The name of Mr.George Davies is inextricably connected with the success of the cause in Llanwyno. Mr. George Davies said to others that his father and mother had a big hand in building the first chapel. The date of that was 1786. Mr.George Davies had a big hand in building the present chapel. The date of that is 1876.On the foundation stone of the present chapel is the inscription:


The chief builder was the Rev. William Jones, Ton Pentre, Rhondda, and the builders John Jones, brother of the Rev.William Jones, and his cousin David Jones. The cost was about £800. The Rev.William Jones, Aberdare, William Jones, Ton Pentre, Rhondda, T.C.Phillips, Mountain Ash, later Vicar of ….?.... and Edward Matthews. The chapel seats almost 350. Nearby a Vestry is built which corresponds to the size of the Chapel. Here they will come to consult each other. The gable of the chapel and one side of the vestry face the road to Porth and Pontypridd.

Now a minister’s house has been built on the lower road, halfway between the old chapel and the new chapel. At the same time there will be built a block which is worth looking at. In 1880, four years after the new chapel was built, Mr. George Davies died. In his will he left the land beneath the whole property in freehold tenure to the Trustees of Bethel, Llanwyno. In addition to this we learn that he put £100 on the foundation stone. The debt of the chapel should be cleared apart from £70.
[Note: A correction at the end of the document states "Mr. George Davies bought the land for the new chapel and presented it to the trustees of Bethel before he died - it was not left in his Will as stated (in Chapter 4)].

As we see, it was only a few years that Mr. George Davies enjoyed the privileges of the new chapel, but it is obvious that it was through his efforts that the chapel was built. Mr. George Davies’ very long and very rich story is connected with the old chapel. The history of Mr. Davies is interwoven with the history of the Cause in the period when he was alive. He was born at Fanhaulog, or Fanhailog, the farm next to the chapel, in about 1796 [in fact it was 1793] . In the old deeds of the chapel it is called Vanhalog Chapel, as it was on the land of the Fanhaulog estate before Mr. Davies bought and presented it to the cause. Mr. George Davies lived outside the parish for years; despite this he never broke his ties with the Cause in Llanwyno, For years he lived in Gelli, Ystrad, but while there he also used to cross Penrhys and Cefn Gwyngul to [attend] the meetings in Llanwyno. The Baptists had a cause in Gelli at the time, but Mr. Davies did not feel completely at ease there. For that reason he used to go to Llanwyno. From Gelli he moved to Pentwyn, a farm about two miles to the east of the chapel, and from there he moved again to Mynachdy. After that he built Tynewydd nearby, and it was there that he ended his days. His chapel was his all to the end.

It is sad to record that his diaries and many of his accounts [have not survived]. Sacred Account Books were not kept at that time, and the keeping of church accounts was not as important as it is now. Everything used to be recorded in a penny copy book of that period, and nobody dreamt of keeping a penny copybook for posterity. What is available is a fairly concise statement of the accounts and religion of the period – the accounts of one, and sometimes two years compressed onto one titlepage in small, neat hand-writing. The financial accounts show that the pulpit in Llanwyno was occupied almost every Sunday. This was the age of the Giants.

Repeatedly in sequence on the pages we see the following names: Mr. David James, St.Mellons; Mr.Edward Matthews, Ewenny; Mr.William Evans, Tonyrefail – three or four times a year; after that Mr.David Saunders; after that Dr. Saunders, Swansea; Mr. William Prydderch, etc., etc. And it was in Mr. George Davies’s house that most of these used to stay. These ministers did much of the Church’s pastoral work while staying in the area. We learn that Mr. Edward Matthews used to arrive early on a Saturday morning and then stayed until Tuesday. In one of the old books we have notes by Mr. Edward Matthews and Mr. William Evans, Tonyrefail. The following is but one of many similar entries:

[in English]:
Matthew the son of John and Ann Jones, Chapel House, of the parish of Llanwyno, baptised at Vanhaulog Chapel, 8th Sept. 1861. The above is in Mr. Edward Matthews’ handwriting.

Again further on:
[in English]:
George son of Robt. Evans by Sarah his wife was baptised at Vanhaulog Chapel, June 22nd.1879 by me, Mr.William Evans, Tonyrefail.

The financial statistics shed a flood of light on the conditions of payment of the ministry at this time. In about 1850 the Sunday payment for sermons was five shillings. From 1850 until 1870 the Sunday remuneration was fifteen shillings, and from 1875 on we learn that the payment to a minister had risen to one pound. Did this apply generally? It must have, for the giants of the denomination came to Llanwyno in their turn.

In Mr. George Davies’s later years, Mrs. Evans, Tynewydd, kept his books for him. Here is what Mrs Evans tells us:

Without exception at the end of each year the Church was indebted to Mr. George Davies to the sum of fifteen or sixteen pounds. In his turn, at the end of each year, he would bid her cross out the old debt and start a clean page. The church accounts have been at Tynewydd since Mr. George Davies’s time, apart from a few years. Mrs Evans has seen many a rise and fall in the accounts of Bethel. Her care and anxiety over the books was always great. Her work is completely without payment from an earthly perspective, but truly she shall not be without her reward. Mr. George Davies was an excellent organiser of the Seiat*. There was a time when only he and a handful of godly gifted women formed the Bethel, Llanwyno Society. In a monthly meeting in Aberdare when the deacons were being questioned on the subject of brotherly love, Mr.Davies declared that brotherly love in Llanwyno was perfect. It was easy for him to say that since the Society in Llanwyno at the time was comprised mostly of women.

[* The Seiat was the mid-week religious society meeting, a prominent feature of the calendar of non-conformist chapels]

This remarkable man died at the age of eighty six after doing an excellent day’s work for the Master.