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SARN BAPTIST CHURCH

Sarn, near Newtown, Powys, Wales

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History of Sarn Baptist Church
Michael J. Collis

The village of Sarn is situated in the Vale of Kerry (Dyffryn Ceri) on the A489 road between Newtown and Churchstoke. The Baptist Church in Sarn was formed in 1826. The chapel was erected in 1827 and enlarged by the addition of a Schoolroom in 1938.

Although Sarn is now regarded as being in Mid-Wales, from the eighteenth century until the early twentieth century it was considered as being in North Wales. Until 1860 Sarn was in the parish of Kerry (Ceri) but that year the ecclesiastical parish of Sarn was formed. Sarn was in the county of Montgomeryshire until Montgomeryshire became part of the new county of Powys in 1974.

Sarn is a Welsh word meaning a 'causeway' and so it is possible that the village takes its name from the road built along the valley which passes from Churchstoke to Ceri over the flat, somewhat marshy area between Sarn village and Gwern-y-go.

The earliest references we have found to a settlement at Sarn are in the Kerry Parochial Records in 1748 and 1758. The 1841 Census shows that there were twenty people living at the Sarn Inn and eleven at Sarn. The settlement at Sarn can best be described by the Welsh word pentref, which is used in Welsh to indicate almost any group of houses, which may include as few as a half a dozen dwellings or as many as 200 to 300. Older inhabitants of the village call it 'The Sarn'

Baptist witness was introduced into Montgomeryshire during the 1640s and 50s. The Puritan leader and evangelist Vavasor Powell, who was born at Knucklas (Cnwclas), Radnorshire in 1617, purchased Y Goitre in Ceri (Kerry) Parish in 1648. He preached principally in Breconshire, Montgomeryshire and Radnorshire, although it is said that there were few places in Wales where he did not preach. He is described as often preaching in two or three places a day, as being seldom two days a week throughout the year out of the pulpit, and sometimes riding a hundred miles in a week, and taking every opportunity, especially of 'Fairs, Markets, or other great Concourses of Peoples', to propogate the Gospel. At the start of his ministry in 1640 he preached at Glasbury (Y Clas-ar-Wy), Radnorshire, in Y Beudy (The Cowshed), which would have been attached to the farmhouse. The passing of the Act of Toleration of 1689 enabled Maesyronnen Chapel to be erected there c. 1696. It is the oldest chapel in Wales to be in continuing use today. Powell also became the first minister of the Independent cause at Llanfyllin c. 1640 and the first chapel was erected there in 1708. Pentref Chapel is the oldest Independent Chapel in Powys. He also preached at Pant-Mawr in the Parish of Guilsfield and a congregation was still meeting there in 1851 in a room in the farmhouse. According to tradition the communion table, which is now in Sarnau United Reformed Church, was used by Powell at Pant-Mawr. He founded over 20 churches, but his principal congregation was at Llanbryn-mair. Although Powell was baptized as a believer in 1655, his emphasis was on forming congregations of Protestant Dissenters rather than forming congregations which only ptactised beliver's baptism. For many years the followers of Vavasor Powell were known as Pob Vavasor Powell (the people of Vavasor Powell). For his churches he drew up a Calvinistic Confession of Faith. They practised open communion and both believer's and infant baptism. The Confession of Faith of the Baptist Church at Rhydwilym, founded in 1688, was identical with that of Vavasor Powell, except that the reference to open communion was deleted. The Rhydwilym Confession, which includes the Laying on of Hands after baptism as a Gospel ordinance, influenced the practice of many Welsh and American Baptist Churches. Vavasor Powell spent much of the final decade of his life in prison, dying in great pain, aged 53, in 1670. He was buried in Bunhill Fields in London, the site of the graves of many illustrious Puritans and Nonconformists.

goitrehouse
Goitre Farm (Y Goitre), Kerry (from a picture published in 1896)

The Restoration in 1660 brought a complete change in the fortunes of the Puritans and they endured bitter persecution under the Penal Code from 1660 until 1689. Heavy fines and imprisonment were inflicted on those convicted of holding illegal religious meetings (conventicles) in their homes. Henry Williams, an open-communion Baptist, was Powell's deputy and successor in Montgomeryshire. He was harshly treated and spent nine years in prison. His home at Ysgafell, near Newtown, was repeatedly attacked and eventually burnt down during his imprisonment. His wife and children were abused, and his father died after an attack by opponents. Following his release from prison he was set on more than once and was fortunate, so it is said, to escape with his life. According to tradition one of his fields was untouched by the plunderers and bore fruit a hundred-fold thus helping to recommence him for revenue lost from fines. This field became known as 'the field of blessing (Cae'r Fendish)'. Henry Williams died, aged 60, in 1865.

The ministry of Powell was remembered in Radnorshire when the Baptists opened the Vavasor Powell Memorial Church at Knucklas in 1924. Williams was similarly remembered in Montgomeryshire with the opening in Newtown of the Welsh Congregational Church, Capel Gofa ('Memorial Chapel'), in 1869.

Following the generations of Vavasor Powell and Henry Williams, the Baptist cause weakened although some small congregations continued to exist. The membership of Baptist church at Dolau in Radnorshire was scattered over a wide district with some members living in Montgomeryshire near Welshpool and others at Aberhafesb, near Newtown. David (Dafydd) Evans, the minister at Dolau from 1771 until his death in 1790, encouraged the Aberhafesb congregation, which was meeting in a local farmhouse, to build a chapel. Rhydfelin Chapel was opened on 20th May 1791. The Rhydfelin congregation was constituted an independent church in 1792. Like the Dolau church it observed close communion, restricting admission to the Lord's Supper to those baptized as believers. James Evans, one of the original sixteen members, was ordained as pastor in 1793. By the following year another member, Joseph Jones, was serving as Co-pastor with Richard Ellis who had not been ordained, serving as an Assistant Preacher. The church joined the South-Eastern Baptist Association and in 1805 the Association's Annual Meeting was held at Rhydfelin.

rhydfelin chapel
Rhydfelin Chapel, Aberhafesb
(The first chapel was rebuilt in the mid-nineteenth century
with stone walls and a slate roof)

By 1803 the Rhydfelin church was able to help the Baptists at Newtown build their first chapel. Newtown was becoming Anglicized, but James Evans was not happy preaching in English. However, one of the younger members of the church, John Pryce, who lived at Llwynbrain Farm, near Caersws, was an English speaker and he became the Pastor of the Newtown congregation. It was on his death in 1810 that John Jones was appointed as Pastor of the Newtown branch of the church.

The earliest record of Baptist activity in the Kerry parish is in the Visitations Returns for 1804 when the Incumbent wrote that:

There are some dissenters (Anabaptists, few in number) in the Parish, their numbers of late have not increased ... There is no Chapel belonging to the Dissenters in the Parish.

The Dissenting Registrations for the Kerry Parish are incomplete but they include the registration of the house of Evan Bowen, The Lower House, in the township of Gwenithrew and so this may well be the place where the first services were held.

Lower House Kerry
Lower House where the first Baptist meetings took place (photographed in 2007)

Rev. John Jones, of Newtown, preached at Sarn and a congregation was formed. In 1826 land was purchased for the sum of £40 'for the use of Calvanistic Baptists of the Denomination Particular Baptists. It was intended that 'a Meeting House, Vestry room, and other Offices should be built. In 1827 Joseph Davies a deacon and assistant preacher (pregethwr cynorth) at Newtown erected a chapel at his own expence. When Rev. John Jones died in 1831 Joseph Davies temporarily assumed pastoral responsubility for the Newtown church.

Sarn became an independent church in 1836 and John Jones became its first minister. He was a local man having been born in the parish of Kerry. He may have been a member of the congregation before he was called to the pastorate. At the time of the 1841 Census, he was living in the Sarn Inn with his wife Ann and their daughters Elizabeth aged 5 and Mary aged 2. He made the following return for the church in the 1851 Religious Census:

SARN BAPTIST
Erected: 1827
Space: free 107; other 151
Present: morn. 125 + 25 scholars; aft. 27 scholars; even. 84
Average (12 months): morn. 198 + 47 scholars; aft. 47 scholars; even. 95
John Jones. Minister
Sarn chapel  sarn chapel hall
Sarn Chapel and rear view showing the 1938 Schoolroom

The original chapel was a simple brick building but at a later date the side facing Kerry was clad with slate to protect the building from the weather. An elaborate porch was probably erected in the late nineteenth century. The inside of the chapel was modified in 1906. Until then the pulpit was immediately inside the door and so any latecomers had to enter the building in full view of the congregation! The pulpit was moved to its present position facing the entrance and the text 'O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness', painted on a metal sheet, was fixed on the wall over the pulpit. New pews were provided, but those to the left of the pulpit were not fixed so that they could be moved to face the congregation for Anniversary services. The chapel was fitted with a new floor and two new stoves were provided for heating. The total cost of the renovations amounted to nearly £180. The largest donation of £25 towards the cost was given by David Davies Esq., MP. To mark the re-opening of the Chapel after its closure for three months, services were held on Tuesday evening 18 September 1906, on the following Wednesday with a public meeting in the afternoon and a preaching service in the evening, and on the following Sunday with three services. In addition to the minister, Rev. William Jenkins, who preached at the morning and evening services on the Sunday, no less than seven other ministers, including the former pastor, Rev. John Harrison, preached at these services.

A photograph of Rev. William Jenkins in the pulpit shows that the harmonium was placed immediately below the pulpit. There was no communion table permanently in the chapel and so it is probable that a table was brought in when the Lord's Supper was observed. It is known that this is what happened at the Baptist Church at Stafford for many years and this may have been the regular pattern in other Baptist churches in the early part of the twentieth century.

rev. william jenkins
Rev. William Jenkins in the pulpit.

The chapel does not have a baptistry. In the early days baptisms took place in a brook near the City Lane, then at Trefeen (Tre-ffin) and Bahaithlon in a brook where there was a sluice-gate to form a washing pool for sheep. The earliest reports of baptismal services we have found are in the Baptist Reporter in 1845

SARN, Montgomeryshire - Four persons were baptized here Oct. 27, by Mr. Jones, One, an aged and infirm person, had been an Independent for some years. We are now a thriving little church.

SARN, Montgomeryshire - We had a public baptism in the open air on April 6, when Mr. Jones, our pastor, immersed six candidates. The day was delightful, and a large and orderly concourse assembled to witness the ordinance. Our place was afterwards crowded to hear a discourse from brother Drew, of Welshpool, which excited no small attention. Our pastor has now baptized forty-eight in two years. The high church party are greatly excited against us, and even threaten us with legal action.

There was no possible ground for legal action, but the report indicates hostility to Baptists from some Anglicans at the time.

During the twentieth century open air baptisms continued. In 1962 Rev. W. Penry Roland Davies shortly after he had left Sarn, wrote 'So attached to them did people become that all thought of an indoor baptism was regarded in the light of heresy. This is still the case in rural area of Montgomeryshire.' However, some Sarn baptisms took place in Kerry and Montgomery chapels and for the most recent baptism a portable baptistry was erected inside Sarn Chapel.

Trefeen brook
Trefeen showing the stream where baptisms took place.

In 1936 at The Baptist Union Assembly the Baptist Forward Movement was launched with the aim of raising £1 million for the building of new church premises throughout the country. The pastor, Rev. D. Glyn Davies, urged that the church should erect a Schoolroom. As a consequence Miss Mary Withers, formerly of Pantllwyn (Pant-y-llwn), Sarn, gave money for the building and erection of a Schoolroom in memory of her parents, sisters and two brothers.

The remote hamlet of Cwm is 4 miles E of Sarn, near Offa's Dyke. On local road signs, but not on Ordnance Survey maps, it is called 'The Cwm.' The Independent Academy was based at Newtown from 1821 to 1838 and this enabled new Congregational congregations to be established in the east of the county. Not all church plants were successful and the Congregational chapels at Cwm and at Kerry were purchased by local Baptists. The chapel at Cwm, known originally as 'Philadelphia Chapel', became a preaching station of Sarn. A report of a service of baptism at Cwm was published in the Baptist Reporter in 1845:

CWM, near Sarn, Montgomeryshire. - On the Lord's Day, May 18, our pastor, J. Jones, immersed two candidates, in the open air. The first that went down with him into the water was an aged man of nearly ninety. The almond tree flourished, the grasshopper was almost a burden, and yet he went through the service. The other had been an Independent. The chapel here was built by the Independents and was retained by them until they had scarcely any congregation, and no preacher. It was then made over to the Baptists in Sarn. Is it not time that the name "Independent Chapel" which is engraved above the door, to come down, and let the despised name "Baptist" be exhibited instead?

As the chapel did not have a baptistery, baptisms took place in the brook on the other side of the road in front of the building.

The return for Cwm Chapel in the 1851 Census was:

PHILADELPHIA CHAPEL, CWM. BAPTIST
Erected 1837
Space free 46; other 30; standing 20
Present: morn, 14 scholars; aft. 27
Average (12 months): morn. 20 scholars; aft. 40
Remarks: Sometimes it is very well attended and at other times not so well,
but the return here is as near as possible can be made.
John Jones. Baptist Minister
Sarn, Nr. Kerry

In 1873 Cwm became an independent church but the Sarn Minister continued to serve as pastor of Cwm.

Like many other Baptist churches in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Sarn found it difficult to provide adequate financial support for the ministers and their families. According to family tradition Rev. Edward Owen (1854-1863) supported himself by working as a carpenter. The Church accounts were clearly a matter of concern during Rev. Edward Lawrence's ministry (1893-1895). There were probably similar concerns in earlier ministries but no records are available. In October 1894 the Church decided to reduce the Chapel Keeper's pay from 1/9 to 1/6 per week from Michaelmas to March and to pay her 1/- a week from March to Michaelmas. In February the following year during the interregnum it became necessary to borrow eleven pounds from the Poor Fund to meet the current expenses of the Church. However, despite its financial problems the Church proceeded to consider a call to the pastorate in April. During the twentieth century maintenance of stipendiary ministry was only made possible with the help of the Home Work Fund (later renamed Home Mission Fund) of The Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland. The Home Mission Fund Grant Application in 1972 illustrates the perilous state of the church finances. That year the church paid car expenses of £73.50 for garage repairs but no other ministerial expenses and they offered no ministerial expenses for the following year. Nevertheless the church was given a Home Mission Fund Grant in 1973.

In February 1973 Rev. Robert Davies told the Annual Church Meeting that he hoped to retire at the end of the year if he could find suitable accommodation. The Church approached Rev. Ellis Mold, the West Midland Superintendent, for his advice as they wished to have another Pastor, either a Minister or a Baptist Deaconess. The Baptist Union Grants Committee recommended that Sarn should think in terms of a semi-retirement pastorate and the church was given the name of Rev. Harold Nicklin, who was called to the pastorate. Despite the Church's willingness to have a female minister it was not until 1994 that the Church received the name of a possible female pastor, Rev. Christine Perrrett, who was seeking an honorary pastorate. She preached at the Church but the Church did not issue a call.

The last full time pastorate ended in 1984. From 1989 until September 2011 part-time or retired ministers have served the church. When he accepted an invitation to a part-time stipendiary pastorate, Rev. Geoffrey Wood acknowledged that in issuing the call the church had made a real step of faith. He served as Minister from May1989 until his retirement in August 1992. He then served as Moderator, taking one service a month, until the Induction of Rev. Michael Collis in 1998.

From October 2011 until September 2014 the church had a Minister-In-Training (MIT), Mr. Robert Saunders, who also served as a MIT at Kerry Baptist Church. He spent one year as a ministerial student at the North Wales Baptist College, Bangor (Y Coleg Gwyn) and then transferred to the South Wales Baptist College, Cardiff. The churches received a grant for half the cost of his stipend from The Baptist Union of Wales, which also awarded him a bursary towards the cost of his College training.

On 4th August 2017 the Officers of the Baptist Churches of Kerry, Newtown and Sarn met with Rev. Maggie Rich, minister of Idle Baptist Church, Bradford, who was exploring the possibility of returning to rural ministry in Wales. On 13th August she conducted the morning service at Sarn and the evening service at Kerry, the Newtown church cancelling its evening services so that members could attend the service at Kerry. Each of the churches then held Church Members' Meetings and they invited Revd. Maggie Rich to be their minister. She accepted their Call.

In 1844 the church joined the Old Welsh Baptist Association and the Baptist Union (then formally known as the Baptist Union of the United Kingdom). The Association changed its name to the Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire Baptist Association in 1884. During the nineteenth century many Baptist churches in England had begun to adopt the practice of open communion, welcoming all believers, whether or not they had been baptized. Some of the churches of the Association began to adopt open communion. Disturbed by this trend Mr. Thomas Edwards, of Newtown, devoted his Presidential Address to the Association in 1897 to call all churches to return to the practice of close communion. The following year the Association revised its Rules, requiring that member churches should restrict communion to those baptized as believers. In 1894 the Sarn church, by a majority decision, had received into membership Mr. and Mrs. Robert Pryce of Mount Nebo by transfer from the Calvinistic Methodist Church at Cefn-y-coed, thus departing from the practice of close communion. The new Association Rule was not acceptable to the Sarn church and it withdrew from the Association, joining the Shropshire Baptist Association. Its sister church at Cwm, however, remained a member of the Welsh Association until 1916. The Shropshire Baptist Association merged with the West Midland Baptist Association in 1916.

In 2000 the Worcestershire Baptist Association merged with the West Midland Association to form the Heart of England Baptist Association and the Sarn church decided to re-join the Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire Baptist Association. This meant that the church also re-joined the Baptist Union of Wales.

Although Sarn has never been a large church several men, who have been members, have entered the Baptist ministry. David Richard Owen, the son of Rev. Edward Owen, and Henry Harrison, the son of Rev. John Harrison, became Baptist ministers. During the pastorate of John Harrison a young man named Charles Joseph, who was born at Staunton on Arrow, Herefordshire, came into the district seeking work. His search was fruitless and when he arrived one day at the Blue Bell Inn crossroads between Sarn and Churchstoke, he was so disconsolate and unsure of his future that he decided to throw his walking stick into the air and to follow the way it fell. It pointed towards Sarn and there he found employment as a farm labourer. He began to attend services and was baptized in the brook near Lower View, City Lane. He eventually became a builder and then he felt called to become a Baptist minister. He trained at Pastors' College and had a distinguished ministry becoming President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1919. Richard Pryce Jones became the lay pastor of Montgomery Baptist Church and, following his passing of the Baptist Union Examination, he was ordained.

It has been the custom of deacons in many Welsh Baptist churches to serve for life. The situation at Sarn has been more complex. The first record of an election of deacons was in 1895 when five men were elected to serve for three years. For many years, from 1910 onwards, it seems that deacons were regarded as Church Officers and so were re-elected at each Annual Meeting. By 1955 when it was decided that that ladies were eligible to serve as deacons, the practice of annual elections had fallen into disuse and it seems to have been assumed that deacons, once elected, would serve for life. Four female deacons were elected in 1955 and one of them, Miss M. Evelyn Evans, MBE, remained in office until her death in 2010.

Following the passing of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act in 2014, the Baptist Union of Wales advised its member Churches to hold a Church Meeting as soon as practicable to decide their policy with regard to same sex marriage. Prior to the Church Meeting held on 5th June 2014, all Church Members were given a copy of the information sent to Ministers and Church Secretaries by the Baptist Union of Wales. The Church Meeting unanimously passed the following motion:

Services for same sex marriage and services of blessing of same sex civil marriages are not permitted in Sarn Baptist Chapel.



Rules Concerning duties of Pastor passed by Sarn Baptist Church in the earliest surviving Church Book, 1894

1st- That he conduct one service during the week in the Chapel or elsewhere.

2nd- That he should not promise to occupy other pulpits on the Lord's Day without first consulting the deacons & finding a substitute to their satisfaction.

3rd- That he be required to visit all the members of Sarn & Cwm regularly and as often as possible also members of the Congregation The Church deems this duty of greatest importance tending to bind together in Christian love and unity the Pastor, Church & Congregation.

4th- That he conduct a week night preaching Service once every month at Cwm.

5th- That he be allowed three Sundays absent during the Year but no more than three Sundays together.

6th- That the afore mentioned rules be written out and Signed by the Pastor.




Ministers

John Jones 'of Newtown' 1826 -1831

Until his untimely death in 1831, John Jones enjoyed much success as a preacher, evangelist and church planter. He formed Sarn as a branch of Zion Baptist Church, Newtown, in 1826

Edward Trow 1831-

Following the death of Rev. John Jones, 'of Newtown', a layman, Edward Trow, was in charge of Sarn. Probably, communion services were taken by the Newtown Minister, Rev. Benjamin Price, who was known as 'Cymro Bach'.

John Jones 1837- 1851

After Sarn became an independent church it called to the pastorate John Jones. He was also responsible for the work at Cwm from 1845. After the completion of his pastorate, he was a schoolmaster living at Court in the Kerry Parish.

Edward Owen 1854-63

Edward Owen was described as 'a lively and energetic preacher'. He later served as Minister of Kerry Baptist Church. During his ministry Holy Trinity Church was opened by the Anglicans in the village. Edward Owen's son, Rev. David Richard Owen, became a Baptist Minister and one of the Trustees of Sarn Chapel

Isaac T. Williams 1864

Little is known about Isaac Williams, who had one other pastorate of one year duration after he left Sarn and Cwm.

John Harrison 1865-84

John Harrison was born at The Bog, a lead-mining village in Shropshire, on 3 November 1840. He was originally a Calvinistic Methodist preacher but changed his views on baptism and, with his wife, Ann, was baptized in January 1865 at Pontesbury Baptist Church, Shropshire, by the Rev. Joseph Smith. He was the longest serving minister at Sarn. He was the first minister to live in the newly built manse, which was known originally as 'Cure Cottage'. John Harrison baptized his son, Henry, who became a Baptist Minister. He also baptized Charles Joseph, who after a distinguished ministerial career, became President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland.

William Davies 1885-87

William Davies was trained at Haverfordwest College and so was the first college-trained Minister to serve at Sarn. He left Sarn to enter Yale College, U.S.A.

Stephen James Baker 1888--90

S. J. Baker was trained at Pastor's [Spurgeon's] College. After three subsequent pastorates in England he moved to the United States.

David Burwyn Davies 1891-1892

D. B. Davies worked in the mines from the age of 8 and trained at Pontypool College. He served at Bwlchysarnau and Cefnpole, Radnorshire, before coming to Sarn and Cwm.

Edward Lawrence 1893-95

E. Lawrence trained at Haverfordwest College. After 2 years at Sarn and Cwm he moved to Pembrokeshire where he spent the remainder of his ministry.

Arthur George Jones, PhD, 1895- 1898

Dr. Arthur George Jones had previously served as the minister of several Free Baptist churches in Nova Scotia. Free Baptists practiced open communion and so Dr. Jones would clearly have supported the adoption of open communion by the Sarn church.

William Jenkins 1899-1916

William Jenkins came to Sarn and Cwm from Lancashire. He died in 1917. One young man he baptized was Richard Pryce Jones, who became Minister of Montgomery Baptist Church. He also served as Minister of Montgomery Baptist Church, 1915-1916.

John Llewellyn John 1916-21

J.L. John trained at Cardiff Baptist College. After Sarn and Cwm he had pastorates at Oswestry and Stourbridge.

Thomas Lloyd Morgan 1922-29

T. L. Morgan left Sarn and Cwm to serve in Shropshire and then in Rutland.

Richard Cynddylan Morgan 1931-33

R. C. Morgan had two pastorates after Sarn and Cwm but then appears then to have left the Baptist Ministry.

David Glyn Davies 1934-1939

David G. Davies served as a padre in World War, when he contracted a serious infection. He came to Sarn and Cwm after several months in hospital. His son recalls the patience and support of the Sarn congregation as he gradually recovered his health.

Frederick Arthur Baker 1939-1947

Frederick Baker came to Sarn from Eastleigh, Hampshire, and left Sarn for his final pastorate in Ludlow.

William Penry Rowland Davies, BA, 1948-56 & 1975-80

W. Penry R. Davies, who trained at Cardiff Baptist College, has the distinction of being the only minister who had two pastorates at Sarn and Cwm. His son, Rev. John P.R. Davies, served as minister of Dolau Nantmel and Rock Baptist Churches, Radnorshire, 2000-16.

Brian Evans 1958-63

Brian Evans, trained at Cardiff College, and married Llinos Davies while at Sarn. He entered the Anglican ministry in 1971.

Robert Davies 1963-73

Robert Davies, who trained at Bangor Baptist College, was the last minister of the churches at Sarn and Cwm.

Harold William Nicklin, BA, BSc, 1974-75

Harold Nicklin had been a missionary with the Baptist Missionary Society in Bangladesh before he came to Sarn. Sadly, his health deteriorated and he was forced to resign the Sarn pastorate.

James McHaffie 1980-84

After retiring from full time ministry, he served at Sarn in a retirement pastorate. He was the last minister to live in the church's manse

Geoffrey Wood 1989-92

Geoffrey Wood, who lived at Clun, Shropshire, had been Organizing Secretary for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Michael John Collis, BA, BSc, MTh, PhD, 1998-2011

Michael Collis, who trained at Spurgeon's College, was formerly a research chemist. He came to Sarn after pastorates in Hertford and Stafford. He is the only Minister of Sarn who has served as the President of the English Assembly of the Baptist Union of Wales.

Robert Saunders, BA, 2011-2014

Rob Saunders and his wife Donna were members of St. Peter's Baptist Church, Worcester, which commended him for ministerial training. On completion of his training in July 2014 he was called to the pastorate of Coleford Baptist Church in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. In 2019 he returned to Mid-Wales to become Minister of Welshpool Baptist Church.

Margaret Susan Rich, BA, 2017-

Maggie Rich trained at Northern Baptist College and was Minister-in-Training at Stockport Baptist Church (year 1) and Tameside Fellowship (years 2 and 3). She was Minister of Knighton, Coxall and Knucklas Baptist Churches, 2005-14, and Minister of Idle Baptist Church, Bradford, 2014-17.




Chapel Burial Ground

Like many Non-conformist Chapels Sarn had its own burial ground. It was enlarged in 1991 when the Church purchased from Powys County Council some land belonging to the adjoining Mount Nebo Smallholding. Kerry Community Council and the Prince of Wales Committee contributed towards the cost of the purchase of the land and the planning of a hedge around the boundaries of the plot to screen it from the neighbouring land. The burial ground extension was consecrated by Rev. Geoffrey Wood at a short service following the morning service on Sunday, 11 December 1994.

One of the first burials was of Mrs. Ann Jones, the wife of the Church's first minister, Rev. John Jones, who died August 17th 1846, aged 39 years. He died on January 23rd, 1863, aged 58 years. and is buried in a separate grave with second wife also named Ann. Edward Davies and his uncle Joseph Davies, who erected the chapel, are amongst those buried here.

Edward Davies

Edward Davis
Edward Davis who built Snowfield

Just inside the gate to the Chapel is the impressive tomb of Edward Davies and his family.

Edward Davies attained notoriety when in 1829 his mother Catharine Bywaters tried unsuccessfully to have him declared insane. It was the first proceedings under the provisions of the 1828 Act to Regulate the Insane Persons in England (known colloquially as the 'Madhouse Act').

In 1820 Catharine Bywaters had received a large legacy from a Montgomeryshire relative. Edward was apprenticed to a grocer and tea dealer in the City of London. When he came of age he and his mother used the inheritance to buy the established tea firm of Hodgson, of Philpot Lane. They renamed the firm as Hodgson & Davies in 1823. He became one of the most successful tea traders in the City but his behaviour became rather eccentric.

The news of the failure of his mother's attempt to have him declared insane was received with great joy in Newtown. All the bells of the town were rang out with public joy. After a huge public supper at the Castle Inn, her effigy was burned. Sheep were roasted in the marketplace and distributed to the poor - the result of a generous response to a subscription set up by Edward's friends and well-wishers in the town. The local newspaper, the Carmarthenshire Journal and the Chester Courant, described Edward's victory as a 'triumph over oppression and cruelty'. (Sarah Wise, Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England, London: The Bodley Head, 2012, pp. 1-32).

Edward Davies in the mid-1830s became a Welsh gentleman farmer farming Upper Trefeen, although he was a sleeping partner in Hodgson & Davies until the final dissolution of the firm in 1843, four years after his mother's death. He married a local woman, Mary, in 1838, and had four children and he built Snowfield, 2¼ miles WSW of Sarn.

Sarn was part of the Kerry parish and Edward Davies fell out with the Vicar, as he felt that the Vicar was discriminating against the non-conformist poor when distributing money from the various Kerry charities. When Edward Davies' son Pryce drowned in a tragic swimming accident in the Ithon at Llandrindod Wells, he was buried at Sarn.

The Memorial Inscription for Edward Davies and his family reads:

In affectionate remembrance of / Pryce only son of Edward and Mary Davies, of Trefeen, / died August 28th 1869, aged 22 years / also of / Sarah / their second daughter, and wife of / William Leonard Lloyd, of Red House, Berriew, / died December 24th 1871 / Aged 21 Years / Also of the said Mary Davies / died February 8th 1872, Aged 52 Years / Also of Fanny, only child of William Leonard / and Sarah Lloyd, died May 27th 1874 Aged 2 Years / Also of / the kind and gentle / Edward Davies / of Snowfields, who died 31st August 1879 / aged 77 years

Joseph Davies

To the right of the Chapel Porch is the memorial to Joseph Davies. He was born in Llanmerewig in 1773, the youngest son of Maurice and Elizabeth Davies. The family moved to farm at Black Holes (now Black Hall) on the road from Newtown to Dolfor. In 1805, soon after the death of his father, he married Gwen Oliver, daughter of John Oliver of Llanllwchaiarn. They appear to have had no children. In later years he lived in Park Street (Upper Green), Newtown, and appears there in the census returns of 1841 and 1851. His Memorial Inscription reads:

In Memory of/ Joseph Davies, Gent. / Formerly of Black Hall, / and afterwards / of Newtown in this County. / who died Feb. 14th 1857, Aged 84 Years. // He erected this chapel at his own expense, and here at other / places for 60 years he preached the Gospel gratuitously and for / the same period he honourably sustained the office of Deacon / in the Church at Newtown. / As a Christian he was distinguished by great simplicity / humility and devotedness in the Redeemer's cause, he / carried with him to the grave the esteem and veneration / cherished towards him through his long life. / He was 'an Israelite indeed in whom was no guile'.

The Memorial Inscriptions in the Burial Ground were recorded by the Montgomeryshire Genealogy Society in 2004 (Montgomeryshire Records No. MR/MI/66 Parish of Sarn Memorial Inscriptions).


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