New Bethel Chapel

The spacious vestry at the rear of New Bethel Chapel was already crowded when Nicholls, Canning, Sergeant Richards and Deputy Chief Constable Evans arrived at its gates as the residents of Garnant pressed their way inside to hear what might be said and for those who had not been at the earlier visit to scene to get a first glimpse of the men from Scotland Yard.

The chapel itself was just 20 or so yards down the valley road in the direction of Ammanford from the Star and sat on the border of Garnant and neighbouring Glanaman with the purpose of serving the Non-Conformist faithful of both villages.

It had been opened in 1876 with the foundation stone laid two years earlier and was erected on land gifted for the purpose by Evan Daniel of Swansea.

Designed by architect John Humphreys of Morriston and built by T. Thomas of Llanelli for a reported 2,040 11s and 6d, New Bethel has originally been the cause of some dispute with many residents preferring that two chapels be constructed one in each village.

However, a small majority had won the day and a single unifying place of worship was erected, but the schisms within Non-Conformity would not go away and within the next 25 years three smaller chapels were built in Glanaman to serve their respected denominations.

Reverend Timothy Eynon Davies ministered at New Bethel Chapel until 1883 when he left to take up the pulpit at the Countess of Huntingdon Church, Swansea.

At the time of his departure, New Bethel was to be one of the most well attended Welsh chapels, having a regular congregation numbering in excess of 1,300 worshippers.

Davies was replaced by the Reverend Josiah Towyn Jones who remained at New Bethel until 1904 when he left to become a Christian missionary with the Welsh Congregational Century Fund.

A Liberal Party activist, Jones a close friend of David Lloyd George acted as election agent for Abel Thomas, the Member of Parliament for Carmarthenshire East and Llanelly for more than 22 years and when Thomas died in 1912, replaced him as MP in Carmarthenshire East and Llanelly. When the seat was abolished in 1918 Jones was elected MP for the new seat of Llanelli. .

Meanwhile, New Bethel continued to see its congregation swell and in 1914 a new organ was constructed at a cost of 1,000 mainly due to the efforts of the Organ Fund Committees energetic secretary William Michael the husband of Margaret Michael, whom Diana Bowen had breathlessly told her tale of awful screams and boys with their hands in bacon slicers while Thomas Thomas lay dying.

A hush fell on the crowded vestry and all eyes turned towards Inspector Nicholls and his colleagues as they entered the chapel and passed beneath the inscription stone, which read:

This Stone
Commemorates The Gift By
E Daniel, Esq., Swansea
Of The Site Of The Temple
With Other Valuable Donations
To The Congregational Church
Worshipping At This Place

Nicholls, Canning, Sergeant Richards and the Deputy Chief Constable took the seats reserved for them alongside the gathered pressman just moments before John Nicholas took his place at a table under the pulpit and called the proceedings to order.

Once the formalities of swearing in the eight-man jury with John Phillips, postmaster, as foreman were over, the coroner eyed them each in turn.

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