T H E   D E R E L I C T   M I S C E L L A N Y

On a dead-end mountain road near Tregaron there stands a disused Calvinistic Methodist chapel, its door screwed shut, its high arched windows broken and its whitewashed walls grimed and mottled by the weather. A small parsonage, also disused, adjoins the chapel on the east wall.

The chapel from the lane From the back field Attached parsonage for travelling ministers and stables for their horses Inside the chapel [click images below to expand & enlarge]

On one wall of the chapel is a slate plaque, in Welsh, commemorating the local writer and church elder Cassie Davies:

" CASSIE DAVIES / 1898 CAETUDUR 1988 / BLAENOR YM MLAENCARON AC / AROLYGWR YSGOLION CYMRU / BU'N HWB I'W BRO A'I GWLAD / Gosodwyd gan Gangen Plaid Cymru / Tregaron a'r cylch."

Or, in English:

"CASSIE DAVIES / 1898 CAETUDUR 1988 / ELDER IN BLAENCARON AND / INSPECTOR OF WELSH SCHOOLS. / SHE WORKED FOR COMMUNITY AND COUNTRY / Installed by Plaid Cymru / Tregaron and district branch"

Several broken windows show the interior of the chapel to be typically plain, with rows of enclosed pine pews and a central pulpit standing on a dais at the east end. The parsonage is a small house with two rooms downstairs which served as kitchen and dining room respectively and one upstairs which was the bedroom. There is no bath or indoor toilet.

Capel Blaencaron was built in 1875 and renewed in 1901. In 1902 the congregation numbered 42 and all services were held in Welsh. A Sunday School was opened in 1910. The chapel closed some time after 1998 and was auctioned in 2007. In 2009 work began to convert the building to become a private dwelling, but was abruptly stopped soon afterwards. Sadly, recent pictures found on the internet show that the original pulpit and box pews have been removed and the interior strewn with rubbish.