Dinas Noddfa Chapel, Swansea Nov 2016

[mookster]

Recently myself and Landie Man embarked upon a little South Wales roadtrip, as he was given a couple of nights stay free in a city centre hotel down there due to a screw up on their part last year.

I have wanted to explore a Welsh chapel for ages, and I had a few on my list but sadly due to a few reasons which I'll go into a little later this was the only successful one, but it is a real good one. We rocked up early on a dull rainy morning, and after a less-than-subtle, very tight and quite noisy entry because of me dropping Landie's bag into the remains of a broken toilet we were in. It took maybe fifteen minutes for it to get light enough to start taking photos, it was a shame it wasn't sunny as it would have been so beautiful to watch the sun come up through the windows.

This particular chapel closed it's doors around the end of 2007. Wales is littered with abandoned chapels, it's amazing how many you can accidentally stumble across whilst looking for something else entirely, but sadly a lot of the time they have a very limited scope for available access points. I was more than satisfied with this example though, it's a bit bashed around but that's to be expected for something abandoned the best part of a decade.

Thanks for looking, more here as always https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/albums/72157675061950821 ​

 

[dirge]

Good to see others enjoying this chapel, It's a nice chilled explore. Some cracking photos mate!

 

[Sean of Wales]

Nice pics. Nice place in there.

 

[krela]

There really is a huge number (although few are like this). It's a shame they're not really fit for any realistic conversion.

 

[HughieD]

Pic 10....oh yes!

 

[Zorg2006]

Wow what an amazing place, how can people just abandon places like this that organ must be worth a mint, plus all the oak seating, why don't people sell places like this, that would make a stunning home....

 

[Dirus_Strictus]

that organ must be worth a mint, plus all the oak seating,that would make a stunning home....

In all honesty, the organ is basically valueless - a few bob for the tin pipes and blower when weighed in as scrap. Most are individual and made to fit a unique organ 'loft' so cannot really be used as spares or moved in their entirety. Went down the organ preservation route many years ago (theatre,cinema,church) and even if one has the space, you just end up with a warehouse full of dusty frontages and banks of pipework. These instruments need to be played - long term standing/storage does not leave you with a tuneful instrument. On the conversion front; just because you have a largish open interior does not always equate to cost effective housing. Sadly it is the chapel's very size and in many cases the actual location, that is the stumbling block, too small for the commercial developer and too many pitfalls for the private individual. In the mid 60's when myself and three mates were working all over the UK, we came across dozens of redundant large houses and chapels that were up for disposal at rockbottom prices. The ones that were suitable for conversion into four nice apartments, were either too pricey, badly locate or had to many bye-law/planning restrictions on them. We were all capable of doing all the conversion work ourselves, money was never the problem, it was always the 'small print' - legal access, provision of utilities across private land, etc, etc. So it was no surprise to see these properties just become derelict ruins or demolished to save on taxes.