Hen-Dy-Cwrdd (The Old Meeting Place) is a disused Unitarian chapel in Trecynon, Aberdare, Wales. [1] Services at the chapel were conducted in the Welsh language.
Hen-Dy-Cwrdd (The Old Meeting Place) is a disused Unitarian chapel in Trecynon, Aberdare, Wales. [1] Services at the chapel were conducted in the Welsh language.
With the exception of the twelfth century St John's Church, Hen-Dy-Cwrdd was the oldest place of worship in the Aberdare parish and the only nonconformist chapel to pre-date the industrial revolution. [2] It was established in 1751, by members of the Cwm-y-glo chapel on Merthyr mountain and on land leased from Theophilus Richards. [2] Hen Dy Cwrdd was the third daughter church established, following those at Cefn in 1747 and at Ynysgau in 1749. [3] The original chapel resembled a modest cottage or inn with an outside staircase. [2] It could hold a congregagation of between fifty and a hundred people, and by 1853 it had a membership of sixty. [1]
A number of radical ministers have served at Hen-Dy-Cwrdd. These included Thomas Evans, also known as Tomos Glyn Cothi, a weaver from the Teifi Valley who played a prominent role in the development of Unitarianism in his native area. [1] During the early years of the nineteenth century Evans attracted the attention of the authorities due his Jacobin sympathies, which included the translation of La Marseillaise into Welsh. Ultimately this led to his imprisonment in Carmarthen Gaol in 1811. [1] After his release he was invited to be minister at Hen-Dy-Cwrdd and remained until his death in 1833. [1]
Tomos Glyn Cothi was succeeded by John Jones who ministered for thirty years until his death in 1863. [1] Jones was also prominent in radical politics and wrote for the Welsh Chartist publication, Udgorn Cymru. In 1847, he was one of the founders of Yr Ymofynydd, a Unitarian denominational journal. [1] The journal is still published in the twenty-first century.
In 1861, the original structure was demolished and replaced by a much larger chapel which, although designed to be simple, resembled many other nonconformist chapels of the era.
In 1916, Hen-Dy-Cwrdd extended an invitation to E.R. Dennis (1882-1949), a native of Aberdare and minister of Glanrhondda Chapel, Pentre, to become minister of Hen-Dy-Cwrdd. [4] The new minister had been brought up at Siloa, Aberdare but his theological views had undergone a change when he was a student at Carmarthen Presbyterian College, and he became a Unitarian. [4] He was inducted as minister at services geld on 1 May 1916, which also included the annual meeting of the South Wales Unitarian Association, during which D.R. Llewelyn of Aberdare was elected president. [3]
Dennis remained minister at Hen-Dŷ-Cwrdd for over thirty years. He was active in supporting music and drama and was one of the founders of the Theatr Fach at Aberdare. [1]
Dennis was succeeded in 1945 by D. Jacob Davies (1916-1974). Davies was a poet and pacifist who became prominent in Welsh public life as a journalist and broadcaster. He was editor of Yr Ymofynnydd for over twenty years and wrote the bicentennial history of Hen Dŷ Cwrdd. [1]
Prominent members of Hen-Dy-Cwrdd include the musician and conductor Griffith Rhys Jones(Caradog), Rhys Hopkin Rhys, landowner and coal agent and W.W. Price, historian of the Aberdare Valley.
The chapel itself closed in 1994 but the cause was maintained by the transfer of the members to Highland Place Chapel, Aberdare, which continued to be ministered by Eric Jones until his retirement in 2004. [2]
Following the closure of the chapel, the building was acquired by the Welsh Religious Buildings Trust in 2005. [1] Efforts are currently being made to restore the building.
Aberdare is a town in the Cynon Valley area of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, at the confluence of the Rivers Dare (Dâr) and Cynon. Aberdare has a population of 39,550. Aberdare is 4 miles (6 km) south-west of Merthyr Tydfil, 20 miles (32 km) north-west of Cardiff and 22 miles (35 km) east-north-east of Swansea. During the 19th century it became a thriving industrial settlement, which was also notable for the vitality of its cultural life and as an important publishing centre.
Trecynon is a village near Aberdare situated in the Cynon Valley, in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. It dates from the early nineteenth century and developed as a result of the opening of the Aberdare Ironworks at Llwydcoed in 1800.
Griffith Rhys Jones, commonly known as Caradog, was a Welsh conductor of the famous 'Côr Mawr' of some 460 voices, which twice won first prize at The Crystal Palace choral competitions in London in 1872 and 1873.
Thomas Evans, was a Welsh poet, Unitarian, and political activist.
Thomas Price was a leading figure in the political and religious life of Victorian Wales, and the central figure of the Cynon Valley for more than forty years.
Calfaria Baptist Chapel, Aberdare, was one of the largest baptist churches in the South Wales Valleys and the oldest in the Aberdare valley. The chapel had an ornate interior, including a boarded ceiling with a deeply undercut rose, while the balcony balustrading had a cast iron front with an intricate foliage design. These features were common in the Welsh chapels of the late nineteenth century. The organ was installed in 1903 at a cost of £850. It was played for the last time in 2012 by Robert Nicholls, during a Radio Cymru broadcast shortly before the closure of the chapel.
Siloa Chapel was the largest of the Welsh Independent, or Congregationalist, chapels in Aberdare. Services are held in the Welsh language. Established in 1844, Siloa is one of the few Welsh-language chapels in the locality to remain open today. Siloa was notable for its long-serving ministers and in over a century there were only three pastorates, namely those of David Price (1843–1878), D. Silyn Evans (1880–1930) and R. Ifor Parry (1933–1964).
William Williams, known by his bardic name, Carw Coch, was a prominent literary figure in Aberdare, and south Wales generally, during the mid-nineteenth century, and an important figure in the development of the eisteddfod movement. His bardic name was derived from the Stag Inn, the public house that he ran at Trecynon, Aberdare.
Nonconformity was a major religious movement in Wales from the 18th to the 20th centuries. The Welsh Methodist revival of the 18th century was one of the most significant religious and social movements in the modern history of Wales. The revival began within the Church of England in Wales, partly as a reaction to the neglect generally felt in Wales at the hands of absentee bishops and clergy. For two generations from the 1730s onwards the main Methodist leaders such as Howell Harris, Daniel Rowland and William Williams Pantycelyn remained within the Church of England, but the Welsh revival differed from the Methodist revival in England in that its theology was Calvinist rather than Arminian. Methodists in Wales gradually built up their own networks, structures, and meeting houses, which led, at the instigation of Thomas Charles, to the secession of 1811 and the formal establishment of the Calvinistic Methodist Presbyterian Church of Wales in 1823.
Bethel, Abernant is a Baptist Chapel at Abernant in the Aberdare Valley in Wales and one of the few nonconformist chapels in the area that remained open into the twenty-first century.
Heolyfelin Chapel, Trecynon, Aberdare was a Welsh Baptist chapel established in 1855. Services were held in the Welsh language. The building seated 800. By December 2015 the chapel had closed and was for sale.
Gwawr, Aberaman was a Baptist chapel in Regent Street, Aberaman, near Aberdare, South Wales, formed as a branch of Calfaria, Aberdare
Ebenezer, Trecynon was an Independent (Congregationalist) chapel in Ebenezer Street, Trecynon, Aberdare, Wales. It was one of the earliest Independent chapels in the Cynon Valley and remained an active place of worship until 2009.
Tabernacle, Abercynon was a Calvinistic Methodist chapel in Edward Street, Abercynon, Mid Glamorgan, Wales. Services at Tabernacle were conducted in the Welsh language.
Carmel, Trecynon was a Calvinistic Methodist chapel located in Hirwaun Road, Trecynon, directly opposite the public park at Aberdare, Wales. Services at Carmel were conducted in the Welsh language, and the history of Carmel involves much more than the history of the building alone. Carmel was the first Calvinistic Methodist chapel to be established in the Aberdare district, and is considered the mother church of all Methodist chapels in the Cynon Valley. It remained an active church until the end of the twentieth century, but its decline mirrored that of the Welsh language in the area over the decades.
Bryn Seion, Trecynon was a Calvinistic Methodist chapel in Mill Street, Trecynon, Aberdare, Wales. Services at Bryn Seion were conducted in the Welsh language until it became a Baptist chapel in 1970.
D. Jacob Davies was a Welsh Unitarian minister who became a prominent figure within Welsh public life and within his denomination in Wales and beyond.
Gellionnen Chapel is a Unitarian place of worship near Pontardawe, South Wales, United Kingdom. The chapel was first built in 1692 by Protestant dissenters, becoming Unitarian in the late 18th century. It is a member of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, the umbrella body for British Unitarians. Gellionnen Chapel is the oldest Dissenting chapel in the Swansea Valley, is one of the oldest surviving chapels in the region and is a Grade II* listed building.
Bethania, Cwmbach was a Baptist Chapel at Cwmbach in the Aberdare Valley in Wales. Badly damaged by an air raid attack in 1941 it was subsequently restored but closed in the 1980s. Services were held in the Welsh language.
Siloah was an Independent (Congregationalist) chapel in Copperworks Road, Seaside, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire. Services at Siloah were conducted in the Welsh language.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
