120-year-old organ that first played Cwm Rhondda gets second wind

A chapel organ on which the rugby anthem Cwm Rhondda was composed is to enjoy a new lease of life in time for its 120-year-old anniversary.

The 750-pipe instrument at Capel Rhondda, in Hopkinstown near Pontypridd, has not been played in more than 20 years.

In 1907, John Hughes composed the hymn, also known as Bread of Heaven, and played it for the first time just before Christmas.

But the Grade II-listed building, and its organ, has fallen into disrepair and has been bought by a campaign group.

Rhian Hopkins, who led the effort to buy the chapel, hopes the Blackett & Howden organ will be completely restored ahead of its anniversary next year.

"The organ had been completely unplayable, we think, for nearly two decades. We have been told that repairs were carried out on the organ nearly 20-years-ago and it hasn't worked properly since," she said.

Charity co-founder Martin Renshaw said the pipes deserve a second wind.

"It's not been cleaned for 60 or 70 years there's a lot of stuff in the pipes," he said.

"There's coal dust, there's brick dust, there's white wash off the walls but that's normal for an organ of this age and we have started in the cleanest bit which has been in a box and the pipe work isn't too bad but the rest is pretty bad.

"I work on historic organs from 18th century in historic places but they're not that many historic 20th Century organs, so its wonderful to work on."

The final service at the chapel was held in December 2024, and it was put up for sale by the Baptist Union of Wales (BUW) for £47,500.

Villagers who wanted the chapel to remain a community space raised more than the purchase price.

The BUW said it was "deeply moved by the extraordinary response to the campaign".

The charity Pipe Up for Pipe Organs is carrying out the restoration.

A team of volunteers and enthusiasts will remove, clean, and replace all 764 pipes of the organ.

Abergavenny-based organ builder Kinglsey Robinson said the work has been "tricky".

"It's because it's very compact because it's fitted in to the back wall of the chapel and there's no organ chamber behind it so everything is quite tight to work on and hard to get to on this organ," he said.

Robinson has managed to stir the organ to play Cwm Rhondda after fixing a fault in the mechanics.

"The blower on this organ, which basically provides the wind to make the pipes sound, was spinning in the wrong direction," he said.

"But now that has been resolved and its back to spinning in the right direction the majority of the keys work too but we will need to replace some switches which can be challenging."