Tabernacle Chapel

The Tabernacle Chapel is a building of the 1866, constructed with painted stucco and a Welsh slate roof. It has a pedimental gable with bargeboards and a two-storey, three-window front. A keyed roundel on the gable displays the inscription "TABERNACLE erected by the Calvinistic Methodists 1866." A raised stucco band sits below the roundel. The windows are arched and originally featured small-paned glazing and marginal glazing bars; those on the upper floor are original, while the lower floor windows are 20th-century plastic imitations, incorporating much bubble glass.

Around 1900, a porch was added, featuring a slated, gabled roof, a Tudor-arched opening with moulded caps to the piers, and moulding continued around the side eaves. The original arched entrance contains a pair of three-panel doors with a fanlight above. The sides of the chapel are two storeys high with three bays, exhibiting exposed rubble and brick dressings on the south side. The ground floor windows are flat-headed, while those above are arched, all with timber sashes, small panes, and marginal glazing bars, and incorporating bubble glass. A later vestry was built to the rear, and a chapel house to the right, the latter having been altered with a modern porch and windows.

The interior, as described in a previous inspection, is galleried, with the galleries likely dating to 1866, alongside later 19th-century pews, a pulpit, and an organ recess. A heavy painted timber gallery occupies three sides, with curved angles, long horizontal panels separated by smaller square panels, all heavily framed. A coved cornice sits beneath, supported by five plain cast iron columns with neck rings. The pews are of pitch-pine, featuring a double centre block and single side blocks, with slatted backs and shaped bench ends. They are angled towards the pulpit, with two additional pews at a right angle to the left of the pulpit. Gallery pews are raked with long panels to their backs and simple shaped bench ends. The ceiling has a painted stucco cornice but is otherwise plain, and a central rose has been removed. A free-standing cast-iron railing with a trilobe plan divides off the pulpit end. The railing has timber coping, a scrolled floral pattern to the iron uprights, and florid iron newels. The pitch-pine pulpit platform is large, with plain steps on each side, and a projecting canted pulpit between the open three-bay sides, all decorated with traceried Gothic detail. The pulpit features blank panels, angle-shafts, and a moulded top rail, curved in the outer bay, and raised on a panelled base, with a short pew positioned behind. A large elliptical arched opening with a Gothic traceried wooden rail leads to the organ recess, matching the pulpit detail. The pipe organ is in a simple Gothic timber frame with machicolated upper rails, four uprights with finials, and a large rectangular window with marginal glazing bars in a modern lobby behind it. Two flights of stairs lead to original four-panel doors to the gallery. A window has been blocked to the gallery’s right side due to the addition of the chapel house. Internally, all arched windows are within square-headed openings.