Wales

jess I'm talking about the Valleys, mainly. I'm guessing the rise of the chapels followed the rise in population.

Different in other parts of Wales, I guess.

So many disused chapels dotted around.

Most of the chapels in N and S Wales are late 19thC though, aren't they. Some spectacular, huge, ruined specimens on the LLyn. Area presumably depopulated these days.
On a tangent re the LLyn, I was talking to someone who grew up there the other day. He said in the area where he was born the first language was Cymraeg, the second Polish and the third English.

I was Christened as a Calvinistic Methodist (Welsh). When the chapel closed, I moved over to an Independent one (still Welsh).

In my village of around 3000 people, there was a Church, a Catholic church, three Welsh chapels, an English Nonconformist chapel and a Baptist chapel.

At the beginning of the C20th, there was a movement called the "Diwygiad" - a kind of feverish affiliation to Chapel. If you take a tour of South East Wales, most of the chapels date from around this time.

The first time I went to a Methodist service with a friend (I must have been about 10) I didn't realise you didn't kneel to say prayers, so I knelt down and she was prodding me and hissing 'get up, get up'.

We went to a baptism once, the friends' children being baptised were in their late teens and had decided this for themselves. It was a 'full immersion' baptism in a large pool in the church and I must admit I gasped because I wasn't expecting it. I think that was a Baptist church.

John Wesley's hymns are some of the best in the Church of England hymn book.

Risesarered, the Methodist church was founded by John Wesley who was a church of England minister

In that case, Baptist sounds a lot better than Methodist Chapel ( perhaps less rules at any rate!)
Does anybody know about Wesleyan Chapel( or is it Methodist?)
A few days ago somebody put a brand new small New Testament through the door with a leaflet about Easter, no idea which group did this, but quite an expensive way of spreading the news.I keep wondering if they will be back to ask if I have read it yet.

There are Welsh Baptists chapels and English baptist chapels, I went to an English Baptist because my g grandfather built it and was the first minister chose English Baptist because it was a coal mining area and he decided if Welsh he was excluding the many who had come to work in the pits but were not Welsh speaking.

When we moved from Aberfan to the countryside the chapel there only had a service once a month so we were sent to the Anglican Church, my great aunt - his daughter and Deacon of the chapel was horrified, more so when my youngest sister was born and named Angela, g aunt declared it was all that papal influence

Methodists have far more rules, no smoking, no gambling, no alcohol at all, baptists were expected to observe the Sabbeth , Sunday was Sunday and the other six days were working days , love was the centre and children so very important, so much organised around children . At our last service at the chapel my sisters and I had to stand whilst the entire congregation sang - God be with you till we meet again, we only moved twenty five miles grin]

Some councils are still stacked with men. It's 27:3 on ours...

What is the difference between Methodist and Baptist?

Also, was it /is it Wesleyan Chapel?

must admit confession was a bit of a downer! could never think of anything to confess.Liked the bells and smells though, and the statues ( when a child) and all the singing.Mass used to be entirely in Latin, but since the English was printed next to the Latin in our missals, we knew what the words meant.
Am not a Catholic now, in fact haven't visited a Catholic church since I grew up.
What is the format for a chapel service and was it all in Welsh?

I loved chapel, we certainly didn't have to cope with confession, smells and bells, statues etc. Certain games on a Sunday were not approved if but it was explained why, no fear and talk of purgatory , just Sunday is the day of the Lord, love and respect need to be given to him, dice and cards ? No because the soldiers gambling at the foot of the cross. Plus the commandment -Remember the Sabbeth Day and keep it Holy,

Still, like Wales, Sundays had a dead sort of feeling with nothing open and little to do but visit realtives.

There were still pubs in Yorkshire in the 50's that had segregated bars for men and women.
By the 1960's things were changing, and I remember my Grandad complaining bitterly that two young women had come into the 'tap room' ( students) and had been told by the men there to go into the saloon bar, and they had refused saying, scandalously ?That they wanted to play darts!

Being brought up as a Catholic was perhaps a bit more jolly than chapel, as after the service there was a stampede for the church hall, where tea and buns were dispensed and there was always a sale of goods, all to do with religion of course,
New rosaries, bookmarks with bits of the gospel on them and prayer books and the like. The two Irish priests ( a bit Father Ted) always rushed out of church at the end of the service to stand outside and light a fag before they greeted the congregation. I don't know about gambling, but they liked a drink.

gettingonabit and not so casual sexism - local positions are kept for men only, even if they are past it and in their late eighties... or just 'their turn'. So things are not run well.

Jalima1108 - yes thats why I (and siblings) ended up with 13, large family with add on 'aunties' who were family friends..

Anniebach I agree - I hate gambling but how much is based on my underlying values inherited from one dear grandmother

It doesn't look as if they wear that nice red and grey uniform any longer Galen except for the tie; I always wanted to go there because our uniform was a horrible green and navy.

At boarding school ( the Friary Lichfield) we always had to wear a grey felt hat when out We had a special one for Sunday's to go to church, chapel or THE CATHEDRAL. I went to a tiny church called ' the chapel and hospital of St John the Baptist without the bars of the city of Lichfield.' My father chose it as he knew the master ( priest) as he was the grand chaplain of the Freemasons.

So true, I just asked my daughter what she remembers about my - no, not on a Sunday , oooops ?

ab if you're brought up "Chapel" I think a lot of those values stick.

Sparkly, only when chapel rules came into the discussion did I realise how I still respect them,

I don't think I ever had 13 eggs though, perhaps 10!

I had lots of 'aunties' who were not real aunties as well, iyswim.

sparkly until very recently my old village Valleys pub had a men-only area.

There's still a lot of casual, everyday sexism in the Valleys.

Jalima1108 I am glad you managed when receiving a lot of eggs...