Beulah

Calvinistic Methodist Calvinistic Methodists were born out of the 18th-century Welsh Methodist revival and survive as a body of Christians now forming the Presbyterian Church of Wales. Calvinistic Methodism became a major denomination in Wales, growing rapidly in the 1 ...

Chapel, also known locally as "The Round Chapel" and in Welsh as "Capel y Groes", is a Grade II*-listed building in Margam, Port Talbot,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It originally built in the mid-nineteenth century and had to be dismantled and moved in 1974 to make way for the new

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...

History

The Romanesque-style chapel was constructed as part of the "planned village" of

Groes Heat shock 10 kDa protein 1 (Hsp10), also known as chaperonin 10 (cpn10) or early-pregnancy factor (EPF), is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''HSPE1'' gene. The homolog in ''E. coli'' is GroES that is a chaperonin which usually works ...

, created by architect

Edward Haycock, Sr. Edward Haycock Sr. (29 July 1790 – 20 December 1870) was an English architect working in the West Midlands and in central and southern Wales in the late Georgian architecture, Georgian and early Victorian architecture, Victorian periods. Biog ...

The chapel's design was approved by local landowner C. R. M. Talbot, and is possibly based on the Chapter House at

Margam Park Margam Country Park is a country park estate in Wales, of around 850 acres (3.4 km²). It is situated in Margam, about 2 miles (3 km) from Port Talbot in south Wales. It was once owned by the Mansel Talbot family and is now owned and ...

. It was built by Thomas Jenkin in 1838 at the cost of £800 using material from the estate. In 1974, the government decided to demolish the village to make room for the new M4 motorway. The chapel was the only building in the village to be saved; it was re-located in 1975–76 to Tollgate Park, a short distance away, where it still stands. It was Grade II*-listed on 9 January 1976 "as the only surviving octagonal chapel in Wales, and a special example of the round-arched style in chapel architecture."

Description

The octagonal chapel is Romanesque in style with coursed

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

walls and a hipped slate roof. The walls have ashlar

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s that rise to a pronounced Lombard

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

with false

machicolation A machicolation (french: mâchicoulis) is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones or other material, such as boiling water, hot sand, quicklime or boiling cooking oil, could be dropped on attackers at t ...

s. The

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

of the roof project out over the walls and the roof is topped by a bell

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

with a tall

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

. There is a small entrance bay with a tiled floor. The gallery is supported by two cast-iron columns with ringed capitals and has a straight wood-panelled front with five tiers of

pew A pew () is a long bench (furniture), bench seat or enclosed box, used for seating Member (local church), members of a Church (congregation), congregation or choir in a Church (building), church, synagogue or sometimes a courtroom. Overview ...

References

{{Authority control Churches completed in 1838 Grade II* listed churches in Neath Port Talbot Octagonal churches in the United Kingdom Relocated buildings and structures in Wales Chapels in Neath Port Talbot