In a recent Welldigger, I wrote about the story of Maesyrhelem Chapel in the Ithon Valley in the northern part of Radnorshire - a fascinating and beautiful chapel once pastored by David Davies (1839-1907), one of the most eccentric but one of the best known and most loved of the Baptist preachers of the last part of the nineteenth century. A primary source was the wonderfully written biography of him by his son Edward Davies, who was also a Baptist minister. He witnessed his father's wide-ranging ministry first hand, and experienced that it was like when the Welsh Revival swept through his father's chapels in 1905.
Immediately after the Welsh Revival, and following on from his training, Edward Davies was inducted as the minister of Glasbury and Penyrheol Baptist chapels. Glasbury sits astride the River Wye, where it is crossed by the main road connecting Brecon and Hereford, just to the south of the famous book town of Hay-on-Wye. Glasbury chapel, known as Treble Hill Chapel, now closed, sits right by the bridge over the Wye; while Penyrheol, a few miles to the east, is still open and functioning as a chapel in spite of its remoteness. Penyrheol is by far and away the older of the two churches. It can be a little difficult to find, as it is high up on the mountainside above Glasbury and Tregoyd, and at the dead end of a network of narrow lanes stretching up towards Twmpa, one of the most prominent high points along the western edge of the Black Mountains.
Maesyberllan
W H Williams was the minister here from 1903 until 1905, the period of the Revival, which clearly had some impact on both chapels. There is also mention of revival meetings being held in a house at Pontithel, as well as in the chapels of the district. The 47 year old proprietor of the chemical works, Arthur Jacob, used to conduct a Sunday school in a cottage in the tiny hamlet which may well have been the place where these meetings were held. The home of Arthur and Mary Ann Jacob and their five children is the large white house which still stands at the side of the main road today, immediately north of the bridge over the river. The Baptist chapel at Glasbury is reported to have been packed at this time. The Jacob family seem to have been members there.
The following brief account appeared in the Evening Express on 24th January 1905:
At Glasbury on Sunday evening seven candidates were baptised in the River Wye by the pastor, the Rev. W. H. Williams. Although snow covered the ground to a depth of several inches, a large crowd assembled on the river bank to witness the ceremony. A most successful series of meetings was held last week at Penyrheol, situated at the foot of the Black Mountain. People trudged for miles night after night in order to be present at the services.
Edward Davies
At the end of 1905, W H Williams was called to Upper Trosnant Baptist Chapel in Pontypool, and it was soon afterwards that Edward Jones, the son of David Davies, Maesyrhelem took on the joint pastorate go Treble Hill, Glasbury and Penyrheol Chapels. He came here from college where he had studied theology for four years at Cardiff University, from 1901, and was ordained on 19th September 1906. This was shortly after he married Mary Jane Hamer, the daughter of Abraham and Winifred Hamer, who farmed in his home district of Llanbister at Great Cantal farm. The Hamer family were in all probability members at one of his father David Davies's church at The Pound, where Edward Davies had witnessed the 1905 Revival at first hand.
It was while he was at Glasbury, in 1907, that his father David Davies, Maesyrhelem died and he began working on a biographical tribute to his father, which was published in the summer of 1914 with the title 'The Life of the Late Rev David Davies, Maesyrhelem'. It included a detailed survey of the preaching style of the unique farmer-preacher written by Rhys Davies, the minister of Griffithstown Baptist Chapel from 1909 to 1930. At this period, before the Great War, membership at Penyrheol stood at about 80, a huge number given the thinly populated nature of this area, with a large area of unpopulated mountains immediately to the south and east of the chapel.
The Great War
Edward Davies enlisted as a volunteer at Brecon on November 1915, seeking to serve not as a combatant, but as a stretcher bearer. He left for Aldershot on 9th of the same month.
Brecon & Radnor Express 11th Nov:
Mr Davies said he did not join the Army because he like war, but he hoped this war would end war. Neither did he join because his married life was unhappy. He had been very happy, indeed, in his married life. He did not go because he had had no success as a minister - he had been fairly successful, but he joined because he hated compulsion. He appealed to all young people to respond, to the call of the King of Kings and work in His army.
Edward Davies was at home for a few days over Christmas in 1915, and preached in uniform in both chapels, which were crowded. In March 1916 he was home again, while based at Warminster where he was still undergoing training. In early May 1916, Edward Davies was back at home to preach at Penyrheol at a special commemorative service for the chapel secretary, Phillip Price, Tynllyne, who had been the chapel secretary for a number of years. He was 'one of the most popular and well-loved farmers of the district'. He had died of pneumonia on 21st April, aged just 41, leaving a wife, Alice and three children. Some years previously he had suffered a serious accident with a wagon and horses when the horses bolted. It had left him with seriously broken limbs, and he had never fully recovered. Tynllyne is a large, late Mediaeval farmhouse which is adjacent to the site of Llwynllwyd, the site of the theological school where William Williams, Pantycelyn received his education. It is also immediately below Llwynbrain, the farm where my wife's uncle farmed for much of his life. Phillip Price's funeral had already taken place some time before Edward Davies was able to arrive home, and was taken by other ministers standing in for him. A news report said of this event that 'The funeral was very largely attended, practically every farmer round Glasbury and some from Hay, and even Hereford, being present to pay their last tribute to one they knew to be a friend.' The loss would have been a grievous one, not only to the family, but to the chapel, and to Edward Davies as well, who must have returned to his army training with a heavy heart.
Passchendaele
On 24th September 1916 Edward Davies left for France, where he would serve for a little over a year. He was a private with the serial number 78821 in the 150th Field Ambulance of the R.A.M.C. which was attached to the 63rd Royal Naval Division. At the time of his arrival, the Division was engaged in the Battle for the Ancre, at the end of the Somme campaign, and they remained in that area until the following spring. In April 1917 they were involved in the fighting around Arras, before being moved to the Ypres battlefield in the autumn of 1917.
On Sunday morning, 8th October 1916, again in the absence of their minister, there was a baptism service at the Dipping Pool when 16 candidates were immersed by the Rev Abraham Hamer of Salem Baptist Chapel, Blaendulas, in Glamorgan, who was standing in for Edward Davies. He was his brother-in-law, and the younger brother of his wife.
Edward Davies was once again at home in September 1917, and peached at Glasbury and Penyrheol to large congregations, when he described in detail his experiences as stretcher-bearer. Just over a month later at the age of 37 he was dead, killed at the Battle of Poelcappelle during the fighting to secure the Passchendaele ridge during 3rd Ypres.
Two weeks later, the following report appeared in the Brecon County Times on 8th November 1917, beneath a photograph of Edward Davies:
Glasbury Minister Killed in Action.
News has been received that the Rev Edward Davies, B.A., pastor of the Glasbury and Penrheol Baptist Churches, Glasbury-on-Wye, was killed in France on October 23rd while gallantly removing wounded under fire. Two years ago he joined the R.A.M.C. as a volunteer, moved by a deep sense of duty. He might have kept out of the war, but he did not wish to shelter under the shadow of an exempted profession, while others were sacrificing themselves in the great struggle for liberty. Mr Davies was the son of the late Rev D Davies, Maesyrhelem, and was most popular with his people both as a preacher and as a man. He was also a great favourite with his brother ministers in the counties of Brecon and Radnor. Some few years ago be wrote and published a biography of his father, which showed that he had the literary gift in a marked degree, and there were all the signs of a brilliant future before him. He was a fine scholar, a true preacher, and a devoted friend. Lieut. Scalfe, writing to Mrs Davies, says that while with the Ambulance be always worked well and was very popular with all his comrades." The place where he fell was too dangerous to give him a military funeral, but his grave has been marked by a cross made by his comrades. Mr Davies leaves a widow and two little children*. He had been acting as a stretcher bearer for upwards of twelve months. From the information received by Mrs Davies, it appears that be was in the act of lifting a wounded soldier when be was struck on the side of the head by a shrapnel fragment, which killed him instantaneously. It is only five weeks since he was home for leave when he preached on Sunday to his own churches.
(* the children were Rosalin Mona Davies born 1910, and John V Davies born 1913. They would have been aged 6 and 3 when their father died.)
Here is a link to a Googlemaps photograph of Bleuet Farm, which was used as a dressing station by the RAMC during the battle of Third Ypres in the second half of 1917. It also shows the cemetery:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.8879154,2.8336104,3a,60y,333.48h,84.55t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sWdGIgJ2v-wdUy_En7_ilaA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Edward Davies' body was subsequently buried at Bluet Farm Cemetery, near Elverdinghe. On his headstone are the words from scripture, probably chosen by his widow: 'We thank our God upon every remembrance of you.'
Commemorative services were held at Glasbury, where Principal Edwards of Cardiff spoke to packed audiences in multiple services. He said of Edward Davies in his somewhat flowery, but nonetheless insightful eulogy:
He possessed a deep devoutness of spirit, which was ever remarkable in one so young. To be in the spirit of prayer and in fellowship with the higher things was as natural to him as to breathe. He abode in the "heavenly places," and not only followed Christ, but remained in abiding communion with Him. His passionate love to his Lord was ever evi- dent. He did not make loud protestations, or declare his love and loyalty to him from the house-tops, yet he did all as man and minister out of love to Him. He could say with the Apostle, "The love of Christ constraineth me." This led him to become a preacher of the Gospel, the secret of all his service, the key to all his faithful labours, and the explanation of his going out to live Christ and present Him as Saviour in the bloody field of battle. Yea, this led him to make the final and supreme sacrifice, as he counted not his own life dear, if he could glorify Him in death as well as in life. He was a man of deep and wide sympathies. Love to God leads to love to man. He was really a good Samaritan, who was ready to pour his wine and oil into the wounds of bleeding humanity. Like his Master, he "was moved with compassion," and so he implored men to be wise, to win Christ, and to embrace His full and free salvation. Then, think of his humility of disposition. His inclination was to keep in the background and to remain out of sight. His life was not the babbling, boisterous torrent, but the quiet stream that moved gently along the lowly channel of a lowly disposition. Pride and Pharisaic boastfulness could not live in the daily atmosphere which he breathed. Coupled with this was a rare courage, which ever characterised him in defence of his strong and unshakeable convictions. He could be Bunyan's Mr, Valiant for the Truth, and could sometimes flame up with holy indignation when the crown rights of King Jesus were trampled under feet. There could be thunder in that gentle voice and lightning in that eye if that which were most sacred to him was reviled. All that was in harmony with a geniality of nature, an evenness of temper, with a broadness of view and a kindliness of disposition which banished suspicion, and, like love itself, hoped all things. He looked at the bright side and the great possibilities of human nature, and so, even amid at times some despondency, he was, an optimist, because of the mighty power of the Gospel in which he unflinchingly believed, to the proclamation of which he made everything subservient, determined to know nothing among men, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
An inscription was added to the headstone on his parents' grave at Maesyrhelem, while a plaque commemorating Edward Davies was subsequently erected at Glasbury Chapel.
In very recent times, Glasbury Baptist chapel was closed down and disposed of. It is now used as a canoeing centre and bunkhouse for groups visiting the Wye. The small surviving congregation now meet elsewhere. Penyrheol chapel is still very much in use by a small group of members, and is very well maintained, the old stable block having been converted into a small community meeting room. In 2009, there was a fair amount of publicity for the first baptism to be held there in 80 years, not at the Dipping Pool, but in an inflatable baptistry put up outside the chapel. The place is as peaceful and stunningly beautiful as ever; and the Dipping Pool, a half a mile away down a farm track, is worth visiting. The last time I was there I found myself imagining Edward Davies conducting his last baptisms there, with crowds of witnesses standing around the small pool. It is a very poignant and atmospheric spot.
Immediately after the Welsh Revival, and following on from his training, Edward Davies was inducted as the minister of Glasbury and Penyrheol Baptist chapels. Glasbury sits astride the River Wye, where it is crossed by the main road connecting Brecon and Hereford, just to the south of the famous book town of Hay-on-Wye. Glasbury chapel, known as Treble Hill Chapel, now closed, sits right by the bridge over the Wye; while Penyrheol, a few miles to the east, is still open and functioning as a chapel in spite of its remoteness. Penyrheol is by far and away the older of the two churches. It can be a little difficult to find, as it is high up on the mountainside above Glasbury and Tregoyd, and at the dead end of a network of narrow lanes stretching up towards Twmpa, one of the most prominent high points along the western edge of the Black Mountains.
Penyrheol Baptist Chapel
Maesyberllan
The cause at Penyrheol was initiated out of Maesyberllan in the parish of Llandefalle, in the late 18th century. The Baptist church at Maesyberllan, sometimes referred to as Trawsgoed, had been started as a discrete cause as early as 1699. It was initially established by William Pritchard of Llanwenarth, the first meetings taking place in Trawsgoed farmhouse, the home of the influential Powell family. Meetings were also held in several other farms in the district, sometimes in barns, and sometimes in the open air. The first pastor was Richard Williams of Llanwenarth. The second past or was Philip Morgan, who was ordained in 1731 at the age of 37. He had begun preaching ten years previously. Not long after that a powerful revival broke out which considerably added to the numbers. The chapel itself was not built until 1746, about a mile from Trawsgoed itself. When Philip Morgan died in 1776, John Thomas (1719-1786) from Aberduar became the minister. The cause had declined somewhat by this time, but strengthened again for a while initially under the new minister. Then there were four or five years when growth stagnated again, but after that, another revival once more significantly increased numbers. This must have been in about 1783 or 1784.
Maesyberllan
One of Maesyberllan's best known ministers was David Evans (1744-1821) who originally came from Cardiganshire where his father was a fisherman at Aberporth. He was brought up at Hawen Congregational Chapel in Troedyraur where he became a farmer in 1774. Interestingly, Troedyraur was the village in which my own maternal grandfather was born, and Hawen was where some of my own ancestors worshipped. Switching to the Baptists, Evans was ordained in 1778, and worked to preach the gospel as a missioner to North Wales for many years, travelling there on as many as thirteen separate occasions. He took on the pastorate at Maesberllan in 1787, and served as its minister until 1817. He would have had the care of Penyrheol in its early years.
Penyrheol
The first meetings of the Baptists at Penyrheol took place at Maestorglwydd as early as the 1750's.
Later, meetings were held at Island Farm, in Llanigon parish, which was actually the home of John Thomas, the minister of Maesyberllan, who was a man familiar with what it was like to minister in a revival atmosphere. Another place used for the early meeting was Penyrheol farm. The congregation here grew rapidly, and outgrew the use of local farms as meeting places. Land was obtained in November 1783 for the building of a dedicated place of worship, just a short distance down the lane from Penyrheol farm, and the building was completed in 1784.
A commemorative tablet on the side wall, above the original entrance to the chapel, reads thus: 'The memoir of two hundred and forty pounds of the pious donation of Thomas Williams of the Island, Gent, in the parish of Llanigon and county of Brecon for the use and benefit of this Penyrheol church forever.' The date is no longer legible but apparently once indicated the unveiling of the tablet on 1st September 1788, just a week before Thomas Williams died. He was the first to be buried in the chapel burial ground.
Penyrheol became independent of Maesyberllan in 1819, and a member of the Baptist Association in its own right.
Maestorglwydd, a very old Welsh longhouse,
with a more recent gable
Later, meetings were held at Island Farm, in Llanigon parish, which was actually the home of John Thomas, the minister of Maesyberllan, who was a man familiar with what it was like to minister in a revival atmosphere. Another place used for the early meeting was Penyrheol farm. The congregation here grew rapidly, and outgrew the use of local farms as meeting places. Land was obtained in November 1783 for the building of a dedicated place of worship, just a short distance down the lane from Penyrheol farm, and the building was completed in 1784.
Penyrheol
A commemorative tablet on the side wall, above the original entrance to the chapel, reads thus: 'The memoir of two hundred and forty pounds of the pious donation of Thomas Williams of the Island, Gent, in the parish of Llanigon and county of Brecon for the use and benefit of this Penyrheol church forever.' The date is no longer legible but apparently once indicated the unveiling of the tablet on 1st September 1788, just a week before Thomas Williams died. He was the first to be buried in the chapel burial ground.
Island Farm where some early meetings took place
Penyrheol became independent of Maesyberllan in 1819, and a member of the Baptist Association in its own right.
The 1851 religious census records that there were as many as 173 in attendance at the meeting which took place in the evening on the day of the census, and that there was seating sufficient for a congregation of 300. The latter figure is clearly an overestimate, for even now the chapel is quite small. It is possible the figure of 173 was also a slight overestimate! The membership figures at that time were 65, but others who were not actual members must have been attending as well, and a few years later the place needed to be enlarged. It was in 1860 that the chapel was redeveloped and extended, and a gallery installed, though this was later removed at the time when the chapel was reoriented from being a long-wall chapel to an end-wall chapel, with the pulpit at the end of the chapel rather than in the middle of the long wall.
The school log books for Velindre highlight the importance of the chapel in the local community, however, in spite of its being very rural and scattered over a wide area. M A V Hill records the following extracts:
In the logbooks of Velindre School, head-teachers occasionally noted events at the local chapels that affected pupils' attendance. On 19th October 1885: "Very poor attendance, many children gone to Penrheol Harvest Thanksgiving."; in the weekly report of 25th July 1904: "Anniversary at Penyrheol - so many scholars have applied for half holiday that this along with another circumstance caused head teacher to omit usual marking of Registers, though we dismissed at usual time. The circumstance alluded to was a terrific thunderstorm with torrents of rain, entirely precluding those at a distance leaving the shelter of their homes"; again on 20th July 1914: "Owing to the boisterous & wet state of the weather, & also to a Tea Party taking Place at Penrheol Chapel, only a dozen children present in the afternoon."
M A V Hill also quotes from an account by a local woman named Mary Jane Kinsey who used to attend the chapel with her family when she was a girl. Mary, whose maiden name was Harris, was born in 1887, her parents being Thomas and Mary Ann Harris. Her father was a labourer at Tregoyd, and was born in the parish; while her mother was from neighbouring Llanelieu. Mary Jane used to recite at both the afternoon and evening services at Penyrheol on Sundays, while she records that there was usually another service on a Monday when tea was prepared for everyone who came. This was in the 1890's. She also records witnessing the baptisms that used to take place at the Dipping Pool which was on the mountainside beyond Penyrheol Farm, about half a mile from the chapel itself. The remains of the pool are still to be seen there today, cut from the sold rock just where a stream runs down off the mountain. It was lined with huge slabs of sandstone, one of them now sadly broken, so that the chamber remains largely empty of water today, and is badly silted up.
Mary recalled 'one Sunday morning when there were twenty baptised at the Dipping Pool. After the dipping we went to a house where the members had a hot drink and changed into dry clothing.' This was probably the cottage that once stood on the mountainside just a few yards above the pool. It was demolished many years ago. A low, grass-covered raised platform beneath a screen of trees is all that remains of the place.
Mary also records once attending a baptism there when there was snow on the ground. Both of these baptism could well have been during or immediately after the 1904-5 Revival. It is just possible that Edward Davies was the one conducting the baptisms, but more likely that he baptised people here a little later on. It was just after this that Mary Jane Harris married Athelstan Kinsey, a carter and son of a monumental stone mason from Llandinam in Montgomeryshire, who worked at the small Ponithel chemical works, where coal tar was distilled to produce naphthalene until the 1920's. By the time of the 1911 census, they had three young daughters, and were living at Ponithel with Mary's widowed mother. Athelstan Kinsey died in 1957. Mary survived him and was still alive in the 1960's during which time she wrote her unpublished piece about early recollections of life in Velindre, which is now in the Powys Record Office.
Treble Hill, Glasbury
View of the Black Mountains from the chapel
The school log books for Velindre highlight the importance of the chapel in the local community, however, in spite of its being very rural and scattered over a wide area. M A V Hill records the following extracts:
In the logbooks of Velindre School, head-teachers occasionally noted events at the local chapels that affected pupils' attendance. On 19th October 1885: "Very poor attendance, many children gone to Penrheol Harvest Thanksgiving."; in the weekly report of 25th July 1904: "Anniversary at Penyrheol - so many scholars have applied for half holiday that this along with another circumstance caused head teacher to omit usual marking of Registers, though we dismissed at usual time. The circumstance alluded to was a terrific thunderstorm with torrents of rain, entirely precluding those at a distance leaving the shelter of their homes"; again on 20th July 1914: "Owing to the boisterous & wet state of the weather, & also to a Tea Party taking Place at Penrheol Chapel, only a dozen children present in the afternoon."
M A V Hill also quotes from an account by a local woman named Mary Jane Kinsey who used to attend the chapel with her family when she was a girl. Mary, whose maiden name was Harris, was born in 1887, her parents being Thomas and Mary Ann Harris. Her father was a labourer at Tregoyd, and was born in the parish; while her mother was from neighbouring Llanelieu. Mary Jane used to recite at both the afternoon and evening services at Penyrheol on Sundays, while she records that there was usually another service on a Monday when tea was prepared for everyone who came. This was in the 1890's. She also records witnessing the baptisms that used to take place at the Dipping Pool which was on the mountainside beyond Penyrheol Farm, about half a mile from the chapel itself. The remains of the pool are still to be seen there today, cut from the sold rock just where a stream runs down off the mountain. It was lined with huge slabs of sandstone, one of them now sadly broken, so that the chamber remains largely empty of water today, and is badly silted up.
The Dipping Pool
Mary recalled 'one Sunday morning when there were twenty baptised at the Dipping Pool. After the dipping we went to a house where the members had a hot drink and changed into dry clothing.' This was probably the cottage that once stood on the mountainside just a few yards above the pool. It was demolished many years ago. A low, grass-covered raised platform beneath a screen of trees is all that remains of the place.
Dipping Pool cottage was below the trees on the right.
Twmpa is the mountain behind.
Mary also records once attending a baptism there when there was snow on the ground. Both of these baptism could well have been during or immediately after the 1904-5 Revival. It is just possible that Edward Davies was the one conducting the baptisms, but more likely that he baptised people here a little later on. It was just after this that Mary Jane Harris married Athelstan Kinsey, a carter and son of a monumental stone mason from Llandinam in Montgomeryshire, who worked at the small Ponithel chemical works, where coal tar was distilled to produce naphthalene until the 1920's. By the time of the 1911 census, they had three young daughters, and were living at Ponithel with Mary's widowed mother. Athelstan Kinsey died in 1957. Mary survived him and was still alive in the 1960's during which time she wrote her unpublished piece about early recollections of life in Velindre, which is now in the Powys Record Office.
Treble Hill, Glasbury
It was in 1792 that an application was made for a license for meetings to be held at Tyle Mawr on the Radnorshire side of the Wye near Glasbury. At the time this was the home of one William Mitchell. Eight years later a similar application was made for Brynsifiog, also north of the river.
Brynsifiog
By the 1820's meetings were being held at Llwynpenderi, also on the Radnorshire side of the river. This farm was managed by John Jenkins, a member of Penyrheol, and he was allowed to hold prayer meetings there by the owner. William Richards of Penyrheol preached in some of these meetings. Some who attended them went to Cefntwmbach near Erwood to be baptised.
Old farm buildings at Llwynpenderi
When John Jenkins left he was followed by Thomas Davies from Herefordshire, who became a Baptist. This was about 1830. He then moved from Llwynpenderi to Cilcenni, just north of Maesyronnen, also owned by Pugh, where he remained for twenty-two years. Cilceni was abandoned some years ago, and is a sad ruin today. It is only accessible on foot via a little used footpath across two fields from a very narrow country lane. It is just a half a mile as the crow flies north of the Independent chapel at Maesyronnen - the oldest non-conformist chapel in Wales that is still in use. The 1841 census shows Thomas Davies (born locally 1797) living here with his wife Margaret (born 1811) and their four young children, all aged between one year old and ten. They were still there ten years later, when Thomas Davies is described as being an agricultural labourer.
Meetings were held here and also at Tyle Mawr, alternating between the two on Sundays. Tyle Mawr was at that time owned by a John Meredith. He was living there in 1851, an unmarried 50 year old. By 1861 he had retired to a cottage in Treble Hill, and died shortly after. Various well-known Baptist ministers from Radnorshire preached at Tyle Mawr and at Cilcenni: John Jones, the Rock; William Jenkins, Dolau; and Edward Price, Maesyberllan. So the church had a connection with Edward Davies' father's church in North Radnorshire going back to its very beginnings. By this time there were about thirty Baptists in the area, but at first they could not find land on which to build a dedicated meeting place.
When Thomas Davies left Cilcenni, some time in the 1850's, meetings were held at Fynnon Gynydd, not far from Cilcenni, in a house that once stood immediately opposite the village well. It's no longer there, and the spot seems to serve as the lawned garden of a nearby bungalow. However, in 1859, the tenant left, and the meetings were discontinued so that the cause went into decline. Then in 1861, a Mr Nichols took a warehouse in Glasbury which was used for Baptist meetings, and a church was formed mostly of Baptists from the Radnorshire side of the Wye. This Mr Nichols was probably John Nichols, of Penymaes, Tregoyd, a mason, who was born in 1795. He and his wife Mary were both born locally in Glynfach, near Llanigon; they had a son Daniel, a carpenter, who was aged 31 in 1861. At this time, baptisms were conducted below the bridge that crosses the Wye at Glasbury.
The Two Chapels
David Howell was followed by another Pontypool student, Thomas G James, from Llangoedmor, Cardiganshire, who was very popular, but who moved to Robertson, Newport after a very short period. He later became very involved in eduction, and whilst carrying out his ministerial duties, was Deputy Director of Education for Monmouthshire, which responsibility for the Primary sector. He was followed in 1892 by J Lloyd Williams, yet another Pontypool student, who stayed until 1898 when he was called to Treherbert in the Rhondda.
George Henry Bebb took up his duties at Glabsury and Penrheol on Christmas Day 1898, having trained at Bangor, and was ordained the following month. He was a single man who had been born in Montgomeryshire in 1870, the son of a lock keeper from Newtown named Thomas Bebb and his wife Jane. He died in Peterborough in 1934 aged 64.
Cilcenni
The old kitchen hearth.
The kitchen was probably where the prayer meetings took place.
Meetings were held here and also at Tyle Mawr, alternating between the two on Sundays. Tyle Mawr was at that time owned by a John Meredith. He was living there in 1851, an unmarried 50 year old. By 1861 he had retired to a cottage in Treble Hill, and died shortly after. Various well-known Baptist ministers from Radnorshire preached at Tyle Mawr and at Cilcenni: John Jones, the Rock; William Jenkins, Dolau; and Edward Price, Maesyberllan. So the church had a connection with Edward Davies' father's church in North Radnorshire going back to its very beginnings. By this time there were about thirty Baptists in the area, but at first they could not find land on which to build a dedicated meeting place.
Tyle Mawr
When Thomas Davies left Cilcenni, some time in the 1850's, meetings were held at Fynnon Gynydd, not far from Cilcenni, in a house that once stood immediately opposite the village well. It's no longer there, and the spot seems to serve as the lawned garden of a nearby bungalow. However, in 1859, the tenant left, and the meetings were discontinued so that the cause went into decline. Then in 1861, a Mr Nichols took a warehouse in Glasbury which was used for Baptist meetings, and a church was formed mostly of Baptists from the Radnorshire side of the Wye. This Mr Nichols was probably John Nichols, of Penymaes, Tregoyd, a mason, who was born in 1795. He and his wife Mary were both born locally in Glynfach, near Llanigon; they had a son Daniel, a carpenter, who was aged 31 in 1861. At this time, baptisms were conducted below the bridge that crosses the Wye at Glasbury.
The Wye at Glasbury
The Two Chapels
From the start, the new church, meeting in the loaned storeroom premises, shared a pastor with Penyrheol up on the mountain. In this period several young men who had studied at Pontypool college cut their teeth here briefly before moving on elsewhere. Then it was in 1866 that Sir Samuel Morton Peto (1809-1889), the civil engineer and railway developer of Somerleyton Hall near Lowestoft, who was a devout Baptist, persuaded his friend and colleague the Montgomeryshire born Benjamin Piercy (1827-1888) to be generous enough to provide the church in Glasbury on which to build a chapel. It was opened in 1867, and the project included a house for the minister.
Treble Hill - the Baptist Chapel at Glasbury
The next pastor who served both Glasbury and Penyrheol was David Howell, another Pontypool student, who had settled for a while in Liverpool after completing his theological training. Originally from Pontyberem in Carmarthenshire, where he was born in 1841, he lost his mother when he was just two years old. His father also died in the cholera epidemic in 1848 after they had moved to Swansea, and he and his brother were brought up by their grandparents. The two young boys were taken by their grandparents to the meetings at Horeb chapel, where David Howell was converted, and began preaching at the age of nineteen. In 1862 he went to Pontypool to prepare for the ministry, remaining there for four years. He then served a church in Liverpool for four years before being called to Glasbury in 1870. In 1881 he was living in the chapel house in Glasbury with his Gloucestershire-born wife Susan and their three remaining daughters (they had eight children altogether, though only five survived to adulthood). He served successfully for twenty years at the two chapels. He used to walk all the way from Glasbury up to Penyrheol to take the services there, no matter what the weather. It would have been a long, gruelling uphill walk of several miles. Over the years, the exertion told on his health so that he became seriously ill and was unwell for a long time. He died in 1890 at the age of just 49. A year later, his widow, then 48 years old, and three of their children, were living with her older brother near Ross on Wye, for whom she was working as a housekeeper; and ten years later she was still a widow in Ross, but running a boarding house there.
David Howell was followed by another Pontypool student, Thomas G James, from Llangoedmor, Cardiganshire, who was very popular, but who moved to Robertson, Newport after a very short period. He later became very involved in eduction, and whilst carrying out his ministerial duties, was Deputy Director of Education for Monmouthshire, which responsibility for the Primary sector. He was followed in 1892 by J Lloyd Williams, yet another Pontypool student, who stayed until 1898 when he was called to Treherbert in the Rhondda.
Looking towards the Wye from Penyrheol Chapel
George Henry Bebb took up his duties at Glabsury and Penrheol on Christmas Day 1898, having trained at Bangor, and was ordained the following month. He was a single man who had been born in Montgomeryshire in 1870, the son of a lock keeper from Newtown named Thomas Bebb and his wife Jane. He died in Peterborough in 1934 aged 64.
W H Williams was the minister here from 1903 until 1905, the period of the Revival, which clearly had some impact on both chapels. There is also mention of revival meetings being held in a house at Pontithel, as well as in the chapels of the district. The 47 year old proprietor of the chemical works, Arthur Jacob, used to conduct a Sunday school in a cottage in the tiny hamlet which may well have been the place where these meetings were held. The home of Arthur and Mary Ann Jacob and their five children is the large white house which still stands at the side of the main road today, immediately north of the bridge over the river. The Baptist chapel at Glasbury is reported to have been packed at this time. The Jacob family seem to have been members there.
the Jacob family home at Pontithel
The following brief account appeared in the Evening Express on 24th January 1905:
At Glasbury on Sunday evening seven candidates were baptised in the River Wye by the pastor, the Rev. W. H. Williams. Although snow covered the ground to a depth of several inches, a large crowd assembled on the river bank to witness the ceremony. A most successful series of meetings was held last week at Penyrheol, situated at the foot of the Black Mountain. People trudged for miles night after night in order to be present at the services.
Edward Davies
At the end of 1905, W H Williams was called to Upper Trosnant Baptist Chapel in Pontypool, and it was soon afterwards that Edward Jones, the son of David Davies, Maesyrhelem took on the joint pastorate go Treble Hill, Glasbury and Penyrheol Chapels. He came here from college where he had studied theology for four years at Cardiff University, from 1901, and was ordained on 19th September 1906. This was shortly after he married Mary Jane Hamer, the daughter of Abraham and Winifred Hamer, who farmed in his home district of Llanbister at Great Cantal farm. The Hamer family were in all probability members at one of his father David Davies's church at The Pound, where Edward Davies had witnessed the 1905 Revival at first hand.
Edward Davies
It was while he was at Glasbury, in 1907, that his father David Davies, Maesyrhelem died and he began working on a biographical tribute to his father, which was published in the summer of 1914 with the title 'The Life of the Late Rev David Davies, Maesyrhelem'. It included a detailed survey of the preaching style of the unique farmer-preacher written by Rhys Davies, the minister of Griffithstown Baptist Chapel from 1909 to 1930. At this period, before the Great War, membership at Penyrheol stood at about 80, a huge number given the thinly populated nature of this area, with a large area of unpopulated mountains immediately to the south and east of the chapel.
The Great War
Edward Davies enlisted as a volunteer at Brecon on November 1915, seeking to serve not as a combatant, but as a stretcher bearer. He left for Aldershot on 9th of the same month.
Brecon & Radnor Express 11th Nov:
Mr Davies said he did not join the Army because he like war, but he hoped this war would end war. Neither did he join because his married life was unhappy. He had been very happy, indeed, in his married life. He did not go because he had had no success as a minister - he had been fairly successful, but he joined because he hated compulsion. He appealed to all young people to respond, to the call of the King of Kings and work in His army.
Penyrheol, in the shadow of the Black Mountain ridge
Edward Davies was at home for a few days over Christmas in 1915, and preached in uniform in both chapels, which were crowded. In March 1916 he was home again, while based at Warminster where he was still undergoing training. In early May 1916, Edward Davies was back at home to preach at Penyrheol at a special commemorative service for the chapel secretary, Phillip Price, Tynllyne, who had been the chapel secretary for a number of years. He was 'one of the most popular and well-loved farmers of the district'. He had died of pneumonia on 21st April, aged just 41, leaving a wife, Alice and three children. Some years previously he had suffered a serious accident with a wagon and horses when the horses bolted. It had left him with seriously broken limbs, and he had never fully recovered. Tynllyne is a large, late Mediaeval farmhouse which is adjacent to the site of Llwynllwyd, the site of the theological school where William Williams, Pantycelyn received his education. It is also immediately below Llwynbrain, the farm where my wife's uncle farmed for much of his life. Phillip Price's funeral had already taken place some time before Edward Davies was able to arrive home, and was taken by other ministers standing in for him. A news report said of this event that 'The funeral was very largely attended, practically every farmer round Glasbury and some from Hay, and even Hereford, being present to pay their last tribute to one they knew to be a friend.' The loss would have been a grievous one, not only to the family, but to the chapel, and to Edward Davies as well, who must have returned to his army training with a heavy heart.
Passchendaele
On 24th September 1916 Edward Davies left for France, where he would serve for a little over a year. He was a private with the serial number 78821 in the 150th Field Ambulance of the R.A.M.C. which was attached to the 63rd Royal Naval Division. At the time of his arrival, the Division was engaged in the Battle for the Ancre, at the end of the Somme campaign, and they remained in that area until the following spring. In April 1917 they were involved in the fighting around Arras, before being moved to the Ypres battlefield in the autumn of 1917.
On Sunday morning, 8th October 1916, again in the absence of their minister, there was a baptism service at the Dipping Pool when 16 candidates were immersed by the Rev Abraham Hamer of Salem Baptist Chapel, Blaendulas, in Glamorgan, who was standing in for Edward Davies. He was his brother-in-law, and the younger brother of his wife.
The Dipping Pool
Edward Davies was once again at home in September 1917, and peached at Glasbury and Penyrheol to large congregations, when he described in detail his experiences as stretcher-bearer. Just over a month later at the age of 37 he was dead, killed at the Battle of Poelcappelle during the fighting to secure the Passchendaele ridge during 3rd Ypres.
Stretcher bearers Ypres 1917,
a different kind of baptism.
Two weeks later, the following report appeared in the Brecon County Times on 8th November 1917, beneath a photograph of Edward Davies:
Glasbury Minister Killed in Action.
News has been received that the Rev Edward Davies, B.A., pastor of the Glasbury and Penrheol Baptist Churches, Glasbury-on-Wye, was killed in France on October 23rd while gallantly removing wounded under fire. Two years ago he joined the R.A.M.C. as a volunteer, moved by a deep sense of duty. He might have kept out of the war, but he did not wish to shelter under the shadow of an exempted profession, while others were sacrificing themselves in the great struggle for liberty. Mr Davies was the son of the late Rev D Davies, Maesyrhelem, and was most popular with his people both as a preacher and as a man. He was also a great favourite with his brother ministers in the counties of Brecon and Radnor. Some few years ago be wrote and published a biography of his father, which showed that he had the literary gift in a marked degree, and there were all the signs of a brilliant future before him. He was a fine scholar, a true preacher, and a devoted friend. Lieut. Scalfe, writing to Mrs Davies, says that while with the Ambulance be always worked well and was very popular with all his comrades." The place where he fell was too dangerous to give him a military funeral, but his grave has been marked by a cross made by his comrades. Mr Davies leaves a widow and two little children*. He had been acting as a stretcher bearer for upwards of twelve months. From the information received by Mrs Davies, it appears that be was in the act of lifting a wounded soldier when be was struck on the side of the head by a shrapnel fragment, which killed him instantaneously. It is only five weeks since he was home for leave when he preached on Sunday to his own churches.
(* the children were Rosalin Mona Davies born 1910, and John V Davies born 1913. They would have been aged 6 and 3 when their father died.)
Here is a link to a Googlemaps photograph of Bleuet Farm, which was used as a dressing station by the RAMC during the battle of Third Ypres in the second half of 1917. It also shows the cemetery:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.8879154,2.8336104,3a,60y,333.48h,84.55t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sWdGIgJ2v-wdUy_En7_ilaA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Edward Davies' body was subsequently buried at Bluet Farm Cemetery, near Elverdinghe. On his headstone are the words from scripture, probably chosen by his widow: 'We thank our God upon every remembrance of you.'
Bleuet Farm Cemetery
Edward Davies' is first row, right of cross, 7th along
(just off picture)
Commemorative services were held at Glasbury, where Principal Edwards of Cardiff spoke to packed audiences in multiple services. He said of Edward Davies in his somewhat flowery, but nonetheless insightful eulogy:
He possessed a deep devoutness of spirit, which was ever remarkable in one so young. To be in the spirit of prayer and in fellowship with the higher things was as natural to him as to breathe. He abode in the "heavenly places," and not only followed Christ, but remained in abiding communion with Him. His passionate love to his Lord was ever evi- dent. He did not make loud protestations, or declare his love and loyalty to him from the house-tops, yet he did all as man and minister out of love to Him. He could say with the Apostle, "The love of Christ constraineth me." This led him to become a preacher of the Gospel, the secret of all his service, the key to all his faithful labours, and the explanation of his going out to live Christ and present Him as Saviour in the bloody field of battle. Yea, this led him to make the final and supreme sacrifice, as he counted not his own life dear, if he could glorify Him in death as well as in life. He was a man of deep and wide sympathies. Love to God leads to love to man. He was really a good Samaritan, who was ready to pour his wine and oil into the wounds of bleeding humanity. Like his Master, he "was moved with compassion," and so he implored men to be wise, to win Christ, and to embrace His full and free salvation. Then, think of his humility of disposition. His inclination was to keep in the background and to remain out of sight. His life was not the babbling, boisterous torrent, but the quiet stream that moved gently along the lowly channel of a lowly disposition. Pride and Pharisaic boastfulness could not live in the daily atmosphere which he breathed. Coupled with this was a rare courage, which ever characterised him in defence of his strong and unshakeable convictions. He could be Bunyan's Mr, Valiant for the Truth, and could sometimes flame up with holy indignation when the crown rights of King Jesus were trampled under feet. There could be thunder in that gentle voice and lightning in that eye if that which were most sacred to him was reviled. All that was in harmony with a geniality of nature, an evenness of temper, with a broadness of view and a kindliness of disposition which banished suspicion, and, like love itself, hoped all things. He looked at the bright side and the great possibilities of human nature, and so, even amid at times some despondency, he was, an optimist, because of the mighty power of the Gospel in which he unflinchingly believed, to the proclamation of which he made everything subservient, determined to know nothing among men, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
An inscription was added to the headstone on his parents' grave at Maesyrhelem, while a plaque commemorating Edward Davies was subsequently erected at Glasbury Chapel.
In very recent times, Glasbury Baptist chapel was closed down and disposed of. It is now used as a canoeing centre and bunkhouse for groups visiting the Wye. The small surviving congregation now meet elsewhere. Penyrheol chapel is still very much in use by a small group of members, and is very well maintained, the old stable block having been converted into a small community meeting room. In 2009, there was a fair amount of publicity for the first baptism to be held there in 80 years, not at the Dipping Pool, but in an inflatable baptistry put up outside the chapel. The place is as peaceful and stunningly beautiful as ever; and the Dipping Pool, a half a mile away down a farm track, is worth visiting. The last time I was there I found myself imagining Edward Davies conducting his last baptisms there, with crowds of witnesses standing around the small pool. It is a very poignant and atmospheric spot.
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