Tabernacle Congregational Chapel
Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire
Tabernacle Chapel was built in 1774, and is known as one of the outstanding buildings of the region.
It's a region that was so thoroughly taken over by the Normans and later incomers that the original Welsh inhabitants and their language were subsumed.
The east end of St Mary's dominates the top of the High Street, making a stone full stop to the rows of pastel coloured houses.
It is a castle like building, with a square tower and battlements. It dates mostly from the 13th century, and the piers and arches in the nave are particularly fine, lit by a later Perpendicular clerestory.
The lovely oak roofs are 16th century, some of the superb bosses being in the shape of the Tudor rose. The roof is supported on stone corbels in the shape of human faces, and the capitals of the piers have detailed stone carving of foliage, people and creatures.
Here is more wonderful carving, this time in wood, on the bench end of the Mayor and Sheriff's Pew. It shows a splendid, feathered St Michael, with raised sword and winged dragon at his feet.
