Capel Als, Marble Hall Road / Wern Road, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire

Name: Capel Als

Denomination: Independent

Built: 1780
Enlarged: 1797 & 1827
Rebuilt: 1852
Rebuilt: 1894
Modified: 1896

Photography: John Ball
Date: 29 March 2012
Camera: Nikon D50 digital SLR

Note 1: Capel Als Independent Chapel was first built in 1780 and enlarged in 1797 and 1827. The chapel was rebuilt and enlarged in 1852 to the design of architect Thomas Thomas, Landore, and later rebuilt again in 1894 by architect Owen Morris Roberts of Porthmadog. The present building, dated 1894, is built in the Classical style with a long-wall entry type and is noted for its stained glass windows. The building is Grade 2 listed. [Source: Coflein online database of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (accessed 12 Feb 2016)
Note 2: 1852-3 Independent Chapel by Reverend Thomas Thomas of Landore, altered 1894-5 by O M Roberts. Stucco unpainted Italianate building with 2-storey elevations, 4-window sides and 3-bay front, the centre slightly recessed. Exterior: Plain cornice and parapet, the centre parapet inscribed 'Capel Als' and with gabled capstone. Hipped slate roof with boarded eaves at sides and rear, parapet to front and short side returns. Front has arched windows in architraves with imposts, keystones and margin-glazed sashes. Sill band under first floor and paired pilasters framing outer bays of first floor. Ground floor has simplified paired strips to outer angles, corresponding inner pairs obscured by porch. First floor outer bays have single arched window and recessed centre has triplet of narrow windows. Ground floor has single narrow light each side and then porch of two 5-sided hipped-roofed projections each side of open 2-bay porch with lean-to roof and centre cast-iron column. Five-sided sections have 3 narrow arched lights to front faces and doors in inner faces. Within porch, centre large window with C20 Gothic glazing bars and stained glass. [Source: British Listed Buildings website (accessed 12 Feb 2016)]

Note 3: Chapel enclosure has an extensive set of cast-iron spearhead railings and gates with cast-iron Gothic gatepiers, the railings on dwarf rubble walls with cast-iron coping. Iron piers are marked 'Thomas and Clement, Llanelly' and coping is dated 1894. Railings extend up in front of Sunday School to east. [Source: British Listed Buildings website (accessed 12 Feb 2016)]

Note 4: The exterior [of Capel Als] is rather underwhelming but the interior [left and below] is one of the most glorious of any Nonconformist chapel in Britain. It is the summit of Victorian chapel-building ambition. This was the church of the great David Rees, a campaigning radical who detested the Anglicans and fought many battles for Nonconformist rights. This is the earliest Nonconformist cause in the town. [Extracted from personal email correspondence with Huw Edwards, dated 26 September 2011]

Note 5: The Royal Commission's Head of Survey and Investigation, Stephen Hughes, met Huw Edwards at Capel Als in Llanelli to discuss the social history represented by this great chapel. Capel Als was started in 1780 and enlarged twice in the next fifty years. It was then rebuilt to the designs of Thomas Thomas in 1852-3 and again in 1894-5. Capel Als was a working-class church whose membership was entirely Welsh-speaking. [Source: BBC Wales History website with link to two-minute video clip (accessed 12 Feb 2016)]

Note 6: The crowning glory is the coved ceiling [see below], decorated with an ornate combination of boarding and moulded plaster in squares and circles. [Source: Favourite Churches website – choice of Huw Edwards, journalist /broadcaster (accessed 12 Feb 2016)]

Above left: West window on north commemorating David Harries, Deacon & Secretary 1939. Right: Stained glass in the west side of the organ apse with harp. [Source: Coflein online database of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (accessed 13 Feb 2016)]