St John’s Church, Dowlais

According to Carolyn Jacob writing for the Old Merthyr Tydfil website : “The Dowlais Parish Church was built in 1827 by the most successful iron-master of his generation, John Josiah Guest, who is buried inside the Church. In an iron coffin.The Church was well known for its unusual historic stained glass window, dedicated to the coal-mining industry, ‘The Miners Window’, which was funded by the Martin family. Inside the Church there are a large number of memorials, many to great figures of the Industrial Revolution, who were employed by the prestigious Dowlais Iron-Works. In recent years the Church became far too large for a diminishing elderly congregation and a problem with insurance cover led to its closure in 1997 and it was then sold to Nazir Mohammed. The original parish records are in the Glamorgan Record Office in Cathays Park, Cardiff, and the facsimile copies in Dowlais Library, which is next to the Church.”

The Old Merthyr Tydfil website – http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm – is an excellent online resource for historical information concerning Merthyr Tydfil.