Early Wright family history and
work, and sideways chapels
There were two BBC programmes with
titles that appeared interesting: Welsh Roots of
Frank Lloyd Wright – see:
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-wales-26964709/welsh-roots-of-architect-frank-lloyd-wright
and Frank Lloyd Wright: The Man Who Built America
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08ywgvm
One had to watch these, if only to confirm what one already knew,
maybe just for ‘relaxed and comfortable’ viewing? At best, one
hoped to see some of Wright’s buildings again, perhaps different
ones, or differently. The programmes used old videos of Wright
lecturing, and spoke simplistically about his family and his work,
almost by way of summary: a gloss, as it were. It was good to hear
Wright’s gruff voice again - it was first heard in the late 1960s -
but the general information of both presentations was a little flat,
thin, too broad, possibly because it was familiar; or maybe it had
been edited for easy popular consumption?
Yr Hen Gapel at Llwynrhydowen
In spite of this disappointment, two
statements and an image stood out – one account was that the Wright
family had come from Ceredigion in Wales: this precise location had
not been known previously. The other report noted that Wright’s
Unity Church had been based on the model of the family’s old Welsh
chapel at Ceredigion; this detail was a ‘first’ too, an important
point just mentioned in the programme as an interesting ‘family’
aside. The associated image of the little chapel that flashed onto
the screen to illustrate this fact, was memorable; the eye
immediately recognised the possibility: might this be a sideways
chapel? Sideways kirks have been a stimulating discovery in Shetland
and beyond – see below.^ The Welsh chapel elevation looked busier
than usual, wider, and with doorways; but the two dominant windows were familiar: the search began.
A similar image was found in Google
Images, and perused; but was it the chapel at Ceredigion? The text
described it as: Yr Hen Gapel at Llwynrhydowen;
might this be the same?
It looked to be identical to the image glimpsed in the BBC programme;
and the building certainly looked to have all of the characteristics
of the sideways kirk: but was it Wright’s family chapel, the
prototype for the Unity Temple? This needed to be established; then
one needed a plan or an interior photograph to confirm the hunch that
the chapel did have a ‘sideways’ configuration: the search
continued.
The site www.welshchapels.org
was discovered and the chapel at Llwynrhydowen was looked up – see:
http://www.welshchapels.org/search/?s=yr+hen+gapel
The text gave a description of the building: it seemed to hint at a
sideways model; and the name ‘Lloyd’ looked promising.
More about Yr Hen Gapel
In 1834 the present, third,
chapel was built on the same site as the second, and the first burial
in the graveyard took place. The chapel was again renewed at a cost
of £300 in 1862.
The building ceased to be used as
a chapel after the “Troad Allan” of 1876, when the congregation
was evicted from the building by John Lloyd of Alltyrodyn who claimed
that the conditions of the lease had been breached. The congregation
built a new Llwynrhydowen Chapel (NPRN 7289), but on the death of Mr
Lloyd two years later, his sister Mrs Massey returned the building to
the trustees. It was subsequently used as the Sunday School, and also
for village Christmas concerts and eisteddfodau until c1959 and the
construction of the Neuadd Goffa D.H.Evans in Pontsaen.
The chapel is a long-wall entry
type built of coursed rubble stone with dressings and quoins of paler
ashlar stone and a half-hipped slate roof. There are two doorways to
the outer bays, with panelled doors and fanlights with intersecting
tracery. There is a central pair of tall round-headed windows with
sash glazing beneath a head of intersecting tracery, and two shorter,
similar windows to either end over the doorways. In the centre is a
slate plaque inscribed “Llwynrhydowain 1834”. There are two
inscriptions from the earlier phases of building and four 19th
century memorial stones, including one to Mary Thomas, the first wife
of Gwilym Marles.
In the interior are slate flagged
vestibules, leading ahead up steps to the main chapel interior and to
gallery stairs. Each vestibule has a 19th century half-glazed screen
wall parallel to pulpit and 2 doors leading to chapel, fitted with
etched and coloured-glass margin panes. The main interior has a
wooden floor and white plaster walls and a ceiling with a circular
centre panel and moulded coving. There are bench seats to the ground
floor, laid out in three blocks to the rectilinear Sedd Fawr. Two
flights of steps leading up to the rectilinear platform pulpit have
turned bobbin balusters of 17th century style. The pulpit has a
central canted projection with moulded panels and a sloping lecturn.
In the NE corner is the former minister’s library containing a two
tier bookcase with a zinc front. There is a mid 19th century gallery
to three sides, supported by 5 iron columns stamped “T BRIGHT
CARMARTHEN” and with a front of grained and moulded panels.
Opposite the pulpit is the clock with the legend “Dd Jones,
Lampeter”. The gallery is fitted with open bench seats.
Yr Hen Gapel at Llwynrhydowen interior
But
the question lingered, was this the family chapel at Ceredigion?
The search went
on. A brief history of
the Wright’s in Wales was discovered in a blog: the text added some
more baffling place names, but made it clear that the chapel at
Llwynrhydowen was indeed the Wright family chapel:
BY LESLEY
Frank Lloyd Wright – The Welsh
Connection
Last Wednesday, 9th
April was the anniversary of the death of Frank Lloyd Wright, the
eminent American architect. I had a phone call from the BBC last week
asking what we knew about Frank Lloyd Wright’s other Anna Lloyd
Jones. Sadly, not much, although after an email and a chance meeting
at Theatr Mwldan I got to know a lot more from Eileen Curry.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s mother was
Anna Lloyd Jones, and she and her family lived in Blaenralltddu, a
mile or so from Rhydowen. When she was 5 the family emigrated to the
States, leaving from the port of Cardigan in 1844.
Anna’s family were members of
the Unitarian Chapel at Llwynrhydowen and her father Richard was a
Unitarian lay preacher and by all accounts a real bible thumper. He
was also a renowned hatter who is said to have got his customers to
stand on his hats to test their strength!
It is likely that because of the
faith of the family and their liberal politics that they upset the
local landowner at Alltyrodyn Mansion. It seems the final straw came
when he ran his hounds through their garden.
Richard, Mary and their seven
children left Wales and initially settled in Utica, before moving to
Milwaukee in Wisconsin and then on to the village of Spring Green,
Wisconsin. What an incredibly hard decision to make.
Anna Lloyd Jones became a school
teacher in America and she met William Carey Wright, a musician and
itinerant preacher. They married in 1866. Frank was born a year
later. He was christened Frank Lincoln Wright, but changed it to
Frank Lloyd Wright (in honour of his mother’s family) when his
father walked out of the marriage in 1885.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Welsh
roots ran through his architectural work. The house he built for
himself in Wisconsin is called Taliesin (after the 6th
Century Welsh bard and poet). Later in life he built a second home in
Arizona called Taliesin West.
Many of the modernist homes he
built still had a hearth as a centrepiece – just as the traditional
Cardiganshire cottages would have had.
So all this was passed onto
Carwyn Jones at BBC Wales Today, but he still needed someone to say
it to camera…10 seconds of fame coming up then! Luckily there’s
also a real architectural expert.
SEE NOTE BELOW
This information confirmed the
identification of the chapel and its connection with the family, but
no image or any visual details of the interior had yet been seen.
Google Images was again opened; an interior photograph of the chapel
was eventually found: yes, it was a sideways layout.
The facts were again confirmed by
the chapel site in yet another text, where the Yr Hen Gapel at
Llwynrhydowen was identified as the Unitarian ‘black spot’ of
Ceredigion.+ At last the details were linked: the chapel at
Llwynrhydowen was indeed the Ceredigion chapel, Wright’s
inspiration. So this was certainly the place; the photo of the
interior showed that it was indeed a sideways kirk: Wright knew the
sideways model and its special characteristics.
Unity temple plan
Wright has located the stairs in the corners, as the typical Shetland sideways kirk does.
Entry to the temple space follows the Welsh pattern.
Unity temple section
Unity Temple interior
Yr Hen Gapel at Llwynrhydowen interior
Wright’s Unity Temple plan was
looked up; it had not been seen for years. Indeed, it was the
‘sideways’ model, made to fit the square. A review of Welsh
chapels shows that a square example of the sideways arrangement does
exist: e..g. see - Smyrna Chapel Pen-y-Fai:
http://www.welshchapels.org/search/?s=Smyrna+Chapel+Pen-y-Fai
(built 1838). One had never made this connection between the Unity
plan and the sideways model before. Wright obviously recognised the
benefit of this clever plan from Wales, its intimacy and efficiency.
It was a model that had been seen in Shetland, Orkney, Aberdeen, and
Belfast too – and, no doubt, it has been used in more locations
also: but where were the roots, the origins of this intriguing
format; how did this plan arrangement begin? This was a question that
needed more work; the research would have to wait.
Smyrna Chapel Pen-y-Fai interior
Typical square-planned chapel
(Note that the stairs are in the corners like the Shetland model).
Browsing the Welsh Chapels site,
one finds out more about the Ceredigion chapel: the present chapel is
the third chapel on this site, this building being
erected in 1834. As a comparison, the ‘sideways’ Lunna kirk in
Shetland was last re-built in 1753. Yr Hen Gapel at Llwynrhydowen is
described as ‘ a long-wall entry type’ which is a variation on
the ‘sideways’ model insofar as the entry into the chapel is on
the long wall on which the pulpit sits centrally. The plan is similar
to the sideways kirks of Shetland that generally have entrances on
the gable end walls, but the Welsh chapel has a little more sophistication.
The two entries on the long wall either side of the pulpit lead
directly into enclosed lobbies that provide glazed glimpses into the
inner space. From these lobbies, stairs rise to the narrow mezzanine
that sits against the back and side walls, allowing access to this
upper level without any entry into the lower space. This separation
recalls that at Lund where there is only a separate external entry to
the mezzanine level. The other variation with the Shetland model is
that the lower seating in the Welsh model does not follow the ‘U’
form of the mezzanine above. All the lower seating in Yr Hen Gapel is
parallel to the long wall of the pulpit.
Yr Hen Gapel at Llwynrhydowen interior
External images suggest that the
floor plan is rectangular. Wright’s Unity Church used the square,
but it matched the narrow mezzanines of the Welsh chapel. The
Shetland sideways kirks all have deeper mezzanines than the Welsh
chapels, replicating the seating below. Yr Hen Gapel is a grand
interior with a splendid presence; it has a real sense of community,
a remarkable spiritual identity in a simple, basic building. Its
holds a touch of elegance in its planning resolution; a complete
break with the basilica model. The Shetland sideways kirks are, in
one sense, a hybrid, maintaining the traditional east/west axis while
arranging everything else otherwise, in a true ‘protesting,’
Protestant attitude.
Yr Hen Gapel at Llwynrhydowen interior
The Unity Temple promoted openness
and equality, exactly in the same way as the sideways model does. The
kirk at Lunna seems to challenge this theory; there is only an
external stair to access the gallery that was there for the ‘lower’
classes. Here the laird et. al. could be on the same level as the
minister who walked through the ‘upper class’ congregation from
the vestry, on axis on the north, and up a few stairs to the pulpit
to mediate between those below and those above. In Shetland, the
minister and the laird were in control of nearly everything involved
in lives.# At Lunna, it is as if the hoi polloi could not tolerate
any ‘lower class’ or common folk, that these worshippers were
labelled literally as ‘outsiders,’ being forced to walk outside,
to the back of the kirk, the west, past the lepers, (or was it those
with tuberculosis?), who were allowed outside between the buttresses
on the south behind the pulpit, where openings in the wall allowed
them to hear the service. The ‘outsiders’ were on the mezzanine
level above, and had to use the western external stairs that led to a
back door to access this space. Those below could parade in through
the main eastern entrance that led directly into the central seating
area, the central north-south axis of which led from the vestry on
the north to the pulpit on the south. This pulpit was located
between the typical two large windows of the church: ‘the light of
the world.’ Here also, in front of the pulpit, was the communion
table and seating for the elders on a slightly raised floor level.
The lower space was the meaningful zone. These folk could come and
go, and know nothing about, and see nothing of, the lepers
(tuberculosis?), and the ‘lower’ castes, the ‘outsiders’
outside and above. The ‘superior’ castes literally lived in a
world apart. It is an ironic situation when one considers the
sideways plan a more inclusive and democratic arrangement of worship.
Yr Hen Gapel at Llwynrhydowen interior - stair access is on the right
It seems that this arrangement might
only have been at Lunna. Might it have been because of the tiny size
of the building that had no room for internal stairs? Maybe both?
Other sideways kirks had stairs in the northeast and northwest
corners, allowing everyone equal access through the main entry, and
also the western door that was perhaps the processional entry –
c.f. Dunrossness and Whalsay kirks.
Yr Hen Gapel at Llwynrhydowen interior
‘Sideways’ is still preferred as
a description; ‘the long-wall’ church does not clearly explain
the unique characteristic of this clever plan based on equality,
democracy, and maybe, perhaps, certainly in Shetland, efficiency and
frugality, but it does identify the unique entry to the Welsh chapel,
literally: the long-wall entry.’ Wright appears to have ignored the
frugality of this model, but maintained the other qualities. The
Unity Temple had two mezzanines. It is a circumstance that is found
in St. Nicholas’ Kirk in Aberdeen, in the eastern chapel. Here one
can see a variation, maybe a beginning, of the sideways plan. Two
mezzanine levels span across the end of the space.
Wright’s plan takes the ‘sideways’
sense away from the graphic reading, but it reproduces all of the
characteristics of the classic ‘sideways’ plan.
#
In Shetland the laird and the
minister held power. Old school records show the florid signatures of
these two figures who inspected the school from time to time, and
offered guidance on the curriculum. One note recommends ‘more
sewing for the girls.’
^
For more on sideways kirks, see:
+
Yr Hen Gapel History
Foundation stone from first
Llwynrhydowen meeting house of 1733 built into the quoin of the
current 1834 building.
It possibly reads DEUS NOBIS HAEC O(MNIA)
FECIT: “GOD MADE ALL THESE THINGS FOR US”
The Unitarian cause began in
Llwynrhydowen in 1726, when Jenkin Jones is said to have preached to
the first Arminian congregation in Wales which sprang from
Pantycreuddyn church. The first chapel was built in 1733, and after
Jenkin Jones’ death in 1742 he was followed by his nephew, the Rev.
D Lloyd of Brynllefrith. He was a very popular preacher and the
congregation increased enormously under his care making it necessary
to extend the chapel in 1745. This was completely rebuilt in 1791 on
a slightly different site. In the early 19th century the congregation
progressed into Arianism and on into Unitarianism. The present,
third, chapel, was built in 1834. During this period, up until 1876,
the congregation could number anywhere up to 600. It was a part of a
radical Unitarian culture within a Welsh rural setting, resistant to
successive waves of evangelical revival emanating from the epicentre
of Welsh Calvinistic Methodism not far to the north. As such these
communities became collectively known to a hostile Methodist
historiography as the ‘Black Spot’ (Y Smotyn Du).
Yr Hen Gapel’s land was leased
from the local Alltyroden estate, and the mid century saw increasing
tension between the Tory landowner and the radical congregation and
its minister. The Alltyrodyn estate had been notorious for evictions
during the ‘Hungry Forties’; Anna Lloyd Jones, Unitarian mother
of the celebrated American architect Frank Lloyd Wright was evicted
at that time. Rev William Thomas, better known by his bardic name
Gwilym Marles, became minister and served as the champion of
political social and religious freedom on behalf of the poor and
oppressed. Eventually, the landowner John Lloyd of Alltyrodyn evicted
the minister and congregation from the chapel in 1876, citing their
‘radical’ non Tory, Unitarian ideologies as a breach of their
lease. After the closure, the popular Gwilym Marles addressed an
outdoor congregation of about 3000, with his back to the locked and
chained chapel.
Due to the national interest
prompted by the eviction, known as the “Troad Allan”, a
fundraising campaign saw a new chapel created in Rhydowen.
Unfortunately by this time, Gwilym Marles was in ill health and died
before he was able to attend the opening ceremony of the new chapel.
His remains were laid at the new chapel and it was subsequently
dedicated to his memory.
On the death of John Lloyd his
sister Mrs Massey had the original chapel returned to the
congregation. It was subsequently utilised primarily as a Sunday
School and a place for concerts and Eisteddfodau, before becoming
disused in the 1960s. It had a brief re-opening in the 1970s as a
Unitarian museum.
What is also culturally
significant is that Gwilym Marles was the great uncle of the poet,
Dylan Thomas. It is even suggested that the scandalously evicted
minister was the influence for Thomas’s Reverend Eli Jenkins in the
play, Under Milk Wood.
Yr Hen Gapel was transferred to
the Trust in 2008, under its status as a prescribed charity under the
Redundant Churches and Other Religious Buildings Act 1969, (as
amended in Schedule 5 of the Charities Act 1992).
Click
here: An account of the ‘Troad Allan’ at Yr Hen Gapel,
Llwynrhydowen By Mallie Thomas
Read by the author’s
granddaughter, Heini Thomas. (Currently only available in Welsh).
The account is called “Yr
oeddwn i yno” translated it means “I was there”
Click below for the transcript in
English and copy of the handwritten version in Welsh
Yr Hen Gapel, Llwynrhydowen
Yr Hen Gapel is the third chapel
of a cause which was the first Arminian congregation in Wales and the
mother church of the Unitarian “Black Spot” of Ceredigion and
Carmarthenshire, a radical tradition in an apparently unlikely rural
setting that was to have both national and international
reverberations.
The cause at Llwynrhyydowen
started in 1726 and the first chapel was built in 1733, but as the
congregation grew the chapel underwent extensions in 1745 and was
completely rebuilt in 1791. The present, third, chapel, was built in
1834, a fine example of a long wall chapel of unrestored late
Georgian character with a largely original interior.
In the mid 19th century, the
congregation could number anywhere up to 600. It was a part of a
radical Unitarian culture within a Welsh rural setting, resistant to
successive waves of evangelical revival emanating from the epicentre
of Welsh Calvinistic Methodism not far to the north. As such these
communities became collectively known as the ‘Black Spot’.
In 1876 it was the scene of a
national scandal when the congregation and its minister William
Thomas (also known as Gwilym Marles) were evicted by the local
landlord, John Lloyd of Alltyrodyn. Lloyd cited their ‘radical’
non Tory, Unitarian ideologies as a breach of their lease. After the
closure, the popular minister addressed an outdoor congregation of
about 3000, with his back to the locked and chained chapel. Due to
the national interest prompted by the eviction, a fundraising
campaign saw a new chapel created, but after the death of Lloyd his
sister had the building returned to the congregation. Unfortunately
by this time, Gwilym was in ill health and died before he was able to
attend the opening ceremony of the new chapel. His remains were laid
at the new chapel and it was subsequently dedicated to his memory.
Gwilym Marles is also significant as the great uncle of the poet,
Dylan Thomas. It is even suggested that the scandalously evicted
minister was the influence for Thomas’s Reverend Eli Jenkins in the
play, Under Milk Wood.
After these events, the original
chapel was utilised primarily as a Sunday school and a place for
concerts and Eisteddfodau, before becoming disused in c1960. It had a
brief re-opening in the 1970s as a Unitarian museum. It was acquired
by Addoldai Cymru in 2008. Making a donation is one of the best ways
of helping us to protect our chapels. Regular donations enable us to
plan ahead and ensure our modest resources are put to the best use.
Make a donation to
support Yr Hen Gapel.
More about Yr Hen Gapel
In 1834 the present, third,
chapel was built on the same site as the second, and the first burial
in the graveyard took place. The chapel was again renewed at a cost
of £300 in 1862.
The building ceased to be used as
a chapel after the “Troad Allan” of 1876, when the congregation
was evicted from the building by John Lloyd of Alltyrodyn who claimed
that the conditions of the lease had been breached. The congregation
built a new Llwynrhydowen Chapel (NPRN 7289), but on the death of Mr
Lloyd two years later, his sister Mrs Massey returned the building to
the trustees. It was subsequently used as the Sunday School, and also
for village Christmas concerts and eisteddfodau until c1959 and the
construction of the Neuadd Goffa D.H.Evans in Pontsaen.
The chapel is a long-wall entry
type built of coursed rubble stone with dressings and quoins of paler
ashlar stone and a half-hipped slate roof. There are two doorways to
the outer bays, with panelled doors and fanlights with intersecting
tracery. There is a central pair of tall round-headed windows with
sash glazing beneath a head of intersecting tracery, and two shorter,
similar windows to either end over the doorways. In the centre is a
slate plaque inscribed “Llwynrhydowain 1834”. There are two
inscriptions from the earlier phases of building and four 19th
century memorial stones, including one to Mary Thomas, the first wife
of Gwilym Marles.
In the interior are slate flagged
vestibules, leading ahead up steps to the main chapel interior and to
gallery stairs. Each vestibule has a 19th century half-glazed screen
wall parallel to pulpit and 2 doors leading to chapel, fitted with
etched and coloured-glass margin panes. The main interior has a
wooden floor and white plaster walls and a ceiling with a circular
centre panel and moulded coving. There are bench seats to the ground
floor, laid out in three blocks to the rectilinear Sedd Fawr. Two
flights of steps leading up to the rectilinear platform pulpit have
turned bobbin balusters of 17th century style. The pulpit has a
central canted projection with moulded panels and a sloping lecturn.
In the NE corner is the former minister’s library containing a two
tier bookcase with a zinc front. There is a mid 19th century gallery
to three sides, supported by 5 iron columns stamped “T BRIGHT
CARMARTHEN” and with a front of grained and moulded panels.
Opposite the pulpit is the clock with the legend “Dd Jones,
Lampeter”. The gallery is fitted with open bench seats.
Other Welsh chapels
THE FLY THROUGH: A MUST-SEE
The Hen Gapel Laser Fly Through
was played: see -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=227&v=CmYuDkzDmgU
It is stunning. One sees how the chapel is sited. It is on an
intersection, a corner, in a small village, on the A475, with the
long entry wall at right angles to the main road, and parallel to the
cross road, the B4459, facing the graveyard. It is a real surprise
after seeing the full frontal images that leave one to assume that
this facade is a street frontage, as if this elevation might be its
public face. The placement is as surprising as the sideways plan. One
enters the precinct parallel to the facade between the chapel and the
graveyard; then one turns to face the chapel’s long-wall entry, to
address it. The path is an astonishing sequence of entry into a place
of worship, taking one deliberately from the ordinary day street into
the chapel grounds, turning twice, once from the street life, then
again, once, from death itself – the graveyard and its memories –
to face the chapel, the sanctuary of faith, hope, and love, and its
entry, to move on into the lobby to go lower or higher, which seems
to suggest an opposite social standing. Once inside, one is turned
again through 180 degrees to face the pulpit.
The chapel looks beautifully at home
in its context, proudly there just as everything else is in the
village, without apology or pretense, holding its own important sense
of place in the social order of things. The interior views seem to
suggest that the central double-height space has a more square
proportion than the overall plan, a fact that is confirmed in the
sketch plan. It is this geometry too that can be seen to be Wright’s
Unity inspiration; the exterior clearly identifies the building’s
rectangular form. The fly through confirms the concept of the
mezzanine access coming off from the entry lobbies. One can sit and
play this video over and over again, each time seeing more. It is a
true marvel how such a modest place can be so rich, so wonderful;
humming effortlessly with meaning. One is left in no doubt why Wright
used this place as a model. The detail at the edge of the mezzanine
is astonishing in its coved resolution. This is a beautifully crafted
and considered space: one could say, very ‘Wrightian,’ which only
shows how Welsh Wright is, how rooted he was in his family’s
homeland. After all, he named his home after the Welsh bard,
Taliesin.
The (nearly) square double-height space.
Note the detail that gives a fine mezzanine edge.
These images in Street View show
none of the apologies, cringes, or excerpts one sees in other more
recent projects: see - https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2019/10/taylor-square-warehouse-variations-in.html The adjacent street sign takes nothing away from the
place. The antiques centre opposite only enriches identity, as it
addresses the street that the chapel stands end on to, holding a
different address – the graveyard. One is involved in life; the
other stands sideways, looking at death square on. That the adjacent
cottage at the end of the graveyard is for sale and has a sign on the
street, only confirms life in the same way that the chapel touches it
differently. The chapel grasps an alternative, more ethereal space
with a positive identity of being there, grandly, graciously, but
with great modesty. One could say with ‘an honest arrogance rather
than a false humility.’ There is nothing fake or withdrawn about
this place that enriches life simply and honestly, humbly, in the
grand manner of understanding, of knowing: yet things ‘ordinary’
are not out of place here.
How might one gauge the influence of this chapel on Wright’s
outlook on life and his work? Might the clever thin mezzanine edge
detail of the Ry Hen Gapel at Llwynrhyydowen have inspired the thin
edge fascia of the first Jacobs’ house? - see:
https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2019/03/architectures-two-remote-islands-too.html
Could the compactness of the plan have been an ambition to
replicate? Might the entry into the chapel have been the model for
all entries into Wright’s homes where glimpses of the interior
develop as one moves in, along and up stairs? Could the subtle play
with space, with mezzanine gaps at the tall rear windows and the end stairs have stimulated spatial ideas and possibilities for
other works, along with the central, double height core? One can only wonder at the depth embodied in this
marvellous shed for worshiping.
Typical Wright entry - a lobby with glimpses of the interior and choices
As with all sideways churches, the
chapel makes a wonderful community centre, a retreat for
contemplation and celebration; literally a turning away from the
everyday – ‘sideways.’ Yr Hen Gapel can be seen to turn the
body three times – from the street; from the graveyard; from the
entry lobby, the final about-face to front the pulpit standing
between entry and graveyard, life and death, leaving one to ponder both through the
two large semi-circular windows either side of the pulpit - a true dislocation with the everyday: there is no formal, processional, axial approach here; no pompous ceremony.
THE FLY THROUGH IMAGES
NOTE
The drawing of the elevation of the chapel must have been taken from a photograph as it shows everything as a true orthographic projection except the roof that is illustrated as it is seen in photographs, with the gables in perspective: see - https://voussoirs.blogspot.com/2014/10/drawing-belfast-command-character.html
SKETCHED PLANS
SHETLAND SIDEWAYS KIRK PLANS
for a comparison
These plans of Shetland’s ‘sideways’ kirks are diagrammatic
only; each kirk is different. Some have no eastern porch; others have
a northern vestry located centrally on the north wall; some have a
vestry in the southheast corner under the mezzanine, with a small
lobby space for the stair; with, perhaps, a kitchen located in the
southwest corner similarly arranged. The Skaill kirk on Orkney had a vestry located under the southwest mezzanine corner, with an entry under the
pulpit, with an awkward passageway along the southern wall: the Lunna
kirk has no internal stairs to the mezzanine. There seems to be no
one definitive plan.
The core common
elements that appear to shape the Shetland 'sideways' theme are: the east-west axis with the eastern entry; the
north-south axis centred on the pulpit; the northeast and northwest corner stairs; and the
pulpit in the centre of the southern wall between two large windows.
A belfry also seems to be a shared feature on some kirks: it is usually located on the western
gable above what seems to be the ceremonial/formal entry to the kirk. Of course, there are exceptions to each of these characteristics, but the model is clear in its intent.
Unlike the Welsh chapel, the Shetland 'sideways' kirk is difficult to recognise as being different to the typical English village church based on the basilica model because of the east-west axis of entry and address. The large, central, twin set of southern windows with smaller ones adjacent to these either side, remains the only external signifier of the different layout of the kirk.
The interiors of the Shetland 'sideways' kirks maintain these axes as phantom alignments around which the seating and access are organised on both levels, even though the seating arrangement is centred on the pulpit. The plan is a true hybrid that has its own identity. The Welsh chapel remains more singular and determined in its arrangement that makes a clear break with the traditional axial church plan.
Unlike the Welsh chapel, the Shetland 'sideways' kirk is difficult to recognise as being different to the typical English village church based on the basilica model because of the east-west axis of entry and address. The large, central, twin set of southern windows with smaller ones adjacent to these either side, remains the only external signifier of the different layout of the kirk.
The interiors of the Shetland 'sideways' kirks maintain these axes as phantom alignments around which the seating and access are organised on both levels, even though the seating arrangement is centred on the pulpit. The plan is a true hybrid that has its own identity. The Welsh chapel remains more singular and determined in its arrangement that makes a clear break with the traditional axial church plan.
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