Salem Newydd(1878)

Welsh Baptist, Dyffryn Street, Ferndale

Built: 1878 [Sittings: 650]

Salem Newydd was a 'Daughter' of Nazareth, Blaenllechau. Although the 'Mother' church's own membership suffered due to several pit disasters it was still stong enough to sponsor this cause to the tune of an initial 114 persons in 1877/78.

  Image © Copyright Glamorgan Archives - Reference: MGCS/CS/54.080

Its name was proposed by one of the workmen building the new chapel whose own was Salem, Meidryn, Carmarthenshire.
This church was sheparded by several long-serving ministers notably John Williams from 1925 to 1955 followed by Handel Bowen in 1957. It was only on the announced retirement of the Rev. Bowen in 1994 that the decision was made that the chapel would close albeit with a membership of only 20. A vast difference of the heady days up to the 1940's.
    Abandoned to its fate, it was subsequently rescued with a fine residential development.

Document Sources:-
MGCS 54/80
Trafodion 1999 pg 39.
Salem Newydd - A history and memories of a typical chapel of the South Wales Valleys - Peter Brooks.