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In 1832, the Revd.
William Rees, a relative of Josiah Rees
(minister of Gellionnen Unitarian Chapel)
was inspired to further the Unitarian cause
in the Brechfa area by building the chapel
of Cwmwrdu on his own land and with his
own money. We cannot doubt that he
was inspired by the fact that the first
Unitarian chapel in Wales, Cwm Cothi, was
opened in 1792 by weaver and minister Thomas
Evans, better known in Welsh history as
'Tomos Glyn Cothi'. Thomas Evans was
tried (under the name Tomos Glyn Cothi)
for alleged sedition, having to endure the
humiliation of the stocks. This experience
left him bitter, and he died in Aberdare
one year before Cwmwrdu opened, living long
enough to see the end of his church, which
is now only a cairn of stones. Maybe
the Revd. Rees should have taken warning
from Glyn Cothi's experience. The
path of Unitarianism has never been an easy
one; it asked for people to think in a radical
and liberated way. This must have
been a difficult concept for people in small,
rural communities whose lives were confined
to a small and mostly unchanging path. The
religious freedom which Unitarianism called
for can best be summed up by the words of
Edward Williams (Iolo Morgannwg) who founded
the South Wales Unitarian Society in 1802.
"Any
stranger expressing a wish to speak may
be admitted -
no-one to be admitted
or rejected for any religious opinion that
they may entertain,
it being believed
that truth ultimately will prevail"
The word 'stranger'
would have aroused the suspicions of small
communities, and the Revd. Evans' 'truth'
led him to be tried for sedition. The
Revd. William Rees also fell foul of the
harsh and unfair laws of the time. He
was imprisoned for debt after unsuccessfully
trying to support himself and his family
through farming. When Revd. Rees died
in 1844 he neglected to will the chapel
to his congregation - but unlike Revd. Evans'
chapel, Cwmwrdu was still an inspiration.
It was purchased by Dr. David Lloyd
and registered for the use of Unitarians
for as long as the Earth shall live.
It did indeed take
an Earth-shattering event to end the use
of Cwmwrdu as a chapel. Small communities
in rural areas of Wales were decimated by
the First World War. The sons and
heirs on whom the farming world depended
did not return to their homes. The
last recorded complete service was in 1926.
The chapel then
slipped into a slow but sure decline; part
of it (the vestry) was briefly lived in
by an old lady just before the Second World
War. It was used as farm storage,
and occupied by judges during the sheep-dog
trials, but it was not forgotten, still
being watched over by its Unitarian trustees.
Then came a weekend
in the summer of 1959. A FOY (Fellowship
Of Youth) group was formed in Cardiff by
Revd. Roy Jones and his wife. They
were part of a group of young people who
stayed at a simple camping centre known
as 'The Barn' at Flagg in Derbyshire. In
one of the returning cars was a student
for the Unitarian ministry, Eric Jones;
a teacher, Maldwyn Jones; and Robert Davies,
an assistant in the Glamorgan Architects'
Committee. At the end of this six-hour
journey home, they talked about their weekend.
They expressed their thoughts about
how it would be good to establish something
similar in South Wales; Derbyshire was a
long way to go. Shortly after this
journey, the idea was mentioned in front
of two Cardiganshire Unitarians, Revd. D.
Jacob Davies and Revd. J. Marles Thomas.
They responded by suggesting the disused
chapel of Cwmwrdu. A meeting was organised
to discuss the chapel's new lease of life
in May 1960. 40 people attended; Cwmwrdu
was obviously not a forgotten place. The
trustees were in favour and generously supported
the venture, as did Mrs. Evans and her family
at Cwm-mawr-du Farm. It was an idea
that captured the imagination of so many
local people; people from youth organisations,
architects, carpenters and people just wanting
to help in any way they could; realising
the importance of opening a centre where
others could share in the beauty and tranquillity
of this lovely area.
In 1961, when the
official closing service was held dedicating
the chapel as a centre for youth, over 200
people attended the service at a chapel
that held 50. This meant that most
of them had to stand and listen to loudspeakers
relaying the service to them. A local
Western Mail reporter came upon a traffic
jam, never seen before or since, on the
winding lane from Brechfa to Gwernogle.
He realised something pretty important
must have been going on, as usually the
sheep were frightened if they saw one car
following another on these lanes. Over
the years, the centre has been a meeting
place for children all over the world, and
one can only imagine that the Revd. William
Rees, despite his suffering, would be smiling
now.
His thoughts I'm
sure would fall along the lines of this
quote, from the Carmarthen Times, August
3rd, 1973:
When
the Mayor was lost for words
Nine
young children from Dr. Barnardo's Home,
Cardiff, holidaying at Gwernogle, thought
it was Christmas when the Mayor of Carmarthen
gave them 25p each on Wednesday. The
Mayor, Councillor Roy Nicholl, said: "I
was very moved when one little girl asked
'Is it Christmas then?' I had no answer
for her".
The pocket money Councillor
Nicholl gave the children came from a £20
given by the local Round Tablers for the
children to have a day at the seaside and
a meal.
Thankfully, unlike
many chapels that are now only a memory,
the building today is one he would recognise.
This chapel has been through many
new beginnings; it entrusts its future to
those who are willing to venture here, to
the 'Great, Dark Valley'; or, as Robert
Davies once wrote:
"Would
you like a key to this New Beginning?"
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