Hen Capel Baptist Chapel was built before 1800 and by 1905 was serving as the Sunday School. This former chapel was built in the Vernacular style of the long-wall entry type. By 1994 this chapel stood disused.

Architecturally, Capel Bach belongs to the earliest phase of chapel building in Wales, of a distinctive and now rare “lateral entry” or “long wall” plan. Originally there were 3 doors in the façade (facing east) – the central opening on to the ground floor and facing the pulpit, the doors either side opening onto lobbies with internal stairs to the gallery. This arrangement is of interest, because it represents a development from a late-Georgian pattern in which separate external stairs gave access to the gallery, and there was no internal circulation between main floor and the gallery.

In the late 19th century the chapel was converted into a Sunday School, probably when Mount Pleasant Chapel was constructed nearby in the 1860s. At this point the gallery space was floored over and alterations made to the ground floor space with parts of the gallery fronts reused for partitioning.

The chapel has been grade II listed for its special architectural interest as a rare survival of a distinctive chapel type, largely retaining its original layout, and special historic interest for its very early origins.

Reference: Cadw listed buildings description, May 2022.

Site Record

Capel Bach; Hen Capel, Chapel Lane, Solva;Baptist Sunday School