FOREWORD BY DR. GLYN SIMON,

LORD BISHOP OF LLANDAFF AND FORMER

ARCHBISHOP OF WALES

It is always a pleasure to write a foreword to a parish history. Works of this kind reveal all kinds of personalities and events never suspected. Mr. Griffiths has managed to find time to put together skillfully the various bits and pieces, of all shapes and sizes, which go to make up the completed jigsaw of Dyffryn Parish Church and neighbourhood.

There is the big house, and the prominent, generous and gifted landowner. There is the vicarage and the position and status of its occupiers, two of them in this case both unusual and gifted, occupying a delicate intermediate place between the local notabilities and the bulk of the parishioners. (But not many Welsh clergymen could have afforded five servants!)

There are the chapels, numerous indeed, and holding the loyalty of most of the “ordinary folk”, particularly if they are Welsh-speaking.

There is the architect, John Norton, one of the busiest Gothic Revival architects of his day. In this diocese he was responsible for St David’s (Neath), Pontypridd, and Ystrad Mynach Churches, amongst others. His work was uneven and sometimes bizarre. Dyffryn may well be counted amongst his better efforts, and his schemes of interior decoration links this little Welsh parish with one of the major ecclesi­astical interests of the Gothic Revival.

Mr. Griffiths’ work enables us to see the whole small-scale panorama of a way of life, which owed almost every­thing to coal. It was not a way of life, which lasted long. But while it lasted there was a completeness about it which makes its short story fascinating and full of interest.

Now the Gwyns, and lesser notabilities with them, have gone; so in large measure has the coal; the old vicarage had too much room to spare even for the vicar and his family. The Church they built has survived, and, more happily placed than some stands in an area of growth and variety of population. It must often in the past, rightly or wrongly, have been identified with the interests of the important local families, with the chapels concerned with those of the “ordinary folk”. Both church and chapels now face the challenge of profound social, moral and religious changes. Both must face it together, each using for the common cause the wisdom of their particular and varied experiences. May God guide us aright in all that lies ahead?

GLYNN LANDAV

August,1971

Acknowledgements

I am greatly indebted to a number of people for the help which they have given me in the preparation of this parish history. I should like to express my thanks to tile following for the contributions that they have made towards this booklet: the Lord Bishop of Llandaff, Dr.Glyn Simon, who kindly consented to write the foreword; to the Vicar, Rev.

D Grenfell Rees, for having given inc the opportunity to write this history and for the help and encouragement he has rendered in its preparation; to Mr. Philip R. Davies, Bryncoch, who is responsible for all the photographs in this publication and who has also aided me with enthusiasm in the collection of a pictorial history of the parish; to Mr. Elis Jenkins, who read the manuscript and made valuable comments; to Miss Doreen John, who undertook the typing of the manuscript, and to Crown Printers, Morriston, for their assistance in the publication of this booklet.

I also wish to acknowledge the help received from colleagues at the University College of Swansea; the Hon. Librarian and members of the Neath Antiquarian Society; Miss Names and Mr. Grant—Davidson of the Royal institution of South Wales, Swansea; Mr. John Bunt of the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea; and to “Vidua”, Windsor Road, Neath.

The researches of Messrs. Richard D. Till and Wilton D. Wills have proved most valuable to me, and I acknow­ledge a debt of thanks to them and to the other authors mentioned in the bibliography. I am, above all, grateful to those many parishioners, villagers and others who had connections with Dyffryn, for having given me their valuable aid in numerous ways. There are, I regret, too many of these good people to mention by name. The fund of knowledge they possess and their generosity in sharing these memories has made the task of compiling this history a pleasure. They have proved to be a rich source of information and will, I am sure, also be my most severe critics. I apologies for any errors and omissions there might be in this centenary history and ask forgiveness as one who is not a native of this parish and who was not even born until the grass grew thick upon the site of Howel Gwyn’s residence.

Jeffrey L Griffiths