The Passing of Bethel – part 1

A CWMTAF CHAPEL TO DISAPPEAR AT YNYSFELIN

Transcribed from the Merthyr Express 30^th May 1914 – 110 years ago today.

Cwmtaf is undergoing a transformation, whereby a large number of the rural population are to be displaced by the assembling of many waters. Homesteads, which for generations have been abodes of farmers, will be lost forever, the fields and cornlands being submerged under the waters of the Cardiff Corporation Reservoir. This third and largest pond in the valley, will cover the low lying parts – the ploughshare and scythe will be used no longer, and the bleating of sheep and the lowing of kine will for ever be silenced. The shepherd’s shrill morning whistle, and the ploughman’s song, and the milkmaid’s merry tattle will be no more. Instead of the humble, yet happy life in and around the whitewashed farmhouses, silence deep and long will reign, broken only by the rippling of the waves on the water, and by the rattle of wheels and the echo of the motor’s horn. Instead of nature’s carpet of greensward, so pleasing to the eye, a sheet of water will appear, stretching far alongside the high road leading to Brecon from Merthyr. A Varied and beautiful landscape is to be changed for the monotonous sight of a tedious surface of water. The loss will be a very real one, not only in the disappearance of rich lands and fertile meadows, but in the vanishing of a panorama of “living pictures” presented annually by nature’s rolling seasons. The old order changeth. Many a dream of the past will disturb the slumbers of the evicted peasants, and many a sigh will rise in the heart of young and old who in their humble way passed through life in play and toil. The passionate heart of the poet and the contented mood of the swain will bewail the loss of their rare inheritance.

Although the lake is beautiful, yet it is not so beautiful as the sea. The two mighty things on earth are the great ocean, restless and mysterious, and nature in her various moods. The colourless, smooth area of a lake in not a worthy substitute for the glories of summer or the tints of autumn. The golden age of this spot is passing. We may aptly apply these words to the glories of the past:-

“How often have I paused on every charm,
The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm,
The never-failing brook, the busy mill,
The decent church that topped the neighbouring hill”

These were thy charms, but also these charms are fled.

Not only must the living depart, but even the shade of the dead must be changed. Their remains are to have a new resting place. Bethel, near Ynysfelin, the little shrine, where for over 125 years generations of worshippers have assembled, is to disappear, and a new Bethel has been erected lower down the valley.

On Tuesday, May 19^th, a service was held to bid a last farewell to the place. It was a sad parting to most of the worshippers. The spot and edifice were hallowed to their hearts. Here for many a year their forefathers met to worship and to praise; there also lie the remains of their departed loved ones, in the adjoining graveyard. Sacred associations, too deep and too real to be expressed in words, arise from the past. The struggling pangs of conscious truth, and the experience of the peace and joy of the gospel of Jesus Christ were the portion of the humble folk who assembled within the unadorned walls of this little temple.

The chapel stands on the slopes of the hill overlooking the valley on the right bank of the Taf Fawr, and about three miles from Cefn Coed. In front of the chapel passes the road over the mountain to Penderyn. Near it are the ruins of an old corn mill (afterwards a woollen factory) worked by a huge water wheel. The usual convenient “inn” is also close by. This historic church in one f the oldest in the neighbouring districts: it was founded before any of the Nonconformist churches in Cefn, except the Unitarian Church. The first chapel (Bethel) was built in 1799, and was opened free of debt. This, however, was replaced some years later by the present structure.

To be continued…..