Canolfan Soar is a Grade II-listed community facility in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, that includes a theatre and other facilities. It was converted from the closed Grade II-listed, eighteenth-century, Zoar Chapel in the first decade of the twenty-first century.
Canolfan Soar is a bilingual facility in the town centre that includes a theatre, dance studio, music rehearsal rooms, café bar, book shop, teaching rooms and flexible exhibition, meeting and conference facilities. At its heart is Theatr Soar, an intimate venue for the performing arts. Its 200-seat auditorium held its opening performance in February 2011. Six years of planning, fundraising and development transformed the Zoar Chapel, and the adjoining vestry building. [1]
Zoar Chapel was completed in March 1842 and was a Welsh Congregationalist church. It replaced an earlier structure of 1823 at the cost of £2,300. The building was Grade II listed on 22 August 1975. [2] Before it closed in 2005, it had been one of the largest chapels in Wales. Dr. Joseph Parry, composer of Myfanwy, led y Gymanfa Ganu there for many years. [3]
Zoar Chapel was built of two storeys, in the classical tradition. The top floor, was an octagonal gallery, with steeply-tiered wooden pews on two main sides, one end and two short wings; one between each side and the end. [4] The rectangular building was built of rubble stone with its entrances in a symmetrical five-bay front on the north side. The hipped slate roof has wide eaves. The arched upper windows have fixed, iron, Gothic glazing bars. [2]
Brecon, archaically known as Brecknock, is a market town in Powys, mid-Wales. In 1841, it had a population of 5,701. The population in 2001 was 7,901, increasing to 8,250 at the 2011 census. Historically it was the county town of Brecknockshire (Breconshire); although its role as such was eclipsed with the formation of the County of Powys, it remains an important local centre. Brecon is the third-largest town in Powys, after Newtown and Ystradgynlais. It lies north of the Brecon Beacons mountain range, but is just within the Brecon Beacons National Park.
Merthyr Tydfil is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about 23 miles (37 km) north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydfil, daughter of King Brychan of Brycheiniog, who according to legend was slain at Merthyr by pagans about 480 CE. Merthyr generally means "martyr" in modern Welsh, but here closer to the Latin martyrium: a place of worship built over a martyr's relics. Similar place names in south Wales are Merthyr Cynog, Merthyr Dyfan and Merthyr Mawr.
The University of Glamorgan was a university based in South Wales prior to the merger with University of Wales, Newport, that formed the University of South Wales in April 2013. The university was based in Pontypridd, in Rhondda Cynon Taf, with campuses in Trefforest, Glyntaff, Merthyr Tydfil, Tyn y Wern and Cardiff. The university had four faculties, and was the only university in Wales which had no link with the University of Wales.
South Wales is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. It has a population of around 2.2 million, almost three-quarters of the whole of Wales, including 400,000 in Cardiff, 250,000 in Swansea and 150,000 in Newport. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards to include Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. In the western extent, from Swansea westwards, local people would probably recognise that they lived in both south Wales and west Wales. The Brecon Beacons National Park covers about a third of south Wales, containing Pen y Fan, the highest British mountain south of Cadair Idris in Snowdonia.
Soar or SOAR may refer to:
Cwmdare is a village very close to Aberdare, in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. The village's history is intertwined with coal-mining, and since the decline of the industry in the 1980s, it has become primarily a commuter base for the larger surrounding towns of Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil and Pontypridd, as well as the cities of Cardiff and Swansea.
The Parc and Dare Hall, now known as the Park and Dare Theatre, is a former Miners' institute but now serves as a large entertainment venue in the village of Treorchy, in the Rhondda Valley of Wales. Since the demolition of the Abercynon Workingmen's Hall, the Parc and Dare Workingmen's Hall is the largest in the South Wales Coalfield. It is a Grade II* listed building.
Cyfarthfa Castle is a castellated mansion that was the home of the Crawshay family, ironmasters of Cyfarthfa Ironworks in Park, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. The house commanded a view of the valley and the works, which ‘at night, offer a truly magnificent scene, resembling the fabled Pandemonium, but on which the eye may gaze with pleasure’. Cyfarthfa loosely translates from the Welsh for place of barking. The reason is hunting dogs were regularly heard in this area of the town, hunting polecats and weasels among others.
Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney is a constituency of the Senedd. It elects one Member of the Senedd by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, it is one of eight constituencies in the South Wales East electoral region, which elects four additional members, in addition to eight constituency members, to produce a degree of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council is the governing body for Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, one of the Principal Areas of Wales.
Pontygwaith is a village in the Taff Valley, 9 km south of Merthyr Tydfil in Wales.
Aberfan is a former coal mining village in the Taff Valley 4 miles (6 km) south of the town of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.
Most leisure centres in Cardiff, capital of Wales, are owned by Cardiff Council. Since 2016, the running of eight formerly Council-run leisure centres has been outsourced to Greenwich Leisure Limited, operating under their 'Better' branding. Channel View Leisure Centre continues to be managed by Cardiff Council, whilst the Cardiff International Pool in Cardiff Bay is run separately by another private company.
Penderyn is a rural village in the Cynon Valley, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, located near Hirwaun.
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. In mid 2018, it had an estimated population of 60,183. It is located in the historic county of Glamorgan and takes its name from the town with the same name. The county borough consists of the northern part of the Taff Valley and the smaller neighbouring Taff Bargoed Valley. It borders the counties of Rhondda Cynon Taf to the west, Caerphilly County Borough to the east, and Powys to the north.
Bethania, Dowlais was a Welsh Independent, or Congregationalist, chapel in South Street, Dowlais, near Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. The cause was established in 1824 and the chapel rebuilt on several occasions in the nineteenth century. The present chapel dates from 1895 but was vastly enlarged and re-modelled in 1910. The building is Grade II listed.
Bethesda, Merthyr Tydfil was one of the earliest chapels in the Welsh industrial town of Merthyr Tydfil. Services were held in the Welsh language.
Merthyr Tydfil Town Hall is a municipal building in the High Street, Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, is a Grade II* listed building.
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