Silence falls in Tabernacle

There's an old joke about  a Welshman marooned for years on a desert island. When rescuers arrived they find he's built a chapel - I go to it every Sunday he boasts. But what about the other building? they ask . Oh, that's the chapel I don't go to, he explains.
 
The humour is based on the presence of two or three (or more) chapels of different nonconformist denominations in most Welsh towns and even villages. Families traditionally adhered to one only, down the generations. Chapels provided not only religious worship and teaching but opportunities for choral singing, socializing, outings and festivities. (Men took on the important duties while women made the tea and washed up.)
 
The last 50 years have seen a huge drop in chapel goers as older folk die off.  Many smaller chapels have been converted into houses and holiday lets. The larger ones like Tabernacle are more difficult to repurpose. In a neighbouring town funds have been raised to turn the latest casualty into a museum but we don't have such well-heeled folk here.. Still, the hope remains that Tabernacle can be used for some sort of community enterprise. (But I doubt it.)
 
The final service took place last autumn and the remaining members  now have to attend a rival chapel or go further afield. Its fixtures and fitting are to be dismantled.  So here was an opportunity to see inside the impressive auditorium - designed to act as a sounding box for sermons and song with the organ towering above. Although the chapel was built in the mid-19thC. the seats and gallery were installed in 1924 and what looks like intricate carving is in fact moulded plaster painted to look like wood. 
 
"The pulpit is placed on the rear gable wall, facing the entrance on the front gable. Other integral elements were the unadorned communion table and the sêt fawr [great pew], placed immediately in front of the pulpit, and occupied by the elders or deacons elected by the members. An intense theatrical atmosphere in a confined auditorium often presented opportunities for an eloquent preacher." Not to mention the enthusiastic singing of hymns.
 
There are nice little touches like brass loops at the end of each pew for umbrellas each with a little trough below to catch the rain drops -  we are in Wales after all!
 
In the vestry cups and saucers emblazoned with the name of the chapel were piled up waiting for dispersal along with teapots and hymn books, all dusty and unwanted. I took a small children’s book with jigsaw puzzles pages for a grandchild.

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