Chapel Newydd Chapel was built in 1809, enlarged in 1821 and then rebuilt in 1828 and 1840. A schoolroom was added in 1901 and a new facade in 1910. The present chapel, dated 1910, has a Classical Facade and a long-wall entry plan.The building is now Grade 2 listed.

RCAHMW, June 2009.

Capel Newydd Calvinistic Methodist 1911

This is an early example of Edwardian Baroque architecture applied to chapel design (in this case to re-fronting an earlier chapel of the 1840s) by the local architects J. Davies & Son of Llanelli. There is an awkwardness to the design that precludes the hand of the professional architect Beddoe-Rees of Cardiff who popularised this type of architecture after publishing a book on chapel design in 1903. On this chapel the elegant cut-stone classical detail is spoilt by the upper central Venetian and side windows being cramped up against the attached columns and corner quoins of the building. The double, or coupled, pair of attached columns flanking the central part of the facade shows the influence of French Beaux-arts in this pioneering design.

Capel Newydd Interior. A gorgeous warm interior made when the chapel front was re-constructed in 1911 as part of the general `make-over' of the chapel. The flat ceiling, so typical of nonconformist buildings is ornamented by two of the very large floral ceiling rose roundels which are characteristic of larger and more elaborate chapels. They have a functional origin for at their centres are floral grills which give access to the large ventilation tubes of ducts in the attic. Between the windows there are also metal boxes which are the intakes for additional ventilation, very necessary in gas-lit chapels. In 1905 the chapel seated 1,016 and was the biggest Calvinistic Methodist Chapel in Llanelli (though only the fourth biggest overall in the town) with a substantial schoolroom accommodating 400 pupils. It was the only nonconformist chapel in Llanelli to have an attached burial ground.

Stephen R. Hughes, RCAHMW, 06.09.2007