Water Street Chapel

Calvinistic Methodists were active in Carmarthen from around 1740, and a group met at a house in Goose Street (later known as St Catherine Street). The key figure in the establishment of the cause at Water Street was Peter Williams, a native of the area who had been converted to Methodism in 1743 under the influence of George Whitfield. Williams served as a curate in several parishes but was refused ordination because of his Methodist sympathies. The first chapel was built in the garden of a house that he leased in Water Street. David Charles (1762–1834), brother of Thomas Charles of Bala was associated with the chapel, and was one of the 11 ministers ordained in 1811 against the wishes of…

Capel Heol Dŵr was therefore an early Methodist chapel, and the present building dates from 1831. The long-wall frontage has a pair of pedimented porches on Tuscan columns, each having a large arched window above. The interior has a five-sided gallery. The box pews are neatly fitted, radiating to match the gallery. There is a most unusual pulpit; this is shaped like a wine-glass with a curved flight of steps. A similar pulpit is to be found in the nearby Capel Heol Awst, Carmarthen which was built in 1826, but these pulpits are rare elsewhere having disappeared when alterations and enlargements were made to chapels. The ceilings are boarded and ribbed and have a large plaster rose. There is…