In 1826 several people who were followers of the Independent movement in Pontsticill started holding meetings in a local house, and they called on Rev T B Evans of Ynysgau Chapel to lead their meetings.
Within two years the small congregation had grown sufficiently for them to consider building their own chapel. With the support of Rev Evans, on 10 October 1898 they leased a plot of land from a local landowner – Philip Watkins, and built a small chapel which was opened for worship on 4 February 1829.
The original Bethlehem Chapel
The first minister of Bethlehem was William David, a lay preacher at Ynysgau Chapel who was subsequently ordained and inducted as the minister of Bethlehem in 1830.
Sometime during 1913, the congregation at the chapel learned that the part of the Taf Fechan Valley on which the chapel was built was due to be flooded in order to build the new reservoir. The trustees decided to build a new chapel in the centre of Pontsticill. The Merthyr Tydfil Corporation gave the trustees a piece of land on which to build the new chapel and also £1,500 in payment for the old chapel. The new chapel was built in 1924.
Members of the congregation after the last service at the old chapel on 14 September 1925
By the late 1960’s the congregation had severely dwindled, so in 1968, the trustees reluctantly decided to close the chapel. The building was subsequently sold and converted to a private house.
The ruins of the old chapel still remain beneath the Taf Fechan reservoir, and can sometimes be seen at times when the water level of the reservoir is very low.
Many thanks to Hywel George, administrator of the Cynon Culture website for allowing me to use this article.
The land for a new building was given by Mrs Mary Williams of Penrhadwy. Vaynor, and work was about to start when Robert Thomson Crawshay, ironmaster at Cyfarthfa, four miles away, offered to build the church at his expense if the money already raised by the congregation, about £700, was put towards what is now St John’s in Cefn Coed. For many years this church was known as St Gwendoline’s, a mistaken dedication caused by confusion among scholars over Welsh and English usage.
A postcard of St Gwynno’s Church from the early 20th Century. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
Father Silas Morgan Harris (1888-1982) corrected the name whose scholarship embraced the Welsh saints and the history of mediaeval Welsh church. St Gwynno appears to have been Abbot Gwynno, born either in 487 or 507, whose feast day falls on October 22 and one of that company of Celtic saints who travelled spreading Christianity throughout these lands. In Scotland he is known as Guinochus and also credited with founding Plouhinec in Britanny and Kilglin in Co. Meath in Ireland. A contemporary view of St Gwynno can be seen in the fine bas relief near the entrance; He is shown with his shepherd’s crook and the invocation ‘St Guinoce, OPN’ – his Latin name and initials of Latin invocation Ora Pro Nobis (Pray for Us). The sculpture is signed AJJA, work of Arthur Ayres, winner of the Prix de Rome 1931 whose works can be seen in major international permanent exhibitions.
This work is in memory of Canon William Henry Harris (1884-1956), elder brother of Father Silas. Both were born in Pontsticill and firmly on the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church. Canon Harris, known as Father Bill, was professor of Welsh at Lampeter, precentor of the chapel and canon treasurer of St David’s Cathedral. Continuing the family connection, the stained-glass window opposite, depicting the Blessed Virgin and Child, was given by the Harris brothers in memory of their mother, Ann, and is inscribed in Welsh with a line from the Hail Mary “Blessed art Thou amongst women”. The figure of the guardian angel further down the church could not be more distinctively Victorian. The angel is in memory of the four daughters and two sons of the Williams family at Penrhadwy, whose mother gave land for the church. All died in quick succession in their twenties and early thirties in the 11 years between 1859 and 1870.
The angel is by Joseph Edwards, Merthyr-born sculptor whose works are also to be found in Westminster Abbey. He was born in 1814, son of a stone-cutter, and is said to have been in love with one of the Penrhadwy daughters. The angel is reputed to have been modelled on her; one of the final three works in a career that saw 70 of his sculptures exhibited at Royal Academy.
The altar and reredos, with its carved woodwork and panelling, date from 1912 given in memory of Herbert Kirkhouse (died 1904, aged 72) a mining engineer at Cyfarthfa Works who married Maria Teresa, one of the Penrhadwy daughters. Maria Teresa is commemorated in the oak font, given by her son in 1930.The present St Gwynno’s was completed in 1868 a year before consecration by Dr Ollivant Bishop of Llandaff, standing in for Dr. Thirlwell, Bishop of St David’s.
The churchyard is noted for the grave of Robert Thomson Crawshay, the church’s benefactor, with its 11-ton granite slab inscribed ‘God Forgive Me.’ There are also graves of people at the lead edge when Merthyr was at the height of its industrial power, though many have been lost to the march of time.
The vegetation on the steep slope running down to the banks of Taf Fechan is now sanctuary to wild life, plant and animal; a protected nature reserve. Speed was not a speciality of Gruffydd Shon, the old bachelor, whose lady love tired of waiting for him and married a farmer. Gruffydd who died of a broken heart composed his own epitaph that existed as late as 1870 but vanished when his gravestone was broken during demolition of the old church. It read:
Here lies the body of Gruffydd Shon Covered here with earth and stone You may sweep it up or leave it alone It will be just the same to Gruffydd Shon.
In the 140 or so years since St Gwynno’s re-build it has shown signs of strain. In 1969 the church tower on the verge of collapse was taken down and remodelled with a new steeple costing £2000. In the 1980s the church was re-roofed with pantiles as near the original as possible; in the late 1990s the internal floor was replaced and whilst work was going on services were held in Pontsticill village hall; the churches own parish hail having been sold in a few years earlier. For most of its 1200 years St Gwynno’s was mother church for the scattered farms and cottages of Vaynor. When Dolygaer reservoir was completed in 1862 and work began on Taf Fechan reservoir in 1910, Pontsticill, the village that originated as home to those involved in the water industry, grew up a mile from the church where many of its congregation now live. The only other building in the immediate vicinity is the Church Tavern, built in 1823, which started life as a Court where law was administered and later became a celebrated local hostelry until its conversion into a house in 2000.
Below are two recent photos of St Gwynno’s Church – Old and New.
Below is the conclusion of the article about Andrew Wilson which is taken from the marvellous website http://www.treharrisdistrict.co.uk and is transcribed here with the kind permission of the webmaster, Paul Corkrey.
War Pensions
During the First World War 1914-18 Andrew Wilson became very involved in war pension work and he became secretary of the local war pensions committee for the Treharris Ward. Until two whole years after the armistice the men of Treharris Colliery contributed through the colliery office 3d a week, this raised over£6,000 for the dependents of those serving in the war. Everyone in the district gave their services for free and many benefited from the fund, Andrew was a member of the North East Glamorgan War pensions committee for 31 years.
First Chairman of the Water board
Before the First World War Andrew became interested in the question of water supplies in South Wales and supported the Merthyr Parliamentary Bill for the construction of the Taf Fechan Reservoir near Merthyr.
The Taf Fechan Water Supply Board was formed, and at its first meeting in April 1922 Mr Wilson was made the first chairman of the board; at the end of his first year of office he was appointed chairman of the finance committee, a position he held ever since.
He also had the honour of laying the last granite set of the overflow shaft on behalf of the board during its construction. In view of the valuable work that he did since its inception it was decided that a portrait of the first chairman be placed in the board room.
Members of the Taf Fechan Water Supply Board. Andrew Wilson is seated at the far right in the front row
Justice of the peace and proud miner
Andrew Wilson was made a Justice of the Peace in 1918; he was also the chairman of the Labour Party for many years. Apart from serving on many committees Andrew worked at the Deep Navigation Colliery for 55 years, of which 37 years were underground, and 18 years on the surface as a checkweigher. He finally retired in 1946. Andrew also completed 50 years service as a member of the Merthyr Tydfil Council, and to mark that achievement he received a cheque from the Borough trades council and the Labour Party.
A family man
It is very obvious that Andrew Wilson was a great man and a wonderful servant of the people who kept voting him into office. He was so well respected and often chaired the organisations he was involved with but he was also a family man and he and his wife Maria were parents to nine children, one son and eight daughters, one of which was my grandmother Gladys Wilson. They were married for 57 years and lived a full and happy life.
Both Andrew and Maria were members of the Trinity Forward Movement Church in Perrott Street (now demolished), and Mr Wilson was an elder there for over 40 years.
Trinity Forward Movement Chapel in Treharris
In April 1953 the borough was shocked to hear of the death of Andrew Wilson at the age of 78, hundreds of tributes poured into the family home from some very important people of the time that would have been a comfort to the family in Treharris. Further sadness followed just two days later though when his wife Maria also passed away at the family home in Brynteg Place, they were both buried in a huge funeral at Beechgrove Cemetery, Edwardsville, right behind the graveyard church. I have paid a couple of visits to the cemetery to pay my own respects to a remarkable man of Treharris.
