Author: merthyr.history@gmail.com

Merthyr’s Chapels: Ebenezer Chapel, Cefn Coed

The next chapel we look at in our continuing feature is Ebenezer Welsh Independent Chapel in Cefn Coed.

Ebenezer Chapel in 1983

The cause at Ebenezer started in 1836 when four members of Bethesda Chapel called Jededia Jones, Thomas Williams, Morgan Morgans and Henry Thomas started meeting in two small rooms in Cefn Isaf, Cefn Coed belonging to the ‘Hen Dafarn Bach’.

In 1837, as the congregation grew, they decided to build their own church, and a piece of land was bought from Lady Gwyn Holford, and a chapel was built at a cost of £400. The first minister was Mr Evan Williams, a teacher and part time preacher at Bethesda Chapel.

In 1838 the Chartist Rising began, and as many in the church supported the points of the Charter and Evan Williams the minister opposed them, it was agreed that it would be better for him to leave. Following this Mr William Moses took over as minister, but the arguments over the congregation’s support of the Chartist’s methods of violence to enforce social reform continued.

More disagreements occurred over Mr Richard Evans and Mr Walter Williams, members of the chapel, going to preach at Adulam Chapel in Tredegar which strongly supported the chartists. The East Glamorgan Association of Independent Churches strongly disapproved of this, but the chapel continued to allow them to preach in Tredegar with the result that Ebenezer was excluded from the Independent Union for many years, effectively cutting them off from the other Independent chapels in the area.

The disagreements culminated with the minister Mr Moses leaving the chapel with a number of the congregation and starting their own chapel at Tabor in Cefn Coed in 1842.

That same year, Richard Evans and Walter Williams were ordained as joint ministers at Ebenezer which further angered the Association, and both men were excluded from preaching at any other chapel in the area.

After the chapel had been outside the Independent Union for five years, reconciliation was made, Ebenezer joined the Independent Union and Richard Evans and Walter Williams were accepted as ordained ministers. The congregation subsequently grew and a larger chapel was built in 1861 at a cost of £700.

In 1913 a burst water main undermined the foundations of the chapel and the front and one of the side walls gave way. The front wall and most of the side wall had to be rebuilt at a cost of £500.

During the 1960’s the number of members severely declined, and they were unable to maintain the fabric of the building. The chapel closed in 1970 and services were held for a number of years in the Chapel’s schoolroom in Holford Street, until that too closed.

Ebenezer Chapel is still standing, but is in a very sorry state.

Ebenezer Chapel in 2012

The Meaning of Grawen

by Carl Llewellyn

Although there is a farm in Cwmtaf called “Grawen”, most residents living in Merthyr Tydfil would recognise the name being associated with the area around the Quar, Brecon Road, known as the “The Grawen”.

The Welsh word for “rough” is “garw”, and in the old Welsh language meadow is “gwaen” or “waen”. If these two words are combined we have Garw-waun, drop one “w” and the “a” in waen we have “Grawen”. In the old Welsh the “r” frequently changes its position  and so “Garwen” would become “Grawen”.

This is conjectural – the word “garw” (rough) combined with “nant” (a valley or a brook), gives us “turbulent brook” with the word “rough” associated with water – hence Nantgarw, Pontypridd, and an area near Cwmtaf is known as “Garwnant”. In Dewi Cynon’s history of Farm names the word “garw” or “rough” refers to the bed of the brook being “coarse” hence “rough brook”.

The ‘Round House’ in the Grawen, Brecon Road

 

Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society – 2018 Programme

The Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society are pleased to announce the lecture programme for 2018. One or two lectures need to be confirmed, but will be announced in due course.

DATE SPEAKER LECTURE
5 February Brian Davies The Welsh Paintings of Julius Ibbetson
5 March Rev David Lee The Disestablishment of the Church in Wales
9 April Stephen Brewer 1936 – A Year in History
14 May Gregg Buick To be announced
4 June Keith Lewis-Jones “Green” Transport in Aberdare and Merthyr
3 September Gethin Matthews Commemorating the First World War in South Wales Communities
1 October Ben Price To be announced
5 November Clive Thomas Merthyr Tydfil: A Decade of Change – 1968-1978
3 December Daryl Leeworthy The Rise and Fall of Council Housing in Twentieth-Century Merthyr

The Aeolus Waterwheel – Merthyr’s Great Wonder

When Rev Sir Thomas Cullum (8th Baronet Cullum) visited Merthyr Tydfil in 1811, one of the sights he was most taken with was the mighty Aeolus Waterwheel at the Cyfarthfa Ironworks, and he even called it ‘the wonder of the place’. Some contemporary accounts actually refer to it as ‘the Eighth Wonder of the World‘. I wonder how many people in Merthyr have actually heard of it nowadays?

‘Cyfarthfa Works and Waterwheel’ by William Pamplin. The Aeolus Waterwheel can clearly be seen at the centre of the illustration. Photo courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery

When Richard Crawshay became sole owner of the Cyfarthfa Works in 1791, he began making plans to extend the works and come up with innovative ways to increase iron production. In 1792, he made the engineer Watkin George a partner in the firm, and the latter began making significant progress in maximising the potential of the works.

His major contribution was the construction between 1793 and 1797 of a huge overshot waterwheel to provide the air for the four blast furnaces.

According to volume 5 of Rees’s Manufacturing Industry (1819-20):

“…..the water-wheel is 50 feet in diameter and six feet wide: it is chiefly made of cast iron, and has 156 buckets. The axle is a hollow tube, and is strengthened by twenty-four pieces of timber applied around it. On each end of the axis is a cog-wheel of twenty-three feet diameter, which turns a pinion. On the axis of these are two cranks, and fly-wheel twenty-two feet diameter, and twelve tons weight; each of the cranks gives motion to a lever, like that of a large steam-engine, and works the piston of a blowing cylinder or air-pump 52½ inches in diameter, and five feet stroke, which blows air into the furnace, both when the piston goes up and down. The work on the other side being the same, it actuates in the whole four of these double cylinders; the wheel makes about two and a half turns per minute, and each cylinder makes ten strokes.”

At the time, it was the largest waterwheel of its kind in the world and was named Aeolus after a character in Greek Mythology. Aeolus, as mentioned in the Odyssey and the Aeneid,  was the keeper of the winds and king of the island of Aeolia, one of the abrupt rocky Lipara islands close to Sicily. Later classical writers regarded him as a god.

The wheel was operated by water fed from streams across the river and transported by a massive iron and wood double aqueduct mounted on stone piers between 60 and 70 feet high. This was the famous Gwynne Aqueduct. Sir Charles Manby (later Secretary of the Institution of Civil Engineers) visited Merthyr and commented that the aqueduct:

“…..maintained an apparent lightness of the whole that contrasted with the massy [sic] boundary of the river, has not only a singular, but also a very interesting and pleasing appearance.”

Gwynne Aqueduct from a painting by Penry Williams

This is the same aqueduct that was mentioned in the previous post about the Pont-y-cafnau (http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=678)

The Aeolus Waterwheel continued to power the blast furnaces until the 1820’s when it was replaced by a steam powered engine, and was subsequently demolished.

Merthyr: Then and Now

PONTSARN RAILWAY STATION

Pontsarn Station was, at one time, one of the busiest stations on the Brecon and Merthyr Railway line, as Pontsarn was always the venue of choice for Church and Chapel Sunday School Outings.

In the first photograph taken in the early 1900’s we see a quite busy station with its own station-master.

Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

The second photograph taken in October 2017 shows that nothing remains of the old station other than the platform. It is now a scenic stopping off point on the Taff Trail.

Many thanks to Jason Meaker who suggested this post.