CAMPAIGNERS have succeeded in raising enough money to buy the Welsh chapel in Hopkinstown, Pontypridd, in which Cwm Rhondda — acknowledged to be one of the most popular hymn tunes — was first heard in 1907.
The West Baptist Union chapel, built in 1853, held its final service last December owing to a decline in congregation numbers. It was advertised for sale at £47,000. Rhian Hopkins, who was brought up in the town, set up a crowdfunding appeal to buy it for the community. She told BBC Wales on 17 July that “so many churches and chapels across Wales, but particularly in the South Wales valleys, are closing due to dwindling congregations, then being sold to the highest bidder.
“It’s incredibly sad that these magnificent buildings often fall into the hands of property developers whose sole priority is financial profit. In preserving Capel Rhondda and other chapels in our region, we are holding on to a precious thread which links us to our ancestors. Although many of us are no longer ‘believers’ in the traditional sense, we still need spaces where we can congregate and feel that we belong.”
The initial appeal attracted 100 supporters, who raised ten per cent of the total sum needed. It was Mrs Hopkins’s interview on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme which drew the campaign to wider attention, swelling the list to 300. The Welsh singer, harpist, and Greenbelt performer Lleuwen Saffan was one who posted a recording of the tune online.
The campaigners had until Monday 28 July to put in their bid. The target was raised to £60,000 to incorporate legal fees, and it was reached on Tuesday morning. Mrs Hopkins told BBC News how she had “watched the crowdfunding page and it was like someone winning the jackpot on a fruit machine and the coins keep on coming out, because the figures just kept on going up”.
A community consultation is now planned, to discuss the best use of their building. A member of the campaign team, Jessica Morgan, indicated on social media that there was a “strong desire” to preserve the sanctuary, the organ, and the side hall for community space.
The original hymn was written in 1745 by William Williams, one of 800 that he wrote during more than 40 years (and 10,000 miles) as an itinerant minister. The Cwm Rhondda tune was composed for a Welsh song festival in 1905 by John Hughes, an official of the Great Western Railway and precentor of Salem Baptist Church in Pontypridd. It is frequently heard at weddings and rugby matches, with its famous “Bread of Heaven” refrain.
“Legend has it that he originally wrote it in chalk on a piece of tarpaulin but more likely is his wife’s recollection that he wrote it one Sunday morning while in the Salem Chapel,” records Professor Ian Bradley in the Penguin Book of Hymns.
“What is certain is that its popularity was greatly boosted by its frequent use in the trenches of Flanders in the First World War, where it was sung so melodiously by Welsh soldiers that German troops took it up.” Hughes originally called the tune Rhondda after the mining valley in South Wales, but had to add the word Cwm (valley) to distinguish it from an existing tune of the same name.