Tabernacle Congregational Chapel, including forecourt gates and wall, and attached vestries. is a Grade II listed building in the Neath Port Talbot local planning authority area, Wales. First listed on 3 August 2000. Chapel.

Tabernacle Congregational Chapel, including forecourt gates and wall, and attached vestries.

WRENN ID
iron-panel-summer
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Neath Port Talbot
Constituency
Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe MP: David Chadwick (LD)
Country
Wales
Date first listed
3 August 2000
Type
Chapel
Address
Tabernacle Congregational Chapel, including forecourt gates and wall, and attached vestries., Pontardawe
OS grid reference
SN 723 042
Coordinates
51.72214, -3.8489
Source
Cadw listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Tabernacle Congregational Chapel, along with its forecourt gates and wall, and attached vestries, is a notable building constructed from rock-faced brown stone with low courses and freestone dressings, featuring brick dressings on the sides and a slate roof. The chapel has a gabled Gothic front, complete with end buttresses and pinnacles. A quatrefoil is situated in the gable, and there is a central doorway with a window above that has two lights and a quatrefoil. Each side of the chapel features a tall two-light round-headed window with hardwood glazing. The forecourt is enclosed by a low stone wall topped with cast-iron railings that have fleur-de-lys finials, along with iron gatepiers that include a semi-circular overthrow with similar finials and matching cast-iron gates. The sides of the chapel have windows at two levels, which are round-arched over camber-headed.

Inside, the chapel boasts a very fine unaltered interior. The lobby has flanking stairs leading to the gallery, and on the chapel side, there is a notable stained glass window that serves as a War Memorial from 1949. The body of the chapel features a flat boarded and ribbed ceiling adorned with three elaborate roses, decorative vents on the sides, and a classicising cornice. An impressive gallery, supported by iron columns, encircles all four sides, dropping behind the pulpit and in front of the organ. The wooden gallery frontal is designed with arcading and bracketing, and there is a clock positioned opposite the pulpit. At the rear, there is an organ by Brinley and Foster, with exposed pipes housed in a decorative case. The original wooden seating remains intact at both the gallery level and in the body of the chapel. The octagonal pulpit is flanked by stairs with iron balustrading. Behind the body of the chapel, there is a Deacon's room and a Vestry/Schoolroom block, which includes an unaltered stage, a glass screen leading to the kitchen, and an open roof supported by iron ties.

Local climate

Tabernacle Congregational Chapel, including forecourt gates and wall, and attached vestries. 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 96% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 28 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 69% of listed buildings. Of these, 12 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

Sign in or create a free account to unlock:

  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • No related consent applications matched
  • 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
Create free account

Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.

Similar buildings

The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.

Nearby listed buildings

  1. Gatepiers and gates to Church of Saint Peter Grade II 124 m
  2. Graveslab and railings to William Parsons, churchyard of Church of Saint Peter Grade II 128 m
  3. Church of Saint Peter Grade II* 147 m
  4. Former National Schools Grade II 195 m
  5. The War Memorial Grade II 273 m
  6. Upper Clydach Aqueduct and Overflow on Swansea Canal Grade II 388 m
  7. Pont ar Dawe (partly in Cilybebyll community) Grade II 503 m
  8. Pont ar Dawe (partly in Pontardawe community) Grade II 524 m
  9. Ynysmeudwy Isaf Overbridge on Swansea Canal Grade II 561 m
  10. Alltycham House Grade II 576 m