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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.
The earliest record of Baptist activity in the Kerry parish is in the Visitations Returns for 1804 when the Incumbent wrote that:
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.
However, the early preaching did not result in the formation of a church. Services at Sarn were begun again by Rev. John Jones of Newtown. Joseph Davies, a deacon of the Baptist church at Newtown, then built the chapel in the village at his own expense.
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 and a porch was erected. 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.
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-ffîn) and Bahaithlon in a brook where there was a sluice-gate to form a washing pool for sheep. During the twentieth century baptisms have also taken place in the Baptist churches at Kerry and Montgomery. For the most recent baptisms a portable baptistery was erected inside the Sarn chapel.
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.
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. The Church's decision to rejoin The Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland in 1899 was presumably taken because it was felt that the 'English Union' had greater financial resources for assisting small churches! 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). 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. The last full time pastorate ended in 1984. Since 1989 part-time or retired ministers have served the church.
From 1844 until 1899 the church was affiliated to the Old Welsh Baptist Association (renamed the Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire Baptist Association in 1897) but it then transferred to the Shropshire Baptist Association as it wished to practise open communion in preference to the then mandatory close communion of the Welsh Association. Along with its sister church of Cwm it then belonged to the Shropshire District. However, in November 2000 the church decided not to join the new Heart of England Baptist Association but to rejoin the Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire Association. While retaining its membership with the Baptist Union, the church rejoined 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.