The hall began life as a place of worship for workmen and their families living on a reservoir construction site near Abergavenny. It is uncertain as to the exact location but it has been suggested that it was the reservoir near Talybont on Usk. After it had served its purpose as a Church the building was brought to the village of Llanddewi Skirrid by Crawshay Bailey Junior, who paid for it to be move and re-erected to be used thereafter as an Assembly rooms and Sunday school for the people of the village. This was around 1885 but, of course, the hall itself is probably much older.
The hall was Grade II listed on 5 February 1998 as a scarce example of a well-designed and unaltered late nineteenth century pre-fabricated iron church hall. At first glance you would think that the Village Hall was a Chapel which, of course, it was originally.The walls are constructed of corrugated iron sheeting on a timber frame, which are probably original although the roof has at some time been replaced. The nave, transept and south porch are Gothic style. The entrance elevation has a steeply gabled porch with scalloped bargeboards and a double plank door in a pointed arch. There are three 2-light windows with narrow mullions and transom with Gothic heads. A larger 3-light window with two mullions is in the transept gable with a smaller single one above. Two similar 2-light windows can be found in the gable end with the opposite gable having a small fleche shaped window in the gable apex.
The future of the hall looks healthy with the renovation of the hall being completed in July, 2003. The grand re-opening took place on Sunday 31 August, 2003.
Visit the Llanddewi Skirrid web site where I obtained the information on this page - there you will find more information about the church and other interesting information about the village.
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