According to Coflein, the chapel was built in 1828, and later modified in 1867. The place is now demolished down to a level of about four feet, with the rubble filling the remaining walls to the top, so little can be found out about the inside of the place. I didn't see any slates around, so perhaps these were taken to be reused, or have ended up in the inside of the building under the rubble. The roof may have collapsed a considerable time before the building was demolished.
The chapel is at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7515 6748.
A footpath leads down past the chapel, although the 'gateway' is a little awkward.
Very little remains of the chapel after it was demolished. It would be interesting to see if the rubble inside has protected anything of the floor and lower walls. Apparently a neighbour from nearby Pontwgan was employed to demolish the place in the 1990s, in order to make the building safe, by National Power.
The front of the chapel has no render on it, and is just bare stone. I would guess it used to be rendered and the render has fallen off over time.
Radiating around the chapel are the houses of Rowlyn Isaf and Uchaf, Bont Newydd and Pont Newydd, Ffrith Ddu, Bryn Gwenith, Fachell, and Pwll Du, with a few other more outlying buildings, so there could have been a sizeable congregation. A track leads, on the 1888-1913 map, from Bryn Gwenith straight up to the chapel, as does one from Rowlyn Isaf. Only Rowlyn Uchaf is still inhabited today.
The interior of the chapel, full of stone. Unfortunately the low winter sun caused a lot of glare in the photographs.
A little walled enclosure surrounds the chapel, which sits on a raised plinth. Some parts of the wall are still a little higher than the top of the plinth.
This photo taken not long before the chapel was demolished shows the house on the end of the building. It must have been a very small dwelling.
At first I thought the front of the chapel had been heavily whitewashed, but I think this is lichen. I assume the front of the building would have been rendered originally, since the other walls are rendered.
The edges of the white patches show natural growth. I've rarely seen lichen so white and so extensive.
I don't know the date of this photograph, sent to me by someone who lives nearby, but it shows the chapel intact, still with its windows, although a couple of panes seem to have been broken in the attached house. Perhaps the chimney served both the house and the chapel, for domestic use in the house and to keep the chill off the chapel when it was being used. The building doesn't seem to have been painted or whitewashed at all, and only rather roughly rendered.
The house attached to the chapel doesn't show occupation before 1871, and it could be that the house was added in 1867, when Coflein mentions modifications being made to the chapel. Interestingly, in 1871 the place was lived in by John Williams, 34, a miller, and his wife Debora, 24, with children Jane, 9, and Robert, 7. John was born in Abergele, his wife in Caerhun, and the children in Dolwyddelan. Was John Williams working at the nearby mill of Onen Ebryd, which only had a farmer living there at the time? Incidentally, Debora seems rather young to have a child of nine, so perhaps the children belonged to a deceased former wife, or her age is wrong.
In 1881, 1891, and 1901 the place was uninhabited on the night of the census, although it could have been lived in between those times. In 1911 it was lived in again, by Richard Roberts, 28, a labourer at the Aluminium Works in Dolgarrog, his wife Mary Catherine, 28, and their daughter Mary Ellen, listed as age three. The couple had been married for less than a year. Richard was born in Caerhun, but his wife and daughter were both born in Llansanffraid (presumably Glan Conwy), Denbighshire. Both parents are bilingual. The census states that there are three rooms in the house.
A blocked up doorway on the east face of the northern end of the chapel, which seems to be a lobby or anteroom. The aerial view of the place shows the chapel to be symmetrical, with this narrower lobby at the centre of the north end. The door can be seen in the photo above.
The ruined corner of this little lobby shows the very messy state of the inside of the walls. They seem to be faced with big stones but filled with rubble.
The inside of this lobby still has plaster on the walls.
Looking over the rubble of the ruin from beside the lobby area.
The area behind the chapel, with the field wall to the right. For some reason this part is fenced off.
It must have been a test of faith getting up to the chapel on wet or freezing winter days, but the place certainly had wonderful views. This is looking northwards towards Pen y Gaer and the sea.
Testimony by John Owen in the 1930s points to a thriving little place of worship in former years:
CAU Y CAPELI.
Trwy yr ymfudo parhaus o'r 'cymoedd hyn ar hyd y blynyddoedd diwethaf, mae tri o gapelau wedi gorfod cael eu cau i ddiffyg poblogaeth, sef Capel Nant Brwynog, perthynol i'r Annibynwyr, yr hwn a godwyd mewn lle cyfleus, yn y dyddiau gynt, ar gwrr uchaf y nant; Capel Ardda, drachefn perthynol ar y dechrau i'r Methodistiaid "Calfinaidd, ac yn perthyn i ofalaeth Trefriw Codwyd y capel hwn ar ochr bellaf Ardda, yn ymyl Pen yr Allt Inigo. Bu yn cael ei gario ymlaen am beth amser gan y Methodistiaid a'r Annibynwyr gyda'i gilydd. Nid oes yr un gwasanaeth yn cael ei gynnal yno ers llawer o amser. Capel Soar eto, perthynol i'r Annibynwyr, a than ofalaeth yr eglwys yr Salem, Llanbedr. Dyma eglwys a fu yn flodeuog iawn am lawer o flynyddoedd.
Mae y capel wedi ei adeiladu, gyda thy yn ei ymyl, mewn lle amlwg ar y bryn uwchlaw Rowlyn Isa;- Nid oes ond ychydig flynyddoedder pan yr aeth y boblogaeth yn rhy fach i allu cario gwasanaeth ymlaen yno. Ar un adeg bu yr eglwys fach yma yn ddigon cefnog i gynnal eisteddfod fawr lwyddiannus am ddwy flynedd yn olynol Codasant, babell eang yn y cae o dan y capel, a llwyddasant I gael corau ac amryw o gantorion enwog yno i gystadlu, yn ogystal a llawer o ymgeiswyr yr adrannau llen. Cawsant yr enwog Danymarian yno i feirniadu yn un o'r eisteddfodau, a D. Emlyn Evans y flwyddyn ddilynol.
CHAPEL CLOSURE
Through the continuous emigration from these valleys over recent years, three chapels have been forced to close due to a declining population; Capel Nant Brwynog, which was built in a convenient place for the Independents in former days on the upper reaches of the valley; Capel Ardda, again originally belonging to the Calvinistic Methodists, and belonging to the pastorate of Trefriw. This chapel was built on the far side of Ardda, near Pen yr Allt Inigo. It was carried on for some time by the Methodists and the Congregationalists together. No service has been held there for a long time. Capel Soar, again belonging to the Independents, and in the care of the church at Salem, Llanbedr. This is a church that flourished for many years.
The chapel was built, with a house next to it, in a prominent position on the hill above Rowlyn Isa. It is only a few years since the population became too small to carry on a service there. At one time this small church was affluent enough to hold a large successful eisteddfod for two years in a row. They built a large tent in the field under the chapel, and they had choirs and various famous singers there to compete, as well as many candidates of the curtain sections. They had the famous Danymarian there to adjudicate at one of the eisteddfodau, and D. Emlyn Evans the following year.
The view east across the valley. Sunrise would be beautiful here.
The view north, towards the hills further up the valley.
Leaving the chapel behind, from here it doesn't look more than a stone wall.
We walked on down the hill, north east towards Rowlyn Isaf, in search of another small building marked on the map.
Two fields away from the chapel is this little ruined building. I don't know the purpose of it. It's just a little closer to the farm of Rowlyn Isaf than it is to the chapel, at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7543 6770.
The place is very ruined but still has some timbers lying on the ground.
The sheep were fascinated, I think hoping to be fed, and played a game of 'What's the Time, Mr Wolf?' following every time I walked and stopping whenever I turned around.
A lot of rubble lies at this southern end, mostly made up of unworked stones.
I think there may be two doorways, one to the right and one to the left, but I would have to revisit the site to be sure. This two doorway arrangement seems typical of a lot of farm outbuildings. The stonework looks 19th century or later.
Scattered slates are evidence that the place once had a slate roof.
More slates, which are fairly small, unlike the more modern, larger and more regular ones.
A single roof ridge tile, with no maker's mark on it.
The surviving doorway into the building, with hungry sheep looking through from behind. The building seems to be built largely of faced stone at the front.
A lot of render still remains around the stones.
There's a lot of roof timber inside the building, although this is rotting away.
Inside the building, looking towards the south end where there might have been another door.
The back of the building is much more ruined, with the stones looking less worked.
The north west corner of the structure.
The wall is very eroded at this north end.
The render on the doorway shows a line where the frame might have sat, and this big nail near the bottom which may have held the frame.
The right side of the doorway shows the same pattern.
This north-east corner is very ruined.
No comments:
Post a Comment