Aims and objectives

The module aims to:

• for the first time, combine a general overview of the historical development of chapel buildings and architecture with a series of in-depth studies of the work of particular architects and chapels derived from new research in the field
• study chapel building in the eighteenth and nineteenth century Wales, principally, within a visual, historical, socio-economic, and theological context
• provide students knowledge of current practices and methods of chapel preservation through field-study experience in chapel recording, and in developing and accessing a data-base system for storing recorded information
• mount an historiographic examination of key texts on chapel architecture written during the period of study
• where relevant, address chapel building during this period to precedents in the seventeenth century and cognate building practices in Great Britain, Europe, and the United States of America

Objectives:

Students should be able to :

• account for the development of the visual styles of chapels in Wales from their origin in the eighteenth century barn-type building to the classical and eclectic edifices built in the late nineteenth century, and the relationship of such to Nonconformist architecture elsewhere, while demonstrating knowledge of specific case studies and relevant cultural determinants
• undertake a systematic and varied recording of a specific chapel to a professional standard following the principles and methods prescribed by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW)
• effectively write and access such information in the RCAHMW's chapel data-base and, in the process, contribute to the extension and refinement of data-base fields.
• critically appraise past and current scholarship on the architectural history of chapels