About: Calfaria Chapel, Aberdare

Calfaria Baptist Chapel, Aberdare, was one of the largest baptist churches in the South Wales Valleys and the oldest in the Aberdare valley. The chapel had an ornate interior, including a boarded ceiling with a deeply undercut rose, while the balcony balustrading had a cast iron front with an intricate foliage design. These features were common in the Welsh chapels of the late nineteenth century. The organ was installed in 1903 at a cost of £850. It was played for the last time in 2012 by Robert Nicholls, during a Radio Cymru broadcast shortly before the closure of the chapel.