This photograph is displayed with the kind permission of John Ball, who retains copyright.
For details of other photographs in his extensive archives please visit his site at
Welsh Family History Archive
This is the original 1844 chapel which still stands, there is a photograph of the much larger 'new' Saron in
Around Pontardawe,the Second Selection by the Pontardawe Historians, 1999.
Photograph taken in 1999
"Before 1828, with the exception of an occasional sermon in houses, no religious service was held in Rhydyfro.
About 1832, Dafydd Jones, Gelligron Mill started a Sunday School in the village.
The main services were held at the Baran Chapel and people from Rhydyfro walked up the mountain to worship.
The first chapel was built without a gallery and forty members left Baran for Rhydyfro when the new church was established in 1844.
The Rev. Rhys Price was the minister there until his death in 1869. A new chapel was opened in 1905."
[
The History of Pontardawe and District 1967 by John Henry Davies]
Gareth Hicks © Copyright notice