Ichabod in Blaengarw

The South Wales valleys were deeply affected by the revival of 1904, as we have already seen in the chapel photographs from Maesteg. The next valley to the Lynfi valley in which Maesteg sits is the Garw valley. Blaengarw is at the top of the valley. It has a number of impressive chapels - but oh, what a state of desolation they present to the modern visitor!

The first place of worship in Blaengarw was Tabernacle Calvinistic Methodist Church. Not the chapel in the background, but the building now occupied by 'Shear Artistry' hairdressers. Built in 1885, it was later turned into a Sunday school when a larger chapel was needed.

This stone tells us that old Tabernacle was indeed the earliest place of worship in Blaengarw.

The old Tabernacle soon grew too small for the needs of the Church, and it was replaced in 1891 with this elegant chapel. It too has closed.

The language of worship at Tabernacle was Welsh, this was one of the strengths of the old Calvinistic Methodists, they spoke the language of the people. But with an influx of English-speakers, it was necessary in 1904 to build an English chapel in Blaengarw. This was Mount Zion, built in the latest style, Gothic with Art Nouveau undertones.

Mount Zion too is now shockingly derelict, its elegant staircase has collapsed, and the building is now unsafe.

The Baptists too shared in the blessings of the revival, so that in 1912 they built, also in the Gothic style with Art Nouveau undertones, Bethania Welsh Baptist Chapel was undoubtedly the grandest building in Blaengarw when it was opened. In some respects it still is!This amazing piece of Edwardian architecture, that would not look out of place in a city, is now derelict! It has been left to fall into ruin, while it is surely an important part of the Welsh architectural heritage!Even the modest Anglican Church of St James has not been left untouched. With increased mobility and decreasing congregations, it was closed in 2004, having served the village since 1890.

And finally, this is all that remains of Nebo Welsh Independent Church, Blaengarw. And of Trinity English Calvinistic Methodist there remains neither stock nor stone. Truly Ichabod can be written here, the glory has departed.

Some more (out of date) information on Garw Valley churches is here. The URC in Pontycymmerhas closed since this page was last updated, and is sadly derelict. The closed chapels have become even more derelict.

The Cathedral of Maesteg

That's what the locals call St. Michael's Church, Maesteg. Of course, that only means that it is the most impressive Anglican Church in Maesteg, but there you go. The High Victorian church is built of local stone, and its tower ensures that it is a very real presence in the town. It also shows something of the rivalry between 'Church' and 'Chapel'
This is St. David's, the original Parish Church in Maesteg. Small, quite typical for the area, and not at all exciting. Although located in the centre of town, by the marketplace, it is a low-built structure that is really quite humble. With all these impressive chapels around (though most of the chapels around when St. Michael's was built have since been replaced by larger and even more impressive buildings), it says of the Church of Wales (as it was then), "we're really rather irrelevant." So what's a Church to do? Well, with the town growing, what better time to build a new Church, really large and impressive, to out-do the Nonconformists! And here it is...

The Church of St. Michael and all Angels! It is decidedly an Anglican Church, not a chapel, and it is built in the Early English style, with lancet windows. While the Decorated was more popular, the simplicity of the Early English often makes buildings in this style more impressive. Like most Victorian churches in the Early English style, St. Michael's impresses by its simplicity of form, and its massiveness.

The west front of the Church contains the main entrance, with five lancets of equal size lighting the west end of the building. Above them is a statue of St. Michael. The Early English is also the style of St. David's, so St. Michael's suggests a sense historic continuity.

When I visited the Church was being decorated for a wedding, so I was able to get inside. The internal dimensions are impressive, with a large nave and separate choir and chancel arches (most Anglican churches have just a chancel arch). As the Latin over the chancel arch, and the presence of a high altar indicates, St. Michael's is Anglo-Catholic, it even has a set of modern wood-sculpted stations of the cross around the walls of the nave.

There are some other Maesteg pictures that may come if I feel they are worth while.

Some Chapels in Maesteg

Today's post is a series of pictures of nonconformist chapels from the town of Maesteg, Bridgend County. This is a small valley town, yet these are not all the Churches in Maesteg (there are also two Anglican Churches and a Roman Catholic Church, plus other chapels). First up is Zion English Baptist Chapel, built in 1884, a very simple stone building with no real decoration on the facade.

This is Central Church, Maesteg, occupied by Baptists, Methodists and URC. It was built in 1847 as Bethel English Baptist Church, and enlarged in 1859. It was renovated in 1947.

Peniel Evangelical Church, Maesteg, has 'Tabernacle' written on the building. An old-fashioned Welsh Baptist Chapel, with the date 1856 on the facade. I have met the pastor of this church, and he seems a good sort.

Maesteg seems to have been a centre of the Welsh Independents. This is Carmel Chapel, one of the few Welsh Independent Chapels in Maesteg still open. It has a rather nice early 20th century facade.

And this is Canaan Independent Chapel, built in 1903. The architecture is still pretty typical.

Tabor Calvinistic Methodist Church has closed and been converted into flats. It was built in 1907, no doubt in part to contain the converts from the Welsh Revival. In the latest style as well.

This is the Victorian Zoar Independent Chapel, now owned by a funeral director. Zoar means 'small', but this chapel is anything but!

This was Bethlehem Calvinstic Methodist Chapel. The Calvinistic Methodists were effectively the alternative Establishment in Wales, yet not one CM Chapel remains open in Masteg! And finally we have the gem of Maesteg, Bethania Independent Chapel, designed by local architect William Beddoe Rees and built in 1908. The last hurrah of the Nonconformists, the building seems today to be far too big.

These chapels are the results of revival. They are mostly closed now, and only revival can re-open them and fill them.

The Church of Peterston Super Montem, Llambad

Why climb a mountain? Well, there are many reasons. Many of the hills of Wales have ancient trackways on top, and this particular mountain has a rather good one on it. But that was just the way to get me where I wanted to go.

This was the reason, there's a ruined church up there, namely the old Church of Peterston-Super-Montem, vulgarly known as Llambad, a corruption of the Welsh Llanbedr, St. Peter's Church. Originally built in the twelfth century, the ruins visible on the mountain today are of a simple two-cell building with a later porch. The plan of the church and the outline of the churchyard are still clearly visible.There are a number of gravestones on the site, all from the eighteenth century. Only one is still intact, and probably not in situ, as it is leaning against the north wall of the churchyard. Mary Robert, who died at the age of 29 in August 1775. The stones remind us that this was the spiritual centre of the district for centuries. There are probably hundreds buried in in this mountain graveyard.A typical Medieval church in plan, St Peter's is a two-cell structure with three doors, one at the West End of the building, one in the south wall of the nave, and a third, the priest's door, in the sputh wall of the chancel. Below is the view from the West door, looking east. The upright slab at the far wall has been inscribed with a cross by someone, marking where the altar was in the Middle Ages, and the Communion Table after the Reformation. Then we have the view from the east end to the west, looking out through the west doorway.
This is the view over the ruins from south east of the porch. You can't see how far up we are, but we can see that the church is quite isolated. The nearest other building is what appears to be a ruined barn.
Straight in the south porch. This is obviously an addition to the original building, as its walls are not keyed in to the south wall of the church (see above). There are benches of each side, and the porch appears to be a concession to the weather, giving people a place to chat after services out of the rain or snow. The benches have been used to display some of the old grave-slabs, all from the eighteenth century, and all damaged. The earliest appears to be from 1716.

This is the church from the south-east corner of the graveyard, you can see the gravestone of Mary Roberts leaning against the north wall of the graveyard. You can see why it's unlikely to be in its original position. The windfarm beyond tells you that we're on top of a mountain here!
This is just inside the south door. Could it be the remains of a Medieval holy water stoup?I'm pretty sure that this, at the south-east corner of the chancel, in the east wall. It's the remains of a cupboard for the elements for the Mass, and later the Lord's Supper.

This was on the ground beside one of the old windows. It is a piece of dressed stone from the window. Date? I have no idea. The building's probably full of archaeology, and I don't think it's ever been dug.

This is the view from one of the south windows of the church. It's spectacular! But it also explains why this isolated church was abandoned - it's hard getting up here, and as nonconformity spread in the parish, building chapels closer to where people live, people became less willing to trek up to the church on the mountain. On many Sundays the vicar made his way through rain and snow, only to find that there was no congregation.Finally he became fed up, and he petitioned the Bishop of Llandaff for permission to build a new church at Brynna, one of the villages at the foot of the mountain. The bishop gave permission, and in the 1830s the little church below was built. At once you can see that it is a smaller, simpler building than the old church on the mountain, but it had the great advantage of being where people lived. It even had its own graveyard, so the dead of Brynna no longer had to be taken up the mountain to be laid to rest in the old graveyard with Mary Roberts and the others. And the old church of St. Peter was left to fall into ruins, while the new St. Peter's took its place.

And the vicar found that people did come to the new church. But the ruins on the mountain, and Mary Roberts' gravestone, remain to speak of the old way of life.

More pictures of St. Peter's are here, on Tonyrefail.org, a reminder that the old church did not just serve Brynna, but many other settlements as well.

Rise and Fall of a Methodist Church

The Rhondda valleys are full of chapels. At one point in the nineteenth century one chapel was being opened every day on average. In Tonyrefail two buildings tell the story of one church, the Wesleyan Methodist Church. It opened in 1910, following the revival of 1904, in a temporary 'tin tabernacle' structure on Mill Street, illustrated below.

In 1925 the Methodists opened a brand-new stone chapel in the Gothic style. Called St. George's Church, it was built in the best ecclesiastical style. The message of St. George's is that the Methodists were now a force to be reckoned with in Tonyrefail. But the peak of church attendance in the Rhondda had been reached, and as a new theology, quite different from that of the old Methodists, came into the churches, buildings like St George's became symbols of an ecclesiastical pride. After the Second World War, congregations began to decline, and the splendid stone buildings became embarassingly empty.St. George's Methodist Church closed in 1970. The building is now a day centre.

Across the road is another reminder of how the gains of the revival of 1904 were lost. The former Apostolic Church may not be as impressive as the Gothic church, but it too came through the revival. And now the simple brick structure with its iron roof is also closed. I decided not to read the planning notice on the front door, as the hedge is more than a little overgrown.

Tinyrefail has an excellent site that was the source of some of the information here.

The Tin Tabernacles of Trebanog

Trebanog, Rhondda Cynon Taf, is a village on top of a hill, locted between Tonyrefail and Porth. Unlike many of the Rhondda villages, it is not dominated by splendid chapels, but the only places of worship in the village are two 'Tin Tabernacle' structures, prefabricated mission churches built in the late 19th century. Intended as temporary buildings to be replaced when the money was available, both are still in use.

Mount Zion English Baptist Church is the smallest and most unprepossessing of the buildings, with only the single pointed window above the porch with its stained-glass cross showing any ecclesiastical pretensions at all. It has been modified over the years, the original iron roof and walls having been replaced, and the windows also appear to have been replaced. The frame of the building, of course, is original. The Trinitarian Bible Society poster in the window is an interesting sign.Mount Zion is an example of the smaller type of Tin Tabernacle (also referred to as 'Iron Churches'), four walls and a roof, with a small vestry on one side. These smaller buildings were multi-purpose mission halls, and usually equipped with movable chairs rather than pews, so that the space could be used for other activities in the week.

The other chapel in Trebanog is the English Congregational Church. This is a slightly grander version of the Tin Tabernacle, with its round-headed windows and its semi-circular window over the door. It is taller than Mount Zion, and more ecclesiastical in appearance, although in the chapel, rather than the church style - no pointed windows here! Unlike Mount Zion, it still appears to have the original wall-cladding and windows.

Both of these old Tin Tabernacles are still in use and well-loved.

Every Picture Tells a Story

Lisvane Baptist Chapel

The Baptist Church at Lisvane, outside Cardiff, dates from the final decades of the nineteenth century. In the 1780s, the church met in the house of Henry Rees, Tai Mawr, purchasing Fairoak farm, on the outskirts of the village, in 1789. The first chapel was built on the site in 1792, being rebuilt in 1818 and 1856. In 2003, the church moved to new premises in the village of Lisvane, and the chapel was sold for conversion to a private house. Sadly, on the Church homepage, there is little attention paid to this beautiful little chapel. The church seems to be charismatic and 'modern' without a thought for those who have gone before: http://www.lisvanebaptistchurch.org.uk/. I'm sure the church is wonderful, but it still feels as though something has been lost.

And those who have gone before have been left behind in a very tangilble way. The burial ground by the chapel is full of monuments to past members and their families. The stone to the Rev. David Edwards and his family gives his bardic name, 'Dewi Isan', indicating a literary, as well as religious interest. The gravestone is part Welsh, part English. With the datestone above the door, this shows that at one time the church worshipped in Welsh, although now they do so in English, the language changing as the language of the people changed. The son died aged only 5, a reminder of the high mortality of those days, as well as the griefs to which no-one in this life is immune.

The other gravestone pictured here represents the ordinary chapel member. Frederick Williams was the innkeeper at the Black Griffin Inn, opposite the church, in the village centre, a significant occupation for a chapel member in 1910, when many Baptists would have been teetotal, or at least professed teetotalism! More poigniant is the the second name, 'Arthur Llewelyn Williams, Gunner RFA/ Dearly Loved and only son of the above/ who fell in action at Poix du Nord France/ Novr 4th 1918, aged 20 years'. To have almost survived the Great War, dying in its last days, is truly tragic.

The last name is that of Jane Williams, the mother of Arthur Llewelyn, and widow of Frederick. She died in 1936, having buried the two men dearest to her.

The glory of the chapel is the most uncompromising statement of Baptist witness. The baptistry is located out door, behind the chapel. As the chapel faces away from the road between Lisvane and Rudry, however, Baptisms must have been visible from the road. The image of hardy Welsh men and women stepping down into the waters of Baptism, visible to any passer-by, is an inspiring one. And, on a beautiful spring day, not unappealing.

Now, however, the chapel is a house, and the visitor cannot linger for long without feeling that they do not belong here, even if the route is a public footpath. The job of the church is not to preserve history, but this building and its grounds are more than just history. They are a public witness to the lives and beliefs of generations of God's people. A few, ordinary members of that 'great cloud of witnesses'. The building is not large, and might have been preserved as a heritage centre, allowing the church to meet nearer to the centre of the village. One cannot help feeling that a chance was lost here.

Stop-over in London

God willing, I shall be visiting my friend Mok Chee Cheong at New Life Bible Presbyterian Church, Queen's Park, London on Saturday. New Life is a traditional Presbyterian Church with its roots in Singapore. The building was formerly St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, West Kilburn. It is a huge and slightly gloomy late 19th century building with the most impressive pulpit I have ever preached from and a splendid pipe organ.
The Saturday Prayer-meeting is at 4.00 and Lord's Day services are at 11.00 in the morning and 4.00 in the afternoon. There is a fellowship lunch at 1.00, and from my experience I can say that the food is delicious and the fellowship good.