by Freda Entwistle
The New Inn, Penydarren, was located at no. 307 High Street, but was demolished in the late 1970s for modernisation.
It was a typical public house: the ground floor providing an entrance to the pub itself; living accommodation for the family of the licensee at the rear of the building; and the floor above provided a sizeable hall, which was hired out for various events and activities to local groups.
One of those groups was the Latter Day Saints or ‘Mormons’ – officially members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In the early 1840s William Henshaw, a new convert to the cause, was sent to Merthyr Tydfil, to preach the gospel.
In the History of the Church, Joseph Smith recorded:
Sunday, February 19, 1843 —– Elder William Henshaw having been directed… to go to South Wales, he commenced preaching in the English language privately to several families in Pen y darren, near Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorganshire. A number of the people believed his testimony, and this day he baptized William Rees Davis, his wife, and two of his sons, and commenced preaching publicly in Brother Davis’s house, about one-third of the people only understanding the English language.
The Davies’ home soon proved too small for the growing membership. It became necessary to look for premises to accommodate the growing membership and inquiring minds from the public. The New Inn provided such a meeting place. Penydarren thus became the first branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Glamorgan, established on 25 March 1843. The branch grew to a membership of 50 by the end of 1843.
Several other branches were established in the Merthyr area in the ensuing years, often meeting in public houses such as the New Inn. There is evidence of the Penydarren branch still in existence in the 1851 Religious Census, which confirms the New Inn as one of the meeting places the Latter-day Saints used for their services.
William Rees Davies was later assigned to the Rhymney area and became branch president there before he, his wife Rachel and their children emigrated with the first large company of Welsh converts in 1849.
Another early member of the Penydarren LDS branch was Abel Evans (left). Born in Carmarthenshire, he moved to Merthyr where he was baptised by William Henshaw, 10 February 1844, and became a stalwart member of the Penydarren branch. His six years of devoted missionary service throughout Wales brought many other converts into the Church.
Fluent in Welsh, he was often called upon to translate sermons given in English by visiting church authorities, for the benefit of those who only spoke and understood Welsh. In 1850 he emigrated to the Great Salt Lake Valley in Utah Territory, but in 1865 he returned to Wales as a missionary. Sadly he died here in November 1866, and is buried in the cemetery at Cefn Coed.
