The Lost Cottages - Capel Soar and Nearby Building, Caerhun Parish

Not technically a 'lost cottage,' but intimately connected with the houses I've been exploring, Soar Independent Chapel sits up on the side of Waen Bryn Gwenith above Llanbedr y Cennin and Dolgarrog, at a height of 350 metres above sea level. There were quite a number of houses up here on the hillside, relatively close to the chapel, but now these uplands are virtually deserted, with only a few farms still inhabited. With changes in farming methods and lifestyles most people have moved down into the valley, where conditions are less harsh, while the fervour of non-conformist Christianity has also cooled, along with adherence to its more traditional branches.

According to Coflein, the chapel was built in 1828, and later modified in 1867. The place is now demolished down to a level of about four feet, with the rubble filling the remaining walls to the top, so little can be found out about the inside of the place. I didn't see any slates around, so perhaps these were taken to be reused, or have ended up in the inside of the building under the rubble. The roof may have collapsed a considerable time before the building was demolished.

 

The chapel is at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7515 6748.

A footpath leads down past the chapel, although the 'gateway' is a little awkward.

Very little remains of the chapel after it was demolished. It would be interesting to see if the rubble inside has protected anything of the floor and lower walls. Apparently a neighbour from nearby Pontwgan was employed to demolish the place in the 1990s, in order to make the building safe, by National Power.

The front of the chapel has no render on it, and is just bare stone. I would guess it used to be rendered and the render has fallen off over time.

Radiating around the chapel are the houses of Rowlyn Isaf and Uchaf, Bont Newydd and Pont Newydd, Ffrith Ddu, Bryn Gwenith, Fachell, and Pwll Du, with a few other more outlying buildings, so there could have been a sizeable congregation. A track leads, on the 1888-1913 map, from Bryn Gwenith straight up to the chapel, as does one from Rowlyn Isaf. Only Rowlyn Uchaf is still inhabited today.

The interior of the chapel, full of stone. Unfortunately the low winter sun caused a lot of glare in the photographs. 

A little walled enclosure surrounds the chapel, which sits on a raised plinth. Some parts of the wall are still a little higher than the top of the plinth.

Where the chapel meets the field wall. This building really is just standing in an upland sheep field, in the ffridd land, just before the mountain begins. This end section, with blocked up doorway, used to be a small house. The doorways were unblocked not long before the place was demolished, so perhaps they were carefully blocked up to the demolished height at the time.

This photo taken not long before the chapel was demolished shows the house on the end of the building. It must have been a very small dwelling.

At first I thought the front of the chapel had been heavily whitewashed, but I think this is lichen. I assume the front of the building would have been rendered originally, since the other walls are rendered.

The edges of the white patches show natural growth. I've rarely seen lichen so white and so extensive.

 

I don't know the date of this photograph, sent to me by someone who lives nearby, but it shows the chapel intact, still with its windows, although a couple of panes seem to have been broken in the attached house. Perhaps the chimney served both the house and the chapel, for domestic use in the house and to keep the chill off the chapel when it was being used. The building doesn't seem to have been painted or whitewashed at all, and only rather roughly rendered.

The house attached to the chapel doesn't show occupation before 1871, and it could be that the house was added in 1867, when Coflein mentions modifications being made to the chapel. Interestingly, in 1871 the place was lived in by John Williams, 34, a miller, and his wife Debora, 24, with children Jane, 9, and Robert, 7. John was born in Abergele, his wife in Caerhun, and the children in Dolwyddelan. Was John Williams working at the nearby mill of Onen Ebryd, which only had a farmer living there at the time? Incidentally, Debora seems rather young to have a child of nine, so perhaps the children belonged to a deceased former wife, or her age is wrong.

In 1881, 1891, and 1901 the place was uninhabited on the night of the census, although it could have been lived in between those times. In 1911 it was lived in again, by Richard Roberts, 28, a labourer at the Aluminium Works in Dolgarrog, his wife Mary Catherine, 28, and their daughter Mary Ellen, listed as age three. The couple had been married for less than a year. Richard was born in Caerhun, but his wife and daughter were both born in Llansanffraid (presumably Glan Conwy), Denbighshire. Both parents are bilingual. The census states that there are three rooms in the house.

A blocked up doorway on the east face of the northern end of the chapel, which seems to be a lobby or anteroom. The aerial view of the place shows the chapel to be symmetrical, with this narrower lobby at the centre of the north end. The door can be seen in the photo above.

The ruined corner of this little lobby shows the very messy state of the inside of the walls. They seem to be faced with big stones but filled with rubble. 

The inside of this lobby still has plaster on the walls. 

Looking over the rubble of the ruin from beside the lobby area. 

The area behind the chapel, with the field wall to the right. For some reason this part is fenced off. 

It must have been a test of faith getting up to the chapel on wet or freezing winter days, but the place certainly had wonderful views. This is looking northwards towards Pen y Gaer and the sea. 

 

Testimony by John Owen in the 1930s points to a thriving little place of worship in former years:

 

CAU Y CAPELI.

    Trwy yr ymfudo parhaus o'r 'cymoedd hyn ar hyd y blynyddoedd diwethaf, mae tri o gapelau wedi gorfod cael eu cau i ddiffyg poblogaeth, sef Capel Nant Brwynog, perthynol i'r Annibynwyr, yr hwn a godwyd mewn lle cyfleus, yn y dyddiau gynt, ar gwrr uchaf y nant; Capel Ardda, drachefn perthynol ar y dechrau i'r Methodistiaid "Calfinaidd, ac yn perthyn i ofalaeth Trefriw Codwyd y capel hwn ar ochr bellaf Ardda, yn ymyl Pen yr Allt Inigo. Bu yn cael ei gario ymlaen am beth amser gan y Methodistiaid a'r Annibynwyr gyda'i gilydd. Nid oes yr un gwasanaeth yn cael ei gynnal yno ers llawer o amser. Capel Soar eto, perthynol i'r Annibynwyr, a than ofalaeth yr eglwys yr Salem, Llanbedr. Dyma eglwys a fu yn flodeuog iawn am lawer o flynyddoedd.
    Mae y capel wedi ei adeiladu, gyda thy yn ei ymyl, mewn lle amlwg ar y bryn uwchlaw Rowlyn Isa;- Nid oes ond ychydig flynyddoedder pan yr aeth y boblogaeth yn rhy fach i allu cario gwasanaeth ymlaen yno. Ar un adeg bu yr eglwys fach yma yn ddigon cefnog i gynnal eisteddfod fawr lwyddiannus am ddwy flynedd yn olynol Codasant, babell eang yn y cae o dan y capel, a llwyddasant I gael corau ac amryw o gantorion enwog yno i gystadlu, yn ogystal a llawer o ymgeiswyr yr adrannau llen. Cawsant yr enwog Danymarian yno i feirniadu yn un o'r eisteddfodau, a D. Emlyn Evans y flwyddyn ddilynol.

 

CHAPEL CLOSURE

    Through the continuous emigration from these valleys over recent years, three chapels have been forced to close due to a declining population; Capel Nant Brwynog, which was built in a convenient place for the Independents in former days on the upper reaches of the valley; Capel Ardda, again originally belonging to the Calvinistic Methodists, and belonging to the pastorate of Trefriw. This chapel was built on the far side of Ardda, near Pen yr Allt Inigo. It was carried on for some time by the Methodists and the Congregationalists together. No service has been held there for a long time. Capel Soar, again belonging to the Independents, and in the care of the church at Salem, Llanbedr. This is a church that flourished for many years.
    The chapel was built, with a house next to it, in a prominent position on the hill above Rowlyn Isa. It is only a few years since the population became too small to carry on a service there. At one time this small church was affluent enough to hold a large successful eisteddfod for two years in a row. They built a large tent in the field under the chapel, and they had choirs and various famous singers there to compete, as well as many candidates of the curtain sections. They had the famous Danymarian there to adjudicate at one of the eisteddfodau, and D. Emlyn Evans the following year.

The view east across the valley. Sunrise would be beautiful here.

The view north, towards the hills further up the valley. 

Leaving the chapel behind, from here it doesn't look more than a stone wall. 

We walked on down the hill, north east towards Rowlyn Isaf, in search of another small building marked on the map. 

Two fields away from the chapel is this little ruined building. I don't know the purpose of it. It's just a little closer to the farm of Rowlyn Isaf than it is to the chapel, at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7543 6770.

The place is very ruined but still has some timbers lying on the ground. 

The sheep were fascinated, I think hoping to be fed, and played a game of 'What's the Time, Mr Wolf?' following every time I walked and stopping whenever I turned around.

A lot of rubble lies at this southern end, mostly made up of unworked stones.

I think there may be two doorways, one to the right and one to the left, but I would have to revisit the site to be sure. This two doorway arrangement seems typical of a lot of farm outbuildings. The stonework looks 19th century or later.

Scattered slates are evidence that the place once had a slate roof.

More slates, which are fairly small, unlike the more modern, larger and more regular ones.

A single roof ridge tile, with no maker's mark on it.

The surviving doorway into the building, with hungry sheep looking through from behind. The building seems to be built largely of faced stone at the front.

A lot of render still remains around the stones.

There's a lot of roof timber inside the building, although this is rotting away.

Inside the building, looking towards the south end where there might have been another door.

The back of the building is much more ruined, with the stones looking less worked.

The north west corner of the structure.

The wall is very eroded at this north end.

The render on the doorway shows a line where the frame might have sat, and this big nail near the bottom which may have held the frame.

The right side of the doorway shows the same pattern.

This north-east corner is very ruined.

Heading away from the building and down towards Rowlyn Isaf. The sheep followed me all the way to the road.

The Lost Cottages - Brwynog Uchaf, Llyn Cowlyd, Llanrhychwyn Parish

Brwynog Uchaf occupies an elevated position above Dyffryn Conwy, at the end of the winding road which connects Trefriw with Llyn Cowlyd. A lack of rubble and a rather uniform height to the ruined walls suggests the place has been deliberately demolished, perhaps with the stone being robbed out for other projects, rather than a slow decay after abandonment. The weather for this visit was bad, verging towards atrocious, and it gives one a picture of what it might have been like living up here year-round. Summers might have been idyllic in some ways, but winters would have been marked by cloying mud, rain, cold, and occasionally snow. Keeping a house like this warm through the winter would have been hard work, and I don't envy the people who had to gather in the fuel - whether that was peat, wood, or coal - or those who had to keep the fires going.

 

Brwynog Uchaf will necessarily be a short post because there's so little left of the property. Its sister house, Brwynog Isaf, a few hundred yards away, is much more complete.

 

Brwynog Uchaf sits at 330 metres above sea level, just to the east of the road to Llyn Cowlyd, on an elevated but quite level area of land between Moel Eilio and Cefn Cyfarwydd. 'Brwynog' means 'abounding with rushes,' and 'uchaf' means 'higher'. (Brwynog can also mean 'sorrowful,' but I'm hoping in this case the house was named for the former, not the latter.) Just a look at the foreground of this picture will show the property was well named.

The house can be found at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7463 6410.

From a little way to the north, Brywnog Uchaf can be see to nestle into a slight rise of land in the middle of this shallow valley that leads to Cowlyd, with a few pine trees marking the site of the house.

On the 1888-1913 map the house is shown describing an L shape with the top of the L in the north, but this doesn't quite tally with what's seen on the ground now. 

The house as seen from above on the current Ordnance Survey app. It seems likely that the flat area to the left of the house was built up when the road to the lake was improved, erasing some aspects of the footprint. Perhaps some of the building rubble is under this area, which is now a parking spot. 

Brwynog Uchaf as seen on the 1888-1913 map. It is possible to trace this building footprint over what remains today, which helps to make sense of the ruin.

What appears to be a doorway in the southern face of the house or outbuilding. All that can be told from the 1888-1913 map is that the whole L shape was roofed, not which part of the building was a house and which may have been outbuildings.

 

A little research online shows that the house played an interesting part in the history of Christian worship in the area. An entry on the Genuki website from the Hanes Eglwysi Annibynnol Cymru (History of the Welsh Independent Churches) by Thomas Rees & John Thomas, in 1871, speaks about the use of the house as a chapel before a dedicated chapel was built. I include the extract in full below. 

BRWYNOG

(Siloh chapel, at Dolgarrog in Llanbedr-y-cennin parish)

Mewn amaethdai y cyfarfyddir yma i addoli er dechreuad yr achos. Mae mewn llanerch uchel, ryw dair milldir o Drefriw, heb fod yn mhell o lyn Cowlyd. Dechreuwyd cynal moddion crefyddol yma mor foreu a'r flwyddyn 1814, trwy offerynoliaeth Elin Jones, merch Cwmanog, yr hon a briododd â John Roberts, Brwynog Uchaf. Deuai aelodau Trefriw yma i gynal cyfarfodydd gweddio, ac yn achlysurol deuai rhai o bregethwyr cynorthwyol Bethesda yma i bregethu. Pan y byddai y tywydd yn rhy ystormus i gael pregethwr, nac i neb o Trefriw allu dyfod i fynu i gadw cyfarfod gweddi, cynhalient ysgol ddwywaith y Sabbath, oblegid nad oedd yma etto aelodau crefyddol i gynal y moddion. Yn y flwyddyn 1828 cafwyd yma ddiwvgiad grymus, ac yr oedd Robert Roberts, mab Brwynog Uchaf, a William Griffith, mab y Pant, yn mysg y dychweledigion cyntaf. Mae y blaenaf yn awr yn ddiacon yn Nhrefriw, ac heb golli gwres ei gariad cyntaf. Ffurfiwyd yma eglwys o ugain neu bump ar hugain o aelodau, ac y mae yr achos yn parhau yma hyd yn awr. Symudwyd y moddion o'r Brwynog Uchaf, i'w gynal yn olynol yn y Brwynog Isaf, y Garegwen, a'r Pant; ond yn awr Brwynog Isaf yw cartref mwyaf cyffredin yr arch. Bu y lle yn hir dan ofal Mr. J. Williams, Caecoch; ond wedi iddo ef fethu cyrchu yma, Mr. Griffith, Trefriw, sydd yn gofalu yn benaf am y lle. Bu llawer o siarad am gael capel bychan i'r ardal, a hyderir y llwyddir i'w gael. Mae yma achos bychan siriol iawn; a'r gwanwyn diweddaf cafwyd yr hyfrydwch o dderbyn pedwar o ddynion ieuaingc yn gyflawn aelodau. +

 + Ysgrif Mr. T. Roberts, Llanddeusant.

Translation by Eleri Rowlands (Feb 2010):

From the beginning of the cause people would meet in farm buildings to worship.  It is in a high glade, about three miles from Trefriw, not far from Llyn Cowlyd (Cowlyd Lake). Religious services started here as early as 1814, Elin Jones, a daughter of Cwmanog was instrumental in arranging this, she married John Roberts, Brwynog Uchaf. The members of Trefriw came here to hold prayer meetings, and occasionally some of the lay preachers from Bethesda would come here to preach. When the weather became too stormy for a preacher to come, or for anyone from Trefriw to come to a prayer meeting, they held a school twice on the Sunday, since there weren't yet any members to hold the services. In 1828 a powerful revival took place, and Robert Roberts, the son of Brwynog Uchaf, and William Griffith, the son of the Pant, were amongst the first to return. The former is now a deacon in Trefriw, but hasn't lost the heat of his first love. A church of twenty or twenty five members was formed, and the cause continues up to now.  The services were moved from Brwynog Uchaf, to be held in Brwynog Isaf, Garegwen, and Pant; but now Brwynog Isaf is the usual home of the membership. The place was under the care of Mr. J. Williams, Caecoch for a long time but when he failed to travel here, Mr. Griffith, Trefriw, generally takes the care. Many talk of building a small chapel for the area, and we are confident they will be successful. There is a small, very cheerful cause here; and last spring they had the joy of accepting four young men in full membership. +

  + Document from Mr. T. Roberts, Llanddeusant.

 

I'm not quite sure of the period this extract refers to. The book is dated 1871, but the Siloh Chapel at Brwynog - just a few hundred yards away from the house - is mentioned by Coflein as being first built in 1824, and again in 1890. Is it possible that Coflein are confusing services held in the houses with the origin of the chapel? Aneurin Hughes from the Trefriw Historical Society, on a BBC page, mentions only that the chapel was built in 1890 and was closed by 1923, and it sounds as if services were held in the local houses at least up to 1828. If Coflein has got it wrong it makes sense for Rees and Thomas, in 1871, to be speaking as if a chapel still has not been built. It seems rather sad that the small chapel built may only have had a life of 33 years.

Two current photographs of the ruined Siloh Chapel are included near the end of my Siglen post.

Inside there are no obvious domestic features surviving, with the walls too low to show anything like joist holes. On the hill behind the silver ribbon of the road can be seen climbing upwards. This leads over and down into Trefriw, and is the only way to approach by car, despite the house being in Dolgarrog community. A number of footpaths are marked on the 1888-1913 map in the area as well as the path of what has become the modern road.

An area to the side appears to be the low wall of a pen rather than a building wall.

Looking north west, and the land is banked up behind the walls. It's hard to tell if the face of the wall at back centre is interior - the western wall of the north-south range - or exterior - the eastern wall of that range with the rest of the building buried under the land behind. It does, however, appear to have a corner running back into the land behind. It seems possible that this was the house building, and the building in which I am standing is an outbuilding.

On a subsequent visit, when the rain wasn't torrential, I took the chance to look more closely at the flat parking area that I believe buries the house. This sharp right angle of a thick stone built wall, level with the car park at the top but about six feet in height to the ground below, convinces me that the building with its long sides facing east and west - the upright of the L shape - is buried here.

Standing at the corner of the buried building, looking east. It seems more likely to me that this was the house because of the lack of an apparent fireplace in the unburied range, and simply because it seems more likely to me that on this relatively flat patch of land the front of the house would face east, not north or south. There isn't much behind this supposition beyond a sense that it would be that way. Brwynog Isaf, a little way further east, has its front facing east, as does a little stable or barn not far off. The nearby Siglen faces south, but orienting that house to face east would mean building it sideways into the hill.

Back in the probable barn, it's possible that this is another doorway in the centre of the photograph, leading into a cell.

This cell is largely filled with rubble. There may be a window at centre left in the back wall.

The window mentioned previously, this time viewed from outside, with the possible doorway opposite.

After passing through the wooden gate onto the footpath, this is looking back at the end wall of the building. It's hard to tell from this aspect if this were part of the house or barn.

Just past the gateway a stream cuts across the land, with a simple bridge made of impressive stone slabs. There had been so much rain, however, that the bridge was under about two inches of water.

Near the house was a small sheepfold or pen. The map shows other structures, probably pens, on the other side of the road.

On the other side of the road, a small rectangular structure lies in ruin. This and the subsequent two photos were taken on my later visit.

The rectangular structure on the other side of the road.

It's possible that there is another enclosure or building up on the hill on this western side of the road. Limited time meant I couldn't investigate.

A surprise on a visit to St Mary's Church in Trefriw, a church of thirteenth century origin but mostly dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. This aged gravestone right by the path caught my attention, and I saw that it was the marker for John Roberts of Brwynog Uchaf, who died 6th December, 1847, at the age of 64.

The grave also remembers John's wife Elin, who died January 21st, 1862. The age may be 70, or at least seems to start with 7.

This must be the Elin who was instrumental in arranging Independent religious services up at Brwynog Uchaf, mentioned along with her husband earlier in this post.