This article appeared in the magazine 'History of the Methodist Church in Wales Summer 2018, No. 9 – Bathafarn Bach', and permission was given by the author Angharad Thomas, for this article to be included on the Talsarnau website where a great deal of chapel history has been recorded.
History of Soar Chapel, Talsarnau
How easy it is to close a chapel, how difficult to set one up. That thought passed through my mind in an unforgettable service at Soar, Talsarnau a few days before Christmas 2017.
It was a service to close the chapel, and if it was a sad occasion for me, it was even sadder for those who had attended since they were children. There was nothing wrong with the building, it had been well kept over the years, and money had been spent on it. More importantly, the audience was eager for this cause to continue. No, some minor rules have been responsible for closing it, and locking the door for the last time, and a lot of history is lost. It will stay in the memory of the remaining faithful, but when this generation has gone by, that will be the end of it.
We have to go back as far as the time it was established, as far back as the death of John Wesley. A short fifteen years after his death, a Wesleyan minister had come to preach in the Talsarnau area. I know that Edmund Evans was his name, as he was my old, old, old grandfather. At Ty'n y Groes, Brontecwyn (or Bryn y Bwa Bach) the service was held in November 1804. The sermon must have pleased, and created some fire in the hearts of the listeners, as they resolved to erect a Wesleyan chapel. The membership number was 45. In twenty years a small chapel had been erected, and Captain Griffith Roberts, Cefn Trefor Isaf took up the work, and it was opened on July 2nd 1824. On a slate on the front of the chapel were the words, 'Remember Lot's wife'. It was clearly about the future.
The cause flourished, and in fifteen years the chapel was far too small, and the membership a hundred. A new chapel was erected over the road in 1839, and enlarged in 1863, when the membership number was 170, after the revival of '59. How was a small, rural, poor community able to do this? There were no Lottery grants in those days.
They simply rolled up their sleeves and did the work themselves, and there is a lesson for us in our present day in this story. 'All materials and transportation were obtained cheaply from the kind farmers of the area' the entry said. As Edmund Evans himself says, 'They (the inhabitants of the area) transported all the wood, lime and stone cheaply. May glory be to God'. This is all the more amazing when you realise the size of the chapel. What comes to mind is the pictures in the Children's Bible from long ago when the workers of the Old Testament sweated when dragging huge stones to build a temple. Soar is huge.
What became of the little lad who had been a love messenger? He became a Wesleyan (assistant) preacher himself, wandering from place to place spreading the word, and vouching for Christ. I knew he was buried at Soar, and three years ago, I went to the cemetery with our parents to look for the grave, unsuccessfully. Being of a stubborn nature, I returned there the next day with gardening tools, and eventually, under the thorns and brambles, I found it among the oldest graves of the cemetery. On it, Edmund Evans is referred to as 'Utgorn Meirion' and says he preached over 13,000 times in his lifetime, before his death in 1864.
We know his life story quite well as he kept a detailed diary, which can be found in the National Library of Wales. One of his remarkable stories was that he was the minister present when Dic Penderyn was hanged. Eleven thousand people had signed a petition to declare that Dic Penderyn had been wrongly accused following the Merthyr Riots of 1831. He had been accused of stabbing a soldier. Edmund Evans went to his cell and prayed with Dic Penderyn for the last time. I cannot imagine what it would be like to comfort a young man, 22 years old, with a young wife and baby, facing hanging. I do not know why a minister from Merioneth was there, rather than a local preacher. Someone suggested it wouldn't be safe for a local minister to associate themselves with the cause, and Dic's sister had married a Methodist minister, so maybe the suggestion made sense.
In the vestry of Soar Chapel there was an oil painting of Edmund Evans and a poen by Elis Owen, Cefnymeusydd :
Cennad Hedd ei fedd wyf fi - yn Soar
Y mae'r Sant yn tewi;
I gannoedd y bu'n gweini;
Gwaed y Groes i gyd ei gri.
When the Revival of 1904 was at its height, members of Soar wanted to celebrate the centenary of the cause, and that first sermon at Ty'n y Groes. Money had to be raised, and once again, they did the work themselves. Four hundred pounds they required to raise (which is closer to £45,000 in today's money). A 'Grand Bazaar', was organised, and it was to last three days! This happened a week before Christmas, and there were four stalls with grand names, but in English – 'Moelwyn Stall', Dwyryd Stall' and there was a refreshment stall. They must have been pretty extensive stalls as there were fifteen people in charge of each stall, and their names and addresses have been identified. I know this because I have a copy of the programme, and Edmund Evans (the younger) – grandson of Utgorn Meirion, was the secretary. What I do not know is what was sold on the stalls. Everything must have been sold as the money was successfully raised.
With the proceeds, a smart minister's house was erected, Bryn Awel, the cemetry was extended and the debt was cleared on Seion. Perhaps everything had been too much for the secretary as he moved to America soon after. But his sister, Jane Ellen, stayed in the area and she was the chapel organist. One Sunday, a young minister, R Môn Hughes came to preach and they fell in love. They were my grandfather's parents. This is why Soar is an important part of my family's history. Under the pulpit at the front of the chapel, there is a chair donated by Jane Ellen in memory of her parents. This was one of the items removed from the chapel after the last service.
But to go back to the 1904 Revival. In the 'Gwyliedydd' October 2004, Emrys Jones published an article discussing the impact of that period on his mother, Maggie Gwyneth Jones, who was six years old at the time. Her parents had gone to the nightly Prayer Meeting in Soar leaving her with her eight-year-old sister and four-year-old brother at home. When her brother started crying uncontrollably, they wrapped him in a shawl, and they went to the chapel. As the meeting had not ended, they took the little one to the Chapel House where he fell asleep. When the two sisters entered the chapel, there was a throng of people and children praying across each other and shouting, "Haleliwia, Blessed on his Head be the Crown". Although it was ten at night, this continued for another hour. The little family left at eleven, but on the way they saw an old woman who told them, "Go back to the chapel. Light has come like an arch over the chapel."
Twenty years later, Emrys himself was a child, and he insisted that the memory of the Revival was still very much alive, and that they would have a playtime Prayer Meeting in the yard. Going to pick fire sticks later, Emrys remembers the lads singing "On his head be the Crown and Thank You Thank Him", and said "If I remember correctly, it was in Egryn near Dyffryn that the Revival began. Hundreds gave themselves anew to the Lord and no similar prayers were ever heard. "And this is what was said by the Rev D Tecwyn Evans at his last meeting in Penrhyn, "The curtain was thin, and Heaven was very near us."
The prayers went quiet in Soar, Talsarnau and the closing of the doors is a sad end to the story. Yes, it is difficult to establish a cause, but it is a pretty easy move by some to close it. May we thank the faithful of Soar for maintaining it for so long, and we hope that the building will be protected, and that the congregation may stay together to continue to worship.