Welsh Chapel

GENERAL

Type / Purpose

Chapel

Location

Highway 620, Douglas

Description

The Welsh Chapel is a small, carpenter Gothic-style church, located on Route 620 in Cardigan, the oldest Welsh settlement in New Brunswick

Heritage Value

The Welsh Chapel in Cardigan is recognized for its importance to early Welsh and Baptist settlers in New Brunswick.

In the early 19th century, Welsh settlers slowly begin arriving to Canada. A group of these people gathered at a piece of land close to Fredericton and established the hamlet of Cardigan in 1819, the very first Welsh settlement in New Brunswick. Lacking a proper place of worship, Baptist congregations began in 1822, performed by Reverend Dafydd Phillips at the settlers' homes. It wasn't until that construction began on the Welsh Chapel. The Welsh Chapel is austere, with no steeple or any additions, and was built from local wood. The design combines the Classical and Gothic influences usually seen in contemporary rural New Brunswick churches, as seen in the Gothic arches over the windows, as well as the mid-Victorian picturesque features from Welsh-Baptist tradition. Overall, this vernacular building centered on a sense of social and spiritual belonging rather than decoration.

Heritage Recognition

Historic Sites Protection Act – Protected (1997/03/03)

ARCHITECTURE

Date of Construction

c. 1856

Character Defining Elements

Exterior:
- Small and modest wooden frame building
- Clapboard siding
- Moderately-pitched front-gabled roof with moulded eaves
- Corner boards with Gothic lancet arches
- Symmetrical west-facing front façade, with twin doors and a window with a Gothic surround under the gable
- Matching north and south façades, with three Gothic windows each spaced apart evenly
- Adjacent cemetery

Interior:
- Seating for roughly 150 people
- Thirty-two bench pews with curvilinear style ends
- Semi-barrel-vaulted ceiling
- Three large plaster rosettes
- Plaster walls
- Double-hung windows of eight by eight lights with pointed arches and a Gothic tracery pattern along side walls
- Wood plank flooring

Additions/Major Alterations

Significant modifications were made to front façade, including removing windows and Gothic-style tracery next the front doors and modifying the window beneath the gable (see picture of old façade below).

SOURCES AND DOCUMENTS

Photos
Old photograph by the Province of New Brunswick, taken from the Canada's Historic Places website

Sources Contributors

Gabrielle Byrne

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A Ginger Design