by Carolyn Jacob
The Church of St. John the Baptist, Dowlais was built in 1827, and it is likely that the Dowlais Church was named after its founder and benefactor, Josiah John Guest, iron-master of Dowlais and known as Sir John Guest.
Although brought up a strict Wesleyan Methodist he decided that the religious welfare of the workmen called for a church in Dowlais and that the industrial success of Dowlais called for the establishment of Dowlais as a Parish in its own right. Guest paid £3,000 towards the cost of the building and it was consecrated and opened on 27 November 1827 by Dr Sumner, Bishop of Winchester and former Bishop of Llandaff.
Lady Charlotte Guest presented the Church with its Communion vessels and Sir John Guest contributed generously to the maintenance of the clergy at Dowlais; he also supported many chapels in the area. Sir John died in Dowlais on the November, 1852 and a plain Italian marble slab at the top of the Chancel steps still marks where he is buried in St John’s Church. A massive marble columned tablet is inscribed with his epitaph. St. John’s Church thrived and held two services each Sunday, two services in English and also two in Welsh and so it catered for both languages.
The original Church was a plain, simple, square building with tall windows and a square tower. Gradually the Church has been extended, rebuilt and enlarged.
During the 1890s the main Nave was rebuilt with additions to the aisles to allow room for the growing congregation and enable 800 sittings.The Church was restored at a cost of £4,500 under the direction of the architect E.A. Johnson, who later designed the Merthyr Tydfil Town Hall. Most of the expense was paid by Lord Wimborne, eldest son of the founder Sir John Guest; although a great bazaar in Dowlais raised £1,000 which was a huge amount in those days. The new extended aisle was the gift of Edward Pritchard Martin, General Manager of the Dowlais Iron Company in memory of his father George Martin.
This family also financed the splendid decorative ‘Miner’s Window’ in the Church which show two coal miners digging at a coal face with the caption underneath, ‘The Thing that is hid Bringeth he forth light’. Such an industrial motif in stained glass is quite unusual to be found in a Church. The bare headed miners, with their picks, candles, and their clothing and boots, present an accurate image of a coal miner (see right).
The interior of St John’s is imposing because of its sheer size. The tall fine oak roof of the Nave is a hammer beam type, supported by 6 larger and 5 smaller corbel tables on each Nave wall. The interior walls are double thick yellow brick. The five plain Early English styled columns with rounded bases can still be seen inset to the new west Nave wall.
The Martin family had charge of the Collieries for the Dowlais Works and the American singer, Donny Osmond, claims descent from this famous Dowlais family, whose Brass plaques and monuments are still in the Church. The enlarged and redesigned Church was opened officially in October 1894 with a special service.
The present Church is a fine structure of Llancaiach blue pennant stone, after the Gothic style of the 13th and 14th centuries. This wonderful Gothic church has long been a central land mark in Dowlais and has changed little since the late nineteenth century, although the former vestry has been demolished. St John’s Church is 112 feet in length, with a maximum width of 84 feet and about 60 feet high. The whole construction is of masoned Pennant stone, but the doors and windows are surrounded with lighter coloured ashlar blocks of Forest and Bathstone trimmed with dripstone and moulds. This magnificent church was always perhaps too large for its congregation in this most non-conformist of towns.
Far less than 10% of the population here attended an Anglican Church. In our more secular times in proved to be too large for its Dowlais Congregation and it closed in 1997. The church is currently undergoing conversion to residential flats which will retain its original fine structure.