welldigger

Accounts of Evan Roberts' Visit to Pontypridd

2012-02-22T05:37:00.013-08:00

Pontypridd is a place for which I have much affection. It's the place where my father was born; and we often visited the family home in the Coedpenmaen district there when I was a child and a teenager. My grandfather moved there from Somerset in the 1890's to work initially in the Brown Lenox Chainworks, where the anchor chains for all the great ocean liners used to be made. He was a blacksmith's striker there for a while, before he moved on to work outdoors in the Craig-yr-Hesg quarries where he became a stone splitter, making the paving stones which still form many of Cardiff's pavements. His wife, my grandmother, was born in 'Ponty', as it is referred to locally. She was the daughter of a canalboatman who had worked on the Glamorganshire Canal all his life before the canal trade was throttled by the railways and subsidence. He then become an ostler in the Albion Colliery at Cilfynydd when it opened in 1887. He was the head ostler there at the time of the terrible explosion in the pit which killed 270 men and boys, and must have been heavily involved in the rescue operations in which the stables were used as a mortuary. It must have been a terrible experience.

My father says that the Ponty of today is nothing like what it once was. It was built on the back of the expanding coal industry in the mid to late 19th century. There were around a dozen coal mines in and around the town, all of which have now disappeared, apart from the winding house and headgear at Hopkinstown.

The old winding gear of 'The Hetty' just north of the town

Pontypridd was also a once a wealthy place with some lovely buildings, many of which have now gone. It also boasted the longest railway station platform in Britain. It was the busiest railway line too, with move train movements a day than any single line anywhere else as most of the coal from the Rhondda, Cynon and Taff valleys passed through the town. Sadly now many of the old buildings have gone, swept away by unthinking redevelopment in the 60's and 70's, and undermined by the total collapse of the coal industry. The town has a decided down-at-heel feel about it, in spite of various attempts to revitalise the place.

The Old Bridge Pontypridd, with Tabernacle Chapel beyond.

Partly because of this sad decline into relative obscurity, it is easy today for people to be unaware that during the revival of 1904-5 it was one of the key places that visitors from all over Europe and the wider world came to in order to catch the fire and take it back home with them. There is a great spiritual heritage here, and what God did in Ponty in 1904-5 had an impact right around the globe. It is therefore worth exploring what went on here in those heady times. nd so this blog is going to focus on what happened when Evan Roberts himself finally visited the gateway to the coalfield.

Workers in the Pontypridd Chainworks

Sunday, 18^th December 1904

I recently did a piece about the account of Evan Roberts’ visit to Pontypridd written by the Englishman William Herbert Jude; but in addition to his story, there seem to be five other contemporary accounts of the Revivalist’s visit to the town in the public domain. Like the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus, they contain a certain amount of common material; but each is also unique in providing different perspectives of the meetings, and in some cases exclusive content not found in the other accounts. For this reason they are all of interest. I intend to include them all here, together with some personal observations.

Evan Roberts

By the time Roberts visited Pontypridd, the Revival had been rapidly spreading across Glamorgan after the outbreak at Roberts’ home church in Loughor in the first week of November. It is now just 6 weeks later, and Roberts has already visited a number of key mining communities in the county, including places very near to Pontypridd such as Ynysybwl, Cilfynydd, Porth, Caerphilly, Senghenydd and Merthyr Vale, all of which are much smaller communities each less than six miles to the north of the town.

It is no wonder that people in Pontypridd were becoming anxious that Evan Roberts should visit their town also, especially given its great importance as the gateway to the three great mining valleys of the Rhondda, Cynon and Taff. The local papers several times published items during early December 1904 mentioning that Roberts was due to visit shortly, and the final confirmation came just a week or so before he actually did come, though it only mentioned he would be in Pontypridd on December 18^th, without saying anything about where he would be appearing. On the day itself, people from miles around as well as from the town, together with a number of visitors from England and Scotland, and as it turns out, from Switzerland, crowded the various chapels in the town, hoping that they had gone to the right one! Rumour played a key role in determining where people went, though all the chapels were crowded.

One of the long curved platform at Pontypridd station

This one is totally disused now

Of the accounts of Roberts’ visit to the town which follow, three are taken from local newspapers, while the fourth is from a biography published after the revival had come to an end.

I’ll start with the briefest of the four accounts, which comes from the main biography of Evan Roberts written by the man who became his close friend and confidant during the Revival. He was D.M. Phillips, the pastor of Libanus Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapel in Tylorstown in the Rhondda, just a few miles north of Pontypridd.

D.M. Phillips

Having been in Trehafod, about halfway between Pontypridd and Tylorstown on Saturday December 17^th, Roberts was called to visit Phillips late that evening, after the meetings in Trehafod had finished. It was a last-minute invitation, as Phillips had something of importance to discuss with Roberts relating to the expression of opposition to the Revivalist’s methods. Phillips makes no reference to this in his very brief account of the visit to Pontypridd next day; but one of the other newpaper reports does refer quite specifically to it, as we shall see, and it is alluded to in at least one of the others.

Though it is the very briefest of the accounts, and lacking in any detail about the meetings, it is interesting in that in addition to the three main meetings at Sardis Independent, Penuel Calvinistic Methodist and Tabernacle Baptist Chapels, it mentions two others which Roberts attended that day which are not referred to in the other accounts. One of these was at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, now known as St. David’s on Gelliwastad Road, which he must have gone to straight from Tabernacle Welsh Baptist Chapel midway through the evening. The other was a prayer meeting attended by local ministers at the home of Rev. William Lewis, the 60 year old minister of Penuel Calvinistic methodist Chapel, probably held late in the afternoon after the main meeting at Penuel Chapel itself. Quite how Roberts managed to fit all this into one day, especially given the great length of the main services, is not clear!

It goes some way towards explaining why Roberts felt a little at a loss as to how to open the meeting at Tabernacle that evening. It is no wonder, given this hectic schedule, that early the following year, as opposition to his ministry found even stronger expression through Rev. Peter Price of Merthyr Tydfil, Roberts became ill and had to pull back from attending Revival meetings for a season. It also helps us understand his complete withdrawal from the field later that year to go to live in Leicester in the home of the Penn-Lewises. There's a warning here about the need to pace yourself carefully in a time of revival to avoid burning out.

Sardis Independent Chapel

1) D.M. Phillips’ Account

There were many visitors from all parts of the United Kingdom at Hafod, but to-day, at Pontypridd, there are still more, and among them a number of Jews and other nationalities. The Revivalist left the writer’s house Sunday morning, arriving at Sardis Congregational Chapel at 11: 30 and here he spoke on the duty of giving the glory to God in all our worship. “Bend the world and save the church should be our great object,” said he. There was a subdued spiritual feeling in the meeting, and that broke out into prayers and praises, when converts were announced from different parts of the building.

In the afternoon Penuel (C.M.) Chapel was full long before the appointed time, and a great number had to turn away. The subdued feeling of the morning is not restrained in this service Evan Roberts then began to speak of obedience; and what has often been termed during the Revival as “orderly disorder” ensued. Yet, all was of a spiritual character.

Tabernacle Welsh Baptist Chapel was eagerly besieged in the evening long before six o’clock. Seeing that so many could not enter, a service was held outside for the surging crowd. After addressing the audience at the Tabernacle, the Revivalist proceeded to the English Wesleyan Chapel, which was full of people longing to have a word from him. Persons who were present testify that this was a most successful meeting. Before closing our remarks on this great day at Pontypridd, it must be said that a prayer meeting held, at the request of Evan Roberts, in the house of the Rev. W. Lewis (Penuel) was one of the great events of the day. Its influence overcame all who were present and impressed them more than ever with the undoubted piety of the Missioner.

Penuel Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapel

2) Article from the Pontypridd Observer

The account that appeared in the Christmas edition of the local newspaper the Pontypridd Observer is much more detailed, and gives a clear impression of the huge crowds that tried to access particularly the meetings at Penuel and Tabernacle in the afternoon and evening of Sunday 18^th December. The whole town centre must have been a scene of chaos as people tried to enter the various chapels. The account of people, women as well as men, and all presumably dressed in their Sunday best, clambering over the railings to leave the meeting at Tabernacle is remarkably telling.

The other things that comes through clearly are the powerful emotions that were released in the meetings; and the extent to which the leadership of the meetings is extraordinarily relaxed and light-handed. Members of the congregation continually contribute prayers and testimonies, as they are moved powerfully by the Spirit in response to exhortations from the pulpit or to the songs of the lady singers; and their contributions in turn spark further spontaneous outbreaks of singing. The popular songs associated with the Revival are already emerging: ‘Lead kindly Light’ and ‘Throw out the Life Line’ being but two of them, and the ubiquitous ‘Diolch iddo!’

A further feature which is sometimes overlooked in accounts of the revival is the praying for the revival to spread to other nations both at home and abroad – in the latter case, it is usually Europe that features, often reflecting the place of origin of visitors to the meetings.

Penuel Square, right in the centre of town

Revival Meetings at Pontypridd

Thousands of people attracted to the Scene

Revival meetings were held at Pontypridd the whole of Sunday. Thousands of people congregated at the various chapels, and overflow meetings were held outside. It was uncertain as to which chapel Mr Evan Roberts would attend. It was rumoured that he would attend Sardis at 10.30 but long before that time the chapel was over crowded. Soon after the meeting commenced Madam Katie Morgan Llewellyn, Miss Mary Davies and Miss Maggie Davies appeared. Mr Roberts arrived in a cab from Tylorstown where he had been called at ten o’clock on Saturday evening. His arrival soon had a marked effect on the congregation. Mr Roberts said it was a terrible thing to do to scoff at the present religious movement. He then spoke upon the necessity of people when they came to worship to give God glory. The two watchwords at the present moment were ‘Bend’ and ‘Save’, bend the church and save the world. This was followed by one of the lady evangelists singing ‘Crown Him Lord of all’, which was taken up with much spirit by the congregation. A man in the gallery then said that seven converts had been taken into the fold the night previous. The congregation then burst forth with the words ‘Diolch iddo’, many clapping their hands and stamping their feet, whilst others sung in English. After this had died away Miss Maggie Davies started with ‘Lead kindly Light’, her sweet and mellow voice touching many to their hearts’ core, causing them to pray in deep earnestness.

Sardis Welsh Independent Chapel

A voice from the gallery was heard begging the brethren to take no notice of man but to take notice of God only. Convert the footballers and dash the game to the ground. Then a voice was heard crying ‘Help, help’, and the congregation were again moved to sing. Many were heard appealing as though in great agony until the congregation burst forth in strains of music which seemed to relieve them of their suffering and bring them joy.

The services were repeated in the afternoon at Penuel Chapel, where hundreds of people had to turn away it being with the greatest difficulty that Mr Roberts could enter the place of worship.

Services were also held at Tabernacle in the evening, and long before the appointed time (six o’clock) the chapel was packed and hundreds congregated outside in the hope of entering during the evening. Mr Roberts arrived at 6.35 amidst the singing of ‘Throw out the Life Line’, which was sung with much spirit. A voice was heard at the chapel doors appealing to the brothers to go outside and conduct a meeting there. This was at once responded to, and the singing and praying was taken up with those inside immediately. A man prayed for his friends in Cardiff, and that the blessing should fall upon Bristol, London, Birmingham, and all the large centres in England, Scotland, Wales and poor Ireland. He thanked God for the mighty revival that had taken place in Ireland. Another man said it was glorious to be religious, there was so much service now and no time to rest. He could keep on praying until the breath left his body, and he would fall asleep in Jesus. As it was nothing but His blood that could make him white as snow.

There was a man in the gallery who said he had not been in the chapel for 20 years, but was called there that night by the Spirit. Such confessions were made one after another, the congregation singing after each one. A large number of converts were recorded during the whole of the service. The Square outside the chapel was so crowded that people, both male and female, had to leave by climbing over the railings around the sacred edifice.

Tabernacle Welsh Baptist Chapel

3) Articles from theWestern Mail

It is the article that appeared in the Western Mail, independently of that published later in the newspaper’s supplement on the revival written by Awstin, that the role of the women singers who accompanied Roberts most clearly emerges. It’s clear that Kate Morgan’s intervention before the arrival of Roberts rescues the meeting from the disappointment being expressed by the congregation when they find out that the missioner is likely to be very late arriving. Throughout the meeting also the three women singers’ contributions are crucial in bringing a sense of the presence of God into the place.

Roberts and the Revival singers

It is this article that highlights most clearly the impact that opposition to the Revival could potentially have had in these early stages of the outpouring. At this point, Roberts seems unphased by it, and his initial stern exhortation to worship God rather than criticise others is soon replaced by an expression of ‘supreme happiness’. A few weeks later, criticisms would bite much deeper and contribute to making Roberts ill.

A small detail, but worth remarking, is the reference to both visitors from abroad (in this case a man from Bristol) and to reporters occupying the pulpit alongside Roberts, from which vantage point they were well positioned to make contributions to the meeting of their own. It needs to be said that the pulpits in the larger Welsh chapels were very large, with several elders chairs extending wither side of the dais, so there would have been room for others as well as Roberts or the singers there. It seems that special visitors were often invited to occupy these seats. It’s yet another detail reflecting how crowded the revival meetings often were.

On a personal note, I particularly liked the reference to four people giving their lives to Christ on the street in Hafod (ie: Trehafod) while on their way home from a revival meeting there. This was the pit village just two or three miles north of Pontypridd where I lived as a child.

Trehafod's main street circa 1910

Finally, on this piece, I found quite remarkable the candid confession by Evan Roberts to the congregation at Tabernacle that evening that he had no idea what to do as he stood before the meeting at its commencement. This was followed by prayer for the Spirit’s guidance, and from that moment, the meeting seems to have taken off. I hope one of the things I have learned in church leadership is to be sufficiently flexible to allow the Spirit of God to lead and direct what happens, and I’m sure many leaders are learning to lead with a light hand in these days. But for Roberts to do so in such an open way in a generation when strong leadership in the chapels was an entrenched characteristic of the leadership of meetings is startling! It reflects that he had uniquely learned the lesson only to do and say what he felt the Spirit prompting him to do and say, and to completely entrust the leading of the meetings to Him.

The pulpit at Tabernacle Chapel, Pontypridd

Pontypridd Stirred

The Evangelist’s Prophecy

Pressmen Testify

The meetings which Mr Evan Roberts addressed at Pontypridd on Sunday will not speedily pass from the memory of those who were present. The people received the missioner with open arms, and the intense fervour displayed at the meetings answered a question asked a few days ago. ‘Will he capture Pontypridd where there is so much sin and spiritual indifference?’ The morning meeting was held at Sardis (Congregational Chapel), but the accommodation was far too limited, and many were unable to secure admission. After a number of hymns had been sung and prayers offered, it was announced that Mr Roberts had received a sudden call to Tylorstown the previous night, and would not be present until about 12 o’clock. This caused much disappointment, but Madam Kate Morgan asked them not to be disappointed, for Christ was with them. Then she sang ‘There were ninety and nine’, he beautiful rendering bringing tears to many eyes. Thanksgiving was offered for the recovery of the lost sheep, and as the congregation was singing ‘Oh, I need Thee’, Mr Roberts entered. An impassioned supplication by a student in the local Collegiate School followed, and there was solemn silence after a thrilling rendering of ‘Diolch iddo!. Mr Roberts rose and the fire in his eyes and the solemnity in his words as he opened his address clearly proved that something amiss had occurred. Some person , he said, had been ‘stinging ‘ (brathu) the children of God, and he warned them – who they were he knew not - against it, for they touched the very pupil of God’s eye. Many were against them, and some attended the meetings full of scorn, but what mattered it, for was not God on their side? He beseeched such people not to scoff, for God was terrible in Zion, and the punishment would be bitter.

A man in the gallery now rose and said that in a meeting in the Rhondda the previous night eleven souls were saved between 11 and 2.30, and Mr Phillip Jones, a Collegiate School student, said that four confessed on the road at Hafod on Saturday night. After this the congregation gave itself up to singing, during which the revivalist looked supremely happy. A lady prayed, and then started ‘lead kindly Light’, and ‘Just as I am’ followed another intercession. A youth standing in the gallery prayed that the young men of the town should be awakened from their indifference, and that God would dash football to the ground. A soul-stirring rendering of ‘Marchog Iesu yn llwydianus’ followed, and Mr Roberts was so moved that he took up the lead. ‘Go on, go on’, called out a Bristol gentleman, occupying a seat in the pulpit. ‘You shall not keep the fire to yourselves, but we will have it the world over.’

Then came the crucial moment for public confession. ‘There must be no compulsion, said Mr Roberts, and responses came from all parts of the edifice. A man in the gallery declared that he wanted to take the fire back to Haverfordwest and also to his own fellow-countrymen in Switzerland, where he could tell the sweet message to them in their own language. ‘Pray, o pray’, was his passionate cry, ‘for the people of Switzerland’.

Behind Mr Roberts in the pulpit was a London pressman , who praised Jesus Christ that he loved Jesus Christ with all his heart that morning. Some of his colleagues and himself were returning to London the next day and would take a little of the Welsh fire back with them. He asked for their prayers to help wake up London and England. ‘Yes, and pray for Bristol too’, exclaimed a gentleman by his side, and who repeatedly clapped his hands in ecstasy. ‘For you I am praying’ was sung with deep feeling, and whilst scores stood up and publicly confessed themselves in answer to Mr Roberts’ second appeal. ‘Throw out the lifeline’ was heard for the first time at the meeting. ‘This won’t do’, exclaimed the evangelist. ‘Many of you have risen but have not publicly confessed Him.’ Again there was a murmur of many voices and more prayers and a few moments later the meeting was brought to a close.

The organ at Tabernacle

At 6 o’clock there was a huge surging throng in the square, and even with the assistance of the police it was difficult to keep the people from entering Tabernacle Welsh Baptist Chapel, which was already overcrowded. At a quarter to t Mr Evan Roberts entered during the singing on ‘Throw out the life-line’, and at his request every window was opened. He remarked that there was a great throng outside, and what was he to do with those inside? He offered a short fervent prayer for guidance, and for an outpouring of Pentecostal fire. ‘We know not what to do,’ he cried. The Miss Annie Davies and another young lady sang ‘lead, kindly Light’ in subdued tones, and the congregation joined them in prayer. The effect was electrifying, and at Mr Roberts request all church members stood, after which he led the congregation in singing ‘Send the power’. For about 20 minutes hymns after hymn was gloriously sung, the refrain of ‘I need Thee’ being taken up by the crowd outside.

There have been hundreds of conversions at Pontypridd during the last few weeks.

Tabernacle's newly restored ceiling

Meanwhile, a reporter separately covered the events outside Tabernacle. Quite possibly the poor chap had hoped to get into the chapel to report on the meeting itself, but found himself stranded outside along with many hundreds of others. He was on hand to report on the impromptu revival meeting that then took place at the foot of the steps of the Old Bridge. Quite who the Mr. Mackenzie to whom he refers was, I have no idea, but he relinquished his spot inside the chapel to minister to those stuck outside, with some effect! In the same issue of The Western Mail, the following brief piece appeared:

Panic Averted

Dangerous Crush at Pontypridd

While Mr Roberts was conducting the meeting at Tabernacle Chapel, Pontypridd on Sunday night, a large crowd unable to gain admission surged outside. Many of those in the crush demanded that the gate leading to the building should be opened, but the police and the officials refused, as the chapel was overcrowded. Eventually, Mr Mackenzie of the Christian Conference League was induced to leave the chapel to address the assembly outside. He mounted a box inside the gate. He replied that if they attempted to rush the gate a panic was bound to follow in the church, and it would be murderous to do so. Mr Mackenzie prayed fervently for guidance and in a very short time the meeting was completely in his hands, and he made a passionate appeal to them to accept Christ. This meeting continued from 6 o’clock until nearly 10.

4) Awstin’s Account

Awstin’s accounts of the first two meetings of the day, at Sardis and Penuel, are probably the most detailed of the accounts. He does not seem to have attended the evening meetings at Tabernacle, however, and makes no reference to them.

Awstin

Awstin’s accounts of the revival were probably the most influential during the Revival itself. He was the son of a local minister and a believer himself who at that time living in Pontypridd, where he was the editor of one of the local papers, the Glamorgan Free Press. The supplements which he wrote and complied as a correspondent which appeared in the Western Mail during the first six months of the Revival had huge influence on the way the Revival developed, and helped it spread rapidly right across Wales in a very short space of time. Awstin had a relatively unsung but significant role in the Revival, though not much is now known about him. I hope that at some point in the future I can write something about him as well, and his attempts to bring the fire to Scotland as a Revivalist himself later in 1905.

The Rocking Stone on Pontypridd Common

Here is his account:

This morning there was an uncertainty as to where Mr. Evan Roberts would attend. He was expected at Sardis at 10.30 to eleven, and long before that the chapel was crowded out, a notable feature being the cosmopolitan nature of the congregation, several being from London, two or three were Jews, and one, who later on prayed avowed himself a Swiss. The meeting proceeded and presently Madame Kate Morgan Llewelyn, Miss Mary Davies (Gorseinon) and Miss Maggie Davies entered. The announcement was made that at ten o’clock on Saturday night Mr. Evan Roberts had had a call to Tylorstown, and would be down at Pontpridd by the twelve o’clock train. Half an hour before this,however, he arrived in a cab, and at once went into the pulpit. He had spoken but a few minutes before it was evident that his deep sincerity and personal belief in the doctrine he was setting forth had begun to tell upon his hearers. There was no straining after effect. Referring to overhearing a man in the congregation speaking to those who scoffed at the present religious movement, Mr. Roberts said it was a terrible thing to do. He then dwelt upon the necessity of people when they came to worship to give Him all the glory. The two watchwords at the present moment were, “Bend and save” – bend the church and save the world.

Following the close of Mr. Roberts’s address came a deep hush until one of the lady evangelists led, “Crown Him Lord of all,” which was sung with great fervour and in delightful harmony. A man then rose in the gallery, and said that seven converts had been taken into the fold the previous night, the congregation again welling forth in unison, “Diolch iddo.” Emphasised here and there by the stamping of feet and the clapping of hands. The words of the hymn were sung in Welsh and English at the same time. Again there was silence, which was broken by Miss Maggie Davis commencing in a soft, appealing voice, “Lead, kindly Light”. This hymn seemed to touch the evangelist deeply, and he sat back in his chair as though making an earnest supplication. After some singing and praying, calm and dispassionate, with a strange gleam in his eyes. A voice from the gallery then rang out clear, begging the brethren to take no notice of man, but only of God. “dash the football down and convert the footballers.”

“Help. Help!” came a piteous cry from another portion of the balcony, and again the congregation were moved to song, as though the worshippers were unconsciously singing a pæan of praise as a recognition for another conversion. Still from the gallery came another suppliant. This time the Swiss referred to, who prayed that he might take with him to his native hills and his people the spirit at present pervading Wales. Scarcely had the man sat down when a London pressman arose on the platform and asked to be allowed to say one word. He was returning home the following day, and hoped to take back with him the Spirit, and trusted that God would extend the Welsh revival to the great Metropolis. Amongst non-members six converts were made.

Looking down on Pontypridd from the golf course on The Common

There was a great crush at Penuel Chapel in the afternoon, and it was the utmost difficulty that Mr. Evan Roberts himself was able to gain access to the building, some hundreds of people having to turn back disappointed. Sergeant-major Grout of the Rev F. B. Meyer’s Church – Christ Church, Westminster – was amongst those who spoke. Mr. Roberts was speaking of obedience to the Spirit of God, when the big congregation seemed to be utterly incapable of restraining themselves any longer. One would sing a verse, another recite a stanza, whilst others would be engaged in prayer, and all this would then culminate in an outburst of song. Madame Kate Morgan Llewelyn sand a solo to a tune of her own composition with admirable effect, and it was significantly indicative of the musical genius of the Welsh that the congregation had leant the tune before Madame Llewelyn had finished her song, and when she repeated the last verse the congregation heartily joined in. Several taking part in the proceedings at the same time, some in the audience endeavoured to stop some from singing, and this called forth a severe rebuke on the part of the evangelist, and he implored the audience not to “hush” anything. They had no right to do so, and if it was persisted in he would have to leave the meeting; it was too terrible, and he could not bear it. No one afterwards dared to interfere with the meeting in any shape or form, and the spontaneity and fervour manifested were most striking and even the missioner himself, when he asked the people to stop singing, was ignored, and verses and hymns were again recited and sung, and people prayed and exhorted their fellow-men. Far from resenting this, however, he evangelist appeared to be delighted, and good-humouredly remarked that it was not for man to have his own way; it was better to disobey man and obey the Spirit.

The meeting concluded with an appeal to the people, and, as convert after convert was announced, the audience, as usual, gave expression to their feelings of thanksgiving in song, “Diolch iddo” and “songs of praises” resounding through the whole place.

5) The Glamorgan Free Press

The final account is one of the briefest, and only has the sketchiest details of what happened in the chapel meetings. It does however coontain a wonderful description of the scenes at Pontypridd station that evening when some of the revival congregation members were returning to their homes in the Rhonnda valleys.

Revival Meetings at Pontypridd

Mr Evan Roberts Pricks the Conscience of the Public

Mr Evan Roberts, whose mission had been looked forward to by all interested in religious work, paid his long promised visit to Pontypridd on Sunday, and throughout the day the utmost religious fervour was prevalent. In the morning Mr Roberts made an earnest appeal at Sardis, and, as a result, six converts were recorded, five following in the evening. The chapel was crowded to excess, and later, at Penuel, in the afternoon, and tabernacle at night, both buildings were totally inadequate to accommodate the immence congregation. Many attended from the Valleys, and a service of song was held on the TVR Station as the worshippers awaited their trains to the two Rhonddas.

Pontypridd station platform

6) Finally ...

Hundreds of people had already been saved in Pontypridd in the few previous weeks of the Revival. We have no idea how many responded altogether in the four meetings at which Evan Roberts appeared on Sunday 18th December 1904 - in addition to the ones mentioned as having occurred at Sardis (above). Roberts' visit undoubtedly gave the Revival in the town a huge boost, and it continued in the months that followed. Several other key revivalists also visited the town, including Evan's brother Dan Roberts and Sidney Evans.

The next blog entry will be about a visit to Pontypridd about a month after Evan Roberts by the great Romany evangelist Gipsy Smith, whose meetings were equally impacting, but very different in style. It is interesting to contrast the two.

Outbreak of Revival in North Pembrokeshire in 1904

2012-02-10T10:57:00.016-08:00

One of my favourite parts of Wales is North Pembrokeshire, especially the coastal area between Newport (Trefdraeth in Welsh) and Mathry which includes Dinas Head and the Pencaer Peninsula. It’s an area which includes the beautiful and haunting Preseli Hills which provided Celtic Saint Brynach with his mountain-top retreat to which he used to go from Nevern in order to commune with heaven. Here he had numerous encounters with angels, to such an extent that the mountain came to be called Carn Ingli - the Mountain of the Angels.

Carn Ingli

A little further south, on the edge of the wild Pencaer Peninsula is Manorowen, where one of the greatest Welsh preachers of the Methodist Revival spent the last years of his ministry – he was David Jones, the Angel of Llangan. Then, hidden away in a fold of the hills, there is the still completely unspoiled Cwm Gwaun, the location for the Christian retreat centre of Ffald-y-Brenin run by Roy and Daphne Godwin which is currently very much a focal point for the actifity of the Holy Spirit in Wales today. The whole area is in fact steeped in spiritual history, and part of it is to do with what happened in this area during the 1904-5 Revival.

Cwm Gwaun

It’s a really lovely, and still very Welsh, part of the country which we like to visit as often as we can.

What makes this part of Wales interesting in terms of what went on here in 1904-5 is that it was not visited by any of the big name Revivalists of the period until the very end of 1905.The Revival seemed to break out here of its own accord, the powerful move of the Spirit being well stewarded by a host of now completely unknown local leaders. I have so far not been able to locate a picture or photograph of any of the ministers involved, though there must be one or two framed photographs hanging in the vestries of one or two of the chapels mentioned in what follows. However, I have been able to find out something about them from census entries and one or two chapel histories.

As there are now no eyewitnesses of the Revival left alive, it is local newspaper reports which contain much of the surviving information about what went on, and while researching the story of Gipsy Smith’s visit to Pontypridd in January 1905, I came across an article describing the outbreak of Revival here in The Cardiff Times and South Wales Weekly News, originally published on January 21^st 1905. It is largely on this account that what follows is based, supplemented with additional material from some of the more recently published books about the Revival by Brynmor Pierce Jones and Noel Gibbard.

Garn Fawr on Pencaer - a favourite spot of mine

By the middle of January 1905, the revival had been going on in North Pembrokeshire for at least six weeks, and it was strongly taking hold by the start of the new year, with spectacular results in some places. The Revival had broken out in Cardiganshire in Newquay in the chapel of which Joseph Jenkins was the minister as early as February 1904. It is likely that news of the outbreak of Revival further north in Cardiganshire was gradually trickling across the River Teifi. In addition, reports were already reaching the area through the press, and through first hand accounts, of what was happening further east in Glamorgan through the ministry of Evan Roberts towards the end of 1904.

Brynmor Pierce Jones, reporting an article which appeared in the Cardigan and Tivyside Advertiser in November 1904 records that at the parish church at Nevern, the church originally established by St. Brynach in the 6^th century no less, there was at that time an outbreak of the Spirit in a Communion Service which ‘had been marked by unction and fervour and by the repeated singing of favourite revival hymns’. An Anglican church is not the place one usually associated with the initiation of Revival in 1904, though many such churches across Wales were impacted by the Revival, which was more typically experienced in the non-conformist chapels.

The ancient church at Nevern with its 10th century wheel head Celtic cross (centre)

On this site Saint Brynach established a cell in the 6th century

Elsewhere in isolated and completely rural North Pembrokeshire, there were reports of the Spirit’s powerful work in two tiny villages not that far apart, and a little to the north-east of Nevern, on the eastern edge of the Preselis.

At Hermon Baptist Chapel, in the village named after it, not far from Llanfyrnach: ‘The visitation is so mighty that it has awakened the church from her sleepiness, and caused new voices to be heard in praise and prayer... The prayer meetings have continued for months in their enthusiasm and popularity. The brethren and sisters take part fervently in them.’ Three ministers from the area who had been with Evan Roberts in Swansea took part in meetings at Hermon, and the chapel had by then already received no less than 76 into membership. This happened in a village of not much more than a dozen or so houses surrounded by scattered farms.

Map of Hermon village in 1890, with the chapel right

Meanwhile, in Soar Chapel in the even tinier hamlet of Star just three miles north east of Hermon an reporter for The Tivyside Advertiser wrote: ‘The influences of the Spirit have been felt in great measure in the church at Star. A series of successful prayer meetings has been held in the church ... and have received evident and unquestionable signs of heaven’s favour among them, through the building up of the church and the salvation of souls.’ This is also quoted by Brynmor Pierce Jones.

Soar Chapel, Star - notice the outside baptistry (behind the railings)

Another article in The Pembrokeshire County Guardian for 29th December 1904 quoted by Noel Gibbard refers to ‘a bevy of beautiful singers’ at Tabernacle Baptist Chapel, Fishguard, and to Revival by then in its fifth week at Dinas Cross.

The story is then taken up by The Cardiff Times published on Saturday 21st January 1905 which amongst other things described a baptism service in the local river of converts at another Hermon Baptist Chapel - this time, the one in Fishguard. The service described took place on a cold, wet and very windy winter's day on Saturday 15th January 1905:

Baptism of Converts

94 Immersions at Fishguard

Ceremony Conducted in a Driving Hailstorm

Six weeks of revival meetings in North Pembrokeshire culminated on Sunday in a ceremony which is destined to live in the history of religious life throughout the country - the baptism of 94 converts in the rippling, picturesque River Gwaun at Lower Fishguard, in the presence of one of the largest concourses of people ever brought together there. The candidates for baptism were from Hermon Baptist Church, Fishguard, whose pastor is the Rev. Dan Davies, for some time the pastor of the Baptist chapel, Porth, Glamorgan, the membership of Hermon being the most numerous of any in North Pembroke, if not in the county.

Hermon, Fishguard

Through the reports in the columns of the 'South Wales Daily News' , the steady plodding Puritans of Non-conformity were stirred to unwonted activity, and at the beginning of December revival services commenced almost simultaneously at Newport (Pembs), Dinas Cross, Fishguard, Llanwrda, Goodwick, Letterston, as well as in the numerous little Bethels situated in the more strictly rural portions of the district.

The reference here to 'steady plodding Puritans of Non-conformity' is an interesting one, which fits in with what Brynmor Pierce Jones says about the traditional deep conservatism of the Baptist churches of the area, in particular. He points out that the initial response of some Baptist officials in the area, as well as the editors of the local journal 'Y Piwritan Newydd' (The New Puritan) were deeply supicious of the Revival at first, urging focus on the fruit in changed lives more than on what they felt to be no more than unbridled emotionalism. However, it seems that many of the Baptist churches and their leaders themselves eagerly embraced the new move of the Spirit, as the rest of this article indicates.

View over Newport from the top of Carn Ingli, Angel Mountain

At Newport for several weeks practically every other phase of life was sacrificed to that of revivalism, the spiritual influence taking a deep root hold of the people, who flocked to the chapels during the afternoons and evenings in overwhelming numbers. Business houses were closed at an unusually early hour each day, while the public houses might as well have been closed for the amount of trade transacted. Consequently the membership of the several chapels has considerably increased, forties and fifties being added in some instances. Recently at the Baptist Chapel, of which Rev. D.J. Evans holds the pastorate, a goodly number were baptised, several of whom having reached more than the allotted span of years. The meetings were characterised by spontaneity, the outcome of glowing fervour and fired zeal for Christ, and which have marked the revival in other parts of the Principality. Young and old, and many who had not been associated with religion for twenty or more years, came forward and openly confessed adherence to the Saviour. Nothing to equal its intensity has ever been experienced and the results are marked and gratifying in every sense.

Bethlehem Baptist Chapel, Newport

Bethlehem Chapel, Newport - the open air baptistry in Mill Lane

(just up the hill from the chapel)

Before this was made, the adjacent stream was used.

David Jones Evans was originally from Pen-y-Bryn in the parish of Bridell in North Pembrokeshire, where his parents Thomas and Dinah Evans were farmers. He was brought up in Bethlehem, Baptist Chapel, Newport to which the family must have travelled several miles each Sunday. David Evans had been appointed minister at his home church straight from theological training college in Cardiff in 1900 at the very young aged of 23. He would have been in his mid-twenties at the time of the Revival, and was by far the youngest of the chapel leaders in the area. Sadly, he died not long after at the beginning of 1910 at the young age of 33.

At Dinas Cross, similarly to Newport, meetings of united Nonconformity have been regularly held each evening with like results. At Tabor Baptist Chapel meeting are now held each evening under the pastorate of Rev. J. W. Maurice, but united services are also continued in many of the chapels once or twice during the week. More of the quiet fervency is observed at the Dinas services than at those of Newport.

Tabor Baptist Chapel, Dinas Cross

John W Maurice was 63 years old when the Revival hit Tabor in Dinas Cross, a small linear village strung out along the road between Fishguard and Newport. He had been born not far away in Llanfyrnach in 1842, and would have been through the 1859 revival, and was possibly even converted in it, for by 1861 he was studying theology at the small Baptist College in Haverfordwest. Before coming back to Pembrokeshire, he had served for a number of years in the expanding coalfield region in Glamorgan where he was the minister of the Welsh Baptist chapel on Wyndham Street in Blaencwm, Treherbert in the Rhondda from 1870 to 1885. He died in 1913 at the age of 71.

Fishguard was 'fired' into action soon after the former places. Tabernacle Independent Chapel, of which the Rev. W. Morlais Davies is pastor, first commencing, followed by Pantour (Methodist) under the Rev. W.P. Jones. Hermon being the last to feel the movement, but its members were quickly imbued and the converts exceed by a large number those of any church in the district. The effect is almost magical in all respects.

Tabernacle Independent Chapel, Fishguard

William Morlais Davies, as his middle name suggests, was born in Dowlais near Merthyr Tydfil in Glamorgan in 1850, and was another man in his mature years at the time the Revival broke out. He was the minister at Tabernacle for over 30 years from the early 1880's until about 1912. Before that he had been the minister at the Independent chapel at Abertillery in the 1870's, having received his training at Brecon Theological College. His life was not without sadness. He was twice married, losing his first wife Sarah in the mid 1880's. He remarried, another Dowlais girl called Mary, after having to look after four children on his own for a number of years.

Phillip Jones of Pantour was originally from Margam in Galmorgan where he was born in 1856, the son of a tailor Henry Jones who was himself originally from Malpas near Newport. Phillip Jones attended the Calvinistic Methodist training college at Margam, where he was studying at the time of the 1881 census, and his first appointment seems to have been at Pantour (Pentwr) in Fishguard. Here he married Mary James, the daughter of a wealthy family on Tower Hill. This was in turn to become the Jones family home. By the time of the Revival, he was an experienced minister of 49 years of age, in the best years of his ministry.

Pantour Calvinistic Methodist Chapel, Tower Hill, Fishguard

The newspaper report continues:

In like manner at Goodwick, where the Coedwig Baptist Chapel members and Berachah Methodists, under Revs. Geo. James and J.D. Symmons respectively, the results of united gatherings nightly for several weeks have been of the best and most encouraging kind.

Berachah Calvinistic Methodist Chapel, Goodwick

George James was already an old man of 72 in 1905. He had been born as early as 1833, and must have seen many moved of God in the area in his time, and had been the minister of Berachah in Goodwick for many years. He had been born in Tremain, Cardiganshire, the son of a farmer; but following the death of his father when he was still very young, he was brought up by ghis grandparents in Tremain. Before that, he had been at Ruhamah Chapel in Newcastle Emlyn, and had spent many years in the ministry in the 1860's and 70's in Llanllechyd Caernarfonshire and at Llangefni on Anglesey.

James David Symmons was likewise something of a father in Israel by the time of the Revival. In the 1901 census, he was given as a single man of 63 years of age, living with his sister in the ironmongers and grocer's shop in the market square in the middle of Fishguard that had been the family business in his father's time. His father, also called James, had been born in the town in 1803. James Symmons junior continued to run the family business and was at the same time a Calvinistic Methodist Minister. Many ministers of smaller chapels in rural Wales carried on the ministry alongside other full time jobs, and must have lived extremely busy lives.

At Harmony, Pencaer pastored by the Rev. W. Rees 'Arianglawdd', and at Rhosycaerau, under the Rev. J.G. James, revival services hve worked wonders bringing the people together for public worship. At Harmony on Sunday last 40 converts were immersed in public and several others are preparing themselves for baptism.

Harmony Baptist Chapel, Pencaer, near Fishguard

British Prime Minister David Lloyd-George's father's family worshipped here

There are many Georges in the burial ground across the road from the chapel

Unlike most of the other chapel ministers in the area at the time of the revival, John Gwyn James was a very young man of just 27 years of age. He came from the area, having been born in Llanarthne in the north west part of Carmarthenshire, within the shadow of the Preseli hills, in 1877. he had recently married in 1902 a Harriet Jones of Carmarthen, whom he must have met whilst training for the ministry there. He had just become a father for the first time when the revival broke out.

William Rees, or 'Arianglawdd', to give him his bardic name, was another interesting and influential minster in the area. He had been born in Llanarthne in Carmathenshire in 1854 and was 50 years old when the Revival began. He had already been at Harmony for quite a few years - he was there at the time of the 1891 census, at least. There exists a poem in Welsh he wrote about the Revival, which won him the bardic chair at the 1907 Duffryn Dyfi Eisteddfod. In fact, he published a volume of verse containing many pieces he had submitted to the Eisteddfod between 1872 and 1910. He also published a volume of hymns he had written, and was an essayist. He died early in 1934 at the age of 79.

Part of William Rees's celebrated poem about the Revival, in his handwriting

(Someone needs to try to translate this poem into English!)

By the way, if the baptism of 94 at the town of Fishguard so soon after the outbreak of the revival is impressive, the baptism of 40 at Harmony is even more so, though no account of the even seems to survive. This event also happened outdoors in the small stream which served the chapel for a baptistry. It also occurred in the depths of winter. But what makes it extraordinary is the nature of the community in which it occurred. For Harmony cannot even be described as a village. It consists of no more than the chapel, Ty Harmony (the minister's house), a farm and a couple of cottages. The chapel serves an area of some twelve square miles in which there is nothing more than a scattering of farms, and no single community any bigger than itself. Forty baptisms here is indicative of how profoundly impacting an event the Revival was in some parts of rural Wales, even more so than in the crowded coal mining communities of the South Wales Valleys. Virtually the entire community would have been transformed by the powerful move of God, not just a proportion of it.

The view from the top of Garn Fawr, looking down on Harmony

(at the top centre of the picture)

The artist John Piper used to stay in the cottage in the centre of the picture.

The article continues:

Letterston, too, has felt the influence of the one prevailing movement, and on Sunday last 32 were immersed before a large gathering by the Rev. B. Thomas, pastor of Saron Baptist Chapel, assisted by the Rev. Dan Davies. Several of the candidates were of advanced age - over 70 - and notwithstanding the keen biting wind, submitted to what must have been a trying experience with fervent eagerness.

Saron, Letterston

The baptisms at Letterston must have occurred on a slightly earlier occasion than those at Fishguard, perhaps on the previous day. In the newspaper report the two events seem to have been blended together. The Rev. Dan Davies was involved with both events.

Dan Davies was probably the most influential of the ministers serving in this area at the time of the Revival, and was certainly the most significant minster at Hermon, which he served for 35 years from 1899 to 1934. He was born in Clydey in rural North Pembrokeshire in 1853, and never married. He went to live in Aberdare in Glamorgan when quite young, and it was here that he preached his first sermon at Ynyslwyd. He trained at Pontypool college from 1877, and in 1879 was ordained at Penuel in Bangor, North Wales; and it was while serving here that he came to be known for his preaching throught Wales. In 1890 he was called to the significant chapel of Salem Welsh Baptist in Porth, and while here he planted two other churches: Pisgah Welsh Baptist in Cymmer and Seion English Baptist in Porth, and was instrumental in the establishing of a third at Senghenydd. He was called to Hermon in Fishguard in 1899, which he served for 35 years. His obituary in the Baptist Handbook for 1943 says of him: 'He possessed a personality which commanded respect and admiration, and he was beloved by all. He had the grace to approach with ease all types of characters, and his love for children, his ready wit and humour are proverbial.' He baptised over 2,000 people into the Church altogether, and while pastoring at Hermon, he baptised over 750 people into membership, of which number the 94 candidates for baptism in January 1905 was just a small part. Under his ministry the membership of the chapel reached 748, in spite of twice planting out significant numbers to support new works elsewhere. Dan Davies died in 1942 at the advanced age of 89.

This was perhaps his finest hour:

A Wonderful Spectacle

The ceremony commenced at 2 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, by which time the assembly on the riverside and on the heather-covered hillside had increased to about 4,000 spectators, who had driven in from Haverfordwest and the surrounding district. A more remarkable and extraordinary spectacle has never before been witnessed in the annals of the county. During the wait the mass of people joined solemnly in the singing of the Welsh hymns 'Dyma Gariad fel y moroedd' and 'Yn y dyfroedd mawr a'r tonnau', while the hail and rain, driven furiously by a terrific east wind, mercilessly pelted the shivering multitude.

The bridge at Lower Fishguard viewed from the spot where the baptisms took place

About 50 of the candidates were females, and in robes of white drapery they waited patiently the service which was conducted by the rev. D.J. Evans of Newport, Pem. The service was opened by singing and Scripture followed by a hymn, joined in fervently by the whole of the assembly. Then the Rev. Dan Davies descended down thes specially provided steps into the river, and the female candidates were handed down one by one, during which the chant 'Haleliwia i Dy Enw' was repeated. The elderly male candidates came next, some being 70 years of age. At the close the pastor invited any who would declare for Christ to come and be baptised. None responded, and after a fervent prayer still standing in the river, the ceremony concluded with the singing of the hymn 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow.'

The harbour at Lower Fishguard

Sunday was the coldest and wildest day experienced this winter at Fishguard. In the bay near the old fort were upwrads of a dozen steamers sheltering unable to venture on their voyage to Liverpool, while within the new breakwater at Goodwick was quite a fleet of sailing ships more numerous than has been seen for some time. in spite of this the 94 candidates for immersion braved the tempestuous elements in the wm at Lower Fishguard. through the surrounding woodland and steep furze-clothed hillside the hurricane came in force. On the heights every available shelter of crag and bush was taken advantage of by groups of sightseers who joined in the tuneful Welsh hymns which filled the valley with their doleful accents. About 50 yards from the bridge spanning the river and connecting Lower and Higher Fishguard was a temporary wooden structure, and as the baptised left the ministers in the stream each was assisted by strong, willing hands on to the improvised bridge, and after receiving the tender attention of anxious relatives who had wraps and shawls ready to throw around the immersed they were assisted across to the neighbouring cottages, where dry garments awaited them. The test to which some of the candidates were subjected would have tried many a hardy sailor, for the fresh water was chilling to the bone. The fair members were extremely courageous, no less so were many of the middle-aged and the old. As one left the officiating pastor's hands, another stepped forward so that in the space of 25 minutes the 94 were baptised. The scene was picturesque despite the attendant disadvantages of the weather. To the earnest invitation of the Rev. Dan Davies to any of the multitude to step in and declare on the side of Christ none responded; yet the supplication which followed deepened the solemnity of the occasion as he stood with uplifted hands waist-deep in the stream. Not until the final hymn had closed the ceremony did the pastor of Hermon leave the river. The occasion was a most memorable one in many respects.

Overlooking Newport harbour

Dan Davies must have been a big strong man to have conducted 94 baptisms in a freezing cold river all by himself; and given the conditions, it is no wonder that all were completed in the space of about 25 minutes! That was an amazing feat in itself!

The report of the baptisms is written in great detail in a Cardiff newspaper, indication in itself of how dramatic an event this was. It was one which must have remained vivid in the memory of all who witnessed it that bitterly cold and wet January day. Sadly, in spite of the reporter's expectation that it would always be remembered, the event seems now to have been completely forgotten. I hope this will to some extent bring it back to people's attention, and with it the hope and even the expectation of similar large scale baptisms in the future in another move of God in the Principality - though hopefully there will be better weather next time round!

Sources

The Cardiff Times - January 14th 1905

Voices from the Welsh Revival 1904-5 - Brynmor Pierce Jones (1995)

Fire on the Altar - Noel Gibbard (2006)

Braslun o Hanes Eglwys y Bedyddwyr Bethlehem Trefdraeth 1795-1995 - Hedd Ladd-Lewis a Alwyn Daniels (1995)

Biographical information from http://www.ancestry.co.uk/ http://www.surman.english.qmul.ac.uk/ http://www.baptisthistory.org.uk/

Photographs of some of the chapels from http://www.beta.peoplescollectionwales.co.uk/ http://www.geograph.org.uk/

http://www.churches-uk-ireland.org/

'Impressions of the Welsh Revival' by W.H. Jude

2012-02-03T04:49:00.001-08:00

While doing some research into the visit to Pontypridd in January 1905 of the great Romany evangelist Gipsy Smith, I came across the following article on a microfilm copy of a local paper covering news for the eastern part of the South Wales coalfield. The quality is a little uneven and the writing somewhat verbose at times. However, I felt it sufficiently interesting to prepare a transcription which I am making available here.

What struck me about the article was the way it describes the atmosphere and some of the chapel meetings in Pontypridd and the Rhondda which took place comparatively early on in the Revival. As far as I am aware, it has never been made available by other printed or online resources of the 1904-5 Revival. It is a fairly typical account of a visit to the revival by an outsider from England, and therefore gives an impression of what it was like to be a visitor to the place where God was moving so powerfully. The fact that it refers to other famous visitors there at the same time, such as the elderly General William Booth of the Salvation Army and Dr Campbell Morgan also makes it of interest.

The article was written following a visit to Wales at the end of 1904, when W.H. Jude arrived in Pontypridd on Saturday 17^th December, just in time for the visit there of Evan Roberts himself.

But before the article, it might be helpful to know a little about the person who wrote it.

William Herbert Jude

William Herbert Jude was 54 years old at the time of his visit. He had been born in Westleton in Suffolk towards the end of 1850. Westleton is a pretty village not far from the sea at the drowned city of Dunwich. His parents were James and Jemima Jude, who were both schoolteachers. A little later, the Jude family moved to Upwell in the extreme west of Norfolk, and William attended Wisbech Grammar School nearby. Here, he excelled at music, and by the age of eight was composing the incidental music used in school drama productions. He later went to study music and the organ in Liverpool, and is listed as a student there in the 1871 census.

Jude married Catherine Helena Haigh in Liverpool in 1872 when he was just 22 years old. She was the eldest child of brewer Thomas Haigh and his wife Catherine who originally came from Pontefract in Yorkshire. Catherine had been born in Bootle, Liverpool in 1852. They appear to have remained childless after their marriage.

Bluecoats School

After completing his studies, Jude became the organist at the Blue Coats Hospital & School in the city; and later, in 1889, became the organist at the Stretford Town Hall, Manchester. He also worked as a lecturer and teacher; and came to be regarded as one of the most brilliant organists of his day. He remained in Liverpool for the best part of twenty years, until he was appointed organist at the Exeter Hall in London, a primary musical venue and Christian centre owned by the YMCA on The Strand in London. He refers to this at the start of his article.

Spurgeon preaching at Exeter Hall, with the organ behind him

As well as being an organist and a teacher, Jude was a composer. Much of his music reflected his Christian faith. He was a staunch supporter of the Temperance Movement , and even wrote temperance songs which were immensely popular in his day. But most of his music consisted of operattas, parlour songs, nautical ballads, and works for the keyboard, most of which are sadly forgotten today. It is also little realised today that he is the one who rescued the music of the great English composer Henry Purcell from oblivion. His faith came though most strongly in his many hymn tunes, his best known melody being the tune known as ‘Galilee’, which is most commonly used with Mrs. Alexander’s words ‘Jesus calls us oe’r the tumult of our life’s wild, restless sea’. In 1900 he published a collection of hymn tunes called Music and the Higher Life.

Jude also developed a close friendship with the evangelist Gipsy Smith, and published a collection of Gipsy’s favourite hymns in 1903 called Gipsy Smith’s Favourite Solos, which was a very popular publication at the time.

Jude died in Willesden, London on 8^th August 1922. It is not known where he is buried.

It is clear that at the time of his visit to the Revival, Jude was recovering from illness. He was probably aware from newspaper reports that Evan Roberts was about to visit Pontypridd, and it is likely he was one of quite a number from England and elsewhere who travelled to the mining town at that time. Among those was none other than General William Booth himself, accompanied by an entourage of senior Salvation Army officers. Booth by this time was an old man of 75. Booth was actually on his way to Aberdare, and had been met at Cardiff station by the other senior ranking Salvation Army officers Jude mentions.

Interestingly, it was on this trip that Commissioner Nichol suggested to William Booth that a Salvation Army officer should be appointed who would spend all his time on the railway network in South Wales. He would speak with people who were coming under conviction of sin on the railways in order to lead them to Christ. Clearly Nichol had observed immediately the impact on fellow travellers of those going to Revival meetings by train. They often sang Revival hymns as they went; and their appearance and demeanour as well as their public worship clearly had a powerful effect on others. To this suggestion William Booth readily agreed, and a suitable officer was immediately appointed to the task.

William Booth with his daughter in 1906,

in the white mission car he then used to travel around the country.

Jude's account of his first impressions of Pontypridd is a little strange - it must have been a clear winter's morning when the party arrived there for him to make the odd comparison with the Riviera! His observations of the dangers of drink post by the square with 17 pubs reflects his strong interest in the Temperance Movement, which was at its peak at this time. The area he describes here is The Tumble - the square immediately outside the railway staion in Pontypridd, crossed by the tramlines used by horse-drawn journeys of coal drams from the Rhondda to the Glamorganshire canal at Treforest. The Tumble is still a location for quite a few pubs today, though it's a much quieter area of the town than it was then! The Revival had a strong impact on the drinking habits of the people of South Wales, in particular, where excessive drinking was a particular problem.

The Tumble, Pontypridd, early 20th c (note the dram of coal right)

The same view today

(Sardis chapel is just out of view on the left)

Although scarcely convalescent after a recent breakdown at Exeter Hall, my shattered nerves have been daily and temporarily invigorated by the stirring news of the great Welsh Revival. Further stimulation has come in the shape of a poetical and soul-stirring letter from my dear friend, Gipsy Smith, who as you are aware, is himself on the eve of a great mission in South Wales. My determination to share in the charmed influence of a general revival induced me hastily to pack up just the necessary weekenders, and fly off to the scene of action. Travelling down to Cardiff by the Great Western Popular 11.20 on a Saturday morning, my joy on the journey was increased by the presence of a detachment of the Salvation Army, including Commissioner Nichol, Colonel Eadie and Colonel Lawley, and the Army’s grand old man, General Booth. Last but not least was the eloquent revivalist , Mrs Lieutenant-Colonel Moss, who, I should like my friends in Wales to know, was the human instrument fourteen years ago (in Australia) of my confessing Christ at one of the familiar citadel meetings.

William Booth circa 1904

Arriving in Pontypridd, I found the Revival just the one topic of conversation, and the windows of numerous shops simply full of picture postcards of the missioner, and of his sweet, but small, band of singers. After the fog and gloom of London, it was life indeed to come into the clear and bracing air of South Wales, a transformation almost as real as a peep into the Riviera itself. Picturesque, and surrounded by the everlasting hills, Pontypridd ought to be an ideal spot to live in; but, alas, as in many other towns and countries, God’s handiwork has been marred, and almost obliterated by the multitudinous agencies of the Prince of Darkness. In order that no wayfarer shall walk in the clear light of the path of duty uninterrupted, seventeen liquor shops are installed here at a single intersection of the tramway lines. Only imagine what this means to a weak and oscillating nature, to a man who has lost not only all self-control, but also all self-respect.

Pontypridd railway station in about 1910

The party stayed at the Park Inn, probably the best hotel in town at that time, and the place used by many of the better off visitors to the revival. It has long since been demolished.

Calvary Chapel is the English Baptist Chapel at Treforest, just south of Pontypridd. the chapel is still there and functioning today, though now with a very small, mainly elderly congregation. It was one of the very first English-speaking chapels built in East Glamorgan, the cause having been started in 1849, and the chapel itself built in 1851. It was a very active focus for the Revival in the area in its provision for the English-speaking population of the town, when most of the chapels impacted by the move of God were in fact the Welsh-speaking ones. It must have been a popular venue for visitors to the revival who would at least be able to understand what was going on there better than in the Welsh chapels. Calvary Chapel is situated on the mountainside overlooking the valley of the River Taff, and it is still a prominent building on the Treforest skyline today.

Calvary Chapel, Treforest

One could not long be within touch with the old yet ever new evangel without feeling the great and wonderful power Divine. Located at the Park Hotel, comfortable, quiet and scrupulously clean, enthusiastic souls were constantly cropping up, without any formal introduction, coming into sympathetic touch with one’s own and best aspirations. Wending our way to Calvary Chapel situated in the suburbs of the town, we were amazed to see a crowded meeting of miners and other toilers of all sorts and conditions – men and women who, a few weeks or days before would undoubtedly have preferred and been engrossed in the subtle attractions of the market, or in the noisy speeches of the vendors of cheap goods, abounding in the public streets of Pontypridd on a Saturday night.

Calvary viewed from The Broadway in Treforest

(The railway line to Pontypridd runs immediately behind the row of cottages in the foreground)

Although several interested visitors sought refuge on the platform; the meeting was from first to last in the hands of the people themselves. What a change to one, who in boyhood was accustomed to the heavily harnessed pageantry of a cathedral procession! Seeing, as one did in those days, the outward and visible sign, but now, in the new and blessed revival, to actually witness the effects of an inward and spiritual grace – and not in just a few isolated examples only, but in scores and hundreds of instances. Prayer and song, public confessions, and brief exhortations, were harmoniously and wonderfully mingled together, producing an effect the like of which one had never before experienced.

Returning to the hotel by the light of the silver moon, one felt almost on sacred ground, for the gloomy hills of darkness of which one of the sweetest lyric writers of Wales has given an abiding picture, were not only bathed in its shimmering gleams, but were turned almost into a fairyland by myriads of golden lights. These sure tokens of human existence illuminated the sombre bastions of the town with a radiance and poetical charm as to suggest the thought that right away over the foam and deep sounding cataracts were hearts and homes being even now prepared for that sweet and gentle voice,

‘Soft as the break of even’

Hearts may be already somewhat influenced by the magic presence of the Comforter, and ready to listen to a Gospel which preaches deliverance to the captive and recovery of sight to the blind.

Looking down on Pontypridd from the Graig - early 20th c.

The next day, Sunday 18th December 1904, was the day on which Evan Roberts paid his only visit to the chapels of Pontypridd during the Revival. At this time, Roberts had the support of Rev. D. Mardy Davies, the minister of Bethel Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapel at Pontycymmer in the Garw Valley, who acted as a secretary for him. It was he who arranged Roberts' itinerary a short while in advance by contacting known ministers in a particular place and arranging for the Revivalist to speak at the largest of the Welsh-speaking chapels there, making sure that a mixture of denominations was represented. In the case of Pontypridd, that was Sardis Independent near the station, Penuel Calvinistic Methodist in the centre of the town, and Tabernacle Baptist by the famous single-span bridge over the Taff at the north end of the town centre.

Pontypridd bridge built by Rev. William Edwards, an 18th century Revivalist

When built, it was the biggest single span bridge in Europe, if not the world.

Jude, a musical composer, remember, got rather carried away in his attempts to describe the music at Sardis; but he does capture a sense of the way in which the Revival worship seemed to be in touch with heaven. Evan Roberts' late arrival is also mentioned. Roberts had been speaking in Trehafod at the bottom end of the Rhondda the day before. He stayed the night at the home of his friend, the Revival's principal historian D.M. Phillips, who was to write Roberts' biography in what was to be the classic account of the Revival. Phillips was the minister of Libanus Calvinistic Methodist Chapel in Tylorstown in the Rhondda Fach, some six miles to the north of Pontypridd. A message arrived at Sardis that Roberts would be late to the meeting which started at 10.30, and would arrive at midday by train from Tylorstown. However, in the event, he clearly felt this would be rather too late, and left by cab, arriving at Sardis at 11.30am and going straight to the pulpit to address the congregation.

Sardis

All our party were looking forward to an ideal Sabbath day, and, long before the ordinary churchgoers were about, the streets were astir with earnest and enthusiastic worshippers, seekers after God – aspirants for the higher life, each one wending his or her way to ‘the spot where spirits blend, where friend holds fellowship with friend.’ It was not difficult to locate Sardis, the chapel selected for the morning service. Long before we reached the sanctuary, the rich and sonorous tones of the people’s voices were to be heard in harmony sublime. Surely, the psalmist’s words. ‘Let Thy people praise Thee, O God,’ were truly and literally interpreted, and we have naturally asked ourselves many times since whether such spontaneous outbursts of song shall ever greet our English ears again. They call Italy the land of melody, and, from my own experience of the two countries, I should certainly designate Wales the land of harmony; harmony, which is a combination of Nature’s yearnings – an echo of the druidical ritual, a massive and rugged commandment hewn and split off from the mighty rocks of time – a vocal reflex of the Christ which is to be. Long before the regular appointed hour, the congregation warmed both the hearts of the curious and of the apathetic by their hymn singing. The fire of ‘Bryn Calfaria’ and other stately Welsh chorales seemed to burn fiercer and fiercer as the time went on, until half the worshippers, with uplifted hands and closed eyes, were beating time and apparently listening to the singings of glorified spirits in some bright land far away.

An early photo of Evan Roberts and the 'sweet singers'

About the middle of the service Evan Roberts entered, and in the simplest and most unaffected manner read a verse or two of Scripture, when suddenly the audience burst into a poem of song. ‘Awstin’s’ fine translation ‘Here is love like mighty torrents’ was the burden of the cry, and sung to one of nature’s own melodies, the chorale known as ‘Ton y Botel’

A lady with a fine voice and impressive style rose and sang ‘The Ninety and Nine,’ during which an elderly man, with many marks of care and trouble upon him, fairly sobbed his heart away; while some implored God to amend once more their ruined lives; others prayed to be delivered from the bondage of strong drink and its accursed environment.

Jude's references to the responses of ordinary people to the presence of God in the meetings are one of the best features of his account. They must have provided a focus for the dinner table discussion that followed which Jude goes on to describe. There must have been many middle-class families in Pontypridd who hosted a stream of visitors such as Jude who had come to experience the Revival in their town. Who they were in this case is not identifiable, sadly.

Penuel, circa 1900

The meeting at Penuel which followed was clearly chaotic, with hundreds unable to get into the meeting, including Jude and his new found friends. The chapel they did eventually get into as an overflow meeting was possibly Tabernacle, which was just a few hundred yards up the street, though it is more likely to have been the English Congregational Chapel which was very close by on Gelliwastad Road, and which is now known as St. David's Uniting Church.

The former English Congregational Chapel on Gelliwastad Road

Invited to a beautiful Christian home, a home replete with love and hospitality, I found that even over dinner the one absorbing topic was the revival. A visitor returned from distinguished service in Ceylon was emphatic in his claims for Christ. An aged and delightful lady from London, who for many years had fought the good fight, was also full of renewed joy and spiritual vigour. A nephew of our host, a young farmer with a happy and bright looking face, spoke gladly of his new found hope and joy. Suddenly remembering that the revival moved on no mechanical lines, and that the appointed hour of service was no criterion for Mr. Roberts’ congregations, we hastened off to Penuel Chapel, only to find the gates locked and hundreds outside unable to gain admittance. Elbowing our way through the crowd, we looked with longing eyes to the hills. These picturesque backgrounds to Pontypridd were on this memorable Sabbath afternoon lighted up with a glory which reminded one of some of Hobbema’s vivid pictures. Nearly determined to avail ourselves of a health-giving walk, we were about to proceed, when the sounds of Newman’s immortal hymn ‘Lead, Kindly Light’, came forth with renewed power and sweetness from another wayside chapel. Abandoning our proposed pilgrimage to the golden heights, we found ourselves unconsciously joining in the great ocean of sound, the burden of which was:

‘Keep Thou my feet, I do not ask to see, The distant scenes; one step enough for me.’

Both music and words acting as a wonderfully sympathetic prelude to another Pentecostal service for the people.

View over Pontypridd, with the surrounding mountains

Although Evan Roberts was not present at this meeting, ‘God’s Holy Spirit’ was - that same Spirit which in olden times moved on the face of the waters, and in later days wrapped its magic spell around the lives of Christ’s humble disciples. As we listened to the surging and wailing music, one question was uppermost in our minds: dare we English people ever hope to see the day when the truths of the Bible and the wondrous language of sacred song should well up from the inner recesses of our hearts with such spontaneity, with such real fervour and enthusiasm as we had experienced in this God-sent and prayer-answered Revival of Wales – stern faced and hardened toilers, whose lives whose lives through sin had been made dark and unlovely, and who felt, as the warm wave of inspiration rolled over the congregation, that they were ‘far from home’, rose up and testified to the Holy Spirit’s entrance into their own individual hearts and lives – as each one drew nearer to God and signalled to the rapt listeners his good resolves for the future, outbursts of song flooded the building! The famous ‘Diolch Iddo’ was the burden of an earthly joy which undoubtedly had its richer and still more sublime counterpart in the songs of the Angels above.

Tabernacle

The evening meeting which Jude goes on to describe was at Tabernacle Baptist Chapel, now the location for the Pontypridd Museum. Again, the most impacting part of the account is the reference to the testimonies of individual people, some of them very young.

The Sunday evening meeting in which Mr Evan Roberts again took part was a veritable triumph of prayer, testimony and song – men and women, and even children, told the simple story of Jesus and His love, and how the present revival had unbosomed all their secrets and opened their hearts to God. One girl prayed for the salvation of her father and mother, and bursting into tears told in a most piteous manner her own innermost need of a Saviour. A young girl’s pathetic petition was accompanied by weird harmonies sung in tremulous and almost unearthly by three or four of the sweetest singers, and in tones hushed and strangely mystical. Gradually there arose a mighty crescendo from the congregation, the refrain of which was ‘I need Thee O I need Thee, yes every hour I need Thee.’ It was then difficult to proceed with anything like a prayer or Scripture lesson, for no sooner had the song of the congregation ceased, when the glory of it was taken up by the vast multitude assembled outside; an inspirational union of throbbing hearts and consecrated voices – an alliance of the human and the Divine.

Clydach Vale, Rhondda - early 20th c.

On the Monday, Evan Roberts was due to speak in the chapels of Clydach Vale, a short distance from Tonypandy, one of the main pit communities in the Rhondda Fawr, just a few miles north of Pontypridd. Accordingly, it is there that Jude travels, probably by train, to attend the Revival meetings. Roberts was to speak at Gosen Welsh Independent Chapel, Clydach in the day and at Libanus Welsh Calvinistic Methodist, Blaenclydach in the evening. (Incidentally, he also went on to speak at two other chapels in the pit village the following day, Calfaria Welsh Baptist, Clydach and Noddfa Welsh Baptist, Blaenclydach.) What is noteworthy about Jude's description here is the singing of hymns that was going on everywhere before the meetings started, sung by people making their way to the chapels on foot or by public transport.

Gosen then ...

... and now

The last services I attended were at Clydach Vale, arriving there on the day when Dr Campbell Morgan journeyed down from London. The whole of the place seemed electrified, and every chapel in the town was lighted up. Whether in railway train, booking office, or local omnibus, everywhere could be heard the earnest singing of sustained and rich harmonies by both male and female union of throbbing hearts and consecrated voices – an alliance of the human and Divine. The old, old question ‘Will it last?’ comes repeatedly from outsiders. Also ‘Do you think it is genuine?’ In answering any such interrogations, one must imagine what to rise in a crowded meeting of their own townsfolk and not only to testify to Jesus as their Saviour and to openly confess all their past sins, but also to tell aloud their name and address. St. Paul was fond of personal testimony, and somehow even with the most insignificant of us, this method of illustration is nearly always effective. To digress for a moment, let me say, that on the Saturday night, after a long and interesting service, three kindred spirits with myself, proposed before retiring to rest, to pray for a blessing on the coming Sabbath Day. As we knelt in the coffee room, ‘boots’ of the hotel made his appearance. Taking a good look at us, he quietly stepped out of the place. Next evening (Sunday) to my surprise and delight, one of the first to stand up and give his heart to God was this self-same ‘boots’ from the hotel. ‘Diolch iddo, diolch iddo’ came from the throats of the singers in tones of thunder, and from my own voice and heart arose a true song of thankfulness to God for the Spirit’s great converting power.

I love the account of the converion of the hotel's boot cleaner!

Clydach Vale: three chapels in a row - Libanus, Bethany (formerly a tin chapel), and Noddfa

It seems that at the start of the next section Jude is referring to somewhere else in Wales, perhaps in the north of the country, or the Lake District of England - the reference to 'Wordsworth's beautiful country' is ambiguous. However, he seems to be influenced by discussion he has been having with the 'eminent Welsh scholar' (unidentified) with whom he is staying. They have clearly been discussing the religious Welsh cultural tradition in some way, and Jude's own interest in education in reflected in the suggestions that follow about the need for Welsh cultural history to be taught in its chapels, schools and colleges. Behind this is clearly an apreciation of the very Welsh expression of the move of the Holy Spirit which he had experienced in the Revival meetings in Pontypridd and the Rhondda a very short while before.

Pontypridd bridge, with snow-covered Mynydd Senghenydd beyond

in particlular he refers to some of the key figues associated with the Methodist Revival of the 18th century, notably William Williams Pantycelyn, Howel Harris, and Daniel Rowland, but also to several lesser known figures.

Evander Griffiths was one of the great Welsh choral conductors of Victorian times, who conducted the Cymdeithas Cwm Tawe Choir. I don't know any more about him at the moment.

Thomas Olivers (1725-1799) was one of the less well known Welsh Methodist hymn writers, who was born in Tregonan in Montgomeryshire. His parents died when he was just four, and for a while he was apprenticed as a shoemaker. After a very wayward youth, he was converted while hearing William Williams Pantycelyn preaching from Zechariah 3.2, the verse about a brand being plucked from the fire. From 1763, he served John Wesley as an itinerant assistant evangelist. In the next 25 years, Olivers travelled 100,000 miles on horseback exercising his ministry. His best known hymn is 'The God of Abraham Praise'.

Thomas Olivers

Peter Williams (1723-1796) was born in Llansadymin, Carmarthenshire, and was converted whilst still at school in Carmarthen as a result of hearing George Whitefield preaching. He entered the Anglican ministry, but as a Methodist was always in trouble with the church authorities. In the end in 1747 he became an itinerant Methodist preacher. He was also a sigificant writer, penning a number of hymns as well as poetry, and it is probably his hymns that endeared him to William Jude. However, his greatest work was a commentary on the Bible in Welsh. He is justifiably referred to as the Welsh Matthew Henry. Sadly, he died in the midst of controversy with the Methodists for allegedly publishing heretical texts written by others. He will probably be the subject of a blog of his own at some point in the future!

Joseph Parry perhaps needs less introduction as one of the great Welsh musicians of the 19th century, and composer of the famous Welsh song 'Myfanwy'. He was born in Merthyr Tydfil in 1841, and spent much of his life there. He died at his home in Penarth just a short while before the revival in 1903. Just before he died, Parry prophesied that the next revival in Wales would be a singing revival - how right he was! He will be the subject of a blog in due course, so enough said for now.

Looking north from Pontypridd bridge towards Craig yr Hesg, with Eglwysbach left

Jude's article ends, as it started, with a reference to his friend the Romany evangelist Gipsy Smith, who was about to visit Pontypridd himself early in 1905. He was due to speak at a mission being held in the new Town Hall building on Gelliwastad Street - now a building given over to use by the community and known locally as 'The Muni'. This mission was highly successful in terms of conversions, and was both widely anticipated in the town and reported in depth in the local press. this mission will itself be a subject of a blog to appear soon, so I won't go into it in any more detail here. Suffice it to say that it is interesting to conpare the visits to the town of Evan Roberts and Gipsy Smith, whose ministry styles were very different.

Gipsy Smith

Rusticating at the present time on the lovely hillsides of Wordsworth’s beautiful country, and sheltering under the roof of an eminent Welsh scholar, I am reminded of the awful responsibility- that is from a national point of view – which this revival suggests. Twenty years ago one of the great pioneers of music, literature and art, Mr Evander Griffiths, suggested that weekly or monthly lectures should be given in every chapel and school in Wales teaching the rising generation the grand old stalwarts of their country. Thomas Olivers, who wrote the most majestic hymn we have in our English worship songs, viz. ‘The God of Abraham Praise’ – was a Welshman, and his connexion with John Wesley and the earlier revival seem to be more a matter of history for my own countrymen than for the natives of the Principality.

Pantycelyn

William Williams of Pantycelyn, who consecrated his genius for fifty years to the uplifting of human hearts to God in song, is perhaps as much revered in Anglican churches for his ‘Guide me O Thou great Jehovah’ and ‘O’er the gloomy hills of darkness,’ as he is in the land of his birth. The pathos and the majesty of this great man’s writings gave heart and hope to crippled souls, and in his own life and teaching gave thousands of Welshmen the courage to rise up into a life of decision and high purpose. Another name, Peter Williams, the Matthew Henry of Wales, and like Williams of Pantycelyn, a convert of the great revivalist Whitefield, can be mentioned as one who did yeoman service in his day, and suffered for his loyalties to the master, and the most determined persecution. Again the name of Howel Harris of Trefecca occurs to me as one of the noble spirits of the old revival, one of his converts, Miss Gwynne, being subsequently married to the hymn writer, Charles Wesley. Surely in the fierce and heroic struggle which has placed Wales in the front rank of Nonconformity, and made her stand forever steadfast against the inroads of priestcraft and superstition, some lessons from the past, some word pictures of the martyrdom of the splendid battles fought by the sons of Cambria should be given in every college and school of the land. Just as the Atonement is the one rallying point of the universal church of Christ, so the inspirational or Divine touch in human genius is often exhibited in solitary and unlooked for examples. To give one out of many illustrations, take the life work of Dr. Joseph Parry. He wrote hundreds, nay thousands of compositions –many of them to my knowledge full of technical complications. Yet the one and isolated example which shall tend to make his name imperishable is the heart-reviving and stately chorale known as Aberystwyth.

Joseph Parry

Let me urge my friends in Wales to teach the rising generation what a debt they owe to the great masters of literature, art and music, who in days gone by laid the massive and immovable foundations of their moral, artistic and religious life. I wish I could be present and witness the effect of Gipsy Smith’s ministrations in Pontypridd. His appreciation of the Celtic nature, coupled with his strong and practical common sense, will doubtless, as of yore, appeal to the people in an irresistible manner. Knowing his almost biased predeliction for Welsh music and his soul-loving reverence for the grand old fundamental beliefs enunciated by that prince of preachers, Rowlands of Llangeitho, during the former great revival, I feel convinced that the gipsy’s native eloquence will not only command the earnest attention of the multitude, but also emphasise the grand and elevating work which has been begun and carried on by the great spiritual leader Evan Roberts. God bless Wales! God save Wales! God send the revival into every town in Europe, and to our own kith and kin far beyond the seas!

- W.H.J.

I can only end by expressing a strong 'Amen' to Jude's final prayer for heaven's blessing on Wales and the rest of Europe!

(Jude's article was originally published in the Glamorgan Free Press, on 11^th February 1905. I was able to read it in microfilm form in Pontypridd library, with the help of the assistant librarians there, to whom many thanks.)

Jessie Penn-Lewis & Evan Roberts in Porth - A French Account

2012-01-30T06:50:00.000-08:00

One of the books I have been reading recently has been 'Un Movement Mystique Contemporain: Le Réveil Religieux du Pays de Galles 1904-1905' by the French psychologist Joseph Rogues de Fursac. It's been a fascinating read of a first hand account of the immediate aftermath of the Revival, even though the author was an unbeliever who remained very much an outside observer. In fact, his perspective, with all its sensitive attention to telling detail, is what makes it a very valuable and insightful account and very well worth a read. Unfortunately, it's only available in French! So I have been making some bits of it available in recent blogs (cf: 'A French Atheist Investigates the revival in Pontypridd' and 'Revival Meetings Underground in Pontypridd' - both published earlier in January 2012). This will probably be the last of those articles. I didn't want to leave out the bits of the book in which Rogues de Fursac visited Evan Roberts' family home, and later met the man himself. So this is what this blog is focussed on.

As with the other blog entries, the translation from French is my own.

Joseph Rogues de Fursac visited South Wales in the late spring of 1906. By then the revival was on the wane, and Evan Roberts had already retreated to stay with the Penn-Lewises in Leicester in order to recover from severe exhaustion. The Frenchman's account includes a description of a brief stay in Cardiff, where he observes the Salvation Army in action, and meets a number of reformed alcoholics whose lives have been transformed as a result of their coming to faith in Christ. At some point early on his journey ventured further west to Neath and Swansea, taking the opportunity while in that area to visit the Roberts family home, Island House, Bwlchymynydd, Loughor, near Llanelli.

Island House as it was

Here is his account of the meeting he has with Evan Roberts' mother in the Roberts family home:

Loughor

Like all those who come to Loughor I make a brief pilgrimage to the home of Evan Roberts. The route is fairly complicated, and several times I have to ask the way. Among those who I ask is an amusing old lady. She speaks English fairly badly, though that does not stop her from being talkative and curious. She asks me where I am from, if there is coal in my country, if the miners pray in the mines, and if the Revival has resulted in many conversions. I answer her questions as best I can and finish by asking her if she can point me in the right direction, which she does willingly. She is very happy to help, because anyone going to visit Evan Roberts’ house must be a good Christian.

The Roberts family home today

The house in which Evan Roberts lives is very prettily situated. Passing beneath the railway line the eye makes out the estuary of the River Loughor just a short distance away. At low tide there is a plain of sand; but at high tide it is a veritable lake. The countryside all around is green and in the distance there are beautiful hills all around. There are no neighbours nearby, the house is isolated and quite a way from the village. A poet or a philosopher would feel more at home than an evangelist.

The parlour into which I was invited is clean and comfortable. The walls are covered with pictures of the apostle. There is a library composed mainly of religious works in both Welsh and English. Mrs. Roberts who receives me is a person of mature age; her eye is clear, her face calm and reposed, without any sign of the mystical or ascetic. She informs me that her son is not there. He is staying with an English family. He will return soon, and I will then without doubt have the opportunity to meet him. Is it necessary to say that Mrs. Roberts has absolute confidence in the mission of her dear son Evan? This mission comes from God himself, she says. It is the Holy Spirit who speaks through him. The best evidence of this is the amazing conversions which his words have produced and Mrs. Roberts cites several very interesting examples. I will repeat just one of them. A notorious drinker was present at one of Evan Roberts’ meetings but he did not feel at all moved by it. ‘But the Holy Spirit was at work quietly in his soul.’ The next day as usual, he buys a bottle of beer. When he tries to lift it to his lips an invisible force stops him, and he cannot do it. Struck by this miracle, he throws the bottle a long way. Then he immediately finds himself to be perfectly sober.

Loughor estuary

I make a remark alluding discretely to the opposition of some ministers to the Revival. Mrs. Roberts, in a dry tone of voice, declares to me that her son has his path marked out for him by God, and that he has no need to be concerned about ministers. However, the hour was getting late. I leave the cottage, cast a last glance at the lovely countryside, and return to the station.

It must have been after this visit to Loughor that Rogues de Fursac visited Pontypridd, Merthyr and Porth in the Rhondda Valley, though in his book he seems to change the order of events for thematic reasons. All these places were visited in a single hectic week which was full of incident. Even though it was late June by this time, the weather was by and large appalling in a way fairly typical of Wales. Rogues de Fursac attended a religious meeting in a coal mine, and the same day read news reports of a terrible mine disaster not many miles away, and experienced an earthquake. That same week there was a visit by Evan Roberts back to Wales as he accompanied Jessie Penn-Lewis to a conference in Porth, Rhondda. Jessie Penn-Lewis was his long-term host in Leicester. Rogues de Fursac was determined to meet Roberts, and so attended some of the meetings, visiting Porth on the two consecutive days the day after his trip to the Maritime Colliery underground prayer meeting.

The next extract deals with that conference; but first, a few things about Jessie Penn-Lewis who is an interesting and sometimes sadly reviled figure from the Welsh Revival. Rogues de Fursac's view of her is particularly insightful and interesting. But first, there is an account of a pre-convention prayer meeting which is amazingly detailed, and one of the best atmospheric accounts of such a meeting that I have come across, largely because of de Fursac's sensitive attention to detail and quality.

Porth today

Here is Rogues de Fursac's account fo the meetings in Porth:

Porth, Rhondda

I won’t say much about Porth. I spent twenty-four hours there and during all that time it never stopped raining for a single moment. I saw terraces of houses drowned and seemingly lost in the sodden atmosphere. I’ve not seen enough in order to know and make a judgement about the place.

On the evening of my arrival, there was a meeting led by Mrs. R, an English revivalist, an authority on spirituality, an untiring apostle, and a friend of Evan Roberts who , someone said, would accompany her this evening. Not knowing the precise time for the start of the meeting, I make my way to the chapel where it was to be held. The doors are open, and about forty people are already gathered before the pulpit. But the pulpit is empty. I am an hour and a half too early, says an old Welsh woman near to whom I sit. The meeting is due to start at seven thirty and it is only just six o’clock. I am slightly embarrassed. What is there to do in a flooded town? I decide to stay where I am where at least there is shelter from the deluge. And this meeting, even though it is only a prelude to the main event, seemed to be interesting in itself. The people are the committed ones, the flower of spirituality who have come together to pray and pass the time profitably waiting to hear the preaching of the apostle. I sit down, I watch and I listen.

Tabernacle, Porth

A man is on his knees near the middle of the chapel. His body is slightly bent, the head tilted forwards, the brow and the eyes hidden by his right hand, his left shoulder pressing against a pew, he prays aloud, with a tone at once shrill, supplicatory and anguished. The congregation, some seated, and some on their knees, respond with ‘Amens’. There are several almost ecstatic figures who cannot be far from a state of Welsh ‘hwyl’. Now again, I just close my eyes. Then I see in front of me and a little to my left a young woman leaning on the back of the pew which is in front of her. Her head slightly inclined rests on her left hand, her face turned towards the heavens. Her eyes are shut, her features carry an expression of quiet bliss and of calm serenity. Her lips move only occasionally with a motion scarcely perceptible. Two or three times, when the voice of the man is more passionate and pleading, her forehead creases slightly, and a visible shiver runs through her whole body. The pews fill up, a pile of books collapses with a clatter: she does not even notice, she is unaware of everything going on around her, nothing affects her but the passionate voice of the man who is praying. The voice of the man gradually becomes louder and soon reaches the melodic chanting which characterises ‘hwyl’. Each of his phrases is in time with the slapping of his left hand on the pew against which he leans. The crowd grows and the emotion increases. Here and there one can hear sobbing. At last after a very long time, perhaps twenty minutes or half an hour, the man is silent. Another follows him with the same supplicatory tone of praying, and the same response from the rest. Then there’s a song, a Welsh song with a powerful melody which everyone, men and women, sing with all the power of their beautiful voices. And the praying continues. Now it is the turn of a young girl. On her knees, her head buried in her two hands, she prays with a voice which is both poignant and disconsolate, which mounts in heartrending outbursts with a voice which is unforgettable once heard. She prays in Welsh and I do not understand a word. But there is so much faith, so much passion in her prayer that even I am profoundly moved. A breath passes over the congregation. I understand now the words of the minister who I met in Cardiff ‘On felt,’ he said, speaking of a meeting ‘something like the movement of a field of wheat in the breeze.’ This description had seemed to me excessive. However, it’s perhaps the best way of describing what I experienced. Imagine the most dramatic scene from Shakespeare performed by the best actors in front of an impressionable audience. I don’t think it would have an impact so intense, perhaps in spite of the power of illusion, there is always a sense that it is artificial. Here, on the other hand, the drama which unfolds is infused with a profound reality. Even more, drama and reality are inseparable. These agonising expressions and these passionate outpourings are not the result of performance. The anguish and the emotion they express are real.

Porth from the air

When the young girl has finished, two women get up and start praying at the same time, one in English, and the other in Welsh. You would think that one of the two would be quiet and wait for the other to finish before speaking in her turn. Not at all, they continued, each without being concerned about the other, for a full five minutes. It’s the English speaker who stops first, not because she has been defeated, but because she has nothing more to say. This unintelligibility, worthy of the Tower of Babel, hasn’t shocked anyone. The sighs and the Amen’s have not become either less numerous or less fervent. This shows well, in passing, how insignificant is the rational aspect in the impact of these prayers. It is not absolutely necessary to understand in order to be moved. Finally, a workman, in his work clothes, prays in his turn. He is an orator. His gestures are extravagant; his long hair falls into his eyes, and he pushes it away with a feverish hand. He encourages the congregation to pray for the Holy Spirit to fall on them. He thanks God for saving him, he, a poor worker, in this respectable chapel. He exclaims with socialist irony that one day the poor and the rich will be mixed together in an even finer chapel and beneath an even higher ceiling. But it is exactly 7.30. Mrs. R makes her entry, right on time, escorted by a number of senior church leaders and religious notables.

Jessie Penn-Lewis

Jessie Penn-Lewis

Jessie Elizabeth Jones was born in Neath in 1861, the daughter of Elias and Kezia Jones. Her father was a civil engineer. Her grandfather was a notable Christian leader in the district – the Rev. Samuel Jones, a minister in the Calvinistic Methodist denomination. The family was strongly Christian, but it wasn’t until some 18 months after he marriage to a local accountant named William Penn Lewis that Jessie herself became a Christian.

Her husband’s work took her away from Wales, and she lived in England for the rest of her life. In 1881 the Lewis’s were in Preston, ten years later they were in Richmond, and by 1901 they had settled in Leicester which was to be their home until Jessie died in 1927. Living in England and being married to a man of some means meant that Jessie was able to become involved in Christian conventions, especially at Keswick. It was through these that she came to know key leaders such as F.B. meyer, Andrew Murray and D.L. Moody

It was in the early 1890’s, when she was 31 years old that Jessie was baptised in the Spirit. From then on she made a key motto of her life ‘Keep free to follow the will of God’. That included for her seeing renewal come to the churches and chapels of her native Wales. She was one of those who spearheaded the establishing of a Keswick in Wales in 1903, which led to a number of key leaders there coming into a baptism of the Spirit in the years immediately preceding the Revival.

Yet when the Revival came, she had difficulty with the apparent lack of control over meetings, and was distinctly ill-at ease with giving the Holy Spirit complete freedom to do what He wanted. Something of this characteristic of her comes through in Rogues de Fursac’s account.

In fact, given the way in which Evan Roberts felt totally at ease in meetings which lacked the controlling influence of men, it seems odd that so close a link should develop between the Penn Lewises and he to the extent that he should go to stay in Leicester for quite some years.

Rogues de Fursac clearly has little time for Jessie Penn Lewis, and considers her to be more Anglo-Saxon than Celtic in her temperament and style. He seems to have much more sympathy with the ordinary welsh people in the prayer meeting in Porth. Ultimately, his sympathy is with the freedom of expression of the Revival meetings, and his antipathy with anything that smacks of control. Here’s a warning to be read here for any seeking a greater measure of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church today.

Porth from the north

Here is Rogues de Fursac's account of the meeting led by Jessie Penn-Lewis:

She is large, slightly stooped, dressed very simply in black. Her appearance reflects an Anglo-Saxon energy. She takes her place on the platform before the pulpit and a gesture silences a final buzz of conversation which fills the hall. She calls for three minutes of prayer in silence and, once the three minutes is over, she explains that the meeting will be absolutely calm. Experience has shown her that only meetings without spontaneity and with nothing emotional, nothing, in a word, which comes from man, are profitable for the spiritual life. Then she continues to give her orders. It’s like a colonel leading his regiment of mystics: three minutes of silent prayer, sing hymn number ten, quietly, repeat the final verse etc. This discipline has its effect. The congregation, psychologically restrained, I could say muzzled if the term did not suggest impropriety, breathes not a word. The brave Welsh obey out if duty and because that comes from their upbringing. But their wonderful spirit is extinguished. Just before the meeting had been alive, spontaneous, and impacting in spite of its extravagances; on the other hand this one is formal, official and colourless.

Mrs. R. Enters the pulpit, adjusts her lorgnon, and considers for a moment her equipment, I mean to say he Bible and her hymn book. She is completely in her element, calm and sure of herself. You feel she is a professional in the spiritual. She turns over sheets of paper, marks some pages. Her plan is evidently all mapped out, and she prepares to carry it through. For a moment or two I had compare her with a colonel commanding a regiment. But now she seems more like a chemist getting ready to conduct an experiment. She has her formulas all ready, and all she has to do is apply them fully to obtain the desired result. She knows how to make the Holy Spirit descend, just as a chemistry professor knows how to make oxygen. One is as sure and certain as the other. You could even set it out like an equation:

3 minutes of silent prayer + a hymn (repeat the last verse)+ a short speech (10 minutes)+ another song + a Bible reading, etc. = the Holy Spirit falls.

Looking down on Porth from the south

Elsewhere, Mrs. R is a scholar and an orator. Metaphor has no secrets for her and she must know her Bible by heart. She interests her audience and takes it by the hand, firmly. The songs are sung very quietly. The expression of emotion, the cries of anguish have become little discrete sighs which will not frighten away the Holy Spirit. Only one fanatical old man behind me persists in crying out ‘Amen’ roughly every thirty seconds.

At last the meeting ends. The crowd disperses silently at first, then someone starts to sing the hymn ‘Dyma Gariad Fel Y Moroedd’. It’s all that is needed to make the faithful forget the advice of Mrs. R. Once the impetus is given, the deep and powerful notes of the splendid hymn spring forth from every chest. I speak for a moment with an old man, an acquaintance from Pontypridd. He is a brave miner who, his nine hours of work completed, has come to find some edification in Porth. ‘This lady,’ I say to him, ‘does not understand the Welsh soul.’ A smile in which can be detected a little mischievousness alongside much Christian charity passes across his lips. ‘What more do you expect,’ he said ‘she is English!’

Before leaving the chapel I ask if Evan Roberts is there. No, he isn’t. Someone assures me that he will be there the next day, which lessens somewhat my disappointment.

Presumably, Rogues de Fursac took the train back to Pontypridd, a journey of just a few miles, where he was staying in a hotel. The next day he returned to Porth, and this time was fortunate enough to meet van Roberts, albeit only very briefly. His description is nevertheless a telling one, which somehow puts us in touch with the great revivalist.

Porth Railway Station in 1908

The Meeting

Today there is another service with Mrs. R. Speaking, and I go along. I hope that I will be compensated for my disappointment of yesterday and that this time I will see Evan Roberts

I arrive several minutes before the official opening of the meeting. Mrs. R also enters and asks for three minutes of prayer in silence, in line with the schedule. But the congregation behaves in a very different way from yesterday. For a minute it seems to comply and the silence is complete. Then a young man kneeling on a bench a few feet from me murmurs a prayer. Imperceptibly, by degrees, the murmuring becomes a distinct voice which can be heard in every corner of the chapel. The congregation, forgetting the directions given by Mrs. R., starts to join in. The young man prays for a few seconds, his head in his hands, then he stands up, arms spread wide, gesticulates and cries. The responses are more numerous and louder, the emotion increasing, and before the three minutes have come to an end, the excitement is extreme. Mrs. R., sensing that Welsh enthusiasm is stronger than her authority, remains in good humour in face of the challenge and lets things go. Finally, after some time, calm returns and the meeting takes its normal course.

Quite close to me, in the semicircle of seats at the front (this would be the seiat fawr, or big seat just below the pulpit - DP), I notice a tall, pale young man, with a kindly but extraordinarily mobile face. I look carefully at him, and immediately I recognise him. It is Evan Roberts. I must confess that from that moment all my attention is concentrated on this person and that I gave only half an ear to the preaching of Mrs. R.

The character which struck me immediately about the Welsh Evangelist was an extraordinary fluidity of expression. If ever appearance and bearing can be called the mirrors of the soul, that is certainly the case with Evan Roberts. It is possible to read there in a few moments amazement, sadness, joy, irritation; his eyebrows frown, he lifts his head or lowers it as if he is burdened; his lips contract in a sort of silent grimace or open out in a broad smile. Sometimes a word from the preacher makes him jump slightly and he seems to come out of a dream. This incessant movement is simply an involuntary expression of what he is experiencing internally. Psychologically it brings about a series of automatic reactions, and in truth this expression is so intense, the absence of self-possession so complete that one has the impression of being faced with a strange individual at the extreme limit of normality. One step further and we would be on the level of the automatism associated with mania. However, the service comes to an end. I am presented to Evan Roberts who receives me with a ‘very glad to meet you’ and a warm shake of the hand. During the whole of our short meeting he does not let go of my hand. This little detail is interesting and I will return to it.

We speak for a short while. I speak to him about the conversion of alcoholics and I say to him how much I admire the effect of the Revival in this aspect. ‘Oh, yes!’ he says. ‘Many have become sober. Jesus is so good that he even takes away from them the desire for alcohol. At the thought of this little miracle a simple joy, like that of a child, lights up his face. I ask if he will give me some details of how he had received his calling to mission from God. He very simply gave me a brief summary of the events which have been recounted in the magazines, without adding anything that I did not already know. In the end I took my leave of the Evangelist. I thanked him for his welcome, and I received a cordial ‘God bless you’ from him, accompanied by a vigorous handshake.

Pre-war Porth

I finish with the transcription of a newspaper report from a local paper covering these meetings in Porth, from which it becomes clear that Rogues de Fursac was singularly unfortunate in not having the opportunity to hear Evan Roberts speak. he must have left to catch his train just after shaking the revivalist by the hand, and so missed his one significant contribution to the convention. I wonder what he would have made of it had he stayed to the end.

Newspaper Report

Mr Evan Roberts At Porth

Mr Evan Roberts, the Welsh revivalist, attended the convention for the deepening of the spiritual life, conducted at Tabernacle Chapel, Porth last week by Mrs. Penn-Lewis, the well-known Christian author. The convention was opened with a splendid meeting on Wednesday afternoon, when Mrs Lewis gave an address on ‘Calvary’. In the evening service which followed, the well-known figure of Mr Evan Roberts was observed sitting in the congregation. The great revivalist had been staying with Mrs Penn-Lewis and had consented to accompany her to Porth, where he was the guest of the Rev. R.B. Jones. With the exception of a few earnest prayers, Mr Roberts took no part in Wednesday’s meeting. The services were continued on Thursday, and an excellent meeting was enjoyed in the afternoon. Mr Evan Roberts was again present in the evening together with a large number of rev. gentlemen from the district. By this time the presence of the revivalist had been noised abroad, and the capacious Tabernacle was thronged with a huge congregation. A beautiful address was given by Mrs Penn Lewis on Heb 2.14 after which there was a short interval for silent prayer. Ere closing the meeting the lady missioner pleaded earnestly for converts. She expressed great dissatisfaction with the results of the meeting. Many, she thought, were there out of curiosity.

It was evident that most of those present had anticipated having an address from Evan Roberts. But it appeared they were disappointed. The meeting had been closed with prayer, and the congregation commenced to file out when the young evangelist stood up, and with set solemn face, began to speak in a low, impressive voice. Did anyone dare, he asked, go out of that meeting without surrendering himself to Christ, without giving Christ the victory? Eternal love, he continued, was manifested in that meeting. Dared anyone leave without a shout of victory over Satan? Was Christ satisfied with that meeting? He was not satisfied. The hosts of hell looked on and laughed. Those present, he said, professed to follow the God –man. Where did they follow Him? Sin and Christ could not live together. Let the miser take the world, but they should seek Christ and His Eternal riches. Life, he went of to say solemnly, was but a shadow. Would they not all surrender entirely to Christ? Would they not that night give him the victory? He was continuing to plea passionately, when he was interrupted by an agonising prayer from a young woman in the congregation. The people had by this time resumed their seats, and much enthusiasm had been kindled. However, after a number of powerful prayers, in Welsh and English, Mr Evan Roberts closed the meeting with prayer. The great revivalist was again present at a crowded meeting in Calfaria on Friday.

(Glamorgan Free Press, Friday 6th July 1906)

Porth from the south, early 20th century

It is clear from this description that Evan Roberts is still suffering from the strain that made the Liverpool revival meetings of mid 1905 somewhat tortured events. There's a strain of legalism in the way he criticises what he considers lukewarmness which betrays that. It seems to belie the warmth of his meeting with Rogues de Fursac. In some ways, Evan Roberts' later implied criticism of those attending meetings was as destructive of the revival as Jessie Penn-Lewis's firm discouragement of what she considered to be emotionalism. The most positive quality that comes through de Fursac's description of the meetings in Porth is in fact the fervour of the praying of the ordinary men and women who attend, which indicates that the revival fire was still burning in people's hearts in spite of the way some of the later meetings had come to be led. These descriptions also reveal Rogues de Fursac's innate sympathy with the ordinary men and women of Wales, particularly the miners. It is one of the things that makes his book so attractive.

So, I put my copy of Rogues de Fursac's book back on the shelf after having it near me for the last few weks. I hope that you have enjoyed these amazing accounts of the Welsh Revival, which seem to bring it very much alive, inspite of the fact that the writer remained unconverted himself. There's also a lot here too that gives us a warning about how to move with the Spirit, and how important it is not hinder his activity. I think that's the key lesson to be taken from de Fursac's account of his time in Porth.

In Search of Dwynwen, the Welsh St Valentine

2012-01-28T13:14:00.000-08:00

Near the south-west tip of Ynys Mon (or Anglesey), not far from the court of the ancient Celtic kings of Gwynedd at Aberffraw, is an area of remote pine forest and sand dunes called Newborough Warren. From it there protrudes out into the sea a narrow finger of volcanic rock called Ynys Llanddwyn (or Llanddwyn Island). It’s not actually an island, for it remains connected to the rest of Angelsey by a narrow neck of sand, except when there is a very high tide. It’s really what the French would call a ‘presque isle’, literally an ‘almost island’.

Llanddwyn

The peninsula is only very small, being no more than a kilometre long and just two or three hundred metres wide at most. This hummocky rocky outcrop has been completely uninhabited for some years; but it was occupied from at least the 5^th century onwards, and was in the Dark Ages an important stopping off point for monks travelling from Ireland to Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island) via Clynnog Fawr on the Lleyn Peninsula.

Before the Reformation, Llanddwyn housed a priory built on the site of the cell of a 5^th century saint, a woman known as Dwynwen. In the late Middle Ages the site became a Benedictine Abbey. It was apparently a very wealthy religious site, owing to the number of pilgrims who visited it from all over Wales.

Llanddwyn seems continuously to be occupied by a tiny handful of people until very recent times. In the fourteenth century, during the reign of Edward III when Caernarfon Castle was constructed in an attempt to subdue the Welsh, it was recorded that there were just eight dwellings on Llanddwyn.

The living was always simple, and very hard: fish and birds were plentiful; and vegetables, but not grain, could be grown in the few tiny stone-walled fields on the more sheltered eastern side of the windswept island. John Leland wrote in the sixteenth century that ‘this island is veri fertile of cunnies’ (rabbits), which it still is. There are also a few wild ponies.

The people who lived there have always been very familiar with the sea, and felt a closer connection with Caernarfon six miles away across the Menai than with the rest of Ynys Mon on the far side of wild Newborough forest. Usually, they would row to Caernarfon in an open boat to purchase supplies, hugging the coast before making the difficult if narrow crossing of the Menai Strait. If the weather was really bad, they would have to settle for a trek along a narrow path through the forest to Newborough.

In the nineteenth century, lighthouse keepers lived on the island. There was also and a small community of ships’ pilots who lived in a small row of whitewashed Victorian cottages, waiting to guide ships through the treacherous waters of the narrow Menai Strait to collect slate from the quarries of Gwynedd. Up until 1903, there was even a lifeboat stationed here, manned by sailors, many of whom who lived in Newborough, a small village a few miles away. When the lifeboat was needed they were summoned from Newborough by the discharge of a cannon which can still be seen near the cottages.

More recently descendents of some of these pilots, William and Elizabeth Jones, served as RSPB wardens on Llanddwyn in the years between the First and Second World Wars, keeping an eye on an important colony of rare roseate terns. In 2006, their granddaughter Elizabeth Landdwyn Jones of Dwyran was involved in making recordings about her family recollections of the island which can be heard on a BBC website about North-West Wales.

Today, in the winter, the place is deserted and windswept, occupied only by seabirds, a handful of ponies, and a few Soay sheep; but on a hot summer’s day its secluded coves and sandy beaches can be busy with bathers and picnickers. From Llanddwyn there are stunning views of the Snowdonian mountain range and of the long gnarled finger of hills that is the Lleyn Peninsula stretching further and further west, pointing towards the setting sun.

Dwynwen

It was here in the 5th century, over one and a half thousand years ago, that a young and supposedly very beautiful woman came looking for an isolated place in which she could commune alone with God. She was called Dwynwen, a name which means 'she who leads a blessed life'.

Dwynwen was one of the many daughters, some say twenty-five in all, of the Irish King of Brycheiniog, whose name was Brychan. Dwynwen had presumably been born and was brought up near Talgarth in what is now southern Powys, where Brychan had his home, possibly at Castell Dinas (below).

Her family was deeply religious and totally committed to the relatively new religion of Christianity which had originally been brought to the islands in Roman times, a few centuries before. Many of her numerous brothers and sisters were devout believers who between them formed a substantial part of the cohort of saints who spread the gospel throughout Wales in the Early Middle Ages.

Many of the stories of these seminal figures in Welsh church history are encrusted with the mythology and traditions which grew up around the orally transmitted early tales about them, by the superstitious beliefs that built up around them, and by the later trappings of Catholic religiosity. But underneath the sometimes fantastical tales there invariably is a testimony of a simple life of faith lived out in such a way that the local community was often profoundly impacted and transformed.

Dwynwen was regarded as a saint from very early times because of her devotion to the spiritual life, and her love of both God and people. She became the Welsh patron saint of lovers, and her life is commemorated on 25th January, supposedly the day on which she died, which today is the Welsh equivalent of St. Valentine's day.

Valentine

That St. Valentine should become the patron saint of lovers in the English-speaking world seems to me to be a little odd. Not much is known about him except that he was a Christian martyr who lived in Rome who was executed in the late 3rd century. All the Vatican records simply refer to his name, and a date when he died. One mentions that he married believers, though many Christian church leaders at that time would also have done so. Just one later unofficial story suggests that on the eve of his execution he wrote a letter to his jailer's daughter, signing it 'From your Valentine'.

In the English tradition, it was Chaucer in the 14th century who was largely responsible for connecting him with romantic love, and Valentine's Day as we know seems to have developed from this. It's all very random. Dwynwen's story, on the other hand, is much more clearly centred on the theme of love.

Dwynwen's Story

There are many variations, but the story about Dwynwen usually goes something like this:

Dwynwen and a young man called Maelon Dafodrill fell deeply in love. But Dwynwen's father had in mind that she should marry someone else. Dwynwen was torn between her love for Maelon and her desire not to offend her father. Maelon, deeply upset that he would not be able to spend the rest of his life with her, forced himself on Dwynwen to consummate their relationship and then fled.

Deeply grieved to have upset her father, and to have lost both Maelon and her virtue, Dwynwen herself fled to the forest and desperately sought God's help. In earnest prayer she begged God to help her forget Maelon. After hours of anguish, she eventually found a sheltered spot and fell asleep.

While she slept, she was visited by an angel, who offered her a potion to drink which would erase all her memories of Maelon. At the same time, Maelon would be turned to a block of ice. The block of ice is presumably a metaphor for the bitterness which made Maelon's heart hard and prevented him from moving on in his life.

Probably some time later Dwynwen felt God said to her that she could ask for three wishes. She expressed her desire that Maelon be thawed; that God would fulfil the hopes and dreams of all true lovers; and thirdly, that she herself should be kept thereafter from having to marry any man. She felt she had affirmation that all three of these desires would be fulfilled, and out of her sense of gratitude to God, Dwynwen determined to devote the rest of her life to His service.

The Llanddwyn Community

After this, Dwynwen left her family and headed north, travelling almost as far as she could from home. She was possibly accompanied by one of her sisters, Ceinwen. She crossed to the island of Ynys Mon and there, on a narrow peninsula of land, she established a cell where she could seek God and overcome the trauma through which she had come, finding after a while freedom through forgiveness and devotion to God. Ceinwen established a cell of her own a few miles away just west of modern Llangefni. Over time, other young women joined Dwynwen on the piece of land which would later come to be called Llandwyn after her.

Gradually, Dwynwen came to develop a reputation for wisdom in her advice to young men and women who were in love and considering marriage, or had relational challenges or difficulties to overcome. From further and further afield such came to her for help. So her reputation grew and she came to be revered by many.

One of her sayings has been handed down, and as such perhaps says something about her guiding principle in life. The saying 'Nothing wins hearts like cheerfulness' says something about her godly character, and her desire to be a blessing to others.

Dwynwen is supposed to have died on 25th January in about 465AD. The story goes that when she was approaching her end, she asked her faithful followers to take her out of her cell up onto higher ground on the island from where she would be able to see the setting sun for the last time.

Pilgrimage

After Dwynwen died, the number of those travelling to Llanddwyn to visit the community she had established increased. The well near the cell, called Ffynnon Dwynwen, became a particular focus of such pilgrimage. People would come there seeking healing; and young lovers continued to come, seeking blessing on their lives.

Over the next centuries, superstition and divination gradually replaced the wise counsel and the prophetic truth spoken by the departed saint and her followers. It came to be believed that the well was the home of a sacred fish or eel whose behaviour would indicate to the visiting young lovers what kind of future might lie before them should they take the plunge and marry. Questions would be asked of the fish which would be answered by the directions of its subsequent movements. If breadcrumbs were scattered on the water and a handkerchief then laid upon the surface, if the fish then moved the handkerchief, the marriage would be blessed by the faithfulness of the marriage partners. Nonsense, of course, but revealing of the deep and often unspoken need of young people for reassurance and wisdom as they start out in life, or for deep healing for tortured and broken hearts.

In the late Middle Ages, the priory became part of the Benedictine order, and because of the number of pilgrims, came to be one of the wealthiest in the land - such was the reputation that Dwynwen continued to have. One Mediaeval Welsh poet, Sir Dafydd Trefor, wrote in a cywydd that pilgrims used to travel to Llanddwyn even from mainland Europe, and said that Dwynwen was the 'mother of all goodness', which indicates in what high regard she was held in his day. Baring Gould writes:

'He describes her church at Llanddwyn, her statue, her sanctuary, and the miracles that were wrought at her holy wells, and states that young men and maidens, and sick folk generally, flocked thither in great numbers 'from diverse countries', bearing candles and large offerings, to be cured of their various afflictions.'

Meanwhile, just before Chaucer wrote of the martyr Valentine, one of the greatest of the Welsh poets Dafydd ap Gwilym visited Llanddwyn in the early 14th century. He tried, rather foolishly given she was already married, to invoke the saint's blessing on his own love for Morfydd whom he wished to court, but wrote magnificently in praise of Dwynwen, addressing his opening lines to her gilded statue in a poem which gives some indication of how she was revered in the Middle Ages:

Dwynwen deigr arien degwch / Da y gwr dy gor fflamgwr fflwch / Dy ddelw aur diddoluriaw / Digion druain ddynion draw

Dwynwen your beauty is as hoar-frost's tears / your choir is ablaze with candle flames / well does your golden image know / how to relieve the grief of wretched men

He also writes of her as a 'gem of Christendom' and refers to her 'enduring sympathy', her 'work of prayer' and her 'gifts of enduring grace'.

The sumptuous and wealthy place of worship with its gilded statue was no doubt laid waste during the purge of the religious houses that occurred in the reign of the Tudor, and thus Welsh by descent, King Henry VIII. The ruins of the new stone chapel, built in the 16th century on the site of Dwynwen's original chapel, can still be seen on the island today, though it is likely that stone from the ruins was taken to build the cottages and lighthouses.

Much more recently, in 1903, a Celtic cross fourteen feet high was erected on the island by W. G. Wynn as a memorial to Dwynwen and all she represented, which has become a familiar landmark and national symbol of Celticism.

Tresilian, Glamorgan

Dwynwen was a Celtic Christian hermit associated with one tiny spot in the extreme north of the country, yet her influence has been felt all over Wales. Nevertheless, I was a little surprised to find that even in the extreme south of Glamorgan, not many miles from my home in Cardiff there is an example of her cult. Rather than dating from Early Mediaeval times, however, it's likely to be a relatively recent one and possibly has commercial rather than spiritual motives behind it.

There is in the parish of St. Donat's (in Welsh it's Sain Dunwyd - rather reminiscent of Dwynwen, but actually a dedication to another saint of the century after Dwynwen who was supposed to be a friend of St. Cadoc of Llancarfan). Just east of the parish church, towards Llantwit Major, on the shore of the Severn Estuary, a small stream has carved out a narrow wooded valley, which is called Cwm Tresilian. Just where this stream enters the sea, on its west side, there is an enormous cave, by far the largest of many along this stretch of the coast. Its massive entrance must be forty feet high and just as wide, and it extends back into the cliff an enormous distance of about fifty yards.

At high water, the cave is flooded by the tide, and in fact it is only accessible for about three hours at a time at low water. It can only be reached on foot via the cliff path from Llantwit Major or St. Donat's, as the valley itself is privately owned and occupied by Tresilian House and its grounds.

In recent times, the cave has been known locally as Reynard's Cave, and is marked as such on large scale maps. However, formerly it was known as Dwynwen's Cave. Apart from its size, the cave's most interesting feature is what is known as Dwynwen's Bow of Blessing, a narrow arch of rock some thirty or so feet above the cave's pebbly floor and just a few feet below the cave's completely flat ceiling.

It came to be believed that anyone successfully throwing a stone over the top of the bow would be blessed in marriage in the future, the number of attempts being taken before a successful throw indicating how many years the person had to wait for fulfilment. As a result many young couples came here to chance their arm, seeking Dwynwen's blessing.

Apparently, in the early nineteenth century, members of the local aristocracy were once married in the cave beneath the Bow of Blessings, perhaps in the hope of obtaining divine favour.

One writer, in fact, suggests that the cave was promoted as a tourist attraction in the very early years of the nineteenth century by the owners of Tresilian House when they turned it into a hotel. This seems quite possible, though there is no direct evidence either way, and it is possible that the association with Dwynwen was of much longer standing, the hotel owners simply seeing the possibility of cashing in, as did the Priory officials on Llanddwyn before the Reformation.

When I visited the cave the other day, I expected the archway to have long since collapsed, given the fissured nature of the sandstone rock in that area. However, I was astonished to see that the arch was still there. I don't think devotees of Saint Dwynwen still go there to try their luck, though I found that successfully throwing a stone over the arch was not at all as easy as it looked!

Saint Dwynwen's Day

Having been lost in a formal sense for hundreds of years, commemoration of St. Dwynwen's Day was promoted afresh in 1970's. It is growing in popularity in Wales, mostly among Welsh-speakers. St. Dwynwen's day cards and the exchange of love tokens like flowers or traditional Welsh love spoons seem to be becoming more common.

But a Welsh equivalent of St. Valentine's day alone is not what is required. In today's world, with its trivialisation of love and its promotion of indiscriminate sex, the need of young people to receive the kind of godly advice about relationships and marriage that Dwynwen used to provide is greater than ever before.

It's good that there are initiatives like the HTB Marriage Preparation Course, Romance Academy and Jesus Culture which are seeking to promote godly values in the field of relationships for the young people of today. But there's an urgent need for an even greater measure of radical and positive cultural transformation in the future, and the church as a whole needs to take full responsibility for initiating it.

The amazing thing about the Dwynwen story is the way she found grace in God to forgive and get through the mess of her relational crisis so that it did not skew the whole of the rest of her life. In crisis she sought God and found heaven's blessing through an angelic visitation to such an extent that for the rest of her life she became a blessing to others. What could have totally messed her up became a source of life and inspiration to all who met her; and her testimony is not without effect even now, one and a half millenia later.

Sources

Mysterious Wales - Chris Barber (1982)

The Lives of the British Saints (vol 2) - S. Baring-Gould & John Fisher (2005 reprint)

The Book of Welsh Saints - T.D. Breverton (2000)

Selected Poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym - ed. & transl. Rachel Bromwich (1985)

The History of the Stradlings of St. Donats - T.C. Evans (MS, Cardiff Library; also online)

Celtic Britain and the Pilgrim Movement - Griffith Hartwell Jones (1912)

The Folklore of Glamorgan - Alan Roderick (1986)

A Guide to the Saints of Wales and the West Country - Ray Spencer (1991)

'Notes & Queries: Tresilian' - Morgannwg 45 (2001)

http://www.anglesey-history.co.uk/places/llanddwyn/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/outdoors/features/dwynwenwalk.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/sites/society/pages/dwynwen.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/sites/newborough/pages/elizabeth_llanddwyn.shtml

http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/faq/stdwynwen/

http://areluctantsinner.blogspot.com/2011/01/st-dwynwen-britains-patron-saint-of.html

Revival Meetings Underground in Pontypridd

2012-01-16T14:30:00.000-08:00

The Most Dangerous Job in the World

When you look through the local newspapers covering the period of the Revival one thing that strikes you is the number of references that there are to the deaths while at work of South Wales coal miners. Every day there seem to be reports of individual miners losing their lives underground. In the Cardiff district alone, which only covers the central third of the coalfield, there was an overall total of 142 deaths in 1904, 235 in 1905, and 141 in 1906.

Periodically there are more serious accidents involving multiple loss of life. The two worst Welsh mining disasters were both in the Pontypridd area. The Senghenydd disaster of 1913 claimed 439 lives; and the Albion Colliery disaster of 1894 - the pit where my own great grandfather was working at that time - killed 290 men and boys.

Miners walking to work at the Albion Colliery, Cilfynydd, near Pontypridd

Here's a list of those disasters that occurred between 1904 and 1906:

Nine Mile Point, Cwmfelinfach August 1904 7 dead

Elba, Gowerton January 1905 11 dead

Cambrian, Clydach (Rhondda) January 1905  31 dead

National, Wattstown (Rhondda) July 1905  119 dead

Dowlais, Abercynon January 1906  5 dead

Court Herbert, Neath June 1906 5 dead

Caradoc Vale, Gilfach Goch June 1906  4 dead

Albion, Cilfynydd November 1906  6 dead

I find myself wondering how many of those who died had been touched in some way before their deaths by the Spirit in the Revival that was burning right across Wales at that time.

Memorial to the casualties of coal mining in South Wales

at the NUM offices in Pontypridd, with the Graig in the background

The effect of this steady loss of life would inevitably have been to heighten people's awareness of eternal realities, and it must be the case that the impact of the Revival was heightened by this awareness. One of the ways in which this is evidenced was the readiness of newly Spirit-filled miners to begin organising underground prayer meetings down in the depths of the coal mines in which they worked. Many mines saw each shift starting with a prayer meeting at pit bottom. it was not long before visitors also started to attend such meetings until a visit to a Revival meeting down a pit quickly became an essential part of any visit to the Welsh Revival by people travelling from all over Europe to see what God was doing in Wales.

Miners' prayer meeting

While visitors are reported attending such meetings in a number of locations, one place in particular became a focal point, possibly because it was so easily reached by train from Cardiff. That place was Pontypridd. There, a small group of three adjacent pits in the small valley of the Gelliwion brook in the Maesycoed and Graig areas of the south west of the town, were particularly the focus of early morning visits underground. They were Penrhiw Colliery, the Maritime Level, and the Maritime Colliery. Today nothing is left of these three pits, though the name Maritime survives in the name of a row of terrace houses, the name of a former miners' pub in the Graig, and as the title of a somewhat scruffy industrial estate which now stands on the site of the colliery.

Workers at the Maritime coking ovens, around the time of the Revival

David Daniel

David Daniel, a miner at Penrhiw, is recorded as being one of the first to establish prayer meetings underground in the Pontypridd area, sometime towards the end of 1904, though as the Revival began to transform people's lives, miners in many pits across South Wales started gathering to pray and commune with God together before starting their shifts.

It is quite likely David Daniel is the coal hewer originally from Merthyr Tydfil who was living with his large family at 17 Woodfield Terrace in Trehafod in both 1901 and 1911. There is no one else of that name in the censuses living anywhere near that close to Penrhiw. David Daniel would have been 46 years old at the time the Revival broke out. His wife Mary seems to have died in 1909 at the age of 46, leaving him a widower. He may well have died himself in 1916 when he was 59 years of age.

Miners at Trehafod near Pontypridd around the time of the Revival

The Maritime Level

Initially such meetings were informal gatherings organised by the miners themselves. But then local ministers began to get involved as well, often seeing the possibility of preaching the gospel to unconvrted miners who might be attending with their 'butties', or mates. The Reverend Enoch Evan Probert of Carmel English Baptist Chapel seems to have been one of the first ministers in the area to hold Revival meetings undergound. He is reported in the Pontypridd Observer as organising a meeting at the Maritime Level in January 1905 when he took a number of his own congregation and a group of visitors to the Revival underground.

Maritime Terrace, with Maesycoed in the background

Here is the newpaper report of Probert's meeting:

The Rev. E.E. Probert Underground

‘Impressive service in a colliery’

On Tuesday morning last a most impressive religious service was conducted by the Rev. E.E. Probert in the Maritime Level. The rev. gentleman was accompanied by several members of his church and a goodly number of visitors. The whole party were conveyed into the level on a ‘journey’ of trams, kindly placed at their service by the management. Arriving at the place of meeting about 6.30 a weird, yet grand sight presented itself to those unaccustomed to such scenes. Scores of miners, with their lamps placed in all sorts of places, stood, or ‘sat on their heels’ in a manner peculiarly their own, and when the preacher commenced the service by reading a most appropriate psalm, every head was reverently uncovered and the greatest attention was given throughout. A short and beautiful address followed, and was frequently punctuated with gruff heartfelt ‘Amens’. At the close, Mrs. Mogford, Pwllgwaun, sang in excellent style, one of her well-known solos, the chorus being most heartily taken up by those present. The effect of the preaching and singing in the bowels of the earth will be long remembered by those who were privileged to be present. Just at seven o’clock our ‘tram’ was once again on the move, and in a few minutes we were tramping home over the snow and ice, delighted with our meeting and hoping ere long to be privileged to hold another. We ought to mention that there were several ladies present, special ‘dry’ trams being reserved for them.

(NB Mrs Mogford, Pwllgwaun was probably the wife of the owner of the nearby small coal mine at Pwllgwaun commonly known as ‘Dan’s Muck Hole’)

Looking down on the site of the former Maritime Level in the Graig.

The telephone exchange (left) stands on the site.

The Rev. Enoch Evan Probert was the prominent minister of in Pontypridd, who was often reported in the local press for organising special evangelistic events. He was born in Monmouthshire in 1856, and would have been 49 in 1905. His chapel, which was demolished years ago as part of an unfortuante town development scheme, was situated in Mill Street, very close to the site of the Maritime Level. He may well have regarded the colliery as being 'on his patch'. Probert continued to organise similar underground visits throughout the revival. E.E. Probert died in Pontypridd in 1940 aged 85, and was buried in Glyntaff Cemetery on the edge of Pontypridd.

Another view of the site of the former Maritime Level

Visit of the Lady Singers

Evan Roberts' brother Dan Roberts was conducting a Revival mission at the Graig in Pontypridd late February and early March 1905. He was accompanied by the team of lady singers who usually travelled with Evan Roberts, but they were presumably free to work with Dan Roberts at a time when his better known brother was having a short rest from the hectic whirl of revival meetings. The Graig was the area in which many of the miners lived who worked in the Penrhiw Colliery and the Maritime Level and Colliery.

Early in March 'The Western Mail' newspaper carried a report under the headline ‘Lady Evangelists Hold Service Underground’. The evangelists mentioned were Maggie Davies (Maesteg), SA Jones (Nantymoel) and Mary Davies (Gorseinon) who on Saturday 4^th March attended a prayer meeting at the Maritime Level, accompanied by several friends. The small group travelled by tram to a central point underground where workmen had gathered. The newspaper reported that there was an 'impressive service ' which started with the singing of 'Lead Kindly Light'. SA Jones spoke in English on the importance of being the light of Christ both in and out of the colliery, and then Mary Davies spoke in Welsh directly appealing to miners about their urgent need of salvation. There was prayer in Welsh for the salvation of the miners, all Wales and the world, adn some of the miners joined in the praying. The meeting finished with another Welsh hymn. The girls sang ‘Diolch iddo’ ('Thanks be to God') as they arrived by tram back at the surface.

Some of the Revival's lady evangelists

Penrhiw Colliery

Adjacent to the Maritime, Penrhiw colliery was also the location of many underground meetings for visitors. 'The Welsh Evangelist' includes the following:

It will, no doubt, be a source of delight to many to learn that in some places the underground prayer meetings instituted during the Revival have been continued uninterruptedly from that time until now. There was a reference made a few weeks ago, in the daily newspapers, to the meetings conducted underground at a Monmouthshire Colliery, and to the remarkable freedom from accidents in that particular colliery. The same statement may well be made with regard to the Penrhiw Colliery, Pontypridd, for the daily prayer meetings held there have been a source of continuous blessing, and the men who “work and pray” there often point to the wonderful immunity from serious accidents enjoyed by that pit. Penrhiw is the colliery visited by so many distinguished visitors during the Revival, and the workmen now frequently mention the glorious meeting held underground when the Re. Thos. Spurgeon, of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and Dr McCaig, and others took part. Early morning, from about half-past six until nearly seven, the depths of the earth echo with prayers and songs of praises, and one of the most recent visitors to the Penrihw Pit was the Countess Schimmelmann.

The wooden headgear of Penrhiw Colliery

Spurgeon Goes Underground

On the last Friday in January 1905 at six o'clock in the morning, Charles Haddon Spurgeon's son Thomas Spurgeon of Tabernacle Chapel, London and Dr Archibald McCaig, Principal of Spurgeon’s College attended an underground meeting at Penrhiw Colliery during a visit to South Wales. They were accompanied by a group of students from the theological college, including 6 from Wales. The Colliery Manager W.J. Davies and his Undermanager Henry Davies and other officials accompanied them. The singing of 'Dyma Gariad Fel y Moroedd' and the praying were both described by Spurgeon as 'fervent', and the son of the greatest of Victrian preachers was invited to share a few words after the inevitable singing of the hymn 'Lead kindly light amidst the encircling gloom.' Part of what Spurgeon said is recorded:

'Now, you all have lamps, will each man hold up his lamp to his face and I'll hold mine up and then we shall be able to see each other better.' This was done, and it was a memorable sight to see these begrimed faces shining in the light of the lamps, and not a few of them manifestly shining with the glory of the greater Light. 'Now,' said Mr. Spurgeon, 'we can look each other in the face'. 'Ah,' he added, 'and thank God, we can look Him in the face if we are trusting Jesus.'

I wonder how many times visiting groups to these underground meetings sang 'Lead kindly light'? And how many talks the miners heard which involved the light of their lamps!

Nevertheless, the result of this visit to the Welsh Revival was that they took the fire back to London. In the subsequent weeks of meetings in London they saw almost a thousand conversions.

The German Countess

One of the last recorded visits to Penrhiw Colliery was by Adeline, Countess Schimmelman from Ahrensberg in Holstein, Germany. She was a committed Christian and a well-known and generous philanthropist.

Countess Schimmelman

This high profile visit was covered in the South Wales Daily News for Friday April 13^th 1906:

Countess and Colliers

Service in a Pontypridd Pit

Impressive Scenes Underground

Descriptive Report

Countess Schimmelman, a well-known German lady philanthropist and evangelist, visited Pontypridd on Thursday with the object of seeing for herself a religious service conducted in the bowels of the earth – a service which, by the way, is one of the permanent fruits of the Welsh revival. These subterranean services, which were started about 18 months ago, have been continued uninterruptedly ever since at the Penrhiw Colliery. There every morning at 6.30 the horny-handed sons of toil who even in the dismal surroundings of a coal pit cherish a higher ideal, gather together to offer prayer and praise to their Maker. It was to see this impressive sight that the Countess, as stated, journeyed to Pontypridd. Her ladyship was accompanied by her adopted son, Count Schimmelman, Mr Grant, hon. superintendent of the John Cory Sailors’ and Soldiers’ Rest, Cardiff, pressmen and colliery officials. The company started on their mission shortly after five o’clock. The weather was fine, and in the sweet morning air the country round looked beautiful and was in striking contrast to the grim condition of things below the surface.

The descent to the Penrhiw pit was an experience which, to nearly all the party, was novel, and the sensation of being whistled down the shaft at such a speed was one which perhaps was not altogether of pleasant character, but which nevertheless had something of the spice of the adventurous about it. Arrived at the bottom of the shaft, the dark murky cavern faced us. There was a fascination about this sombre place which appealed to one’s imaginative faculties, the very indefiniteness of the outlines having a powerful influence in this direction. Guided by our glimmering lights we had not proceeded very far before we saw in the dark corridors rows of what seemed fairy lights in the distance. These on closer inspection however, proved to be only the prosaic colliers’ lamps suspended from the garments of the men who had congregated near the junction of two roads for the purposes of worship. By and bye a faint melodious sound fell on the ear, and as we draw nearer the volume of music increased, and the plaintive strains of the old applicative hymn ‘O derbyn, Arglwydd, derbyn’ (Receive , O Lord, receive), became audible and distinct.

The clanging of pickaxes and tools had ceased, the rumbling of trams had stopped, no echo of the busy hum of industry disturbed the solemnity of the occasion. Having reached this underground sanctuary, we took in the situation instinctively and unconventionally seated ourselves on boulders of rock and coal. Here we found ourselves on a sort of gallery formed by the varying gradients in the roads. At this juncture fully 200 men were assembled, and the sight was one that would test the skill of a Rembrandt to depict. Glancing backwards one could see the glimmering shale roof supported by timber. The colliers adopted all sorts of attitudes, some kneeling, some squatting, some supporting themselves by the timbers. All had their lamps between their knees, casting an indistinct halo upon the dark rock.

Site of the Penrhiw downcast,

where the Schimmelmann party descended into the mine

The service had begun by the singing of the hymn referred to. Then from the dark background – whence none of the visitors could divine – came the voice of a man reading a chapter, and once began the service proceeded without intermission on quite revival lines, but with this distinction, that there was an absence of simultaneous praying and singing. But there was no absence of fervour; the spirit instilled into the singing and praying was of the most earnest character, and dispelled any suggestion of formality. Prayer alternated with the reading of scripture, and the singing of the great revival song ‘Dyma Gariad fel y Moroedd’ (Here is love like the mighty ocean) was particularly thrilling. One could not help being struck with the devout simplicity of some prayers. The quaint references to ‘this sacred ground’ struck one forcibly. The visitors were not forgotten, and blessing was invoked upon the Countess to carry on her great and unselfish work. As a fitting close to this simple, but remarkable service came the hymn ‘Duw mawr y rhyfeddodau maith’ (Great God of countless wonders). Then Mr Dd. Daniel, one of the originators of the service, introduced the Countess to the colliers. In good Welsh the Countess prefaced her remarks with the sentence ‘Mae yr Jesu yn eich caru’ (Jesus loves you) and she at once thereby ingratiated herself into the good graces of her audience. Upon this assurance she based her brief but impassioned address, in the course of which she dwelt upon the wonderful was in which the vicarious blood of Christ united all irrespective of class or station in life into the one great brotherhood of man. One particularly striking remark of her Ladyship ‘I have never in my life been in such a dark place before, and yet in my soul it is so light that at this moment I think I have a ray of Heaven in my soul.’ The singing of the Doxology by colliers and Countess brought the never to be forgotten meeting to a close.

In a subsequent chat with our representative the Countess remarked - ‘It was beautiful. I liked those honest faces of the miners which bore an impression of absolute sincerity. The prayers were so simple and pure without any superfluity of words that they made one feel that the petitions came from the heart. And the singing! It was magnificent.

After partaking of breakfast, Countess Schimmelman and the Count were taken round Pontypridd by our representative and amongst other things were shown the famous one-span bridge and the rocking stone in the latter of which the distinguished visitors took a keen interest.

Site of the Penrhiw upcast shaft in Cwm Gelliwion

A low curved wall can be glimpsed (centre) which is possibly part of the shaft housing

Because she was such a high profile visitor to the area, the visit made underground by the Countess was a higly elaborated and well-orchestrated affair with the miners themselves almost playing a subsidiary role to that of local ministers and dignitaries. Sometimes these underground meetings became almost showpiece events. But there is one account by a Frenchman who visited an underground meeting virtually unannounced. The sensitively written and very personal account he produced perhaps gives a more faithful account of a miners' prayer meeting underground than many of the journalistic reports of more high profile visits underground.

Looking down towards Pontypridd from near the site of the Penrhiw upcast

Maritime Colliery

French atheist and psychiatrist Joseph Rogues de Fursac visited the Maritime Colliery for an underground prayer meeting in June 1906, not long after the German countess's visit to the adjacent Penrhiw Colliery. He was the only visitor underground that day, and the meeting is one which is led by the miners themselves, although de Fursac was invited to share a few words at the end.

Site of the former Maritime Colliery alongside Sardis Road

This is my own translation of his account in his book 'Un Mouvement Mystique Contemporain':

This morning I am to participate in a prayer meeting in a coal mine. At 5.30am I leave my hotel and make my way to the offices of the Maritime Colliery where I have a meeting with a foreman. A fine and penetrating drizzle falls from a uniformly grey sky. Groups of miners make their way to work in silence through the streets. It seems as if a veil of sadness covers both the men and everything else. The foreman, a Mr. L., is right on time at the meeting place. Without hesitating, we make our way to the mine, following the rail tracks. We speak together while walking. Mr. L. is enthusiastically involved with the Revival. He has fervently followed the meetings at which Evan Roberts has been present, and those of the other revivalists. As curious as any Welshmen, he asks me about the state of religion in France. My replies shock and upset him. But his own faith is strong, and he has no doubt concerning the ultimate triumph of Christ on the earth, including in France.

We arrive at the mine shaft. In line with the regulations, I hand over my matches and arm myself with a small safety lamp. Having done that, i take my place in the cage in the company of five or six miners, including the devout man I had just met there, who acts as my guide. The descent begins and is rather uncomfortable for me; though the others, who are clearly in their element in the bowels of the earth, appear completely unconcerned. The journey is a short one. The shafts are no more than about 300 metres deep, and in a few seconds we are at the bottom.

View across the Maritime Colliery site with the Rhondda valley in the background

We advance across a confusion of rails cluttered with drams and timbers, poorly lit by our small lamps. We walk several hundred paces and arrive at a junction. A lot of miners are already there. Some of them cluster in small groups; the others, mostly seated on rocks or on pieces of timber, some on their knees, are aligned in two rows along the gallery to the right, each of them with his small lamp in front of him.

The silhouettes of the men slowly disappear into the darkness of the gallery, and after a few dozen metres, the eye can only discern the light of the small lamps, which seem like a line of bright points fading into the distance. Someone invites me to sit down on a beam, and immediately the praying begins. At the start we sing Dyma Gariad Fel y Moroedd. While the powerful sounds echo beneath the arched roof, small groups of miners continue to arrive at regular intervals, and take their place down there in the blackness at the far end of the rows.

The gravity of all these men, those who walk past as well as those who pray, is impressive. Without a doubt this attitude is evidence that a godly atmosphere reigns here. Perhaps there is also in the spirit of these men the awareness that they earn their daily bread, not only by the sweat of their brows like all the children of Adam, but even at the risk of their lives by placing themselves every day in ever-present and invisible danger.

A prayer follows the hymn, then another, and one spoken by an old miner is particularly moving. He calls for the blessing of heaven on the work of the day. He asks God to protect the miners, to keep the mine from disaster in the form of flooding or terrible gas. These simple words give the scene a poignant character, and I ask myself anxiously if these hundreds of men there before me, thoughtful and resigned, had not come to some terrible catacomb, like that in which, a few months before, their brothers at Courrières were buried. A final hymn is sung, and the meeting ends with a short speech from the French Doctor which evokes a touching response. If someone at that moment could see the face of the Doctor in the light of the little lamp, they would be able to see a very deep emotion.

The meeting finishes and the men disperse each to his work. The horses, as resigned as the men, arrive at a slow pace, to be harnessed to the drams; and the mine becomes a subterranean hive of activity. I spend a few minutes talking with some of the miners, and then return to the surface.

This low stone wall on the Maritime Industrial estate

is all that remains of the Maritime Colliery upcast site

Arriving in town, I buy a newspaper which is held out to me by a little boy. My eyes are drawn by a headline in enormous letters: Terrible accident in a Glamorganshire mine; 8 men overwhelmed by floodwater, 2 saved and 6 drowned. And the anguished prayer of the old miner rings aloud in my ears again.

The Maritime Colliery as it was

Footnotes

The Courrières Disaster to which de Fursac refers was the worst ever mining disaster ever in Europe, which had only occurred in northern France just a few weeks before de Fursac's visit to Pontypridd. 1,099 men were killed in a terrible explosion. Clearly, de Fursac's knowledge of this event heightened his awareness of the dangers faced every day by the miners.

The newspaper report to which de Fursac refers right at the end would have been similar to one that appeared in the South Wales Daily News about the Caradoc Vale Colliery inundation, which happened just the day before, on Tuesday 26th June 1906 at Gilfach Goch, just five miles from Pontypridd as the crow flies. I have not been able yet to trace the actual news report from which de Fursac quotes the headline, but I suspect it may have been from the Echo.

Afterword: The Caradoc Vale Disaster

When I first read Joseph Rogues de Fursac's account and his reference to a mining disaster involving flooding, I was rather surprised, as none of the standard lists of coal mine disasters in South Wales mention it at all. Initially I thought that de Fursac had simply come across a retrospective newspaper article about the Tynewydd disaster of 1877 in which several miners were drowned in a flooded pit in Porth. This earlier disaster had such an impact that local newspapers continued to print accounts of it over 30 years later; in fact there was one such report in one Pontypridd newspaper in the spring of 1906. Then I found another news account in the Pontypridd Observer for June 1906 which proved there was a fresh disaster involving flooding at the little known and very small Caradoc Vale pit at the time of de Fursac's visit. Ironically, locally the Caradoc Vale Colliery was sometimes referred to by the same name as the Porth pit that flooded: Tynewydd (New House) because it was located near a farm of that name. The pit had been reopened early in 1906 after having been closed as a working mine some 18 years before.

I thought I'd add to this blog the brief account which follows because it seems to be a forgotten disaster, because it was a particularly poignant story, and also in order to honour the miners who died. My account is largely based on contemporary newspaper reports.

A windfarm now graces Mynydd Maendy just above the site of the Caradoc Vale pit,

testimony to how coal has now been superceded by cleaner energy sources.

The Caradoc Vale Colliery was a small concern employing not more than about 40 men, most of whom lived in the pit villages of Gilfach Goch and Tonyrefail just south of the Rhondda. There were about 25 men working in the mine towards the end of the shift when two miners in a stall broke through into old flooded workings which had been disused since the 1880's, causing a sudden catastrophic inrush of water. Most of the men managed to escape, alerted by the cries of their fellows. Two were trapped by the deluge, but just managed to get out, one of them being severely burned as a result of his holding onto steam pipes to keep his head above water. Initially, six men were known to be trapped by the flood water. A rescue operation was rapidly put in place, with help being provided by senior officials from other collieries, including W.W. Hood of Llwynypia, who ordered a pump to be brought from the Rhondda, a few miles away.

The rescue operation at Caradoc Vale

However, after a short while, all hope of recovering the remaining six men alive rapidly and completely evaporated, to the point where insurance companies were making payments, death certificates had been issued, and families were making funeral arrangements. After several days of pumping water from the mine, three bodies were eventually found. Those of Edward Manley, a married man and father of three aged 30, and 23 year old Thomas Edwards were discovered first; while a short while later the body of 45 year old John Morris, a married father of four, was found. He was a member of a local chapel.

Then to the utter amazement of all, and the delight of waiting relatives, there was a miracle. Two other miners were found alive after five days. They had been trapped further inside the workings by the rising water, but once it had all drained through into the new workings, they had climbed through the breach into the old workings which were at a slightly higher level. They survived here for six days in total darkness by eating wax candles. They were David John Stephens aged 32 and Richard Tomkins 27, both single men. In later years Stephens was wont to carry around his death certificate in his pocket. It must have been an amazing feeling for both of them to know they had more or less come back from the dead. I wonder if either of them had been reborn spiritually as well?

The view towards Gilfach Goch, in the distance,

from the top of the Caradoc Vale spoil heaps

The body of a fourth dead miner, Edward Hathway, or Hathaway as he is referred to in the press, was the last to be found. He was stated to be 25 years old, but was actually several years younger than that. He had gone back into the workings to help his colleagues after at first managing to escape. He was able to meet up with two of them them in the old workings, somehow, and even spoke with them. They got separated again in the utter darkness, and when some long while later they found each other again, Hathway was delirious, and was talking of swimming out of the pit. He then went off again on his own, trying to find a way out. A short while later, he appears to have stumbled into the sump in the pitch darkness of the workings, and drowned. Paying no heed to the terrible danger of the situation, Edward Hathway sacrificed his own life in a heroic but ultimately futile and unnecessary bid to help his butties escape from the floodwater.

Edward Hathway of Evanstown, Gilfach Goch

Edward Clifford Hathway, was actually born in 1884, the son of engine driver Albert Hathway and his wife Emily. He had come to South Wales from Paulton in North Somerset when he was a teenager, probably just before the end of the 1890's. Like many young men from Somerset, he came to find work in the coalfield across the Severn. My own grandfather had done exactly the same thing, moving from Somerset to Pontypridd at almost exactly the same time as Hathway to live with a married sister who had already made the move with her husband. Likewise, Hathway lived in Evanstown, in Gilfach Goch about two miles from the pit, and stayed with his married sister Alice and her husband Albert Hall and their family. Tragically, he had been due to be married on the day his body was recovered; his unidentified fiancée had spent much of the week at the pit entrance waiting and hoping in vain he would be rescued.

Edward Hathway's body being brought out of the mine

The shock of the disaster, even in a community relatively used to violent death at work, must have been dreadful for the families. Nevertheless, John Morris's widow Charlotte later remarried in 1910, her second husband being a colliery sinker by the name of Richard Williams. She apparently went on to open a dance hall in Tonyrefail, for which she was excommunicated from the chapel. On the other hand, Manley's widow Edith never remarried. She was a local girl just 27 years old and pregnant with her fourth child at the time of her husband's death. She died in Gilfach Goch in 1956 aged 78, having brought up four children single-handed. Hers must have been a very hard life.

Evanstown, Gilfach Goch in 1900 - then a new coal mining community

The Caradoc Vale disaster has strong parallels not only with the Tynewydd disaster of 1877, but also with the Gleision mining disaster in West Glamorgan in September 2011. That too was a small level in a rural setting worked by a handful of men. In what seems almost a replay of the Caradoc Vale disaster just over a century before, four miners were drowned in the Gleision in a sudden inundation of water when they accidentally broke through into flooded old workings. All three of these parallel disasters remind us today how dangerous a job coal mining can be, and how deserving of respect and admiration those men are who spend their lives mining coal.

The remote site of Caradoc Vale colliery today, looking down the Ogwr Valley towards Blackmill

The level was in the trees to the left; the spoil heaps can be seen centre

Sources:

Un Mouvement Mystique Contemporain: Le Réveil Religieux du Pays de Galles 1904-5 - Joseph Rogues de Fursac (1907)

Rhondda Collieries - John Cornwell (1987)

Thomas Spurgeon: A Biography - William Young Fullerton (1919)

Caradoc Jones: A Forgotten Missionary - Noel Gibbard (2007)

Fire on the Altar: A History and Evaluation of the 1904-5 Welsh Revival - Noel Gibbard (2005)

'The International Impact of the Welsh Revival' - Noel Gibbard (transcription of a talk given at Heath Church, Cardiff October 2004)

Voices from the Welsh Revival 1904-5 - Brynmor Pierce Jones (1995)

Faith and the Crisis of the Nation: Wales 1890-1914 - R. Tudur Jones, transl. Sylvia Prys Jones, ed. Robert Page (2004)

Victorian Pontypridd and its Villages - Don Powell (1996)

The Story of Gilfach Goch - Katie Olwen Pritchard (1973)

Mining Deaths in Great Britain Vol 8: 1900-1909 - Ian Winstanley (1995)

Pontypridd Observer 1904-1906

South Wales Daily News 1906

The Rhondda Leader 1906

Western Daily Press 1904-1906

A French Atheist Investigates the Revival in Pontypridd

2012-01-12T08:48:00.000-08:00

Many overseas visitors came to Wales in during the 1904-5 Revival and immediately afterwards. Among them was a young French medical doctor, a specialist in psychiatry, who was an atheist in terms of his personal beliefs. Joseph Rogues de Fursac came to Wales in the late Spring of 1906 in the aftermath of the Revival, when its effects were still strongly being felt. At the time de Fursac was 33 years old, and at the start of what would prove to be an illustrious career in psychiatry.

Marie Henri Joseph Pierre Etienne Rogues de Fursac, to give him his full name, was born in the Cognac area of western central France on 20th December 1872. His parents were Jean Baptists Emile Rogues de Fursac and Jeanne la Boulman. His family were members of the lesser nobility who originally came from the small village of St. Etienne de Fursac - hence the family name - in the departement de Creuse, in the Limousin region.

The ancient Rogues de Fursac family home in St. Etienne de Fursac

After studying in Paris, Joseph Rogues de Fursac graduated as a Doctor of Medecine from the Sorbonne, and was appointed to a junior post at the mental hospital at Fitz-James, Oise to the north of Paris, half-way between the capital and the northern city of Amiens. It was at Fitz-James that he married Adele Camille Margueritte Petit on 1st September 1901.

He must have quickly shown considerable promise in his field, and he was sent to Wales by the French Ministry of the Interior after the French Public Health Department began to investigate the effects of religious excitement on the mental health of those with nervous instability. His first book, Un Mouvement Mystique Contemporain: le Réveil Religieux du Pays de Galles, 1904-1905 (1907) is his report of the visit to Wales, when he spent most of his time in Cardiff, Pontypridd and the Rhondda Valleys, with brief visits to Neath and Bridgend. The book is a minor classic of early writing on psychology, though it only exists in a French version, and seems never to have been translated into English.

The frontispiece of de Fursac's book on the Welsh Revival

After his visit to Wales, de Fursac became Physician in Chief of the Public Insane Aylums of the Departement de la Seine, and was appointed Head of the Clinic at the Medical Faculty of Paris. He went on to write his Manuel de Psychiatrie, which was translated into English and was a standard work in its field for many years.

Rogues de Fursac died in Paris 1942 at the age of 70.

Faculte de Medecin, Paris

The report on the visit to see the effects of the Welsh Revival is written sensitively and sympathetically by someone who relates naturally to strangers, has an understanding of cultural differences, and a good eye for significant detail. However, it is also written by a man whose perspective is analytical, and whose attempts to arrive at an explanation of what he encounters keeps him in the position of interested observer, and from entering in to the experience of revival for himself.

Cardiff early 20th century

In Cardiff ...

Rogues de Fursac starts his visit to Wales in Cardiff. He visits the Salvation Army in the city centre, observes an open air meeting and is impressed by their work with alcoholics. He cannot understand how they have been so successful in setting people free from addiction; but rather than seeing it as a result of conversion, he resorts to explaining it in terms of the community support former alcoholics receive as a result of being closely associated with the Salvation Army.

The Hayes, Cardiff - where the Salvation Army held the open air de Fursac observed

... And Bridgend

Later he visits a mental hospital in Bridgend and sees for himself the impressive statistical evidence of a sudden drop in the number of admissions for alcohol-related illnesses, attributable directly to the impact of the Revival. This is a theme he keeps coming back to in the book.

A Salvation Army hall in Cardiff

But as an atheist who has no belief in God, he tries to find a natural and rational explanation for the Revival. He attributes it to three principle factors. Firstly, Celtic temperament – he writes that the Welsh are temperamentally naturally religious people, prone to mysticism, and that their relative isolation due to their distinct language has preserved this. The whole revival history of the nation since the Methodist Revival started in 1735 he attributes to this. Secondly, he points to education and the development of a cultural tradition centred on Bible teaching, particularly through Circulating Schools initially, and then Sunday Schools, which means that the Welsh are steeped in a biblical mindset. The third factor he describes as circumstance – in other words, a specific and sudden event or sequence of events which act as a trigger to initial revival. In Fursac’s mind, Revival is thus a natural rather than a supernatural phenomenon: There was no need to appeal to grace to account for conversion. Rogues de Fursac’s explanation was an inadequate and unbiblical view of conversion, totally ignoring the nature of revival. (Gibbard p. 165 re. R Tudur Jones on Fursac in Ffydd ac Argyfwng Cenedl: Cristionogaeth a Diwylliant yng Nghymru 1890-1914 (1975).

But though Christians would disagree with de Fursac's thesis, as Gibbard and the great Welsh historian Tudur Jones do, it is still worth considering his description of his visit to Wales because it contains a wealth of insight and first-hand encounter with this great move of God. And because it is written by a Frenchman, it contains a level of detail and atmospheric description which a Briton would tend not to include due to over-familiarity with a British way of life, and this gives it a directness and freshness which is rare.

What follows is a selection of extracts from the book dealing with the time Rogues de Fursac visited Pontypridd. In this piece from the book, he describes his arrival in Pontypridd, his meeting a Welsh family, going to chapel with them, and then talking with a number of miners converted in the revival.

The translation from French is my own. The original French text can be read online at http://openlibrary.org/books/OL14024266M/Un_mouvement_mystique_contemporain

View over Pontypridd

Lost in Ponty

When I get off the train in Pontypridd, the rain falls even more heavily. I make my way across the town, seeking the information which will enable me to carry out my plans for the day. After briefly getting lost, philosophically ascending and descending steep hills and endless steps slippery with black mud, and questioning people who give me contradictory advice, I end up in a non-conformist chapel where the service is just coming to an end. I explain my situation to the minister. Thinking for a moment, he advises me to go and see a Mr. D., a local wine merchant, whose family has been actively involved in the revival, and who are among the more notable spiritual families in the town. A deacon leads me to the house of Mr. D., but it is Mrs. D. who receives me. Her husband and children have not yet returned from the chapel meeting.

It is possible to identify the family de Fursac refers to simply by the inital D. thanks to his referring to them as wine merchants by occupation. There is in fact only one wine merchant listed for the whole of the Pontypridd district in Kelly's Trade Directory for 1906, and this is a Mr. Tom Davies of 4 Mill Street who is actually a grocer operating as an agent for the wine merchant Gilbey and Sons. Given the social problems posed by alcohol consumption in South Wales at the time of the Revival, and the fact that, as we shall see, de Fursac spends much of his time with the Davies family listening to testimonies of former drunkards, it's more than a little surprising that one of the more prominent supporters of the Revival in the town runs a shop which, amongst other things, sells wine and spirits!

Mill Street, Ponty today

The Indomitable Mrs. Davies

Tom Davies and his family appear in the census for 1901 when they were living at 4 Mill Street, and also in the census for 1891 when they were at number 2. They do not appear in the census for 1911. Tom Davies would have been 45 years old at the time of the Revival, and his wife Emily two years older. Tom originated from rural Monmouthshire, having been born in Llanfihangel, while his wife Emily was born in Llangattock, near Crickhowell. They have two children living with them in 1901, a son and a daughter.

Mrs. D. is a friendly woman, straight-forward, lively and talkative: in France we’d say she was a woman from Toulouse or Marseilles. However, she is very Welsh and it is very much with a typical Welsh faith that she speaks of the Revival, and of Evan Roberts, ‘the poor boy raised up by God to be a challenge to the pride of the clergy.’

The good lady remarks that I am soaked. ‘Wait,’ she says, ‘give me your hat and your coat. We’ll get them dry straight away.’ I sit down comfortably in front of a huge coal fire, of this amazing coal dug out from beneath the mountain, while my hat and coat dry in the kitchen. I explain that I am French, and that I have read a lot about the Welsh Revival, and that my reading has given me the desire to see for myself the effects of this great movement. Mrs. D. is not reserved like the English, and she feels able to ask me several questions. She seems surprised and a little uneasy on finding out that I am a doctor, and a mental health specialist at that. ‘You’re not intending to find madness in the Revival, I trust?’ she said to me, giving me a suspicious look, and before I even had a chance to reply she continued: ‘No, no, my dear sir, it’s neither madness nor hysteria which makes it all happen, it’s the heart!’ These last words are punctuated by Mrs. D. energetically jabbing a finger into the left side of my chest.

Penuel Chapel, Pontypridd could well have been the Davies' place of worship

(now sadly demolished, though the fountain remains)

I suggest that the manifestations of the human spirit are of interest even if they are not pathological in nature, and that it is possible to explore the psychology of a great mystical movement, without having the least intention of locking away the originators. My explanations only partly satisfy my listener. ‘It’s not with science that you should approach religious questions,’ she said, shaking her head sceptically, ‘it’s with faith.’

The site of Penuel today, an utterly dreadful piece of town planning

(Why did the Council allow that?)

The discussion ended there, and Mrs. D. continued being the most thoughtful of hostesses. One moment, however, I thought things were going to go wrong. It was when Mrs. D spoke of the impiety of a people abandoned by God, in other words, the French people. Her eyebrows frown, her gestures became more nervous, and it seems that she held me personally responsible for the atheism of my country. But happily her anger is expressed towards the Catholic Church which she accuses of having made us lose our faith and forget God. ‘In the end,’ she exclaims, softening somewhat, ‘all that is going to change, the Revival will win over France like all the other nations of the world, and the French will soon return to a more Christian way of life.’

The cloud having blown over, our conversation about the Revival continues. Mrs. D. clearly understands my wishes and promises a special programme for the afternoon. I will meet some converts and hear some authentic Welsh hymns in a real Welsh chapel.

Pontypridd's famous single-span bridge over the River Taff

Lunch With the Davies Family

At last, Mr. D arrives, accompanied by his eldest son Mr. John D., a theology student.

The presentations complete, the father and son offer to give me the information I will need. Mrs. D invites me to join the family for lunch, which I accept without hesitation. We sit at the table for a comfortable and relaxed Welsh lunch, without a drop of fermented drink upon the table.

We talk enthusiastically about a lot of things, especially religious subjects. Everyone here seems full of hope for the future: church ministers are full of passion, conversions are on the increase, the Revival is perhaps less noisy that at the beginning, but it is still having a profound impact and is no less effective, which will finally result in the conversion of the world. The reign of the Holy Spirit is close. In short, these good people continue to live the positive dream of the mediaeval mystics and await the establishing of a new earth where men, redeemed by the Son and sanctified by the Spirit, will be fully reconciled with their Creator.

The young theologian is small, and dark with black and very spirited eyes. He has a sympathetic and intelligent face. He is well educated and enquiring. He has studied psychology, and has read Holding and William James. He questions me about mental illness and is interested in the function of the different areas of the brain. He likes Darwin and believes in evolution. He’s a Celt, but a Celt disciplined by an Anglo-Saxon education, and influenced by modern culture.

Taff Street then, on Market Day

After sharing lunch together, Tom Davies takes de Fursac out for a walk around the town before they attend a Welsh chapel meeting in the afternoon. There are many chapels in Pontypridd, but only three of them are Welsh speaking chapels so the meeting would have been at one of them. They are Tabernacle Baptist, Penuel Calvinistic Methodist and Sardis Independent. Of these, only the latter still functions today, Penuel having been demolished in the 1960's, and Tabernacle now serving as the Pontypridd Cultural Centre and Museum. The lasts two of these were the closest to the Davies home, and it is likely to have been at Sardis or Penuel that the meeting de Fursac now goes on to describe took place.

Taff Street today

A Chapel Service

I take part in the afternoon service in a Welsh chapel. Mrs. D. installs me next to her on a bench and continues her hospitality by looking for the songs in a hymn book which the congregation sings or for the passages in the Bible which the minister reads. The first hymn is ‘Dyma gariad fel y moroedd’, sung to the new tune which the revival has popularised. This tune has a story behind it. I am told that it was found written on a sheet of paper sealed in a bottle somewhere on the Caernarfonshire coast. With a little imagination it is possible to imagine some unfortunate Welsh emigrant singing a song at one and the same time serious and sad, the emotion which grips him grows as the boat takes him further from the country of his birth. Then there’s a storm in the middle of which the boat begins to break up and sink. The emigrant encloses the tune in a bottle and consigns it to the ocean as a final farewell to his Welsh homeland. At last, much later, perhaps after centuries, the ocean casts up on the coast the bottle its mournful message.

Sardis Chapel - the other possible place of worship of the Davies family

Alas, so seductive a legend needs itself to be laid to rest. This composition is actually no more than a few years old. The composer is living, and his identity is known. It is none the less an admirable piece of religious music. The newspapers have promoted the legend, and I have often read it and repeated it. Even as I play it here with the plain notes of the piano it seems to be to be very fine, but in the mystical atmosphere of the Revival, sung by hundreds of voices, the effect is awesome.

You have the impression of something totally overwhelming you, seizing hold of you, penetrating you; you experience an amazing religious feeling, the sense of a superior reality which is far beyond the everyday. It seems that your awareness, set free from space and time makes contact with the absolute. It is all something metaphysical, and perhaps rather pretentious. This all seems terribly vague, I know, and it is not my fault, as emotions provoked by music can scarcely be described. These are pure affective states which cannot be translated into ideas, and which words are incapable of rendering. .... There is an accompaniment by the organ, but it is drowned by the choral singing of the congregation so that you can scarcely hear it. There is also a conductor for the singing, but in reality, it is the congregation which directs the singing, and spontaneously finds the right movement, and expresses the nuances of the hymn. The congregation also determines the reprises. Scarcely have the final notes resounded when, from the back of the hall, the fresh young voice of a girl sings ‘Dyma gariad fel y moroedd’ and is followed by the entire congregation. Three times the hymn is sung, each time led out by a single voice from among the faithful. At last the melodies die down, and the sermon begins in Welsh, incomprehensible to me, which allows me to daydream without scruple.

Sardis

One of the most interesting aspects of de Fursac's account is his sympathetic retelling of the stories of the people he meets on his visit to Wales. What follows is four individual testimonies of the effect the Revival had on individuals in bringing them to conversion. These are often the kind of stories that get glossed over with just a few details in some of the primary accounts of the Revival.

Sardis as it was

Some Amazing Testimonies

Four converts of the revival are waiting for us in the parlour or living room at Mrs. D’s home. They are accompanied by a man who I can’t place but who seems to respond in a manner reminiscent of the ‘godly man’ of religious literature. He has always been religious, and when the Revival broke out he became one of these obscure apostles whose influence is less well known, though no less effective than that of the great leaders. All five are miners in the prime of their life, aged between 35 and 50 years, big men, well developed, solid, with calloused hands; there is nothing pseudo-mystical, nervous or feeble about them. They are eager to share fresh experiences which are unfamiliar in our modern times. Mrs. D does the presentations. The ice is quickly broken. A cordial understanding is established between the Welsh and the Frenchman. One f them reminds me that I too belong to the Celtic race, and that we are in effect related. I accept the suggestion with pleasure.

It is Mrs. D, in a manner typical of her, who provokes them to share. ‘The Doctor,’ she says, ‘has come to study the Welsh Revival and wants to hear some converts tell their story. Who’s going to start?’ The four look at each other. One, dark, eyes averted, gets up and without embarrassment, excusing the fact that he only speaks English imperfectly, begins a simple and elegant story which I summarise. He said he was a hardened drinker. He was aware of his abject condition and was resolved to deal with it. Remorse overwhelmed him, and the recollection of his youth when he led an upright family and religious life haunted him. He was finally converted in an Evan Roberts meeting. His conversion was sudden. He confessed his sin, gave his testimony, and on leaving, signed up to become a member of the congregation. This was 18 months ago.
Since then he has remained sober, and lives the life of an exemplary Christian.

Market Street, Pontypridd

His neighbour, a huge greying bear, who has not stopped groaning and sighing while the first was speaking, gets up in his turn. He also excuses himself for not being an orator, but says to God that He knows he speaks to glorify Him and that therefore He will help him. Directly speaking to me with a Celtic familiarity, he tells the story of his conversion. He leans towards me, takes hold of me by the back of my jacket and calls me a young man. I interrupt him with several questions: ‘For how long have you been an alcoholic?’ He looks at me with a hint of irony in his expression: ‘Me? It is more than thirty years since I got drunk for the first time.’ ‘And how much did you drink a day?’ ‘I could down 15 glasses of whisky accompanied by beer in a sitting.’ (There is laughter from those listening.) Perhaps the good man exaggerates the strength of the enemy forces in order to magnify the value of the victory. However, we continue. He has never been completely irreligious: when Saturday’s drinking didn’t keep him in bed on Sunday, he would go sometimes to the chapel. When the revival started, he helped out at some of the Evan Roberts meetings. Each time he felt moved, but the meeting finished without any change in him.

Some time after, one Sunday he accepted the invitation of a friend to partake of a glass of beer. Conformity to the Sunday Closing Act meant that they had to travel 3 miles from Pontypridd before they could buy a glass of beer, that’s about 5 kilometres. This didn’t deter him, and it was not the first time that he had made a similar expedition. They arrived at the bar and demanded some beer. Our man lifted the glass to his lips and swallowed a mouthful, but the beer gave him no pleasure whatsoever. His friend noted his solemnity and said him ‘If you are not happy with the beer, it’s best for us to go.’ The two friends went and separated after covering part of the way together. The drunkard experienced a feeling of terrible anguish. Remorse plagued him. At last he went past a chapel and felt pushed to go in. He resisted a moment, but finally entered. The service reached its climax. The congregation sang. He felt a release, fell to his knees, cried and prayed at length. His conversion is accomplished. It doen’t pass unnoticed, and the astonished faithful cry out ‘Diolch iddo’ (‘Thanks be to God’) to celebrate the return of the lost sheep to the fold. ‘You were really pleased to return home,’ says Mrs. D. ‘Yes,’ replies the good man, but there were others who were happier than I, and that was my wife and children. ‘When I went home’ he said, addressing me, ‘there was always terror in the house. My children hearing me cursing and shouting angrily used to hide themselves saying ‘Father is still drunk!’ and this naturally exasperated me still more. Now everything is changed. When I go back home this evening, I’ll meet the poor little things on the corner of the street and instead of hiding from me they run to embrace me. The former drunkard sits down again with a little shake of the head and a sneaky smile which betray his inner joy.

Another view of the old bridge

A third then shares his own testimony. This one was a complete atheist, at least he says and believes he was. His wife and children, very religious unlike him, never stopped praying for him. Each evening he heard his two little girls say: ‘My God, please save our father.’ This got on his nerves and on more than one occasion he had rudely said so. One Sunday evening, as he walked the streets of Pontypridd, he hears the music which comes from a neighbouring chapel. The music seems beautiful to him. He goes in and begins to join in the singing with the congregation. The hymn is repeated several times, and the atheist, literally gripped senses a tremendous upheaval in the core of his being. His atheism vanishes. The horror of his life as it has been appears to him. He kneels down and stays there, praying and crying, until he arrives at a place of certainty that Christ has forgiven him.

The fourth, at last, tries to say a few words, but he speaks very poor English. Another summarises his story for him. It’s the same as the first two: a former alcoholic converted at an Evan Roberts meeting.

The New Inn Hotel - many visitors to the Revival stayed here,

probably Rogues de Fursac also

I thank all these good people and congratulate the former drunkards on their current sobriety. We speak for a few minutes. The godly man speaks of several other conversions which are particularly encouraging to him and of interest to me. The gathering seems to come to an end, and I am about to bid my farewells when, to me great surprise, the 15 whiskeys man kneels down and being followed by all the others including the family, begins to pray in English. His head is pressed against his right hand, his left convulsively shaking his handkerchief. In a voice filled with emotion and in broken phrases, he thanks Jesus for what he has done for him and calls on Him for the future, and to save all the alcoholics in Pontypridd. The others respond with ‘amen’ and with sighs. Then the godly man in his turn prays for a long time in Welsh. The prayer must be touching because two of the converts sob. After a while he switched from Welsh to English, and I understand that he makes the change with me in mind. In effect, he prays for his French brother who is there at his side, that the grace of Jesus will enlighten him; that he will become in the hands of the Holy Spirit an instrument for the regeneration of poor France.

The site of the New Inn Hotel today

The next day, Rogues de Fursac paid a visit to an underground prayer meeting at the Maritime Colliery in Pontypridd, and this will be the subject of my next blog entry.

The day after that, Rogues de Fursac travelled by train to Merthyr Tydfil seeking further insight into the nature of the Welsh Revival. On the journey there he overhears some local women who get on the train part-way talking about a minor earthquake they have just experienced a few minutes before boarding. Rogues de Fursac remarks that he felt nothing, but that that might have been because of the movement of the train. It is this briefly recorded incident that enables us to pinpoint the date of the visit to Pontypridd, for in the weekly local newspaper The Pontypridd Observer for Saturday, 30th June 1906 there is reference to a minor earthquake which occurred in the area sometime during the previous week. In spite of the rather dreary 'Welsh' weather he has encountered, this visit to Pontypridd took place in the last week of June 1906 some six months after the 'end' of the Revival. There was no reference to Rogues de Fursac's visit to Pontypridd in the local paper.

Drinking fountain, in front of Penuel Chapel

In the later stages of his visit, de Fursac actually meets and talks with Evan Roberts, and it might well be worth doing another blog about this encounter at a later date. Suffice it to say that while de Fursac was impressed by a lot of what he saw, and while he felt that the revival did a lot of good - particularly in setting many people free from alcohol addiciton, he himself apparently remained a convinced atheist. His determined role as observer and analyst shielded him from being personally impacted by the move of the Spirit at that time. He seems to have remained an atheist for the rest of his life.

Inscription on the Penuel Square fountain: 'Duw a digon. Heb dduw heb ddim.'

('God is everything. Without God without anything.')

Nevertheless, his account of the immediate aftermath of the Revival is an interesting one, particularly because of its objectivity. The closely described encounters with people who were particularly impacted by the Revival or directly involved in it are perhaps the most interesting parts of the book. The testimonies de Fursac retells bring us closer to the essential quality of the Revival than a lot of more general and impressionistic first-hand accounts written in English, and for that reason they are very worth reading.

In his conclusion, de Fursac theorises that the 1904-5 revival could be the last that is seen in Wales as the erosion of the linguistic and cultural distinctiveness of Welsh people through increasing exposure to modern western society would inevitably destroy over time the very qualities which de Fursac felt made the Revival possible. However, in these days it sees that a fresh move of the Holy Spirit is gradually bringing about a climate in which Revival will once again be known in Wales, though the way it finds expression will undoubtedly be very different from what was experienced in 1904-5. It is hoped that secular France will also be overwhelmed by the power of the Spirit as well.

PS If any of my French friends can help me track down a picture of Joseph Rogues de Fursac, I'd be grateful!

Sources:

Un Mouvement Mystique Contemporain: Le Réveil Religieux du Pays de Galles 1904-5 - Joseph Rogues de Fursac (1907)

Fire on the Altar: A History and Evaluation of the 1904-5 Welsh Revival - Noel Gibbard (2005)

'The International Impact of the Welsh Revival' - Noel Gibbard (transcription of an address at Heath Church, Cardiff in October 2004)

'A French View of a Welsh Revival' - E. Hughes-Roberts in Psychiatric Bulletin 1992

Voices from the Welsh Revival 1904-5 - Brynmor Pierce Jones (1995)

Faith and the Crisis of the Nation: Wales 1890-1914 - R. Tudur Jones, transl. Sylvia Prys Jones, ed. Robert Page (2004)

Victorian Pontypridd and its Villages - Don Powell (1996)

Pontypridd Observer 1904-1906

Kelly's Directory for South Wales 1906