Moriah Baptist Church

The Moriah Baptist Church is a chapel dating from the tall round-arched style, constructed of snecked rockfaced sandstone with yellow ashlar dressings, rendered to the sides with a yellow brick cornice and pilasters, and decorative rockfaced stone. The frontage features a tripartite window at gallery level, characterized by elongated moulded round arches with foliage capitals and recessed half-round columns. A deeply splayed sill displays an inscription and date. Above this is a roundel and a very decorative billet-moulded eaves cornice. A stepped forward gabled porch mirrors the eaves and incorporates a high round-arched doorway with recessed double doors and a multipane overlight; decorative moulding adorns the doorway, with recessed columns. The porch is flanked by small bays with half-conical roofs and billet eaves moulding, square-headed side windows, and dedication stones below. Pier buttresses border the central bay, extending above eaves level, and feature a band of ashlar decoration at eaves level and an octagonal finial with a moulded capstone. Lower, four-sided staircase bays are positioned to either side, with metal finials to the roof and a similar eaves band. Round-arched windows are present on each floor, paired to the sides and joined by a deeply moulded hoodmould. Deep window splay extends to a moulded band over the projecting ground floor, which features square-headed windows with shouldered lintels and end doorways with dedication stones below. This band is stepped up to adjoin the porch roof. The doors are boarded, with decorative hinges and grained paint. To the side, the roof extends to the eaves level of the staircase bays. Pilasters separate the six bays. Gallery windows are round-headed with moulded render surrounds and a sill band, while ground floor windows are square-headed. A battered brick and stone plinth sits below and eaves are stepped and of moulded brick. A wing was added in the 1990s and is attached to the right side and rear.

The interior includes a steeply raked four-sided gallery with a bowed cast iron front and polished wood rail, which is further bowed around the sides of the moulded plaster arch, accommodating a large organ. Fluted cast iron columns with leaf capitals support the gallery, which has a bracketed soffit. Under the organ gallery is a small railed platform with a pulpit and baptistry, incorporating hydraulic machinery. A set fawr rail is similarly designed to the gallery. The windows contain coloured glass; on the south side, the frames are new. A large multipane window with coloured glazing illuminates the rear vestibule, which has glazed doors to the stairs, a terrazzo floor, and staircases with ramped rails and turned balusters. The ceiling is a decorative, panelled seven-bay wooden structure, supported by heavy corbels. A boarded dado is present, with scribed render to the walls.