The Gnoll Road Congregational Chapel was the successor to Wind Street Congreational Chapel (NPRN 9441) when it was decided that that chapel had become too small.
The parcel of land on Gnoll Road (then named Bartlett Road and now Victoria Gardens) was donated by Richard Bartlett, then being part of an orchard. (1) In July 1885, tenders for the work were opened by the building committee, the results being Mr Evan Thomas (Seven Sisters), £ 3,300; Messrs Jenkins, Thomas, and Watkins (Swansea), £ 3,000; Messrs D. J, Jones and Co., (Gloucester), £ 2,370 and Messrs Thomas and Co., (Neath), £ 2,628. The tender of Messrs Thomas & Cox of Neath was accepted (2)
The laying of the foundation stones took place in August 1885, led by the Rev T Rhondda Williams, Minister of the Wind Street Chapel. The chief stone was laid by Mr S Morley MP, with a 'handsome' silver trowel, further stones were laid by Sir John Jenkins MP (to the late Rev. Dr Rees), Miss E M Morgan (to her mother Mrs W T Morgan). Around 200 people then gathered at Robinson's Assembly Hall. The architect was Mr D M Davies of Neath, who has designed the chapel in the Early Gothic style at an estimated cost of £3,000. (3)
The new church opened in mid October 1886, when the Rev. E. Herber Evans, chairman of the Congregational Union of Wales, preached in the morning and evening, and the Rev. J. Pandy Williams in the afternoon, to overflowing congregations. The report of the opening recorded the chapel as measuring inside 57ft by 37ft, exclusive of the transepts (16ft by 10 1/2ft) and a vestibule, and holding 700 people. (4)
The chapel, viewed in a historic postcard, was constructed in the Gothic style of coursed snecked stonework with ashlar dressings. The facade was of three bays, the two outer bays being advanced. Each narrow outer bay comprised of a ground floor door, with ashlar stone, pointed-arch, architraves with corthinian capitals to narrow carved stone columns. Above a stringcourse, to the first floor was a two-light window with central cinquefoil cusping to the head; above a second, eaves level, stringcourse, the pediment contained a roundel window. The corners of the bays had stepped buttresess. The central, wider, bay had two doorways to the centre with similar architraves, flanked by a similar two-light Gothic window to either side. On the first floor were three large Perendicualr tracery windows, the central one larger than the outer two. The second stringcourse sits higher within the pediment, and to the apex of the gable is an identical roundel. (5)
An interior postcard image shows a highly ornate interior; a Sedd Fawr was fronted with cast iron foliate designs, in front of a large platform pulpit fronted with velvet curtains behind a seris of slendercast iron(?) columns with ornately curving heads. A four-side gallery had an open cast iron front and pews to all four sides, and there was a large pipe organ above against the rear wall. A canted ceiling had cusped trusses. (6)
By 1997 the chapel was disused and soon after was demolished and Llys Bartlett flats built on the site.
(1) T Mardy Rees, 'The first English Congregational Church, Neath' in Congregational Historical Society transactions Vol. XV No. 4 April 1948 p. 190-194
(2) South Wales Echo 1st August 1885 (Special edition)
(3) South Wales Daily News 28th August 1885
(4) South Wales Daily News 18th October 1886
(5) The Churches of Britain and Ireland: Gnoll Road Chapel Exterior
(6) The Churches of Britain and Ireland: Gnoll Road Chapel Interior
