Cymer ('Hen Capel')(1740)

Welsh Independent / Congregational, High Street, Cymmer

Built: 1743 , Extended or Rebuilt: 1834

Before the coming of the chapels, the parishioners would meet in the more spacious farm-houses and have the services of itinerant ministers and preachers.
    One such person was Henry Davies who had been ordained as minister at Blaengwrach in the Neath Valley in 1718. In the 1730's he visited many locations.
    In 1738 he left Blaengwrach, since it was moving towards Unitarianism and set up a church at a central location of the three parishes, which would ultimately form The Rhondda, at a place we now know as Cymmer.

  Image by permission of Rhondda Cynon Taf Libraries - Reference: 4785

Now, immediately, we have a slight confusion of dates (something that many churches have). The published history quotes 1738 whereas official publications such as The Congregational Year Book quote 1740. I attribute the difference to 1738 being when regular meetings took place against 1740 being when Cymer was formed as a regular church.
    In 1743 the first chapel was built there. It has been described as 'plain', with a thatched roof and an earthen floor. It's location was were was where the graveyard of the later building stood. Whilst it has always been referd to as 'Cymer Independent Chapel', the congregation, as with many early causes, would invariably been of mixed denomination. It was only when population increased that people of other persuasion left Cymer to set up their own churches.
    And with the coming of coal-mining, initially in the Dinas area, Cymer chapel attracted many new worshippers so much so that the chapel proved too small. A new chapel was built alongside and opened in 1834 to seat 600 persons.
    Interestingly, it was mentioned in the BBC documentary series 'The Long Street' that a consciencious decision was made to turn the new chapel's back away from the local mine so as not to directly associate itself with the very industry that serviced its own fortunes.
    Yet even this building was to prove too small and the story of Capel Y Cymer continues.........