How beautiful they stand,
Those ancient altars of our native land,
Amid the pasture fields and dark green woods,
Amid the mountains' cloudy solitude;
By rivers broad that rush into the sea,
By little brooks that with a lapsing sound
Like playful children run by copse and lea,
Each in its little plot of holy ground,
Those old grey Churches of our native land.
( L. E. Landon).
This happy description of the ancient Churches of our land was not inapplicable to our own about one hundred and fifty years ago, before Aberdare became a grimy industrial mining town.
Clutterbuck; who toured Glamorganshire in 1799, writes that he was delighted with the old Parish Church in its peaceful surroundings, with women knitting under the yew trees, the last of which remains to-day, and was long the habitation of a brown owl, as in Gray's famous Elegy.
Malkin also, who passed through the valley in 1803, found the churchyard singularly beautiful. He mentions the venerable though decaying yew trees in the churchyard, but of the church itself he has nothing good to say. He found it in a sad state of repair, very damp and pelted through the crevasses by the elements. "The natives”, he adds, “lived in wretched hovels; hence their neglect of their church at this period is hardly surprising”.
Again, in the Topographical Dictionary of Wales published in 1840, the Church is described as " remarkable only for its rustic simplicity of character; which is in perfect harmony with, its surroundings."
The site of our Parish Church was well chosen—at the entrance to the once beautiful little valley of the Dare, and at the foot of Craig Rhiw Mynach (Monk Street) which the monks and pilgrims were wont to travel between the monastery of Pen Rhys (near Tylorstown) and the great Cistercian Abbey of Llantarnam.
On their way, they would pass the reputed original Church of St. Elvan (the ruins of which may still be seen in the woods of Plasdraw, Aberdare), and also the Cistercian Monks' farms of Tir Ergid and Hendre Baili, Llwydcoed.
The Cistercians (a religious Order, of which one of the Founders was Stephen Harding, an Englishman), as soon as they had settled in Wales, supported the Welsh through thick and thin, and were, in turn, beloved by them. Their spiritual influence was very marked in the 13th century, and amongst the wonderful Abbeys erected by them in Wales were those of Tintern, Llantarnam, Llanthony, Margam, Valle Crucis and Strata Florida—now nearly all in ruins.
THE ANTIQUITY OF ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.
The earliest churches in Wales were doubtless very small, many being merely Oratories, consisting of a Sanctuary only. They were, for the most part, built of wood, and this accounts for their disappearance. It was only after 1100 A.D. that stone Churches superseded them in most parts of the Principality.
There are no structural remains of any Church here that can be definitely assigned to a period earlier than the eleventh or twelfth century. One of the earliest stone churches was in Llandaff. It was begun in 1120A.D., and was known as Ty Gwyn (White House), a description applied also to the one at St. David's, which points to simple white-washed stone building. Our Parish Church is believed to have been erected in the year 1189A.D., when the great Crusader, Richard I., became King of England. The authority for this date was the Reverend John Griffith, formerly Vicar of Llangwm, Monmouthshire, who officiated in the Parish in 1915, and who had made a special study of the Orientation of Ancient Churches, whereby the date of their erection can frequently be approximately determined. His calculations were confirmed in a remarkable manner a few years later by the Diocesan Architect, G. E. Halliday, who fixed the date at " about 1200” adding that “he was certain, that he was not 20 years wrong in his opinion”, which was largely- based on the fact the arch leading from the Vestry. into the Church, which was, no doubt, the original entrance into the building, is of Sutton stone, obtained from a quarry long since exhausted, situated at Sutton (now Ogmore-on-Sea) Bridgend. The Sutton stone, by reason of its softness when quarried and subsequent hardness on exposure the air, was much in demand during the twelfth century for decorative work in Churches, and examples still may be found in Llandaff Cathedral, Margam Abbey, other ancient buildings.
THE BUILDING.
The building is of the National British type—a simple parallelogram with East window and South doorway.The materials used throughout are such as could be readily obtained locally,stone, stone tiles and oak rafters.
The walls are 3ft 6ins thick, and apart from repair work necessitated at various times, it is reasonably certain for the most part, they are the original walls, and the presence of rubble work in them tends to confirm this, the same may be said of the oak rafters supporting the roof, all adze hewn and not sawn.
The Iron Gates that were outside the West door have been moved to the inside of the building to preserve them. Consisting a series of the figure 3 (96 in all) they are noteworthy in that they were made at the local Abernant Ironworks which closed down in 1875.
On the South side of the building there is an ancient Sundial, and in the North wall may be seen the irons used for holding the window shutters.
The first Tablet on the left side of the Church records that on May 5th, 1789, David William Watkin was buried pendicularly inside the building. The reason for this rare form of interment is not apparent.
All we know of Watkin is that he was a. native of Aberaman, aged sixty-six, and that Shoni Mawr, the giant, was his hired servant. Possibly he wished to be on a higher level than Shoni at the end of his life. .
The heavy iron plates in the floor are the remains of the old heating system which existed prior to 1915. The fire, reached by a flight of stone steps, was well below the floor level and covered by an iron grating. It was not an unusual experience to find the edifice filled with a blue sulphorous haze during Service.
The Chancel was erected much later than the Nave –possibly at about the same year-1637as was the bell, by which time Aberdare had become a place of some importance, for we find that the Lord of the Manor, the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, held an important Survey (with an impanelled jury) in the village in 1638.
The figure of St. John the Baptist in the small stained glass window in the Chancel is a striking likeness of Thomas Evans, the Parish Clerk, in whose memory the window was erected. On the opposite side is the Priest's door - not an unusual feature in ancient churches.
It is clear from the position of the Piscina on the right, and what may be an Aumbry on the left of the Chancel Arch, that the Altar originally stood on that spot.
The Font. The very early fonts in this Diocese—that is those of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries are of a large bold outline and Norman in character. Almost all of them are worked out of Sutton stone, and are circular or octagonal; characteristics which clearly apply to St. John's Font.
The Vestry was built in. 1795 (as appears above the entrance), possibly to serve in the main as a Day School the first in the Aberdare Valley. But previous to this, between 1739 and 1773, one of the peripatetic or cir cilatory schools established by the Reverend Griffith Jones, Vicar of Llanddowror, for the teaching of the Church catachism and the reading of the Bible in Welsh, was being held in the Church during the winter months; and there at the outset about 60 pupils, children attending in afternoons and adults in the evenings.
Those ancient altars of our native land,
Amid the pasture fields and dark green woods,
Amid the mountains' cloudy solitude;
By rivers broad that rush into the sea,
By little brooks that with a lapsing sound
Like playful children run by copse and lea,
Each in its little plot of holy ground,
Those old grey Churches of our native land.
( L. E. Landon).
This happy description of the ancient Churches of our land was not inapplicable to our own about one hundred and fifty years ago, before Aberdare became a grimy industrial mining town.
Clutterbuck; who toured Glamorganshire in 1799, writes that he was delighted with the old Parish Church in its peaceful surroundings, with women knitting under the yew trees, the last of which remains to-day, and was long the habitation of a brown owl, as in Gray's famous Elegy.
Malkin also, who passed through the valley in 1803, found the churchyard singularly beautiful. He mentions the venerable though decaying yew trees in the churchyard, but of the church itself he has nothing good to say. He found it in a sad state of repair, very damp and pelted through the crevasses by the elements. "The natives”, he adds, “lived in wretched hovels; hence their neglect of their church at this period is hardly surprising”.
Again, in the Topographical Dictionary of Wales published in 1840, the Church is described as " remarkable only for its rustic simplicity of character; which is in perfect harmony with, its surroundings."
The site of our Parish Church was well chosen—at the entrance to the once beautiful little valley of the Dare, and at the foot of Craig Rhiw Mynach (Monk Street) which the monks and pilgrims were wont to travel between the monastery of Pen Rhys (near Tylorstown) and the great Cistercian Abbey of Llantarnam.
On their way, they would pass the reputed original Church of St. Elvan (the ruins of which may still be seen in the woods of Plasdraw, Aberdare), and also the Cistercian Monks' farms of Tir Ergid and Hendre Baili, Llwydcoed.
The Cistercians (a religious Order, of which one of the Founders was Stephen Harding, an Englishman), as soon as they had settled in Wales, supported the Welsh through thick and thin, and were, in turn, beloved by them. Their spiritual influence was very marked in the 13th century, and amongst the wonderful Abbeys erected by them in Wales were those of Tintern, Llantarnam, Llanthony, Margam, Valle Crucis and Strata Florida—now nearly all in ruins.
THE ANTIQUITY OF ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.
The earliest churches in Wales were doubtless very small, many being merely Oratories, consisting of a Sanctuary only. They were, for the most part, built of wood, and this accounts for their disappearance. It was only after 1100 A.D. that stone Churches superseded them in most parts of the Principality.
There are no structural remains of any Church here that can be definitely assigned to a period earlier than the eleventh or twelfth century. One of the earliest stone churches was in Llandaff. It was begun in 1120A.D., and was known as Ty Gwyn (White House), a description applied also to the one at St. David's, which points to simple white-washed stone building. Our Parish Church is believed to have been erected in the year 1189A.D., when the great Crusader, Richard I., became King of England. The authority for this date was the Reverend John Griffith, formerly Vicar of Llangwm, Monmouthshire, who officiated in the Parish in 1915, and who had made a special study of the Orientation of Ancient Churches, whereby the date of their erection can frequently be approximately determined. His calculations were confirmed in a remarkable manner a few years later by the Diocesan Architect, G. E. Halliday, who fixed the date at " about 1200” adding that “he was certain, that he was not 20 years wrong in his opinion”, which was largely- based on the fact the arch leading from the Vestry. into the Church, which was, no doubt, the original entrance into the building, is of Sutton stone, obtained from a quarry long since exhausted, situated at Sutton (now Ogmore-on-Sea) Bridgend. The Sutton stone, by reason of its softness when quarried and subsequent hardness on exposure the air, was much in demand during the twelfth century for decorative work in Churches, and examples still may be found in Llandaff Cathedral, Margam Abbey, other ancient buildings.
THE BUILDING.
The building is of the National British type—a simple parallelogram with East window and South doorway.The materials used throughout are such as could be readily obtained locally,stone, stone tiles and oak rafters.
The walls are 3ft 6ins thick, and apart from repair work necessitated at various times, it is reasonably certain for the most part, they are the original walls, and the presence of rubble work in them tends to confirm this, the same may be said of the oak rafters supporting the roof, all adze hewn and not sawn.
The Iron Gates that were outside the West door have been moved to the inside of the building to preserve them. Consisting a series of the figure 3 (96 in all) they are noteworthy in that they were made at the local Abernant Ironworks which closed down in 1875.
On the South side of the building there is an ancient Sundial, and in the North wall may be seen the irons used for holding the window shutters.
The first Tablet on the left side of the Church records that on May 5th, 1789, David William Watkin was buried pendicularly inside the building. The reason for this rare form of interment is not apparent.
All we know of Watkin is that he was a. native of Aberaman, aged sixty-six, and that Shoni Mawr, the giant, was his hired servant. Possibly he wished to be on a higher level than Shoni at the end of his life. .
The heavy iron plates in the floor are the remains of the old heating system which existed prior to 1915. The fire, reached by a flight of stone steps, was well below the floor level and covered by an iron grating. It was not an unusual experience to find the edifice filled with a blue sulphorous haze during Service.
The Chancel was erected much later than the Nave –possibly at about the same year-1637as was the bell, by which time Aberdare had become a place of some importance, for we find that the Lord of the Manor, the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, held an important Survey (with an impanelled jury) in the village in 1638.
The figure of St. John the Baptist in the small stained glass window in the Chancel is a striking likeness of Thomas Evans, the Parish Clerk, in whose memory the window was erected. On the opposite side is the Priest's door - not an unusual feature in ancient churches.
It is clear from the position of the Piscina on the right, and what may be an Aumbry on the left of the Chancel Arch, that the Altar originally stood on that spot.
The Font. The very early fonts in this Diocese—that is those of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries are of a large bold outline and Norman in character. Almost all of them are worked out of Sutton stone, and are circular or octagonal; characteristics which clearly apply to St. John's Font.
The Vestry was built in. 1795 (as appears above the entrance), possibly to serve in the main as a Day School the first in the Aberdare Valley. But previous to this, between 1739 and 1773, one of the peripatetic or cir cilatory schools established by the Reverend Griffith Jones, Vicar of Llanddowror, for the teaching of the Church catachism and the reading of the Bible in Welsh, was being held in the Church during the winter months; and there at the outset about 60 pupils, children attending in afternoons and adults in the evenings.