Capel-y-Doc Chapel was built in 1867, in the Classical style of the gable entry type, to the design of architect John Humphreys of Morriston. This is an important example of Humphreys early work and features a large arch in the facade. By 1998 the chapel had fallen into disuse.
RCAHMW, June 2009
Capel-y-Doc Independent 1867
This was an important early work by John Humphrey, designer of the most impressive chapel in Wales, Tabernacle at Morriston, and its namesake at Llanelli. At Capel-y-Doc Humphrey copied another eminent architect of the Independents, Thomas Thomas, in using a recessed great-arch as the centrepiece of the main show-front of the chapel, the side-walls were rendered and very plain. The 1860s `great-arch' chapels of Humphrey can be distinguished from those of Thomas by their use of twin windows and doors set within the great-arch as here, rather than Thomas's characteristic use of an arched Venetian window set over the door-level (as at Ebenezer) with a single doorway under. The seated capacity of the chapel in 1905 was recorded as 700, near the average for Llanelli, although its schoolroom's provision for 200 pupils was fairly small for the town.
