My first port of call was to ask our Facebook Barry and District Museumeers for any stories on the Gospel Hall, with sadly nothing to report. So on failing that I delved into the Ordnance Survey map archive, and yes the Gospel Hall is marked as such on the 1954 map, as showing between numbers 87 and 89 Porthkerry Road; as detached, and on the left hand side with a lane.
There was a little confusion over references online, that see three buildings with similar names within the vicinity of our Gospel Hall this week. Our Barry and District Museumeers John Anzevino found a press cutting that settled the confusion once and for all, from the Barry Dock News of November 27, 1891.
Initially I believed that our Gospel Hall dated after 1900, but I am was completely wrong, and this is where John and the Ordnance Survey came to my rescue. Firstly the hall is shown on the 1898 Ordnance Survey, along with 89 Porthkerry Road, with a stretch of the terrace still to be constructed towards the East. The Gospel Hall was definitely in use, and still is today; unlike many former Christian structures across the Barry and District.
Now John’s evidence! The Barry Dock News November 27, 1891, announced the ‘Opening of a new Gospel Hall at Barry’. This was by all accounts a very delayed project, but with location and funding, the Gospel Hall at Porthkerry Road became a reality. This ‘hall’ in the description is 40ft by 24ft, and set back from the roadway, approached by steps. Extensive use of timber was employed in the building, offering space, well-lighted and ventilation with an ‘open timber roof’. This is all in a Gothic style. Originally the detached building to the right was the caretaker’s residence. The front gabled structure, is nearly entirely built using best red ‘Cattybrook brick’.
Cattybrook brick if readers are asking, isn’t of local provenance. There were plenty of brickworks in Barry and District in the 1890s though. Cattybrook bricks are still manufactured today, and are based at Almondsbury South Gloucestershire. The Cattybrook Brick Company opened in 1864, and a number of building projects relied on its rich terracotta colour and durability. Most notably the Merthyr Tydfil Town Hall and Severn Tunnel are constructed using the bricks.
Both the Gospel Hall and the ‘residence’ were built by a Mr. W. B. Shepherd, builder of Penarth and Barry, and under the guidance of a local prolific architect Mr E. Axten.
There are however ‘keystones’ of the window and door arches to the frontage and first floor, with ‘cills’ throughout in Bath stone. The two side windows are plain of flat arch in Bath stone. For me, this building is very chapel like and not so much what I would interpret a ‘Gospel Hall’ to be like; that the Ordnance Survey record it as in 1954. The Ocular window between the two first floor windows, is a very interesting distinctive statement of faith.
The Gospel Hall is associated with the ‘Brethren’ movement, and one nugget of information is that it was as suggested a chapel. In many ways the term Gospel Hall, chapel or church are interchangeable with the workings of the Brethren faith. Known to be fondly referred to over the years as the Church of God, closing its doors temporarily in 2020 to 2021, for a short-time due to Covid and changing ownership. But the Gospel Hall, is still in the service of the Lord, as it is still presided over by Princes Street Evangelical Baptist Church and not the ‘Brethren’, with a popular Youth Centre and community space. But the spiritual work of the original Brethren at the Gospel Hall can be said to continue.
I wanted to let the readers know who the Brethren are. Also known as the ‘Open Brethren’ , were founded in Plymouth in the late 1820s. By the 1890s in the Barry and District, Gospel Halls; their form of a church, were autonomous community Christian faith groups. The Brethren are organised by its congregation and have no clergy or priests, taking direction as the word of god for guidance from the Bible itself. Holy Communion on Sunday, is where their is the ‘Breaking of Bread’, and the sharing of a cup of wine. Although using the term ‘church’, is not always seen appropriate when referring to the Brethren building of faith, The Gospel Hall.
If any readers have anything more to add to the story of the Porthkerry Road Gospel Hall, please let me know: karljlangford@hotmail.com. Thanks for joining us for more heritage within the Barry and District.
