Bethany Baptist Church, West Cross 1851-2001

Bethany Baptist Church, West Cross 1851-2001

Rev Joshua Thomas, Baptist Minister at Leominster in the 18C stated that ‘there were Baptists in England in the days of Henry the Eighth and before, but the fury of the persecution was so great in those times, that had they attempted to form a regular Gospel Church it must have been done without any prospect of its continuance.’. He went on to trace the earliest Baptist activity in Wales as taking place in the Olchon Valley around Hay on Wye in 1633. Nevertheless, for all this early activity, Thomas confirmed that ‘The first Baptist Church in Wales, after the Reformation, was formed at Ilston, near Swansea in Glamorganshire, in1649’. Many of the soldiers who fought on the Cromwellian side in the Civil Wars were Baptists and they took the opportunities in the lulls between fighting to preach in the areas where they found themselves.

One feature of the church at Ilston was the great distances, which the members travelled in order to attend the services. This is particularly striking in an age when travel was not easy. In the Ilston Book, - the earliest record of a Baptist Church in Wales - a full list of the members of the church up to 1660 is recorded. This record has been preserved because Miles took it with him to America in 1663. An analysis of this list shows that the membership of 261 was distributed geographically as follows:

Gower 75

Swansea 30

Carmarthenshire and

West Wales 68

Llangyfelach, Cadoxton,

Neath, Aberavon,

Margam and other points East 65

Further afield, including Hay and Barnstable 23

In 1672 there is reference to a licenced conventicle - a non-conformist meeting place - in Swansea. In any event there is a definite reference to a Baptist Church in Swansea in 1689 which was affiliated to the London Association of Baptist Churches. In 1699 the membership of the Swansea church stood at 80 and two branch churches had been formed at Penyfai (near Bridgend) and Felinfoel (near Llanelli). In 1689 the Swansea church bought the old Presbyterian meeting room and the Baptists were established formally and finally in the town.

The Baptists in Mumbles are thus able to trace their origins back to John Miles and his church in Gower through the church established at the end of the seventeenth century in Swansea. It is interesting to note, however that there was to be a further incursion into Gower by the Baptists before a member of that Gower church was to be instrumental in establishing the cause at Bethany.

John Pugh was to be the founder of our church at Bethany and of a significant number of Baptist churches in the wider area. From1840-1844 the indefatigable preacher was active among the English speaking people of Blackpill and Mumbles. In 1844 the church at Siloam was rebuilt to provide additional space to accommodate the influx of members from Mumbles and Blackpill. June 1847 saw the first baptismal service in the stream at Blackpill, near the ‘Roman’ bridge, and in September 1850, the new cause was established at Bethany, Norton. It has been suggested that the site at Norton was chosen because it lay half way between the twin fields of Blackpill and Mumbles where Pugh had been working. In 1851, with the formal transfer of land for the building, the cause at Bethany was completed.

In June, 1863, John Pugh's second wife died and his own health began to decline. He had enjoyed robust health throughout his life and ill health came as something strange to him. His health continued to deteriorate and he died in January 1864 at 67 years of age. He was buried at Siloam, Killay. The founder of the church at Bethany was, indeed, a giant amongst men. All his ministerial and pastoral work he undertook in the context of running a large farm and a timber business. He seemed tireless in promoting the work of the Lord, and we, living 150 years later, can feel proud that the Lord raised up such a man as John Pugh to further the work of the gospel in this area.

Professor leuan Gwynedd Jones has made a study of the 1851 Ecclesiastical Census results in Swansea and District. In that census a count was made on Census Sunday of every person attending religious worship in the morning, afternoon and evening in every place of worship in England and Wales. This census coincides with the year in which Bethany was founded. The results for the parish of Oystermouth are revealing. The population of Oystermouth in 1851 was 1938. On Census Sunday, a total of 1540 people in the parish attended church. There were seven places of worship, 1 Anglican, 3 Independent, 1 Baptist (Bethany), 1 Wesleyan Methodist and 1 Primitive Methodist. The survey lists the number of sittings available in each building. Bethany is recorded as 180, a figure, which seems on the face of it to be rather optimistic, as the building was quite small. However the strength of the cause is indicated by the attendance figures for the Sunday. For Bethany this is 280, presumably the total of at least two services and probably three. Only the Baptists and the Independents recorded an attendance in excess of the number of sittings available. However this is not as high a proportion as it appears as some of those attending might have attended twice or even three times on the Sunday and would therefore have been counted two or three times.

The list of the original Trustees of Bethany recorded in the Conveyance of 1851 confirms the general picture nationally about the social strata from which Baptists in the main were drawn. The list is as follows: John Evans, tailor; Robert Westcott. gardener; John Morgan, haulier; John Atkins, gardener; John Bird, cordwainer; George Hopkins, painter; William Elliott, tailor; Thomas Austin, labourer, John Russell, labourer, and David Rosser, labourer, all of the parish of Oystermouth; Thomas Lewis, labourer and John Lloyd, labourer, both of the parish of Bishopston, and George Jones, clerk in Her Majesty's Post Office at Swansea. The list is interesting, not only in recording names which were to be associated with Bethany for a considerable time over the next one hundred and fifty years, but also in giving us a picture of the social class from which they were drawn and the geographical area which they represented. The majority, of course, lived in the parish of Oystermouth and that was to be expected. It should be noted, however that the parish of Oystermouth extended at that time as far east as Blackpill and northwards on to Clyne Common. Two of the Trustees were drawn from the parish of Bishopston, which again would reflect where some of the congregation came from. John Pugh had in fact opened a branch church in Murton during the late 1840s, but this had closed by 1852. Bethany would have been the nearest Baptist church for Bishopston people at that time. George Jones, it should be noted, was not only drawn from the highest social group, but also lived in Swansea. In many ways the diverse geographical spread of the first Trustees reflects the fact that Bethany has always drawn its congregation from a wide area, and with the advent of the motor car does so to an even greater extent today.

John Pugh's role as the leader of this flock of God, can be seen as even more vital in the development of the infant church. He, it was, who negotiated, with William Richards, an Architect in Swansea, the lease of a plot of land at Longfields at West Cross for the building of a church and in all probability put up the money from his own pocket for the building. We have seen that the site selected for Bethany may have been influenced by the preaching activity of John Pugh in Blackpill and Mumbles, but it should be noted that the site at Longfields was not as remote and inaccessible as it later proved to be. In 1851 the main settlements in the area were the centre of Oystermouth around the parish church; an area of fishermen's cottages at Southend (Outalong); the village of Norton and some scattered cottages around the West Cross Inn, and the village of Newton (Upalong).

Ronald Austin in a recent article in Minerva VII has shown that there was a flourishing Marble Works in West Cross (then known as Norton Burrows) between 1814 and 1880 in an area to the north of the West Cross Inn known as Washinglake.

The Mumbles Railway ran along the road to Oystermouth from 1804 and there was a station to serve West Cross and Norton almost opposite the bottom of Bethany Lane adjacent to the present-day garage. This site continued to be the station after the line was moved to run along the seashore in 1898, and was known as Haroldsmoor. With the electrification of the line in 1928 the station was moved to a new site to the east of the West Cross Inn where it was better placed to serve the growing residential area of higher West Cross. At the same time a second new station was created at Norton Road. For most of the nineteenth century, therefore, Bethany was very much at the centre of the little community. The Post Office was located in nearby properties, there were some small shops, the Inn and of course the Marble factory.

It is probable that Richards had some personal interest in the site. The ground landlord was the Lord of the Manor (the Duke of Beaufort).

From the context of the indenture, it appears that Pugh had undertaken the building of the first chapel on his own initiative. That Richards was an architect might suggest that he had acted as architect for the building after negotiating the lease from the Lord of the Manor. The lease was fairly typical of ground leases at that time. It was for 999 years at five shillings (25p) per annum. The length of the lease probably reflected the charitable nature of the purposes for which the land was required. However the rental was not particularly generous, although neither was it particularly high.

Whatever the reasons for locating Bethany at Longfields, West Cross, it was on this site that Pugh built the first chapel. The first building was that which is now the schoolroom of the church. Alterations, which were undertaken in the 1970’s, led to the discovery of an old baptistry under the wooden floor of the schoolroom, roughly in the centre of the room. This was rectangular in form, - the rectangle conforming to the rectangular nature of the building. This find, together with the discovery of blocked up windows in the wall which now joins the rear pine end of the church to the schoolroom, suggests that the original chapel was a long rectangular building with the windows and entrance doors in the long wall facing Mumbles. If it conformed to the pattern of other chapels of the time it is probable that the pulpit would have been against this wall between two entrance doors. The pews would have been arranged facing the pulpit along the length of the building so that those entering the church would be facing the congregation having entered from behind the pulpit.

In common with many other causes, Bethany embarked upon a fund raising campaign to cover the costs of the building of the chapel. In 1850 the Cambrian newspaper reports, ‘A monster tea party took place at the old castle of Oystermouth on Monday in aid of the funds of the Baptist Chapel. About 1100 partook of tea. The omnibuses had quite a harvest’.

A similar ‘tea meeting’ was held in 1863 in conjunction with the Oystermouth Railway Company. Arrangements were made for people to be brought from Swansea and given tea. The cost was I/- per head (5p). Even at this rate, which seems low to us today, a handsome sum was paid into church funds as a result of the effort, and Baptists from all over Swansea came to know of the progress of the cause at Mumbles. This latter meeting was held in the years leading up to the building of the new Church in 1867.

For the early years it is probable that Rev John Pugh maintained a close oversight of the cause at Mumbles. However in 1864, Rev J.R.D.Pooley from Chippenham was inducted as Pastor of Bethany. Pastor Pooley was extremely popular in Mumbles and the church was forced to use the new British Schoolroom in Dunns Lane for its meetings as the little church at West Cross could not cope with the numbers who came to the services. After some months of his pastorate it became obvious that there was need for a building project at Bethany and the congregation began to raise funds for this eventuality. Pastor Pooley left Bethany in 1866, before the new building became a reality. He was succeeded by Rev R Warner, and it was during Pastor Warner's ministry that the present church was built and the original building became the schoolroom of the church.

It seems strange that the church decided to remain on its original site and expand there, particularly as they had been holding services in the centre of the village in the British School. However the decision must have been taken to stay at West Cross and in 1867 a new building was opened. The Cambrian records the event in its Mumbles column for 13 September 1867:-

The enlargement and improvement of Bethany Baptist Chapel having been completed, the re-opening services were held on Wednesday and Thursday, September 4 and 5. Sermons were preached on the occasion by the Revs. G.P.Evans (York Place) and J.P Barnett (Mount Pleasant) of Swansea and the Rev. R.P. Macmaster of Bristol. Considering the unfavourable state of the weather, the services were well attended, especially on Thursday evening, when a large congregation listened to an excellent sermon by the Rev. R.P. Macmaster. The friends at the Mumbles deserve great praise for the alteration they have made in the place of worship; they have converted a small and unsightly chapel into one of the most commodious and pretty in the district and they now have a house of God worthy of this rapidly rising watering place.

In the years following, great efforts were made to pay off the debt on the church and this was achieved by 1869.

There were probably three periods in the history of Bethany when the blessing of the Lord was especially known. The first of these was the pastorate of Rev Thomas Davis during which the young church really took off. The Sunday School was active and Bethany played an important role in the community of Mumbles. The second period was the equally long pastorate of Rev. W.H.Ham (1920 - 1945). Mr. Ham's ministry was known throughout the district and his name became synonymous with Bethany, so that decades afterwards, one only had to mention the name of Bethany to have the response of ‘Mr. Ham's church’. The third period of special blessing was the shorter pastorate of Rev. Samuel Lewis during the 1970's. Once again the membership grew, a minibus was obtained to collect people for the services and so in some measure compensate for the church's difficult location, and a choir was formed. The church's spiritual life took on a new dimension.

The Book of Proverbs records that ‘the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow with it.’ (Proverbs 10:22). It is often the case, however, that after a time of rich blessing from the Lord there is a time of testing when the Evil One is very active in attacking the Church of God and the work of the gospel. Such times occurred after the periods of blessing outlined above. It is possible that Thomas Davis remained as pastor of Bethany for too long. At any event, by 1909 when he retired the cause was already in decline and the opening of the new Baptist Church in Mumbles in June 1910 certainly side-lined Bethany even further.

The church grew from a membership of 62 in 1893 (with 110 scholars in the Sunday School) to a maximum membership of 110 in 1905 (with 70 scholars in the Sunday School). The work of the Sunday School was particularly noteworthy and the Cambrian newspaper for 9 July 1886 records:

Bethany Sunday School, Westcross: On Sunday last, the 46th anniversary of the above Sunday School was held. In the morning an appropriate sermon was delivered to the young by the Rev. Thomas Davies (sic), pastor of the chapel. In the afternoon the service consisted of recitations and dialogues by various members of the school. In the evening a service of song entitled ‘Little Meg's Children’ was rendered by the elder scholars. The reading was conducted by the Pastor, and the singing was under the able leadership of J.G.Kingdom, who has held the post of superintendent for many years. Miss Alice Orrin attended at the harmonium for which she deserves credit. The attendance throughout the day was good and the services were listened to with marked attention.

This little paragraph in the Swansea weekly newspaper gives something of the flavour of chapel life at Bethany in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was probably written by a member of the church and submitted for publication. It has the flavour also of Victorian prose, but when all this is taken into account, there is still a picture of an active Sunday School with eager scholars taking their various parts, tutored and encouraged by a staff ably led by J.G.Kingdom. Miss Alice Orrin was the daughter of James Orrin (1828 - 1893) a pillar of Mumbles society during this period and an active and influential member of Bethany.

The picture of Bethany at this time is of a flourishing and active cause with a number of members who also played a prominent role in the community and society of their day. James Orrin is a classic example, but families like the Libbys, the Westcotts and the Venns were also to be influential. Robert Westcott was recorded as a gardener in the list of original Trustees in 1851. In 1870 Bethany is holding its Sunday School Outing in a field lent by Mr Westcott of West Cross farm. According to W.H.Ham, the work from which Bethany sprung began in the home of Harry Libby's grandparents in Blackpill. In 1896 John Henry Libby, father of the late Harry Libby was to have become one of the Trustees of Bethany. Their son was to become a local councillor and later Mayor of Swansea. There seems little doubt also that J.G.Kingdom was a man of no mean ability, musically and in other ways. His devotion to the cause is recognised in the Cambrian reports.

The prosperity and flourishing nature of Bethany at this time is also reflected in a report in the Cambrian in 1869 that gas had been brought to the village of Oystermouth. The first place of worship in the village to avail itself of this new facility was the Wesleyan chapel, but soon afterwards gas was installed in the Baptist Chapel in West Cross. The Cambrian adds the following comment:

hese places [the Baptist and Wesleyan chapels] are of course fitted only for the poorer class of saints and sinners. But the aristocratic church is still in darkness which a flickering oil lamp outside, and a few Huntley and Palmers within, try to make visible. To remedy this evil, the Vicar ....is descending to the level of much decried Dissent, and by the aid of local talent which rallies round him he is giving ‘popular entertainments’ ....

This curious report demonstrates a certain animosity towards Dissent. It may have been, however, that the darkness in the ‘aristocratic’ church was spiritual as well as physical, and the Vicar's activities were aimed at increasing attendance at his place of worship as well as presumably attempting to raise funds for the installation of gas lighting. Bethany was, however, at the fore of installing gas lighting for the convenience of the members.

Megan and R.O.Roberts in their booklet Two Centuries of Mumbles Methodism published in 1977, report;

The Revival of 1904, led by Evan Roberts of Loughor, had a considerable effect on the village: 'for weeks together meetings for prayer were held nightly in the premises belonging to the various denominations .........

there was little if any preaching but much and mighty prayer and testimony' An especially large number of meetings appear to have been held in Tabernacle Congregational Schoolroom at Castleton; and on Boxing Day 1904 there were special services and meetings at the Victoria Hall. A prayer meeting from lO.am until noon was attended by 150 people, and a few hours later 'upwards of 170' were present at the tea arranged as a welcome to the converts. Between 5 December 1904 and 6 January 1905 ‘62 converts joined Castleton Church, 18 Wesley Chapel, 12 Bethany Baptist Chapel, 9 the Established Church and 3 the Gospel Hall’.

The statistics are taken from a report in the Mumbles Weekly Press for January 1905. There had been a steady growth in the membership over the years of Thomas Davies' ministry, but the decline following his retirement was dramatic. In 1909 the membership is recorded as 48 (with 52 Sunday School scholars). It is surely no coincidence that in the following year the new Baptist Church in Mumbles was completed and opened. A group of Baptists had been meeting in Mumbles since 1907. Originally they had met at the Kursaal (later the Tivoli), then at the Council School and the Odd Fellows Hall in the Dunns. Whether this group had any connection with Bethany, is not known. What does, however seem certain is that a substantial number of Bethany members left to join the new church in Mumbles. This exodus seems to have coincided with the retirement of Thomas Davis. The numbers look strange, yet telling. In 1905 the membership of Bethany is recorded as 110 ; in 1909 the membership is reduced to 48 and the membership of the new church at Mumbles recorded as 50. The new building at Broadway, Mumbles was opened in June 1910. In 1910, Bethany's membership declined still further to 35.

Over the years leading up to the First World War, and through the war itself, the membership continued to decline, reaching an all time low in 1921 of 17. In 1920 Rev W.H.Ham began his long pastorate at Bethany as a Lay Pastor and it was from that date that things began to improve in the history of the church.

The troubled nature of the church is reflected in the frequent changes of secretary. In the period between 1893 and 1910 there were five secretaries of the church. W. Griffiths of 32 Park St., Mumbles served for 5 years, J Hopkins of Stansted House West Cross and later of Alexandra Terrace served for two years, P Thomas of Westbourne Place and Church Park served for two years. J Jones of 10 Victoria Avenue, Mumbles served for five years and Edward Wright, variously of Ithon House, The Parade, Mumbles and Harbour House served for four years. Between 1910 and 1923 the secretaryship changed almost annually; the longest period being three years, served by George Rolfe from 1921 to 1923.

In September 1952 Mr. Caughley reported that he had received a call from Libanus English Congregational Church Morriston which he was accepting with effect from 1 November 1952. At the same meeting he introduced Rev Luther Morgan and his wife to the church with the suggestion that Mr Morgan take the pastoral oversight of the church for a period of six months in the first instance. This was agreed by the church.

At the final meeting under the pastorate of Mr Caughley in October 1952, the church made a valiant effort to pool all its resources from the Sunday School, the Sisterhood and the Young People's work in order to pay off all the debts of the church so that the Rev. Luther Morgan could start his ministry at Bethany free of debt. Rev Luther Morgan was to be paid £4 per week, rising to £5 in 1954.

Rev. Luther John Morgan had been born in Morriston in 1901. He had trained at the Bible College of Wales, Swansea where he had met his future wife, Elizabeth Charles. Elizabeth was born at Llanelli in 1907. In 1929 Luther began an itinerant ministry work in Kent and Essex with the Fellowship for the Evangelisation of Britain's Villages. Elizabeth began midwifery training at Plaistow, London, qualifying as a state enrolled nurse in 1933. In the same year she commenced missionary work with the Japan Rescue Mission in Osaka, Japan. In 1936 she was forced to return to Britain because of a breakdown in her health. In 1939 Luther and Elizabeth were married at Trinity Chapel, Llanelli, and returned together to continue the itinerant ministry in Kent and Essex. They lived in a caravan. Their sons, Lemuel and Dewi were born whilst they were engaged in this ministry. Lemuel was born in Dartford, Kent in 1943, and Dewi at Tollesbury, Chelmsford, Essex in 1946. In the same year, Luther Morgan ended his ministry in eastern England and returned to Swansea to take on the pastorate of the Glynn Vivian Miners Mission in Cwmbwrla. He and his family moved into 115, Manselton Road, Manselton, Swansea. In 1949 he ended his pastorate with the Mission, and in 1952, as the earlier account shows, was introduced to Bethany by the Rev Norman Caughley.

Mr Morgan was a godly man who laboured hard for the Lord at Bethany. His visitation work was legendary and many families who had moved into the new West Cross housing estate were brought into contact with Bethany through the visits of Mr. Morgan. He and his family lived in rooms with one of the members of the church in Castle Square, Mumbles. During the pastorate close links were made with the Bible College of Wales and the boarders from the Emmanuel grammar School attended Sunday School at Bethany.

Miss Freda Bennett, Treasurer from 1971-90, was a member of an old Bethany family. Her father had been a gardener to Miss Richards at West Cross House, and she and her brothers and sisters had been brought up in the lodge on what was then Higher West Cross Lane (now West Cross Avenue) She was brought to Bethany as a babe in arms and together with her sisters Peggy and Betty gave a lifetime of service to the cause. The Bennett sisters were baptised in 1920 at the beginning of Pastor Ham's ministry. Freda was a Sunday school teacher for many years, and many people living in Mumbles and West Cross still testify to the great help she was to them as their Sunday school teacher. Her sister Peggy became a missionary with the Wordwide Evangelization Crusade and she and her husband Willie Easton served for thirty-five years in Columbia, South America. In their retirement they returned to Swansea to live with Freda and both ended their days in Bethany to the great enrichment of the fellowship. Betty Bennett, the other sister, also gave a lifetime of service to Bethany. Betty was church organist for a number of years and played an active role in all aspects of the fellowship. Betty Bennett died suddenly in 1976. A pulpit Bible was presented to the church in her memory. Peggy and Freda were blessed with long and useful lives. They died within days of each other in 1998 at 90 and 88 respectively. They are greatly missed by the Fellowship and by the whole of the village as they were regularly seen almost to the end of their lives making the journey from Brooklyn Terrace behind Underhill Park down into the village.

Two of the chapel buildings in Mumbles have a date of 1850 or 1851, - Bethany and the former Reformed Methodist Chapel, Mount Zion, in the Dunns. (This is now a Christadelphian Hall). The latter was a breakaway from the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Some of its members subsequently embraced Christadelphianism and the cause followed that sect. However the inclusion of Bethany in the Census confirms that there had been Baptist activity in the area for a number of years, with groups probably meeting in private houses prior to the building of the chapel.

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