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Nonconformity
Nonconformity started early in the parish of Ystradyfodwg
but details of its history and progress are very meagre.
During the reign of Edward VI and Elizabeth, Thomas
Llewelyn, a celebrated bard and preacher, lived at Glyn
Eithinog, Rhigos, on the northern boundary of this
parish. He was a church dignitary and had been licensed
to preach by the Puritan Archbishop Edmund Grindal.
He is said to have been in the habit of holding religious
services in dwelling houses as well as in churches, and
that he was the means of forming several small religious
societies whose tenets were very similar to those of the
early Welsh Methodist, but who still considered them-
selves members of the Established Church.
Iolo Morgannwg calls him the father of Nonconformity
in Wales, and tradition points him out as the first
itinerant preacher to visit the Rhondda Valley. Being
a popular preacher and a man who evinced deep
anxiety about the moral and religious welfare of his
fellow-countrymen, it is perfectly natural to suppose
that he would preach at different places in his own
parish. The farmhouse known as Tyle Coch (near
Treorchy) was, in the earliest days of Nonconformity, and
indeed far into the last century, used as a place to
hold religious services by ministers and preachers
when passing through the valley. In reference to this
there is an old Triban which is still quoted by some of the
old natives.
“Mi eitho heibio ‘r eglwys
I’r Tyle Coch yn gymwys
Eis yno bregeth nid oryf nid gwan
A dyna’r fan lle trigus”
The writer had evidently no very high opinion of some of the