Rev Benjamin Owen – The Melting Pot

Merthyr’s Chapels: Zoar Chapel

Zoar Welsh Independent Chapel

In 1794 a group of worshippers dissatisfied with the form of worship at Ynysgau Chapel left to start their own cause, and met in the Long Room of the Crown Inn; paying £6 a year for the hire of the room. In 1797 the congregation asked Mr Howell Powell of Newport to come and minister to them, and within a year they decided to build their own chapel.

An extensive piece of land was acquired to build a new chapel and the building began in 1798. The land that was acquired stretched from the main road to the Morlais Brook, and was leased for the sum of 12 guineas per annum, but the congregation could not pay that sum of money. Consequently, Mr Henry Thomas or Harri’r Blawd as he was frequently called, took the lease from them and gave them the land on which the present chapel is now built for a rent of £3.7s.

Despite this, the congregation still struggled to find the money to build the chapel, but thanks to a number of donations, the chapel was finally completed in 1803. With the new chapel completed, the members asked Rev Daniel Lewis to become their first minister.

From the outset of his ministry, Rev Lewis was determined to clear the chapel’s debt and thus travelled to London to raise money. On his return however, he presented the chapel with a list of his expenses incurred during his trip. Several of the members objected to the amount of the expenses and instigated an investigation by several ministers from other church. The investigation exonerated Rev Lewis, but those members who had instigated the investigation were unhappy the result and left to start their own cause, which eventually became Bethesda Chapel.

Within two years of this controversy, Rev Lewis decided to leave the chapel, and in 1810 Rev Samuel Evans (right) was ordained as minister, and it was under his ministry that the chapel began to prosper and eventually became one of the most important chapels in the area.

With Rev Evans’ influence the congregation grew rapidly, and in 1825 a new chapel was built at a cost £600. The membership increased steadily, but sadly Rev Samuel Evans died on 27 June 1833 at the age of 56.

For two years following Rev Evans’ death the chapel was without a minister as the members felt that it would be impossible to find someone qualified enough to fill the place of “twysog a’r gwr mawr oedd wedi syrthio” (the prince and great man who had fallen).

However, before the end of 1835, Rev Benjamin Owen (right) from Pembrokeshire was invited to become minister of the chapel. Rev Owen proved to be a worthy successor to Samuel Evans, and the chapel went from strength to strength.

By 1840 the congregation had once again grown considerably and it was decided to once again build a new chapel. Rev Owen was himself a gifted architect, and he designed the new building. The stonework was completed by Messrs Thomas Williams and David Richards, and the woodwork by John Gabe. The new chapel, one of the biggest in Wales, was completed in 1842 at a cost of £2300.

In 1849 Merthyr was hit by a devastating cholera epidemic in which 1,682 people died in Merthyr and Dowlais alone. In the aftermath of this, a religious revival occurred in the town and hundreds of people joined the congregation at Zoar, with 120 people actually being accepted into the church on one Sunday alone.

Due to the increase of numbers, in 1854 it was decided to build two schoolrooms at a cost of £800 – one in Caedraw and one in Pwllyrwhiad. In 1867 another large schoolroom was built in front of the chapel. Two houses were bought to make room for the building and the schoolroom was built at a cost of £550. In 1907, another large schoolroom was built at Queens Road at a cost of £750.

By 2009, the membership of the chapel had dwindled to just six people, and it was reluctantly decided to close the chapel.

The chapel is now listed Grade II, as being of Special Architectural and Historic Interest.

The future of the chapel is ensured as it has been bought by Canolfan a Menter Gymraeg Merthyr Tudful and has been given a grant pledge of £527,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to transform the Chapel and Vestry buildings into a centre for performing arts and community activities. The project has also been supported with £300,000 from the Heads of the Valleys programme.

The new complex opened in 2011 and it is now a highly regarded and very important hub in the town.

The interior of Zoar Chapel just before it was converted into Canolfan Soar

Memories of Old Merthyr

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.

Quarry Row is an offshoot from the road to Jackson’s Bridge. It extended from about Bryant’s Old Brewery premises, almost and occasionally abutting the River Taff. Then came Caepantywyll, and a path by the river led on to the Cyfarthfa Works.

An extract from the 1875 Ordnance Survey map showing the area mentioned in this article.

Only a few yards from Bryant’s Brewery there was a passage between the houses for some short distance which thence was an open path up to the Grawen Road. The name of the resident has slipped my memory, but not many houses intervened before an observatory could be seen projecting above the roof, but it was not there as early as the place can be remembered by me. The owner was evidently an astronomer by inclination, though a grocer by trade. Persons by the name of Cornelius had a brewery not far off. The only person that can be called to mind was the Rev W Morris, who was the minister of the chapel in Caepantywyll.

A row of houses with the wall of the Cyfarthfa Works existed close by, and turning up by this wall (leaving the Cyfarthfa Works on the left) we should come out on the Brecon Road. Immediately opposite was a road leading to Gwaelodygarth, the Cyfarthfa Castle Park wall being on the left. We will, however, turn to the right, and return by the Grawen Road. There was a public house on the right, having its back to and overlooking Caepantywyll, kept by a very big man who had travelled as a giant, and there was also a small one who accompanied him as a dwarf.

The Grawen turnpike was nearer to Merthyr, and about there some years kept by Mr Scott was a grocer’s shop. That, during the absence of all the family at divine service, was broken into on a Sunday evening, and although a pretty extensive rummage had been made, the money bag was not discovered. It had been put where thieves would not be very likely to search – in and under the waste paper place of the counter. The time had been selected by those who were well acquainted with the circumstances for it was on a Sunday night following the Saturday’s ‘big draw’.

During the Chartist agitation, a William Gould, who was known as a prominent member, lived in Grawen Road (he too kept a grocer’s shop), and down towards the road was the home of the Evanses of Zoar, who were followed in the same house by the Owens of the same chapel. The brewery on the right, after passing a pond on the right at a lower level than the one on the left, was called Hopkin’s Brewery (it was this that Mr E L Richards was a partner in). Old Mr Hopkins was very fond of riding (he had a splendid jumper I remember).

In a field adjoining, and which was behind the row of houses then called Burnett’s Row on one side and the road to Pontstorehouse on the other, there was a very large block of limestone, which Mr Richards had moved there, and which he said was the fossil of a turtle. It was larger than those at the Zoological Gardens in London. At the end of Burnett’s Row we are at the house the Rev Mr Jones lived in, and we are back where we have already been.

To be continued at a later date…..

Merthyr’s Chapels: Penywern Chapel

The next chapel we are going to look at in our continuing series is Penywern Welsh Independent Chapel.

The cause at Penywern began in 1856 when Mr David Evans of Llanwrda and Rev Benjamin Williams of Gwernllwyn Chapel began holding meetings in Mr Evans’ house in Penywern. With the blessing of the congregation at Gwernllwyn, they also opened a Sunday School.

As there was no other room available, the Sunday School was held in the long room of The Ifor Arms, Penywern. The room was let by Mrs Nancy Rogers, the licensee, at a rental of 12 shillings a month. One rule was laid down by the officials of the Sunday School however, that “no intoxicants were to be consumed in the long room while the Sunday School was being held”.

As the congregation grew it was decided to build a chapel in Penywern. Land was leased from the Dowlais Iron Company for 5s per annum, and the chapel, designed by Rev Benjamin Owen, Zoar, opened on the first Sunday in March 1858, with Rev Benjamin Williams taking responsibility for the chapel in a joint ministry with Gwernllwyn Chapel until he left in 1861.

As the numbers grew the chapel was rebuilt in 1876-7 at a cost of £1000, and the new chapel opened on 19 August 1877. Rev Benjamin Williams was invited back to the chapel to take the opening services for the new chapel.

In 1910, a few of the young men at the chapel, encouraged by the minister Rev J H Hughes decided to start a small choir and elected Mr Evan Thomas to be their conductor. The choir quickly grew and evolved into the Penywern Male Voice Choir, which became famous throughout Wales. The choir, under the leadership of Evan Thomas, sang for King George V and Queen Mary when they visited Dowlais in 1912. They went on to win many auspicious prizes, culminating in 1927 when the choir won three Eisteddfodau, and Evan Thomas won the three Eisteddfod chairs which he donated to the chapel. Due to the depression in the 1930’s and the closing of the iron works, the choir membership dwindled and eventually disbanded.

In 1921 a large school room was added to the front of the chapel. As this was a difficult time financially at the chapel, the stone for the new school room was given by Messrs Guest, Keen and Nettlefold through the courtesy of the general manager Mr Howell R Jones. The school room was built by voluntary labour with horses and carts being used to transport the stone from the nearby quarry. The school room was completed and opened in 1922.

Volunteers beginning work on the new schoolroom

Like so many other chapels in Merthyr, the congregation dwindled over the years, and the chapel closed and was subsequently demolished.

A Hidden Grave

Most people will have visited Zoar Chapel – either when it was still being used as a chapel, or more recently since its renovation and transformation into Canolfan Soar. How many of you knew, however, that there is a secret grave inside the building?

In 1841 the membership of Zoar Chapel had grown to such an extent that it was decided that a new, larger building was needed to accommodate the growing congregation. They decided that the new chapel should be 66 feet by 63 feet – making it one of the largest chapels in the town.

To accommodate the new building, as well as building over the graveyard, which was subsequently vaulted under the new chapel, the committee had to purchase several pieces of ground from Mr Abraham Bowen, a local businessman for £300. As the orientation of the new building was to be turned 180°, three small houses would need to be purchased from Mr John Morgan, a puddler in the Cyfarthfa Ironworks, for the entrance to the new chapel.

The grave in the cupboard at Zoar Chapel – the top can be seen just against the back wall.

John Morgan agreed to sell the houses for £200, but he stipulated that he and his family should have a vault set aside for them and they eventually be buried within the chapel. As it is set out in the agreement of 31 May 1841:-

“The said John Morgan in consideration of the sum of £200.00 to be secured in the after agreement to sell unto Benjamin Owen, a piece or parcel of ground situated at the back of Zoar Chapel for its rebuild.

John Morgan his executor’s administrators and assigns sufficient space beneath the surface of the said ground at the spot marked “A” in the said plan for a vault to be made by him or Zoar executors at his own expense in length eight feet in width, and three feet in depth, eight feet with of liberty entrance and accepts thereof and which said space at the southern side, which said space is to be arched over securely by the said Rev Benjamin Owen for the residue of 195 years by indenture of lease dated 22nd June 1802 made by Walter Walters and Henry Thomas known as Harri Blawdd (Henry the flour) for a yearly pepper corn rent.”

Indeed John Morgan and his family were eventually interred within Zoar Chapel and their grave can still be seen in small room to the left of the former pulpit.

Photos courtesy of Canolfan Soar.

Merthyr’s Chapels: Bryn Sion Chapel, Dowlais

In our continuing section on Merthyr’s Chapels, we look at one of the many chapels that once stood in Dowlais but have disappeared in to the ether in the name of re-development – Bryn Sion Welsh Independent Chapel.

Following a disagreement at Bethania Welsh Independent Chapel in South Street, Rev Thomas G Jones and several members of the congregation left the chapel to start their own group, and began worshipping at the old Bethel Chapel at the bottom of Dowlais.

There were, already at Bethel, a group of Baptists who had left Caersalem Chapel, but the two groups worshipped separately (see previous article – http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=575).

In 1833, Rev Joshua Thomas of Adulam Chapel in Merthyr had been given oversight of the growing congregation, and it became obvious that Bethel Chapel was no longer adequate for either group of worshippers there.

A new chapel called Bryn Sion was built and both congregations moved there in 1834. The Baptist congregation applied to join the Baptist Association, but were refused, so they decided to join the Independent congregation at the new chapel. Some staunch Baptists were unhappy with this and returned to Caersalem, but the majority stayed and the new church began to prosper.

Rev Joshua Thomas continued to have oversight at the chapel until 1836 when Mr Daniel Roberts, a member of Zoar Chapel in Merthyr, but a resident of Dowlais was asked to be Bryn Sion’s first minister.

As the congregation grew it was decided to build a new chapel. The chapel was designed by Rev Benjamin Owen, the minister of Zoar Chapel, Merthyr, and was completed in 1844 at a cost of £1,281.16s.11d. The chapel, as designed was built back from the street and incorporated four houses built in front of the chapel, which was approached by a paved area.

In 1876 a large schoolroom was built at a cost of £320, and a pipe organ was installed in 1894 at a cost of £280. Major renovations were carried out to the chapel during 1901-02. It was at this time the classical porch was built over the paved entrance way. The total cost of these renovations was £953.3s.7½d.

When Dowlais was redeveloped in the 1960’s, Bryn Sion Chapel was not amongst the many buildings listed to be demolished, and was not included in the Compulsory Purchase Orders. By 1968 however, all the streets around the chapel had been demolished and the congregation had to walk through mud and debris to reach the chapel, and also the chapel was being badly vandalised, so the congregation reluctantly decided that they couldn’t carry on worshipping at the chapel, and they sold it to Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council.

The chapel was demolished in 1969.