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Sunday, as he was wending his way past Garreg Lwyd
towards Blaenrhondda Farm he could see the farmer’s
sons playing ball in the farmyard. So engrossed were
they in their game that they never noticed him until he
walked into the farmyard, when one of them shouted in
Welsh “Wilch a myto I, here is the preacher and we have
forgotten his publication. Never mind sir, go into the
house and have something to eat while we finish this
game, and then we’ll go round and announce the service
to all the neighbours. And they did, and drew together
a large congregation.
The Baptists. It was the Baptists who founded the first
regular Nonconformist church in the parish of Ystrady-
fodwg. Tyle Coch and Melin yr Home had been secured
to the Congregationalists by the Rev. Henry Davies, but no
regular church had been formed at either place, and
the other two denominations, the Baptists and the
Methodists had been allowed to use them freely when
ever the opportunity occurred.
David Williams of Llandeilo Fach, a bard of some
renown and the author of the celebrated hymn
“Yn y dyfroedd mawr a’r tonau
Ni does neb a ddeil fy mhen”
had visited this valley more than once when he was a
lay preacher with the Calvinistic Methodists. His domestic
circumstances were not congenial to his calling, and
ultimately caused him to separate himself from the
Methodists and to join the Baptists. He left his old
home and settled at or near Croes y Parc, in the Vale of
Glamorgan.
Although his previous visits to the parish had
brought no satisfactory results, now that he lived so
much nearer he decided to visit Ystradyfodwg again,
knowing that if the people were not imbued with deep