The Following Text is from author Alun Hughes from the book "The Church of Llanymawddwy" first published March 2001
Rectors from 1849
The next rector to come here was John Williams Ab Ithel. He graduated from Jesus College, Oxford in 1835, where he came under the influence of the Tractarians such as Newman, Keble and Pusey, and with the revival of Gothic Christian architecture associated in particular with the name of Pugin. Ab Ithel rebuilt the church at Llanymawddwy in 1854 in the early English style, adding a chancel that is narrower than the nave, and divided from it by a plain pointed chamfered arch. The bell-cote and the west wall of the church remained, but the gallery was taken down. A water-colour painting of the church and surroundings by John Ingleby in 1781 to be found in Thomas Pennant's Tours in Wales copy at the Nat.Lib., shows the old church to be of the simple chamber structure, with no protruding chancel, but a porch of today's shape and height, and a simple bell- cote. In other words, the old church was built in the simple style of the 16th or even earlier centuries, but with a larger east window, probably added in the 1685 restoration. Local testimony speaks of narrow unbacked benches with just one or two high pews, so high in fact that they were out of sight of the remainder of the congregation.
A reference to one of the ways in which Ab Ithel tried to raise the money towards the rebuilding of the church is to be found in Annales Cambriae 1850. Among the Miscellaneous Notices is found: Rev. J.Williams is preparing a new translation of Aneurin's Gododdin, with an English translation, by subscription, in the hope that it could prove the means of restoring the church at Mawddwy. There is no further reference to the success or otherwise of this venture, but Ab Ithel went ahead four years later.
Although there is no written record, it is likely that Ab Ithel extended or even rebuilt the rectory too, so that it was L-shaped in general plan and quite generous in its provision, with space for stables, cowshed and a hay loft.
A description of a midnight carol service (known as "plygain" in Welsh) at the church written by James Kenward of Smethwick near Birmingham appeared in the Cambrian Journal of 1864. "Many of the parishioners gathered at the rectory before the service started to be welcomed by the rector and to shake off the midnight cold. All are now bidden into the church; candles glimmer in the windows and along the seats. The place is filled, for nearly all the parishioners are there and many belonging to other districts, to hear the "Bishop of Mawddwy", and to sing their Christmas song. Ab Ithel takes his surplice from beside the reading desk, and the service begins. He reads in a low earnest tone; the congregation joins with fervour in the responses, led by an ancient grey-haired clerk, accompanied by Miss Williams on the harmonium. After prayer and praise follows the sermon, a plain setting forth of the blessings of the redemption, followed by the benediction. There is now a stir among the people, a preparation and expectation. The carol singing is to begin. Ab Ithel standing before the people, and his two daughters with him, leads off with a carol. Next the old clerk advances with two others, and group themselves before the altar steps. The old man, the central figure, bears in one hand a candle, and in the other a manuscript carol. The three bend over the paper. Though the voices are unequal and the tune monotonous, an intensity of purpose stamps the performance. The carol is a very long one, telling of the divine dispensation from the fall of Adam through to Christ's resurrection. There is no attempt at effect or self-exhibition, it is a duty, not an entertainment.
At length it ceases with a long-drawn Amen. Another carol singer takes their place, singing a more vigorous tune, but with as little variety of expression. While he sings there is an anxious unfolding of papers and shifting of positions among the audience, and when he stops, two groups come forward, of which one is selected, and they clothe the recurring carol with an interest that checks the longing for its end. Again a vocalist rises with a manuscript or book, and again and again until at last the singing culminates in a carol by two stalwart mountaineers who pursue it through a maze of variations. The chill of early morning creeps through one's frame, but at last the carol is ended and Ab Ithel dismisses the assembly. Then follow Christmas greetings and separation, but a strong band make for Mallwyd church, six miles distant, where they take part in another plygain."
Though the above is a very truncated version of Kenward's rather romanticised account, it serves to illustrate very well the atmosphere of the newly rebuilt church, and of the rectory with its hospitable fires around 1858.
Ab Ithel appointed a curate H.M.Johnson to look after the parish for a short time, but with this exception, he signed the register himself 1842 - 1869. He was a learned priest, who looked after his flock devotedly. His parishioners testified to his kind and gentle character, and he was held in respect and approval in the district. A manuscript written by a local worthy bears witness to his devotional and serious nature, and to the deep impression they made on a young mind, but at the same time he was aware of his affectionate and generous nature. Ab Ithel contributed a lot to the journals of his time, such as the Annales Cambriae, Archaeologia Cambrensis, Cambrian Journal, as well as numerous Welsh ones mainly for the use of the young. It should not be forgotten that he contributed as many as twenty hymns to Emynau'r Eglwys 1942 (The Church Hymn Book, 1942), all of them being translations of hymns from Latin covering the church liturgical year.
Mawddwy and Cyfeiliog were transferred to Bangor diocese in 1859, and Ab Ithel made a successful request for his appointment to a seaside parish on the grounds of ill health following years of overwork and the strain of a mountain parish. He moved in April 1862 to a parish a few miles north of Barmouth, but died in August of the same year, having only conducted one service at his new parish.
The new rector at Llanymawddwy was Daniel Silvan Evans and he came in September 1862. It appears that the restoration of 1854 was incomplete - perhaps the funds were insufficient - so the new rector with the financial help of Edmund Peck of Bryn Hall (later known as Sir Edmund Buckley) carried out a number of improvements. The floor was completely covered in tiles, as at present, and a new east window of stained glass inserted. This shows three figures; in the centre Christ the Good Shepherd, Salvator Mundi; on the left, a portrayal of St. David as Bishop; and on the right, St. Tydecho in monk habit. This window has been admired by many.
Silvan Evans was born in Cardiganshire in 1818, and had served in various curacies before coming here as rector. He had already published a volume of verse, and was the editor of the weekly/monthly journal "Y Brython" (The Briton) which he developed into a folklore publication. He stayed at Llanymawddwy until 1876 when he moved to Llanwrin, a village about three miles from Machynlleth. He had been appointed the first Professor of Welsh at the recently established College at Aberystwyth, and it was far easier to get there from Llanwrin than from Llanymawddwy. It has to be remembered that the railway reached Machynlleth in 1863 and its extension to Aberystwyth followed soon afterwards. A plan to extend the line from Dinas Mawddwy to Llanuwchllyn by means of a 1 1⁄2 mile tunnel under Bwlch y Groes was not pursued.
Nothing has come down to us as to the influence Silvan Evans exerted on his parishioners, whether he was a good or an indifferent pastor. We know however that his main ambition in life was to publish a major Welsh-English dictionary, and this involved him in voluminous correspondence with persons both within and outside Wales who had access to ancient books and manuscripts, and with Welsh scholars generally. It was fortunate that a sub post office had been established at Llanymawddwy in the 1850s and which served the needs of his predecessor Ab Ithel; between them they must have kept the counter extremely busy until Silvan Evans left in 1876.
When we recall the quiet parishes that Silvan Evans served, and his studious nature, it comes as something of a shock to read that his personal life was marked by tragedy. Of his seven children, four died young and two more in early adulthood - both were doctors, one the medical officer for Flintshire. His wife died in 1889 as the result of an accident having been thrown from a carriage when the horse reared. For the remainder of his life (14 years) only one son was left, a graduate of Jesus College, Oxford, and he lived with his father at Llanwrin rendering him invaluable aid in his life's work.
Owen M.Edwards, the famous Welsh scholar, has left us this tribute to Silvan Evans: "From among the ranks of the first lecturers of the college, the one that had most influence on me was Silvan Evans...he awoke in me an interest in the language, especially in its vocabulary, its legends and its folk history. The venerable professor, tall, bright-eyed, humorous." Silvan Evans was buried at Cemaes, not at Llanwrin, and a commemorative stone has been erected over his grave. He was the editor of the Welsh hymnbook, Emyniadur yr Eglwys, a feature of which is the wide selection of carols, a reflection perhaps of the plygain tradition in his old parish. Nine of his own hymns are included in the Welsh Church Hymn Book of 1942, which together with the 20 hymns of Ab Ithel, make a worthy total of 29 hymns from two successive rectors of this parish.
Following Silvan Evans as rector, John Griffith came in July 1876; he was here for thirteen years until 1889. It was recorded by Huw Rhys in a talk he gave in the early years of the last century, that John Griffith was responsible for re-roofing the church, for repainting the church and also for the provision of a new altar. A new lectern was also installed - prior to this, the lessons were read from the rector's desk. In addition, a new stove was purchased which was located where that pulpit stands today; this can be seen by noticing where the stove pipe protrudes from the church roof in the picture/sketch of the church that accompanies the article by Charles Ashton in the periodical Y Llan for 1888. In addition to all this, Huw Rhys states that the brass plate in memory of Henry Edwards, the well-liked Dean of Bangor Cathedral, was affixed to the north wall, in John Griffith's time.
After John Griffith, John Jenkins was rector for 18 years until 1907. Around 1900 he arranged to clean and varnish the church. It must have been obvious by this time that the west wall, being exposed to the prevailing weather, was suffering from damp; it was decided to repoint the wall thoroughly, and to board the inside wall from top to bottom. It remains boarded up to this day. Also it was during John Jenkins' incumbency that the writing on the chancel arch was done. This is in Gothic script, and reads: Mawl a'th erys Di yn Sion, O Dduw (Praise be unto Thee in Zion, O God). He certainly deserves our thanks for this beautiful addition to the visual attraction of the church, but perhaps more of censure for darkening the church by his agreement to the rather lifeless stained glass of the two commemorative windows in the nave. These are, on the south side for Sir William Roberts, of Bryn Hall, and on the north side to his son, both windows donated by his brothers and by Lady Bradford, his niece. Sir William, who lived from 1830 till 1899, was famous as a physician, and was knighted in 1885. Among his discoveries was the observation that Penicillium glaucum "inhibited the growth of bacteria and vice versa. I have repeatedly observed that liquids in which penicillium glaucum was growing luxuriantly could only with difficulty be artificially infected with bacteria; it seemed in fact it played the part of plants in an aquarium, and held in check the growth of bacteria, with their attendant putrefactive changes." If only he could have realised the full implication of his observation, and followed it up with controlled experiments, he might well have anticipated Fleming and Florey's discovery by at least 50 years, and been of enormous benefit to mankind.
The Rev.Owen Hughes arrived in 1907. Huw Rhys in his talk at the church recorded one fact only about his ministry: that a new stove was installed in the church. Owen Hughes must have been well-liked and much respected because a marble tablet in his memory has been erected on the south wall; the only one in the long list of Llanymawddwy rectors to be so honoured. He bore a bardic name, Tywyn, so he presumably published in the literary Journals of the beginning of the last century, but nothing has survived. He died in 1918, a few months before the end of World War One, when he was 57 years old. He is buried in the churchyard.
The next rector was Jacob Ware; he was here for five years until 1923.
Robert Tywyn Jones was rector from 1923 till 1935. It is reported of him that he was well-respected, being of a quiet disposition and a good pastor to his flock. He gave to the church the beautiful brass cross adorned with multicoloured stones; today this tall cross occupies the central position on the altar table. In addition the two oak collecting plates date from this time. The photograph of the old rectory was taken when he was the rector. It shows him with his wife and daughter in front of the porch of a substantial building, double fronted, and what appears to be a french window on the right hand side. There may have been a french window on the left hand side also, but a bush hides the lower part of that window. The side view of the rectory shows it to have been a store house suitable for stocking grain and hay, a stable plus what may have been a cow-shed. We understand that it was infested with rats, and that this was the main reason for its complete destruction in the late thirties. Tywyn Jones died in October 1935, and he is buried in the churchyard, near to the west wall of the church.
The rectory in the early '30s with the Rev. Tywyn Jones accompanied by his wife and daughter.
Rectory - Side View
Harold Hughes came here in 1936. His rectorship gave rise to an extraordinarily flourishing and active period in the church's history. This was his first post as rector, and he threw himself into the work at once. He must have had a gift for stimulating and encouraging his parishioners to partake in the enormous task of refurbishing the interior of the church completely. This took about three years to raise the money, to get people to be individually responsible for the purchase of specific items of church furniture, to order these items and ensuring that every such item fitted exactly into his vision of how the church should finally appear-all this took until the end of November, despite the dislocation produced by the outbreak of war in the September. For those three months the services were held in the school building situated about a mile down the road towards Dinas Mawddwy. The church was re-opened on December 6th by the Archbishop of Wales, an event which must have required careful forward planning.
The following list summarises the main work carried out: 19 pews in the nave set on a raised low platform, the pulpit, the reading desk, and in the chancel the altar, the rector's seat, two sanctuary chairs, the credence table and the book support. If one looks at the brass plates which have been placed discreetly on each item of furniture, one realises the commitment of Llanymawddwy parishioners and their love of their parish church, stimulated and guided by their rector. Each item is made in a light coloured oak of good quality.. On top of all this, it is surprising to realise that time was found to raze the old rectory with its quota of rats to the ground, and to build a new one more in conformity with the demands of the time, and in the late thirties style.
In early 1942 Harold Hughes left Llanymawddwy for Llanwnog in Montgomeryshire. Unfortunately, and a great loss to the church, Harold Hughes died at the age of 48 in 1952.
David Jonathan Jones was the next rector; he was a sub-canon of Bangor Cathedral and a musician of repute. He purchased a Rushworth and Draper reed organ for the church, a two manual instrument with full pedal board. A pipe organ frequently goes out of tune, and would clearly be unsuitable for an unheated and damp church, but a reed organ does not suffer from damp, and is an ideal instrument for Llanymawddwy. I understand that Jonathan Jones worked hard to adapt the organ's appearance so that it fits in beautifully with the rest of the church furniture. In his time there was a revival in the church's musical activities, particularly in the annual musical festival, held in the churches of Cemaes, Mallwyd and Llanymawddwy in turn.
Kenneth Francis who arrived here in 1948, is remembered as a friendly and warm parson, who eagerly participated in the life of the parish e.g. the motor cycle rallies on Bwlch y Groes. During his time here there was a strike of parents against the Education Committee's decision to close the village school, with the result that the parents asked the rector to keep the school open. This was no easy task, necessitating a good deal of organisation, for instance the provision of school meals, as well as the tuition of the children. Mr Francis agreed however, and with such success that after a period of two years as headmaster, the Education Committee gave in, removed their threat, and appointed a new headmaster. The erstwhile headmaster and fond pastor left Llanymawddwy in 1956.
Philip O.Butler was rector here from 1957 until 1963. During his time improvements in the church appearance again took place. A litany desk was bought and an oak table; he also purchased an iron chest for the church documents, which up to this time had been kept in the rectory. The striking gateway to the churchyard was also built in his time. The superscript to the porch records this in Welsh: "This porch was built in 1958 with money bequeathed by the late Llywelyn Wynne Roberts and by the gifts of material and the labour of members and friends of this church."
Mr Butler was the last rector to live in the rectory. When he left in 1963, the parishes of Llanymawddwy and Mallwyd were united, the new rector William Llywelyn Davies living at the Mallwyd rectory. In 1970 there was a further amalgamation when the living at Cemaes became vacant, and it was decided that Wm. Ll. Davies should be priest for all three parishes. In a short time therefore the services at Llanymawddwy were reduced to only one per Sunday.
Canon Geraint Vaughan-Jones was the rector here, and for Cemaes and Mallwyd of course, living at Mallwyd in Dr John Davies' old rectory from 1976 to 1997. Among his many contributions to the life of the church, special notice should be made to his choral and musical activities, particularly the annual choral festival and the plygain services. The latter attracted almost national interest in his time here, being helped by his publication of four books of carols. The "plygain" at Llanymawddwy is held on January 6, Epiphany Day, and invariably attracts an overfull church, the singing partaking of the character and spiritual dimension so ably described by Kenward in his account of the 1858 Plygain at this same church.
The climax to Canon Vaughan-Jones' ministry here may be said to have been reached when a Cross was set on the top of Bwlch y Groes on Holy Cross Day 1989. It should be pointed out that a Cross had been set there in the Middle Ages-the name of course means the Pass of the Cross-and that the remembrance of those days still lingered on in these parts. For instance, Owen Edwards recalled in his home at Coed y Pry just the other side of the pass, hearing the retelling of the story of the pilgrims kneeling by the Cross on the Bwlch, "but now, there are no pilgrims and no cross". Today however there is a cross once more on the Bwlch, placed where the road to Llanwddyn branches off, and thankfully unvandalised after more than eleven years. A service was held in the church to consecrate the Cross, and then a goodly number of parishioners and friends from far and near walked to the top of the Bwlch, a few fortunate ones having been asked to help by carrying the Cross part of the way. A short service there amidst the quiet of the hills surrounded by sheep was a service to remember and to treasure; it was led by the Bishop of Bangor, Cledan Mears, supported by the rector.
Before he left, Canon Vaughan-Jones presented the church with an alms dish and with an icon of the 19th century; this is now placed on the north wall of the chancel arch.
In the year 1990, a period of high winds brought down the coping stones at the south western end of the south wall, and also exposed weaknesses in the end wall. These faults needed careful repair work finished off with new pointing. In January 1994 a storm of quite exceptional ferocity brought down about half of the magnificent yew tree nearest the road. In the winter of 1996/97 strengthening work to three roof trusses was required; supply and the fixing of brackets and tie bars were carried out. Careful measurements of the roof since then indicate stability.
Gwynn ap Gwilym came here in 1997, but his arrival brought a further amalgamation of churches, Darowen and Llanbrynmair being added to the group. This brought a reduction in the number of services which the rector is able to conduct here at Llanymawddwy to two per month. Being thrown back on our own resources, we have developed a rota system of readership in which most of the members participate, plus one official reader, Roland Barnes, who conducts the morning service on the remaining two Sundays in the month. Also, in 2000, the chancel floor from the steps to the sanctuary was entirely relaid by Robert Wyn Jones of Ty Gwyn in oak blocks.
References
Glasynys: Y Brython, Cyf. V, 1862-63. 435-463
Charles Ashton: Yr Haul, 1888 a 1893
Mari Ellis: Cymdeithas Hanes Meirionnydd, V11, 1975, 231-250 Huw Rhys: Traethawd ar Hen Eglwys Llanymawddwy, Ionawr, 1909 John Jones, Ty'n Braich: Adgofion am Ab Ithel, Bangor 3242