RADCLIFFE HALL
High Street, Penydarren
English Presbyterian
Built - 1905 in the Sub-Classical style of the gable-entry type.
In 1901, members of Hermon and Libanus Chapels in Dowlais started meeting in Penydarren Boys School, and started a Sunday School in the long room of The New Inn, Penydarren.
By 1902 numbers had grown sufficiently for the congregation to build their own chapel. Three cottages were purchased and converted into a meeting place which they called Samaria. In 1904 it was decided to build a new chapel at a cost of £3000, and the name was changed to Radcliffe Hall, and it opened on Good Friday 1905.
Radcliffe Hall chapel was named after Henry Radcliffe, originally from Dowlais, but who lived for many years in Penydarren before moving to Cardiff and eventually owning a shipping company. Henry Radcliffe made a substantial contribution to the building of the chapel.
Originally a Welsh chapel, Radcliffe Hall became an English cause in 1908. It was closed in 1964 and the building burned down in 1976.
Text by Steve Brewer (from "The Chapels of Merthyr Tydfil"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
