In January, I published an article regarding the Prince of Saxony’s visit to Dowlais (https://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=8138). Here is a transcription of another German visit from “Dawlais Works, die Eisen- und Schienen-Walzwerke des Hauses John Guest, in London, 1844” by Carl Klocke.
Anticipation mounts and, finally, at the end of the valley, where the mountains close in, lie the Dowlais works, and to the left and across the top of the peak is the hamlet Dowlais with a few protruding small churches and chapels. As we approach the place, our coachman identifies one of them as Sir John’s chapel, for it was Sir John Guest himself who had it built, then there is Sir John’s market hall and his estate situated directly above the works; next, the garden for Sir John’s horses and the three horsemen on an outing who are passing us, are none other than Sir John’s surgeons. Our omnibus terminates in front of a small, neat guesthouse on the High Street of Dowlais and we are finally at the end of our journey. One can hear the steam engines at work and the roar of the bellows; from the windows on the upper storey one can see the flickering flames of the blast furnaces which, like a nearby fire storm, then illuminate the bedrooms at night and it takes some adjustment in order to fall peacefully asleep. …
Yet, one would not have seen Dowlais properly without having gone for a walk over the surrounding heights during the late evening hours. At Dowlais, Sir John can offer his guests illuminations and fireworks every evening. By comparison, the famous fireworks of the Surrey Gardens in London (where they fabulously depict the Great Fire of London in the year 1666) are but child’s play. The blast furnaces resemble a burning city, whereas further below, the fires and forges, together with the illuminated tall chimney stacks of the steam engines, looks like a city which has just recently burnt down. In the evening light, the not quite extinguished slags gleam like glowing lava; raised up to towering heaps, here and there on the outermost edge of tall mountains, they flow to the valley like burning streams of lava. … However, to witness one such sight, one must never come to Dowlais on a Saturday or Sunday, because Sir John Guest not only quotes Nelson in saying ‘that he expects every man to do his duty’, but he also adds ‘that he likes to see every man enjoy his Sunday’.
It is for that reason that – except for the blast furnaces which, naturally, cannot suffer any disruption – at a fairly early hour each Saturday afternoon, all other fires and steam engines cease their groaning, and the workers and drawn carts swarm from the near and far factories towards town.
Following on from the recent article about Gwaunfarren House (https://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=8282), here is a pictorial look at just ten of the magnificent ‘grand’ houses that we once had in Merthyr, but have been swept away by ‘progress’.
Firstly, the aforementioned Gwaunfarren House…
The home of the Guest family – Dowlais House…
The home of the Homfray family, Penydarren House….
The home of the Crawshay family (pre-Cyfarthfa Castle), Gwaelodygarth House….
Gwaelodygarth Fach…
Sandbrook House, Thomastown…
Gwernllwyn House, Dowlais…
Vaynor House…
Ynysowen House, Merthyr Vale…
Bargoed House, Treharris…
All photos courtesy of the Alan George Archive.
If anyone has any more information or any memories of any of these houses, please get in touch. Also, if anyone has any photos of other lost houses or landmarks in Merthyr, please let me know.
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.
After Dowlais House there was, I think, a house, but it was enlarged for Mr George Martin, who lived there some years after. Then came the surgery, and the entrance to the furnace yard beyond. The railroad for bringing the limestone from the quarries crossed the turnpike here, and cottages continued for some distance on the road to Rhymney.
The road to the Ivor Works runs alongside the old limestone road, and just on the corner is the residence of Mr E. P. Martin, his brother, Mr H. W. Martin, occupying the smaller one adjoining.
An extract from the 1851 Ordnance Survey Map showing the two houses in question.
The first was built for Mr John Evans, and occupied for some years by him, but Mr Joseph Lamphier, who occupied the smaller, moved to Cwmavon, and both he and his sister (for he was a bachelor) rest in a grave there. My first visit to Mr John Evans’ house was when he resided at Gwernllwyn Isaf. His brother, Thomas, lived near, and also the rector, Rev Thomas Jenkins. There was also a school there – small, very small in comparison with the present, but there it was.
A short way further, and the Ivor Works are come to, but a road crosses leading up to the houses behind the works. These were built just after the starting of the works in ’33 or ’39, and several of them were the quarters of the military stationed there after the Chartist Riot at Newport. The captain had been abroad, and brought a coloured nursemaid back. This girl was was an object of curiosity to the tip girls, and, they being so much so, took an opportunity of inspecting if that was actually the colour of her skin beneath her clothes.
Instead of turning to the right, if we turned left we should be on the continuation of the road which is mentioned as turning up the side of the Dowlais Inn. Proceeding along this, we come to the stables on one side and the Market House on the other. The church is a short distance further on the same side as the stables.
An extract from an the 1851 Ordnance Survey Map showing the area in question
With the introduction of the railways, no doubt there has been some improvement, but the impression yet existing is that there is more squalor – perhaps less care for appearances. That some feeling of this kind did exist is shown by what was done when a great personage was there.
There was a large order for rails in the market, and the high position of the firm stood them in good stead. To understand my meaning, it is proper to state the town residence of Sir John Guest (8 Spring Gardens) was celebrated; it was here the episode of the balance-sheet took place as described in Roebuck’s “History of the Whigs”. The order was secured, and a Russian prince was coming to see the works. Between the entrance to the works, opposite the Bush and Dowlais House, on the left side of the road going up, were a lot of cottages. They were somewhat above the average at that time, but the gardens in front were not tidy, so Mawdesley, the engineer of the Ivor Works, was called on to design and erect an iron railing which was done.
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.
We have now entered Dowlais – yes, to some extent, truly called dismal and dirty. No doubt it has redeeming traits, but from personal recollections I do not consider it had even the amenities that existed in Merthyr. It was, or seemed to be, more brusque, more aggrandising, but if Merthyr was truly a village in the early thirties, Dowlais was somewhat less. “Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice” shall be my guide.
Up the brook a short way there was a brewery, erected by a Mr Powell of Abergavenny, whose father was a church dignitary there. The hill before us is steep, and the first road is one that doubles back in front of the Dowlais Inn, and then turns up to the right to the Dowlais Church, stables and on to the Ivor Works. This was kept by a James Henry, who went thence to keep another public house in Rhymney.
The Dowlais Inn. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
Keeping the coach road, another public house on the other side was the Vulcan. There were steps alongside down to the tramroad, and the lowest entrance gates into the works stood just there. Some short distance further there was another public house, whose name has slipped. It was, however, some four steps (nearly three feet) lower than the road. Mr David Williams and his aunt, Miss Teague, kept it awhile after leaving the Angel in Merthyr, but it was taken as the station of the railway from the Taff Vale, and used as such at the time.
Following this on the same side was a row of workmen’s cottages having their back to, but the ground floor much lower than the road. About six of what were then the best shops in the place being passed, the main entrance into the works and office was come to.
The shop nearest the entrance gates was, or had been, the old Company shop. It had, however, ceased to be carried on upon the truck system as far as can be recalled. A Mr Parnell was the manager, but there is some hazy idea of Mr Williams, the father of Mr Joshua Williams, of Aberdylais (sic), being connected with it. Mr Jenkins, the druggist, had a branch shop in the row; also a Mr D Lewis kept another druggist’s shop, and Mr Lewis, draper, of the London Warehouse, also had a branch. Immediately opposite to the entrance gates was the Bush Hotel, kept by Mr Richard Henry who had been a contractor in the works some years before.
The Bush Hotel in Dowlais c.1885. Photograph courtesy of the Alan George Archive
At the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832, Merthyr was made a borough, and privileged to send one member to Parliament. Sir John (then Mrs) Guest was returned, but he had previously been member for Honiton, and upon one occasion ordered a large number of pairs of boots and shoes there. They were dispatched to Dowlais to the company’s shop there, but Mr Parnell decline having anything to do with them. “He had not ordered them”, and knew nothing whatever about them.
Richard Henry was sent for to the office, he being then a contractor and having a great number of persons under him. “Dick I want you to sell a lot of boots and shoes for me” was said by Mr Guest. “Well, but master, I don’t want them, and how am I to pay for them?” was replied. “Oh that shall not trouble: you can pay when you sell the last pair”, was the rejoinder, and ‘Dick’ took them all but never sold the last pair. It is not possible to vouch for the strict accuracy of it, but I can vouch for having the narrative from Mr Richard Henry’s own lips.
The following is transcribed from The King of Saxony’s Journey Through England and Scotland in the Year 1844. Trans. S.C Davison. London: Chapman and Hall, 1846.
As we approached Merthyr Tydvil (sic), the iron-works became more numerous; we saw everywhere smelting-houses and forges, little railways and canals for the conveyance of the iron from one place to another. In one valley we saw below a canal, and a railway for locomotive engines; higher up, the road upon which we were, and still higher, a tram-road for the conveyance of materials and workmen belonging to the mines. We met on another occasion, on such a tram-road, along train of black coal-waggons, and others covered with workmen black and brown with dust – a curious sight! And what mountains of dross were piled up. Certainly, the quantity of iron produced in these mountains must be enormous.
The race of people which we found here, is very much the reverse of handsome; the women wear men’s hats on their heads, or black straw hats, and along with this, a very awkward, ungraceful dress. I was reminded once or twice of the women of Unalaska, mentioned in ‘Cook’s Voyages’.
All other considerations however vanish, when one comes to understand the size and extent of the iron-works themselves. The first we visited, in which six blast furnaces were at work, presented an extraordinary sight. Above the flaming chimneys of the blast furnaces the heated air trembled, and made the outlines of the mountains of dross behind them appear wavy. I could not help imagining these mountains of dross to be volcanoes, and the blast furnaces little burning craters on the sides of the larger ones. The impression produced was a much more powerful one, when we went further and took a view of the great iron-works belonging to Sir John Guest and Company. One could easily have believed oneself transferred to the blazing city of Dis, mentioned by Dante! We were first conducted to the mines, the immense quantity of coal and iron produced by which rendered all this possible. Some idea of this quantity may be obtained from the fact that in the last five weeks 36,000 tons of coal have been dug out, sometimes 1500 tons in a day, and that all these coals are employed in the works. Close to this mine is that from which a similar quantity of ironstone is produced. The cost, of course, is enormous! The works employ about 6000 work-people daily, and the wages of these workmen, with food, &c., amounts to about 26,000l. a month! …
I was also much interested in standing at the double entrance to the shaft, and observing how, set in motion by a steam-engine, and conducted along a subterraneous railway, on the one side a row of empty waggons, and a number of workmen, with miners’ lamps, were conveyed into the mountains; whilst, on the other side, shortly after, a number of waggons loaded with ironstone and coal, and with other workmen, came out from the cavern. The carelessness with which the workmen acted, sufficed to show the influence of daily exposure to danger. Several of the men came out of the sloping shaft, quite without holding, and standing upright upon the rope which drew the waggons out of the centre of the mountain. The slightest inclination to either side, in the darkness of the cavern, would have been sufficient to precipitate the man from his position, and he would have been crushed to pieces by the next waggon. This carelessness is, however, not merely manifested in such exhibitions of skill, but is even shown in a similar manner in the interior. Hence, notwithstanding Davy’s safety lamp, accidents are continually occurring from cold damp. Only this morning three workmen were killed in this manner, in one of the workings.
The article below is transcribed from the Evening Express 120 years ago today….
DEATH OF MR FOTHERGILL
Deceased a Former M.P. for Merthyr.
Mr. Richard Fothergill, formerly M.P. for Merthyr Tydfil, died at Sion House, Tenby, early this morning after an illness extending over a month.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
The redoubtable family of the Fothergills were early identified with Westmoreland and the “North Countrie.” They were products of the North—the bleak nursery of strong men. The philosopher of the buckle and lamp has endeavoured to trace analogies between the magnetic and the mental. That we pass over; but certainly from the North came many of the pioneers of we iron and coal world, though not, be it added, without a blending of native genius.
The Fothergills first appeared in this country at Lydbrook, in the Forest of Dean, at Tredegar, and next in the Aberdare district, where the family was represented by Rowland Fothergill, who followed in the track of the Scales, and is creditably supposed to have thriven in the same ratio as that family declines. One of the Scales, who had a tendency to be pungent with his pen in after years, described Rowland Fothergill as the squire of Hensol, who “looked as though he never could stoop with his scythe to mow.”
Mr. Rowland Fothergill was a personage of note in Aberdare in 1819. He was the uncle of Richard Fothergill, and when that worthy was in his erratic youth he came and grew up by the side of the stalwart old man, trained into the mysteries of iron-making, and, when in all the strength of his manhood he careered about the valley, well mounted, scorning high- ways and dashing about the mountains, few finer types of humanity could be a cavalier amongst the Puritans, one upon whom men looked with pleasure for his man hood and frankness, and upon whom the eyes of women fell with pleasing interest.
As time past changes crept in. Mr. Rowland Fothergill drifted away from forges and furnaces to the arcadian attractions of Hensol, and when he died in the fulness of years Richard, the nephew, reigned in his stead. He was now the owner of Abernant and Llwydcoed. Ironworks, collieries, and landed estates were his. Not only had he thousands of men at his command, but a splendid array of able men as managers, agents, etc., whose descendants we see to-day—all that is left of them—in honourable positions at the Docks or elsewhere; men who since won rank in the industrial world, and held it by unswerving integrity.
When Mr. Richard Fothergill had gained a position greater than that held by his uncle, there yet opened out a longer vista of distinction We find him aspiring to annex the ironworks of Mr. Anthony Hill, the last of the famous Plymouth Iron Company, who died in 1862. His death cleared the way to the ambitious ironmaster, suggesting greater and more successful rivalry to the Crawshays and Guests by his becoming as potent in the Merthyr Valley as in that of Aberdare. In connection with others, notably Mr. Hankey, a London banker, the Plymouth Ironworks and Collieries passed into his hands, and with remarkable industry he overlooked the workings of each ironworks and colliery.
In the zenith of his career as ironmaster he met with a sad family bereavement, and for a time he was overwhelmed, trying to find in religious consolation the anodyne. In time he rallied, and it was not very long before a vacancy in the representation of Merthyr Tydfil aroused in him the ambition to become to the iron and coal district what Sir John Guest had been. Keen student of man, it was not long before he gained his end, and, amid the cheers of hurraying men, the acclamations of “Fothergill age,” and the blaze of the magenta light won from the coal, he made his way to St. Stephen’s.
Friends and enemies gave him the credit of having been an active member of Parliament. He did not sit down, resting upon his laurels, but fought for all he was worth in advocacy of the virtues of the coal of Wales. Of course, many said that in doing so he also benefited himself. Be that as it may, he unquestionably did a good deal in the interest of steam coal, and was the means first of getting good Admiralty orders and, secondly, of making the beat steam coal of Wales more widely known.
While all intent upon coal, iron, Parliament, the commercial crash came which involved him in disaster, and the star which had arisen so brightly fell. It was a terrible calamnity to him and to the district. Many a man wished that Mr. G. Clark’s intention of carrying on Plymouth Works after the death of Mr. Anthony Hill had been accomplished, and deplored the acquisition by Mr. Fothergill. Fortunately, time and the merits of the famous Welsh coal brought about eventually some modification, though to this day old furnaces long disused at Plymouth and the wreck of Abernant and Llwydcoed are evidences of the greatest disaster to the iron industry Wales ever sustained. From that time and Mr. Fothergill’s retirement from Parliament his connection with his old district has been slight. Perhaps one of the best reminders of Mr. Richard Fothergill will be his successes at Abernant House. Here, with remarkable taste, he made the unsightly tips attractive, clothing eyesores with leaflage and foliage.
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.
But I have wandered somewhat, so to return – having given Cyfarthfa its innings, and let us begin with the personnel of Plymouth, or rather, of Plymouth, Pentrebach and Dyffryn.
Part of the derelict Plymouth ironworks in the 1900s. Courtesy of the Alan George Archive
The upper part formed a portion of the taking of Mr Bacon, and the ‘Furnace Isaf’ was leased from him by the father of Messrs Hill. Upon his death the firm became Richard, John and Anthony Hill. Richard, the eldest son, was a fine specimen of the old English gentleman. John was not so robust, but keen, fond of horses, betting and of gaiety. Anthony, studious, precise and particular. He lived to become the sole proprietor after years of hard work and earnest attention.
As characteristic of Richard Hill, he, as well as his brothers, were Tories, and on the return of a member for Cardiff had a chairing. He was known as ‘Honest Dick from the Mountain’. Richard Hill died at Court yr Alla, and rests in the churchyard near there (Michaelston-le-Pit, I believe). John in Bath, and Anthony lonesome at Pontyrhun. They had a sister who died a spinster at Clifton in 1847 or so. It is a matter of regret that the trustees of Mr A. Hill’s will did not see their way to let the works pass into the hands of one of the relatives, but that is forestalling events.
References to ‘Mushet on Iron’ will show that the blast furnaces at the Dyffryn and the blowing engine there were of note. The engine was a departure from the ordinary proportion which was between the steam and blast cylinders, and, as far as can be recalled, the blast cylinder was the largest (120 inches diameter) and the furnace boshes were also the largest, but the greatest achievement of Mr A. Hill was the utilisation of cinders. This he patented, and heavy litigation followed. He won the first action, and being defeated at a subsequent time, would not go on again, as he was strongly advised to do. This soured his feelings, and he always entertained a bitterness of feeling with respect to it, for he verily believed perjury had been used.
There was another matter in the making of iron he was virtually the pioneer of, viz, the use of oxides of iron in the blast furnace. The manager of the furnace was a Mr Edward Thomas, the great-uncle to Mr Wm. Thomas of Oakfield, Aberdare. When Mr Hill was quite clear that pig iron could be commercially made from hematite, he endeavoured to come to an arrangement with the Earl of Lonsdale for him to find the necessary coal and Mr Hill the ore, so as to make iron at Whitehaven. Should any of your readers be in that locality and find the original engine-house yet in existence, they will find a goat’s head with ample horns cut on the keystone of the arch in the walls. This was as a compliment to Mr Thomas.
Shortly after Mr Thomas went to America , and erected works there. He returned toward the end of the thirties, and after spending a few months at the Ivor Works, I think led a quiet life. Upon leaving Dowlais, Sir John Guest desired him to return after a while, although he promised to think over it ‘after the cuckoo had come’, he never returned there.
We all know the story – a wager between Samuel Homfray of the Penydarren Ironworks, and Richard Crawshay of Cyfarthfa that Trevithick’s steam locomotive could haul ten tens of iron from Penydarren to Abercynon, and we all know that Homfray won his bet, and Merthyr became known across the world as the home of the first railway.
But have you ever wondered why the bet was made? Perhaps it just a whim between two very rich two men with money to burn. After all the bet was sizeable 500 guineas or something like £40,000 in today’s money. Perhaps it was because Homfray, who had used Trevithick’s engines to drive a hammer in the ironworks, was a pioneer. Or was it because of the Glamorganshire Canal…..?
The Glamorganshire Canal in Merthyr. Photo Courtesy of the Alan George Archive
By the late 18th century, Merthyr was probably the most important manufacturing town in Britain, with a population 8 times larger than that of Cardiff, which was the nearest port. However, the river wharfs in Cardiff were rapidly reaching capacity and could not keep up with the maritime demands made by Merthyr’s four ironworks. In addition, it was prohibitively expensive to get the goods from Merthyr to Cardiff, costing the ironmasters something like £14,000 p.a. – a sum equivalent to around £1m today.
Richard Crawshay. Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery
It was within this context that Richard Crawshay took the lead in lobbying for a Parliamentary Bill in order to get the powers to build a canal from Merthyr to Cardiff, and in 1790 the Glamorganshire Canal Act was passed. The Act provided that a company be formed of The Company of Proprietors of the Glamorganshire Canal Navigation with power to purchase land for making the canal and to carry out the necessary works. The Act also laid down the route that was to be followed, authorised the raising of £90,000 to meet the cost of completing the canal, and laid down the maximum charges for carrying various classes of goods, up to 5d. per ton per mile for carrying stone, iron, timber, etc. and up to 2d. per ton per mile for carrying iron stone, iron ore, coal, lime-stone, etc. It also stated that the distribution of Company profits was not to exceed £8% per annum upon the capital sum actually laid out in making the canal.
The Canal Company appointed a Committee from amongst its shareholders to be responsible for the management of the Company’s affairs, and the first Committee meeting was held on 19 July 1790 at the Cardiff Arms Inn, when it was decided to enter into a contract with Thomas Dadford senior, Thomas Dadford junior and Thomas Sheasby to construct the canal at a cost of £48,228, exclusive of the cost of land. This is about 3 times the annual cost of sending goods to Cardiff, so it was estimated that all costs would be recouped in as little as three years.
Construction work started in August 1790 and it was a massive undertaking – over its length of 25 miles, the land drops by 543 feet, so it was necessary to build 51 locks, some double, and one in Nantgarw, a triple lock; some locks were 10 feet high and the one in Aberfan topped 14’6″. In addition. there was the necessity for an aqueduct to be built at Abercynon, a tunnel under Queen St in Cardiff, several feeders to be created and, as the canal came closer to Merthyr, it had to be cut through sheer mountain rock. By 1794, however, there was a functioning and effective new transport link between Merthyr and Cardiff at a final cost of £103,600.
Aberfan Lock. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
But even before the canal was completed it had become clear that it needed to be extended beyond Cardiff so as to give access directly to the sea. Another £20,000 was raised by subscription and a deal was struck with the Marquis of Bute, who owned the land, to build a sea lock and canal basin, which enabled ships of 200 tons to dock. The Sea Lock itself was 103 feet long with gates 27 feet wide.
The canal made transport to Cardiff very cheap, but generated very high revenues. It was designed to take canal boats of up to 25 tons, each drawn by a horse, with a man and a boy. By 1836 there were about 200 boats on the canal, each doing 3 round trips every fortnight. That’s a lot of tonnage at an average of 3d a ton.
But all was not well in the Committee. From the start, it was dominated by Richard Crawshay, who tended to regard the canal as his and his attempts to squeeze the profits of the other ironmasters was bitterly resented. As early as 1794 Richard Hill Of the Plymouth Works complained that the Canal Company was using water from the river that was legally his. Guest, in Dowlais, was also vocal about how we could access the canal from his works. A branch canal seemed impractical so a tramroad was proposed to which the canal company contributed £1000. This was competed in 1791 – before the canal. The Crawshays built a second tramroad between the Gurnos Quarry and their works in Cyfarthfa and a third was built in 1799 by the Hills, linking the Morlais Quarry with the Dowlais to Merthyr Tramroad at Penydarren.
But by 1798, tensions in the committee were so great that they blew. As a consequence, the other ironmasters were dropped for the canal committee, leaving only Crawshay, and it was another 26 years before they rejoined. But discussions took place between them about how to break the Crawshay stranglehold of the canal, and the answer seemed to be the construction of a tramroad from Merthyr, to meet the canal at Abercynon. This tramroad, which opened in 1802 and was built without an Act of Parliament, linking the two existing tramroads from Dowlais to Merthyr and from Morlais to Penydarren. From the point of view of Guest, Homfray and Hill, although the trams using it were horse drawn, this new tramroad avoided the delays caused by the locks between Merthyr and Abercynon.
This is the background to the bet that was made between Homfray and Crawshay. Could the new stream locomotive pull a load of iron? Could it supersede canal power?
We all know that it did, but broke the rails on the way down, so could not come back. But progress had been made. The Taff Vale Railway Company opened as far as Abercynon only 40 years later, and to Merthyr a year later and the canal’s decline was inexorable and it had all but ceased by 1900.
Looking back, it is reasonable to ask, if there had been no canal, where would the home of the steam locomotive be? Not Merthyr, that’s for sure.
In the early part of the 19th Century, members of the Independent chapels in Merthyr who were living in Dowlais began holding meetings at various houses around the town.
When Josiah John Guest arrived in Dowlais and expanded the Dowlais Works, the population increased to an extent that the need arose for the Independent worshippers in Dowlais to have their own chapel. The old Bethel Chapel became vacant in 1822 so services could be held there on Sunday evenings. Rev Methusalem Jones of Bethesda Chapel in Merthyr was instrumental in starting the cause in Dowlais and he had oversight of the congregation for a time until he had a difference of opinion with some of the congregation and left them. Rev Samuel Evans of Zoar Chapel then took over the care of the congregation.
Within a year however, it was realised that the small Bethel Chapel was not adequate for the congregation, so land was found and a chapel was built in 1823 for the cost of £444 and called Bethania.
In 1826 Rev Thomas Jones, a student from Newtown, was invited to Bethania and was ordained as minister of the chapel on 23 March 1826. The congregation increased rapidly and the chapel was rebuilt in 1827. However, within a short time a serious disagreement occurred at the chapel which resulted in Rev Jones and several of the congregation leaving and starting their own cause; this eventually became Bryn Sion Chapel. Rev Samuel Evans once again took charge of the chapel and stayed here until his death.
Following Rev Samuel Evans’ death, Rev John Hughes was inducted as Bethania’s minister in December 1833. Under his leadership the congregation grew rapidly and in 1838 it was decided to build a new larger chapel and the chapel was rebuilt at a cost of £1000 by Mr Thomas Sandbrook, a member of the chapel.
The re-built Bethania Chapel
In 1849, a serious cholera epidemic broke out in Merthyr with 1,682 deaths in Merthyr and Dowlais alone. In the aftermath of this epidemic, a religious revival occurred and despite its huge size, Bethania Chapel could not accommodate the huge increase in the congregation. It was decided that it would be impractical to build an even larger chapel, so a new chapel was built nearby called Gwernllwyn.
In 1855 a schoolroom was built at Pwll-yr-hwyaid, and this was followed by schoolrooms at Gellifaelog and Caeharris.
Bethania Chapel Caeharris Schoolroom. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive.
In 1883 the interior of the chapel was renovated with a new pulpit and seating costing £1350; and a new organ installed costing £350. In 1886, the vestry was constructed behind the chapel. Major renovations were again carried out on the chapel in 1896 when the main entrance of the chapel was altered and a large porch built, and the chapel was we see it today took shape. These renovations cost £500.
The chapel closed in 1999, but in 2012 the building was renovated by the Victory Church who now hold their services there.
Westmoreland and the “North Countrie.” They were products of the North—the bleak nursery of strong men. The philosopher of the buckle and lamp has endeavoured to trace analogies between the magnetic and the mental. That we pass over; but certainly from the North came many of the pioneers of we iron and coal world, though not, be it added, without a blending of native genius.
