Cwmglo House was a substantial Elizabethan house. In 1640 the owner, a Presbyterian, gave one of his barns for the use of the Dissenter congregation which to this point had been meeting at Blan-canaid Farm (NPRN 18040). The congregation had moved both due to the need for more space, and in search of a more remote location. During the week the barn was filled with hay in order to avoid suspicion, services were conducted standing, and watchers were placed outside the barn to alert the congregation to any appraoching militia. A rostrum was built of crudely worked timber from the surrounding woodland. Despite the watchers the congregation was caughton one occasion “In the twilight the military, led by a Colonel Morgan, were scouring the mountainside for conventicles. Some distance from Cwmglo they halted, and Col. Morgan, dismounting his horse, went down to the dingle to reconnoitre. He found the Dissenters at prayer, but did not enter. Unseen and unheard, he listened from without. Within, one of the faithful, on bended knees, was, like Jacob of old, wrestling with his God. Moved to compassion, or it maybe stricken with remorse, the Colonel stealthily withdrew into the woods and left the service undisturbed.” (Lewis, 1947) After the Act of Toleration 1689 the congregation built a plain chapel, measuring 30ft by 18ft, on Cwmglo land belonging to Captain D Jenkins of Hensol.
The first minister to be recorded as associated with the meeting for definite was Rev Henry Maurice, a Presbyterian, between 1672 and 1682. In 1698 Rev Roger Williams, an Arminian, was appointed, with an assistant Minister of James Davies, a Calvinist. Due to the range of theological views present in the congregation - Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, Calvinists, Anabaptists and Arminians - tensions arose. In 1747 one group of Arminians left to form Hen Dy Cwrdd at Cefn Coed y Cymmer, in 1749 another group of Arminians left to form Hen Dy Cwrdd at Trecynon, and in 1752 the remainder of the congregation left for Ynysygau, Merthyr, and Cwmglo closed. By 1877 the chapel was in ruins.
RCAHMW May 2023
A History of Hen dy Cwrdd, Cefn Coed y Cymmer - Tom Lewis, 1947