Lost Welsh Chapels

Over the last 10/20 years the decline of religion in Wales has been vast, back in 2013 a report from University of Glamorgan stated, “Wales is now experiencing the most rapid and deepest rate of religious decline in the UK” Every year sees a drop in membership in Welsh churches averaging 4.5%, while the number of full-time nonconformist ministers is expected to drop from 64 to 44 over the next five years. In 1995 the total stood at 120 As you drive around Wales the evidence that religion played a massive part in peoples lives is evident, some streets can have three or four different chapels serving the local community. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales has built a register of more than 6,600 19th and 20th Century chapels to which only about 45% are still chapels, in modern times quite a lot of chapels are being brought and converted to homes or other types of buildings Over the last couple of years i have become fascinated with the beauty of the Welsh chapels, they are different to anywhere else i have been in the world, there is a beauty that seems to be distinctive solely to Wales. I have been lucky to be able to see many of these chapels from ones where i have managed to gain permission to ones that have stood abandoned for a number of years.