Wesley Chapel – The Melting Pot

The Morlais Brook – part 2

by Clive Thomas

From here in pre-industrial times the brook continued in its efforts to cut deeply into the country rock, passing Cae Racca, the fields of the Hafod Farm and down into Cwm Rhyd y bedd. Unfortunately with the construction of the new Ivor Works in 1839, this area became the tipping ground of the thousands of tons of waste produced by the furnaces, forges and rolling mills. Over the next century the whole form of the land became radically altered with tip and railway embankment obscuring its course. It eventually emerged into ‘The Cwm’, as a poor remnant of its former self, passing in the mid-nineteenth century the Dowlais Old Brewery and Gellifaelog House on its way down to Gellifaelog Bridge. This had been built in the second half of the eighteenth century to carry the Abernant to Rhyd-y-blew turnpike Road and would eventually become the location which every local would know as ‘The Bont’.

The Nant Morlais flowing through ‘The Cwm’ in the 1940s. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive.

A map showing the Nant Morlais passing through the Bont and showing Gellifaelog House and Gellifaelog Bridge

A little below here, it had its junction with Nant Dowlais on the banks of which the first Dowlais furnace had been constructed in 1759. Two centuries later, in the 1960’s with the building of the Heads of the Valleys Road and the general landscaping of the 1980’s the stream’s way through the ‘Cwm’ was again changed quite comprehensively, although shrub and tree planting rendered the valley more aesthetically pleasing. Unfortunately, it is only the archive map or faint ancient photographs which now help inform us of its rich and varied history.

Site of confluence of the Morlais and Dowlais Brooks. The old turnpike road went to the left, crossing the Morlais at Gellifaelog Bridge. The New Road was originally one of the railway inclines of the Dowlais Works. Photo Clive Thomas

Before being confined to its anonymous, culverted bed, the brook’s surface course from The Bont was once again encroached upon by massive tipping from the Dowlais Ironworks. On the opposite bank, once the fields of Gellifaelog and Gwaunfarren Farms, what was to become Penydarren High Street would be established. This ribbon development of dwellings, shops and places of worship was constructed above the steep valley side here and would eventually form a fundamental link between the growing settlements of Merthyr Tydfil and Dowlais. As early as 1811 though, I.G. Wood’ s print of the Penydarren Ironworks shows our mountain cataract to be already much altered, confined and despoiled by the growth of that iron manufactory. Today, the location is completely transformed from the area of desolation we knew in the 1960’s and ‘70’s. It is landscaped, green and partly wooded but it is a great pity the planners could not have given it a more inspirational name than Newlands Park.

The Morlais Brook flowing behind Penydarren High Street in the 1940s. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

Below the site of the works its course altered a little again and helped define that spur of high ground the Romans had chosen, probably in the early second century AD as the site for one of their forts. I am sure these ancient invaders would have had no inkling of the iniquities that men of later centuries would perpetrate on the stream and landscape hereabouts. Today, Nant Morlais reveals itself only briefly to the rear of the Theatre Royal and Trevithick memorial before disappearing at Pontmorlais, the location of another of those early turnpike bridges.

An 1851 map showing the course of the Morlais Brook through Pontmorlais

The Morlais Brook at Pontmorlais in the 1940s. Wesley Chapel is in the background. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

Hidden behind the buildings of the town’s Upper High Street there is one final reminder of the stream’s rural and unsullied past. Mill Lane, more recently the rather secret location of Mr. Fred Bray’s sweet factory, is the site of a water mill where our agricultural forefathers ground the corn grown in the fields of the local farms.

A map from the 1860s showing the old mill.

Whilst the old buildings and general dereliction which not so long ago framed the stream’s last few hundred metres have long disappeared and been replaced by car parking and civic buildings, a large portion of Abermorlais Tip remains to mark the point where the waters of Nant Morlais coalesce with those of the parent Taf. Although partly confined to a subterranean existence, through the more recent efforts of Man, ‘The Stinky’ has been able to rid itself of the foul and fetid mantle of its past.

Where it all ends. The confluence of the Morlais with the Taf. Photo Clive Thomas

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.

An extract from the 1851 Ordnance Survey Map of Merthyr showing the Castle Hotel (top left) and the Bunch of Grapes Pub (middle right)

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……

Merthyr’s Chapels: Wesley Chapel, Dowlais

The next chapel we are going to look at is Wesley Chapel in Dowlais. It has a very interesting history, and is one of the ‘survivors’ of the cull of chapels in the town.

Thomas Guest, the founder of the Dowlais Ironworks was prominent in the Wesleyan Church, and as such, he was a member of Wesley Chapel in Merthyr. In 1805, at Thomas Guest’s instigation, Rev Thomas Evans and Rev Edward Jones, ministers at the English and Welsh Wesleyan chapels in Merthyr came to Dowlais to preach in open-air meetings. When Thomas Guest died in 1807, both ministers carried on preaching and were instrumental in bringing Wesleyan Methodism to Dowlais.

Meetings were held in several places in Dowlais until the worshippers decided to build their own chapel. The site chosen for the chapel was where St John’s Church now stands, but owing to a dispute between the Wesleyan Conference and John Josiah Guest who owned the land, a different site had to be found.

The Welsh Wesleyans had already built their own chapel, called Shiloh at the bottom of Castle Street in Dowlais, and so a plot of land was leased from Mary Overton near to Shiloh Chapel and the congregation built a chapel in 1843.

An excerpt from an aerial photo of Dowlais from the 1920’s showing Hermon (1), Wesley (2) and Shiloh (3) Chapels.

The congregation soon grew and it became obvious that a larger chapel was needed, and the chapel was rebuilt in 1850. The chapel was subsequently renovated in 1875, 1892 and 1915. In 1871-73 a school room was also built adjoining the chapel on the site of the old Wesleyan burial ground.

The second Wesley Chapel decorated for a Harvest Festival in the 1920s

In November 1928, a severe storm caused major damage to the chapel, and the building had to be demolished. A new chapel was built in 1932 at a cost of £1976.18s.6d. The old chapel had faced Dowlais High Street and was approached by a long flight of steps from the street, however when the chapel was rebuilt, it was built facing the opposite way and the main entrance was placed on Castle Street.

Laying the foundation stone for the new chapel in the ruins of the old chapel in 1932.

The old Wesley Chapel was in the centre of the area of Dowlais being redeveloped in the 1960’s. A Compulsory Purchase Order was put on the Chapel by Merthyr Borough Council and the chapel and was demolished in 1967. The congregation were determined that they would not let their cause die and fought to have a new chapel built for them. After much negotiating, a new modern chapel, designed by the Percy Thomas Partnership was built in South Street in 1972 at a cost of £50,000.

The third chapel being demolished in 1967.

Wesley Chapel is now one of the few remaining chapels in Merthyr that is still open and holding regular services.

Merthyr’s Chapels: Wesley Chapel

The next chapel in our series is Wesley Chapel in Pontmorlais.

In 1790 Samuel Homfray, owner of the Penydarren Ironworks introduced a new process for making iron and needed to send to Yorkshire and Staffordshire for men to help carry out this new process.

The new workers were followers of John Wesley’s doctrines, and so started their own cause, meeting at their cottages near St Tydfil’s Church.

As the cause increased a larger meeting place had to be found and the ever-growing congregation started meeting in the Long Room of the Star Inn.

Again the congregation increased and it was decided to build a chapel. A piece of land was acquired beside the Morlais Brook near the small wooden bridge that carried the then small road from Merthyr to Penydarren and Dowlais.

Money was collected and the foundation stone was laid in 1796. Thomas Guest, son of John Guest the founder of the Dowlais Iron Works, who was an ardent Wesleyan and also a preacher, contributed £50 towards the building fund, and indeed preached at the chapel when it was completed. The chapel was completed in 1797 at a cost of £602.13s.7d. This was the first English chapel in Merthyr.

The congregation continued to grow and in 1860 it was decided that a new chapel should be built. The builders were Messrs Morgan & Edwards of Aberdare. There was a disagreement between the minister, Rev Josiah Matthews and the congregation about the size of the chapel, so after the site for the new chapel had been marked out with stakes, Rev Matthews waited until that night, went out to the site and moved the stakes to make the chapel larger. This subterfuge was not discovered, and it was not until the chapel was finished did Rev Matthews reveal what he had done. The chapel was completed in 1863 at a cost of £880 and was officially opened on 15 January 1863. Incorporated into the building was a house on the north side of the chapel which was intended to be used as a manse for the minister, but it was never used as such and was instead let to private tenants.

In 1871 the trustees of the chapel decided to have a new pipe organ so set up a fund called the “Debt and Organ Fund” to raise enough money to purchase an organ and pay off the remaining debt on the chapel. By 1873 enough money had been raised for the new organ and it was installed at a cost of £192.10s.0d.

In 1913, it was decided to build a new and very grand Central Wesleyan Mission Hall on Pontmorlais Road West across the Morlais Brook from the chapel, on the site of the Old Drill Hall. It would have been connected to the chapel by an arcade. Plans were actually drawn up for the Mission, but before building began the First World War broke out. Due to the subsequent upheaval, the plans were shelved and the Hall was never built.

The chapel closed on 30 December 1979 due to prohibitive costs for necessary repairs to the chapel, and the congregation moved to Dowlais Wesleyan Chapel. The building has been since used as a furniture shop, and an arts and crafts centre.

Wesley Chapel decorated for a Harvest Festival

Merthyr’s Chapels: Shiloh Chapel

The next chapel we are going to look at is Shiloh Welsh Wesleyan Chapel – one of Merthyr’s grandest chapels, but now probably better known as the Miners’ Hall.

In 1807 Rev Edward Jones came to the English Wesleyan Chapel in Pontmorlais to work alongside Rev J T Evans and to serve the needs of the Welsh speaking congregation there. That same year a group of worshippers left the English chapel to start a Welsh cause, and by 1811 they had built a small chapel in John Street.

By the 1850’s the Great Western Railway Company asked to purchase the land on which the chapel was built for their new railway station, and an agreement was made to provide a new chapel for the Welsh Wesleyans in Church Street. This new building was reputed to have been designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, though no documentation has been found to substantiate this, and it was opened in 1853.

In 1859 a religious revival took place in Wales, and in Merthyr the revival began at Shiloh Chapel under the guidance of Rev Watkinson, the minister there at the time, “where with great demonstrations and emotional excitement the converts were overcome by strong preaching and hymn singing”.

One of the most prominent ministers to officiate at Shiloh was Rev Thomas Aubrey (1808-1867). Born in Cefn Coed, Thomas Aubrey became a Wesleyan Methodist minister in 1826, and between then and 1865 travelled Wales as a minister at various chapels including Shiloh between 1846-1849. Rev Aubrey went on to be one of the most important preachers in Welsh Wesleyan history.

Unfortunately, the new chapel proved too large and too expensive to run, so it was reluctantly decided to close it in 1912 and the Welsh and English Wesleyans amalgamated at Wesley Chapel. Shortly after this, plans were formulated to build a grand Central Wesleyan Mission Hall on the site of the old Drill Hall, but the plan never came to fruition due to the advent of the First World War.

The building was sold to the Miners’ Welfare Committee, and it was opened as the Miners’ Hall in 1921. It later became a nightclub and was destroyed by fire in 1992. The shell of the building now lies derelict.

The Birth of Non-Conformity in Merthyr

by Steve Brewer

Religious dissent in the Merthyr area has existed since the middle of the 16th Century. In the 1540’s, a man called Tomos Llewellyn of Rhigos translated William Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament into Welsh. Llewellyn travelled widely across North Glamorgan and left the seeds of his dissenting beliefs in what was then the village of Merthyr Tydfil. A number of the villagers adopted these beliefs and clung stubbornly to them when the persecution of the Dissenters got underway under the Stuart kings. No matter how stubborn they were in their beliefs, they still had to be converted. If they were found practicing their beliefs, they were given sentences of imprisonment or death.

It is unclear when exactly Non-Conformity started in earnest in Merthyr but we can be sure that it had firmly taken root by the beginning of the 1600’s. The most conclusive evidence regarding the birth of Non-Conformity in Merthyr can be found in the papers of Rev Nathaniel Jones, the rector of the Parish of Merthyr Tydfil between 1640 and 1662. Amongst his papers was found a manuscript, written at some time in the early 1650’s giving a history of the troubles in the town at the time of the Long Parliament – the English Parliament summoned in November 1640 by King Charles I to raise the money he needed to wage the second Bishops’ War against the Scots which eventually led to the English Civil War.

In the manuscript Rev Jones states: “We have, in Merthyr Tydfil parish, a fellowship of men and women, who have for some time been in the habit of holding conventicles, in which some have formulated an ecclesiastical constitution according to their own wishes, contrary to the prevalent laws and regulations of the State Church”. The document emphasizes that this had been going on for about 30 years, so it is safe to argue that the Non-Conformists started holding regular meetings in about 1620. It was then that Non-Conformists from both Merthyr and Aberdare started meeting at Blaencanaid Farm.

Under the aegis of Oliver Cromwell, Parliament relaxed the laws against the Non-Conformists and they began to meet openly. Following the restoration of Charles II to the throne however, new stringent laws were passed against Non-Conformity, foremost amongst these was the Conventicle Act of 1664. The Non-Conformist worshippers, who now numbered between 300 – 400, had to return to meeting in secret at Blaencanaid. They were in constant danger of antagonism and arrest, so a number of men were elected as ‘watchers’ to keep watch whilst the meetings were taking place and warn the worshippers of any imminent danger. Despite all of their difficulties the congregation flourished, so a new meeting place was found at a barn belonging to Cwm-y-Glo Farm. As well as being larger, the new meeting place was more secluded and thus safer than Blaencanaid.

In 1689 the Toleration Act was passed which granted freedom of worship to all Dissenters. As a result the worshippers at Cwm-y-Glo decided to build a proper chapel for themselves. The landowner, Captain David Jenkins, granted them permission to build a chapel at Cwm-y-Glo which was completed in 1690. The congregation at Cwm-y-Glo at this time comprised of many different groups – Quakers, Presbyterians, Arminians and Anabaptists.

For many years, all went peacefully at Cwm-y-Glo until disputes arose over points of religious dogma, and a bitter argument followed. This is not surprising since the congregation of Dissenters comprised many different denominations. The main split came in 1741 when the Unitarians left to establish their own church at Hen Dy Cwrdd, Cefn Coed. In 1752, Cwm-y-Glo itself was closed when the remaining congregation moved to their new chapel in Merthyr town – Ynysgau.

Non-conformity was firmly established by the end of the 18^th Century. The Baptists established Zion Chapel in 1788 and Ebenezer Chapel in 1794, the Calvinistic Methodists established Pennsylvania (Pontmorlais) Chapel in 1793, and the Independents managed to establish Zoar Chapel in 1798 and Bethesda in 1807 as well as having acquired Ynysgau. Lastly, the Wesleyans established their chapel in 1796.

Between 1789 and 1850, at least forty places of worship were licensed in Merthyr, Dowlais and Penydarren alone.