An Antiques Roadshow expert has bought a former chapel for 60K to convert into a home and workshop - and is calling on others to ‘save these historic structures’.<br /><br />Wayne Colquhoun, 60, bought Capel Salem in Corris in Wales - which still had a pulpit with a Bible in.<br /><br />He says he fell in love with the 1868 romantic slate structure which had fallen into disrepair.<br /><br />The Grade II listed chapel upkeep became too expensive for the diminishing congregation and was on the market in 2017. <br /><br />Across Wales, chapels fall into the landscape through disrepair, demolition or ‘insensitive conversion’.<br /><br />He bought the chapel for £60k, transforming the upper gallery into a three-bed apartment, adding floorboards covering half the gallery.<br /><br />Wayne said: “When I bought it the bible was still on the pulpit, as though the congregation had walked out and closed the door.<br /><br />“When people close the doors on old buildings- that’s the danger point. It gets damp and dry rot sets in.<br /><br />“These historic structures are evocative of Welsh history and have to be saved - we need people who will put their heart and soul into them because it’s easy to butcher conversions.”<br /><br />He aims to maintain the lower space and Canadian pitch pine panelling for use as his Antiques and Fine Art shop, moved from Liverpool, plus a pottery and sculpture workshop.<br /><br />He aims to keep as many original features of the property as possible, from its single-glazed arched windows to reusing the pews as kitchen work surfaces.<br /><br />Nearby, three chapels closest to Capel Salem have closed permanently to worship.<br /><br />Wayne is in the process of transforming the lower level into his antiques and fine art shop. <br /><br />He hopes to hold talks and workshops in the space, aiming to build up to employing locals and 'giving back' to the community.<br /><br />Just 500 feet away sits Holy Trinity Church which closed its doors in 2020 not through lack of attendance, but through disrepair.<br /><br />Neil Sumner chair of Welsh Religious Buildings Trust wrote that the redundancy of chapels in Wales is due to a 19th century ‘expansionist fervour’ of Nonconformist Chapels (i.e. Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists).<br /><br />In 1800 Caernarfonshire there were 30 chapels, rising to 221 in 1851, representing a 700 per cent increase.<br /><br />Combining this flurry of builds with the 20th-century fall in attendance, Sumner wrote “the result is there are now too many buildings for current needs”.<br /><br />In an attempt to preserve the character of the increasing chapel conversions, historic environment service Cadw has issued guidelines including keeping the front of the chapels untouched, retaining rooms with self-supporting partitions and allowing ‘characteristic features to show through the new walls and floors’.<br /><br />Meanwhile the Buildings Trust attempt to conserve Welsh chapels through fundraising and management.<br /><br />After leaving school Wayne went on to become a specialist in the restoration of historic and listed buildings. <br /><br />Wayne has run an art gallery for over two decades and is an indepe
