Bid to save Cwm Rhondda chapel raises enough money to buy it

A campaign to save the chapel where the hymn Cwm Rhondda was first sung has raised enough money to buy the building.

Also known and Bread of Heaven, the hymn was first sung at Capel Rhondda in Hopkinstown, Rhondda Cynon Taf, just before Christmas 1907.

The final service, amid declining numbers at services, was in December 2024 and the Grade II listed chapel was put up for sale by the Welsh Baptist Union with a price tag of £47,500.

Locals – fearing it could be bought by a property developer – wanted to save it as a community space and campaigner Rhian Hopkins, who grew up in the village, said: “It’s amazing.”

Ms Hopkins started the campaign less than two weeks ago and it has raised about £55,000 after the original target of the asking price was raised to £60,000 to cover legal and other costs.

“I keep thinking ‘am I just having a vivid dream which I’ll wake up from’,” she said.

“This isn’t just any chapel, this is the home of Cwm Rhondda, the home of Bread of Heaven.

“This is a really important part of not just local heritage but Welsh heritage and potentially worldwide heritage from the response we’ve had.”

Ms Hopkins put a post on Facebook while her my sons were on holiday in France with their dad and said her campaign “snowballed”.

“It’s been so exciting and I have worked ridiculously hard, doing 12-plus hour days on the campaign,” she said.

“Michael Sheen retweeted the post this week but the biggest difference to the campaign was after BBC Radio 4 Today programme featured the story.

“I watched the crowdfunding page and it was like someone winning the jackpot on a fruit machine and the coins keep on coming out because the figures just kept on going up.”

With the money now raised to buy the chapel, Ms Hopkins hopes it can one day become a museum with a visitor centre.

“A lot of money will also need to be spent on the chapel. There was a quote of £50,000 just to restore the vestry floor.

“There’s also knotweed in the graveyard, it’s going to take a lot of money and work.”

Singer and broadcaster Beverley Humphreys, who is from nearby Pontypridd, said: “This hymn, Cwm Rhondda is in our DNA as Welsh people… it’s been in my heart ever since I can remember.

“There is so much history embedded in this wonderful hymn and it’s not just about preserving something special from our past but what Rhian and the team will do is preserve something beautiful for the present and for the future.”