From the Cardiff Times 110 years ago today…
Retirement of a Headmistress
Tag: Zoar Chapel
Sunday School Demonstration
From the Merthyr Express 110 years ago today…
Memories of Old Merthyr
We continue our serialisation of the memories of Merthyr in the 1830’s by an un-named correspondent to the Merthyr Express, courtesy of Michael Donovan.
On the other side of the road where the Town Offices now stand, there was first a small place used as a butcher’s shop, then the opening into the Bunch of Grapes yard, a public house of that name being at the top, then a drapery shop kept by Mr Samuel Smith, who had a sister living with him. Their brother was Mr John Smith, the mineral agent of the Abernant works, and father of Mr W Smith, now manager of Rhymney Collieries, and then what was afterwards the Canton Tea Warehouse of a Mr Watkins.
We are now facing the Castle Hotel, and as far as can be recalled it is the same as in 1834-5, or at least as regards its externals. The steps remain, and the entrance and bar are so, but there have bee some slight alterations in other parts. At the date just mentioned Mr Edward Purchase was the host. Mrs Purchase and two or three daughters of hers were there also.
From all I ever heard, at the time of its building, persons wondered at its being so, for the position was not thought appropriate, but Mr John Treharne was right. Mr Treharne was evidently a person of some decision of character. He was known among his convivial friends as Sir John, and upon his widow marrying Mr Purchase she was sometimes referred to as No 25.
The Castle Hotel (right) at roughly the time detailed in this article
Immediately above the Castle, in fact a portion of the premises, was a gin shop, used also as the booking office for the coaches. Whether adjoining, or a door or two above, there was a hairdresser’s place, kept by Mr Abbott, who had made himself very unpopular to some by swearing to the identity of Dick (sic.) Penderyn of the riots of a few years before, and who had been executed for being implicated therein.
Some doors above was the Vulcan. There was an alley with cottages on two or three of its sides, then a public house – the William IV, then another narrow opening leading to the Morlais Brook, with Zoar Chapel on one side, just where Messrs Thomas had a drapery shop, and then an opening, and on the corner beyond, the residence of Mr Job James, the doctor. He had been, I always understood, a naval doctor. Next door lived his mother-in-law, Mrs Williams.
A person named Brown kept a shop adjoining, and the English Wesleyan Chapel followed. The residence of the minister of the chapel adjoined, and some doors above a Mr Thomas Williams, followed afterwards by a Mr Anstey upon Mr Williams removal to Victoria Street. Mr Thomas Williams was the father of the late Mr Thomas Williams, some time coroner. Only a few doors further and the Morlais or Pontmorlais turnpike gate was come to.
To be continued at a later date……
Grand Concert
120 years ago today….
Rosser Beynon
Here is an article about a very important, but largely forgotten man in Merthyr’s musical history – Rosser Beynon.
Rosser Beynon was born in Glyn Neath in 1811, the oldest child of John and Elizabeth Beynon. In 1815 the Beynon family moved to Merthyr Tydfil where John Beynon secured a job at the Cyfarthfa Ironworks. Upon moving to Merthyr the family became members of Zoar Chapel.
Rosser Beynon began working at the Ironworks at the age of eight, but he also began attending a school conducted by a Mr MacFarlane. As well as this he also began teaching himself music and it was in this field he immersed himself and it is said that he would lose many hours of sleep trying to master some musical problem.
At the age of 18, Beynon was given the responsibility of training the choir at Zoar Chapel, and he remained in this position until he was given sole responsibility for conducting the choir in 1835. In about 1840, he began giving music lessons in his house in Bethesda Street, and his reputation was such that he was asked to travel all over South Wales to give lessons. In addition, he was invited all over Wales to adjudicate competitions for compositions of hymns and anthems, and became the musical editor of ‘Y Diwygiwr’, the monthly periodical produced by the Independent Union of South Wales. Between 1845 and 1848 he published ‘Telyn Seion’ a collection of hymns and anthems by many prominent composers.
In 1850, Rosser Beynon was among the 58 people who left Zoar to move to Ynysgau Chapel to bolster the congregation at the latter chapel following the crisis associated with the decline of Rev T B Evans. Upon arrival at Ynysgau, he immediately took over the leadership of the choir and remained in charge of the choir until 1872.
Throughout his adult life, Rosser Beynon continued to work as a miner in the Dowlais Pits and In December 1875, while supervising repairs in the mine, he contracted a cold which subsequently developed into bronchitis and pleurisy. Rosser Beynon died on 3 January 1876 at the age of 65. He was buried in Cefn Coed Cemetery and the inscription on his tomb reads:
Er Coffadwriaeth am
Rosser Beynon (Asaph Glan Taf), Merthyr Tydfil
A fu farw Ionawr 3ydd, 1876,
Yn 65 mlwydd oed.
Yma yn isel mae un o weision
Miswig a’i mawredd y’mysg y meirwon;
Canad dirwest, ac athraw cantorion;
Hunodd un Ngwalia dan nawdd angelion,
Ac yn Iesu cysga’i noson – a’i ffydd
Roes aur-obenydd i Rosser Beynon
Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: E T Davies
by Keith Lewis-Jones
In a new regular feature, local historian Keith Lewis-Jones is going to highlight the many heritage plaques that are dotted about around Merthyr. Following on from our last article, we start with E T Davies.
E. T. Davies
Plaque sited in the pedestrian access from High Street to Zoar Chapel. CF47 8UB
Evan Thomas Davies was born, into a musical family and from a young age loved music. Until 1898 he worked in an office whilst, in his spare time accompanying in concerts.
In 1898 he was asked to accompany a party of Welsh singers to the U.S.A. for nine months. Whilst in America he was asked to accept a musical position, but he declined.
From early on he adjudicated in eisteddfods all over Wales and was the chief adjudicator in the Choral Competition at the Corwen National Eisteddfod in 1918; his adjudication being “a model of terseness and lucidity”.
From 1903 to 1917, he was the organist at Pontmorlais Church in Merthyr. He conducted his first important Cymanfa in 1905 at Pontmorlais and subsequently was very successful as a conductor, with his sympathetic and helpful advice to choir and congregation.
In October, 1920 he was appointed to the important post of Director of Music at University College, Bangor. This was the first time that a full time Director of Music had been appointed at Bangor, and it fell to E. T. Davies to establish and build up the new department. Amongst others, he introduced weekly Chamber Concerts, a College Orchestra and Chamber Music classes.
Pilgrimage to Cwm-y-Glo
Eighty years ago today, on 13 July 1939, a special service was held in the ruins of Cwm-y-Glo Chapel to mark the 300th anniversary of Non-conformity in Wales. The Merthyr Express, dated 15 July 1939, reported the service, and is transcribed below.
PILGRIMAGE TO CWM-Y-GLO
Welsh Independents’ Service in Chapel Ruins
Delegates from 55 churches attached to the North Glamorgan Association of Independents on Thursday made a pilgrimage to the ruins of Cwm-y-Glo Chapel, the secret worshipping place of Welsh Dissenters of the 17th Century.
The pilgrimage was part of the celebration of the 300th anniversary of Non-conformity in Wales, and the pilgrimage coincided with the quarterly meeting of the North Glamorgan Association at Ynysgau Congregational Church.
An impressive service was conducted around the ruins of the historic chapel and was attended by about 300 people.
Lying in a secluded spot on the mountainside overlooking the Borough, Cwm-y-Glo was built in 1669 by the Dissenters who had previously held their meetings at Blaencanaid Farm nearby. Blaencanaid became liable to raids by Government spies and soldiers, and for 20 years Cwm-y-Glo was used as a secret worshipping place until 1689 when the Toleration Act gave religious freedom to all Non-conformists.
Services were continued for many years afterwards until the members formed themselves into two groups – one going to Cefn Coed and the other to Ynysgau Chapel.
At the service at Cwm-y-Glo on Thursday an address was given by the Rev J T Rogers, pastor of Zoar Welsh Congregational Church, Merthyr, on “The Struggles of the Dissenters in the Merthyr area and the history of their worshipping places”. Mr Thomas Edwards of Edwardsville, president of the North Glamorgan Association, presided and prayer was offered by the Rev Watkin Jones.
Principal John Morgan Jones of the Bangor Independent College proposed a vote of thanks to the Rev J T Rogers and Mr W T Owen, Director of Education, seconded. The service concluded with the Benediction given by the Rev Cyril Bowen, Troedyrhiw.
ASSOCIATIONS CONFERENCE
A conference was held at Ynysgau Chapel in the morning, when Mr Thos. Edwards presided. Reports of the activities of the association during the past quarter were given by the Rev J T Rogers, secretary of the association.
The Rev H P Hughes, Cwmbach, was elected missionary secretary for the association and the Rev Glannant Jones, Aberdare, was appointed secretary of the Peace Committee.
Following the conference a service was held when the preacher was the Rev J R Salmon, Pontlottyn. Others who took part in the service were the Rev W Walters, Abernant; the Revs D C Jenkins, W Morse and W R Davies.
During the conference the Rev J T Rogers, who has been the association’s secretary for the past 12 years, was presented with a typewriter in recognition of his services. The presentation was made by Mr J Lewis, Aberdare, and Mr Rogers suitably responded.
A public meeting was held in the evening when the mayor, Mr Isaac Edwards, J.P. presided. The Rev T Glyndwr Jones, Dowlais, took the devotions, and addresses were given by Mr R Hopkin Morris, M.A., Director of the West Regional BBC Station, Cardiff, and Principal J Morgan Jones M.A.
Mountain Hare – an Early History
by Carolyn Jacob
MOUNTAIN HARE is the name of an old inn above Pen yr Heol Ferthyr which gave the district its more modern name – the 1851 Census Returns recorded Pen yr Heol Ferthyr (see below).
It is not certain when the inn was built, but it would seem to have ideally positioned for the time before industrialization and the road links and pre-1750 conditions, but the name suggests a post-1750 inn. It is an English name. The other public house in the area, the Farmer’s Arms, has the interesting nickname of ‘the Spite’, and there may be truth in the local legend that it was intended to ruin the trade of the other inn. However the name might be derived from the Welsh for a water spout because there was one there. There is another public house with this name in Carmarthenshire, and many of the residents of Mountain Hare came from there. This is very curious but the truth behind the name is hard to be certain of.
The Mountain Hare Ironstone Mine in mentioned by Clive Thomas in Merthyr Tydfil – A Valley Community, page 305, this pre-1860 ironstone mine was at Mountain Hare, just southwest of Dowlais No 2 Pit. In 1841 ironstone mining, coal mining and associated employment such as haulier are practically the only two occupations in the district, however, by 1851 there are different occupations in the area. Gradually the ironstone mining dies out and gives way to coal.
The 1851 census returns, which records place of birth, give clear evidence that the population of Mountain Hare (Pen yr Heol Ferthyr) came from various Welsh counties. We can find people born in Montgomgeryhire, Denbighshire, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire. There are only a few Englishmen here later but no Irish or Scots.
On 31 May 1856 the Merthyr Express reported the conversion of a small cottage to a Sunday School because of ‘the large number of children running about the whole of Sunday at Pwllyhwyaid. The school was connected to Zoar Welsh Independent Chapel.
Also, according to All Change by Josh Powell, page 63, a garden at Pen yr Heol Ferthyr was sold by David Robert Davies to Zion Welsh Baptist Chapel in 1861 for £20. A Sunday School called ‘The Bryn’ was then built on this site.
PEN YR HEOL FERTHYR: The ‘top of the road or ancient byway from or to Merthyr Tudful’, a place generally located below the old ‘Mountain Hare’ Inn, immediately east of the former Dowlais Inclined Plane, just above the former bridge which (in the 1940s) took the road called Heol Ferthyr alias Twyn yr Odyn Road across the Dowlais Inclined Plane. Sometime the name is on documents without the ‘yr’. The Dowlais Inclined Plane went right through this locality, mostly as a deep cutting, requiring a bridge to take Heol Ferthyr over the railway and another bridge lower down taking a lane over the railway to Tir Ysgubor Newydd homestead.
By 1885, the six-inch Ordnance Survey Map showed nearby Mountain Hare Inn, Maerdy, some houses to the rear and a row of houses alongside the road. This apart, there is very little if anything known of the history and occupants of this ‘farm’ or small-holding which lay alongside one of the main access roads to the village of Merthyr Tydfil. However, evidence taken from the census returns 1841- 1911 reveal quite a large number of persons residing in this district.
Mountain Hare was pictured in the Illustrated News of 1875 because this popular London based magazine did a feature about Merthyr Tydfil during the 1875 Strike, the longest strike to date. The men met at Mountain Hare for huge outdoor political rallies, but the area had long been a general outdoor meeting place gathering crowds of working men for sports and activities such as dog fighting (actually illegal from 1835) and bare knuckle fighting. Its main claim to fame is that the greatest politician of all time, Keir Hardie, spoke here to a gathering of working people in 1898.
A New Cemetery
The article transcribed below appeared in the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian 160 years ago today (7 May 1859).
Our new necropolis has this week been formally opened for the burial af the dead. It consists of about 21 acres of ground, and is situated about, two miles from Merthyr, beyond Cefn Coed y Cymmer and between the Brecon road and the River Taff. It was purchased at a cost of about £2000; and from £2000 to £3000 more have been laid out in walling it in, in the erection of chapels for the use of Churchmen and Dissenters, and in laying out the ground and making roads, walks, lodges, gateways etc.
The ground has been divided into three portions – one for the use of the Established Church, one for Dissenters, and one for Roman Catholics; and these several portions have now been formally dedicated to their respective uses. It was expected that the Church portion would have been consecrated on the 29th instant; but this was postponed to Tuesday last. In the meantime the Roman Catholics had taken possession of their ground, and had opened it for burial according to the uses of their church.
Much discussion has been for some time going on among the dissenting part of the population as to the mode of dealing with theirs. Having been violently opposed to the ceremonial of consecration practised by Churchmen, and having habitually denounced all consecrations of burial grounds as useless forms, if not something worse, they were placed in an awkward dilemma. If they abstained from any formal proceedings they would give the Established Church an opportunity to outshine them in the public eye; and if they had a formal service they turned their backs on their own professions, nullified all their own arguments, and would after all give a deliberate and imposing sanction to that consecrational usage which they had so often denounced. These various arguments were used over and over again in most of the dissenting chapels and Sunday schools. Where the spirit of nonconformity prevailed it was resolved to abstain from any demonstration, and to adhere to the fixed principles of their forefathers; but in the meantime a new spirit has found its way into dissenting chapels, and they incline to follow the example of the Established Church, while violently and even bitterly denouncing their example.
The object of the latter class was to produce a demonstration of the numerical superiority of the nonconformist part of the population; but in this respect it was a comparative failure; for several congregations discountenanced the movement, and others only half approved of it, so that they only put forth half their strength. The first intention was that all the children of the dissenting Sunday schools should take part in the demonstration but, owing to a prevalent disapprobation of the object thereof, and to a feeling that the motives in which it originated were uncharitable and unchristian, only a few schools turned out on the occasion, and of those some were divided and only displayed half their real numbers. Among those which joined in the demonstration were the Sunday schools in connection with Zoar Chapel, High Street Chapel, Adulam Chapel, a part of the Welsh Wesleyan School, and that of the Wesleyan Reformers.
Viewed in itself, and apart from the spirit which dictated it, the demonstration had several points of interest. The day was fine; the children, led by their ministers walked in procession, and, as they wended their way towards Cefn, they sang hymns appropriate to the occasion, making the streets vocal with their silvery tones, and populous with pleased hearers and spectators. Having arrived on the ground, religious services were celebrated in the chapel dedicated to the use of Dissenters; and addresses were delivered by several ministers and laymen. One of the speakers even went the length of asserting the propriety of consecration, and the superiority of the Nonconformist form of it. “Today,” said he, “we consecrate this ground with prayer; tomorrow it will be consecrated by ceremonies.” As if Churchmen could not pray as well as Dissenters.
Passing by this exhibition of bigotry, which we are happy to find met with the disapprobation of many Dissenters, we pursue our narrative. On the following day, the ground set apart for the use of Churchmen was consecrated by the Right Rev. the Bishop of Llandaff, in accordance with the rites of the Established Church. The Burial Board paid his Lordship the compliment of attending in their corporate capacity; and a considerable number of ladies and gentlemen – Churchmen and Dissenters – attended on the occasion.
The new burial ground having been formally opened on these several occasion, and in its several parts, will now speedily become the last resting-place of many of the inhabitants of this locality.
Merthyr’s Chapels: Ynysgau Chapel
Following on from the previous article, the next chapel we are going to look at is Ynysgau Chapel – the oldest and arguably most important chapel in the town.
As has mentioned in an earlier entry (http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=301), the early Non-Conformist worshippers had been meeting in a small chapel in Cwm-y-Glo. In 1749 the lease at Cwm-y-Glo expired, and due to the ever-growing congregation, it was decided to build a new chapel in the centre of Merthyr Tydfil.
It is said that the land which lies between the site of the Old Iron Bridge down to Swan Street was offered to the Non-Conformists at that time for the sum of £5 per annum “as long as a stone remains in the Taff river bed”. However, the members lacked enterprise and instead, bought the land on which the chapel stood in February 1749, and the first Ynysgau chapel was built with Samuel Davies being ordained as the first minister.
In 1785, Daniel Davies, a student from Carmarthen Presbyterian College was ordained as minister of the chapel. Although remaining for over twenty-five years, Davies’ ministry was not a successful one. The congregation at this time was still a mixture of various groups, and due to dissatisfaction with Davies’ style of preaching, the various groups began to split apart. One group left in 1788 to start a Baptist cause which would eventually lead to the formation of Zion Chapel in Twynyrodyn, and in 1794 the Calvinists left to start their own cause which led to the formation of Pennsylvania (later Pontmorlais) Chapel. The remaining worshippers became an Independent church, but even so, a number of the congregation thought that Daniel Davies’ ministry wasn’t rousing or evangelical enough for their tastes and split away from Ynysgau to hold their own meetings at the Crown Inn. This was the nucleus for Zoar Chapel.
In 1811, during the ordination of a subsequent minister, Rev Thomas Benjamin Evans, the gallery of the chapel collapsed due to overcrowding. Luckily everyone escaped from the accident. The ministry of Rev T B Evans wasn’t an entirely successful one. Following a promising early part of his ministry, Thomas Evans soon lost the confidence of his congregation due to his fondness for alcohol, and the congregation dwindled to almost nothing.
In an attempt to save the cause, 60 members of Zoar Chapel came to Ynysgau to boost the membership. Following Rev Evans death in 1851, Rev James Morris was inducted as the minister. The chapel flourished, and in 1853 it was decided to build a larger chapel.
The new chapel was officially opened in Easter Week 1854, and remained a successful cause well into the latter half of the 20th Century.
The chapel was forced to close and was demolished in 1967 as part of the redevelopment of the town centre, and it has often been said it was a sad decision to demolish such an important part of Merthyr’s history, especially as nothing stands on the site of the chapel.
There was a graveyard, inaugurated in 1750 attached to Ynysgau. The graveyard was one of the oldest in Merthyr with some tombstones dating back to 1773 and 1776; when the Chapel was demolished the remains of those buried at Ynysgau Chapel were exhumed between 10 – 27 October 1969, and re-interred at the Ffrwd section of the Cefn Cemetery. Further unidentified human remains were found at the site during excavation for a new road and were re-interred at Cefn Cemetery on 6 March 1998.
If you would like to learn more about Ynysgau Chapel, there is a fully-illustrated booklet available detailing the history of the chapel.
It costs £5 including postage and packing. All proceeds go towards the running of this blog.
If you would like to purchase a copy of the booklet, please contact me at: merthyr.history@gmail.com.