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Murton first appeared on the Swansea Circuit preaching plan in 1828, though
the first ‘Chapel on the Green’
was not built until 1831. This original chapel, later a cottage
used by a member of the Vine family, has now been incorporated into
The Chestnuts, once the home of the Vine & Vivian families,
now a Social Club.
The Chapel’s success was short lived. The congregation had
dwindled to such an extent that in the spring of 1834 the now deserted
chapel was used by the Primitive Methodists for a preaching campaign
by the Rev Henry Higginson, ‘The Raving Ranter’. The
Wesleyan cause did not revive until the late 1840s, though membership
was small and once again the cause collapsed. |
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With the support of the thriving
Wesleyan Methodist cause at Mumbles, the Chapel on the Green re-opened
in the late 1870s, a Mumbles local preacher, Mr. Giles Hall, preaching
the first sermon there for many years. Another Mumbles member, Mr.
Tom Jones, started a Sunday School. From this time on, the Wesleyan
cause at Murton prospered, with local preachers enduring many hardships,
particularly on winter nights, travelling from Swansea and Mumbles
to preach there.
The decision to build a new
chapel was taken in 1889, possibly as a result of members
having been impressed by the relatively new chapel at Pitton, visited
on the occasion of a Sunday School Treat. The new building was not
erected on the old site, but on the opposite side of Murton Green,
on land leased from Mr. James Webborn, which in 1976 was bequeathed
to the Murton Trustees by his direct descendant, Mrs. Catherine
Rees, the front garden of whose house had been sacrificed for the
building site.
The chapel was built from locally hewn stone,
with local labour, the foundation stone being laid on July 6th 1896.
The opening ceremony took place on January 14th 1897, the preacher
being the Rev. Rawlings of Sketty. So great was the congregation
that it took two hours to serve them tea, in relays! The building
comprised a porch, chapel and rear schoolroom, which still form
the core of the modern chapel, though in the intervening years there
have been several additions and modifications.
The first Sunday School Anniversary was held
on June 6th 1897, with a Young People’s Service in the afternoon,
(solos, recitations, dialogues etc!), and a Cantata performed by
the choir, accompanied by a string band, in the evening. Illustrating
the close involvement of the Swansea and Gower Circuits in the new
chapel, the preacher at the Young People’s Service was Rhossili
born Richard Beynon, by this time a pioneer of Brunswick. His brother-in-law,
William Richards, had been one of the two stonemasons who built
the much-admired Pitton Chapel.
Murton remained part of the Swansea Circuit until
1966, sharing a Minister who was resident in Mumbles. The Gower
Circuit had been in the care of a Minister resident at Horton, but
after 1966 it also became part of the Swansea Circuit, and from
that time Murton has shared a Minister, now resident in Pennard,
with the Gower chapels.
The loyalty of the congregation down the years
is plain to see – many of the Murton members in 2003 are the
direct descendants of those pioneering chapel builders in the 1890s.
(J.C.)
Sources:
John C Howells: The History of Murton Methodist Chapel 1896-1996.
Various Gower Records recorded by members of the Glamorgan Family
History Society. |
