glazed with early 20th-century coloured glass.

The chancel area features a panelled curved-ended plain "set fawr". A fine pulpit with curving steps rising each side and turned balusters stands on square newels, its canted three-sided front panelled and enriched with rosettes in the angles. Behind stands a large pointed organ arch, moulded on a pair of short columns. The organ is a fine instrument by J. Davies & Son of Swansea, dated 1893, with a Gothic pine case and painted pipes arranged in five bays, sheltered beneath a boarded ribbed pointed roof.

The gallery accommodates raked pews curved to follow the gallery front, with a boarded dado continued as stick balusters across the windows.