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Chapels  --  Bethel Methodist
Evan Phillips with his
distinctive beard in the pulpit
at Bethel Chapel
Bethel Chapel Now a chapel of rest, is historically
important. The building played its part in the Welsh
Methodist Revival of 1904-05.
It was built in 1820. The money to pay for it came from the
pockets of the faithful. We do not know who the first
ministers were but nine years after the chapel doors were
opened a boy child, Evan Phillips was born in nearby
Penrhiwllan, Parish of Llanfairorllwyn, Cardiganshire, in a
cottage called Milestone. As an adult he was to lead the
congregation at Bethel for fifty-two years.
When Evan Phillips was eight his father died and he was
brought up by his maternal grandparents. His grandfather,
the Rev Daniel Evans, was the minister at Capel y Drindod
in Aberbanc, and Evan’s childhood was spent in and around
the villages of Penrhiwllan and Aberbanc. It was to take
him some time to find his life’s mission and it looked as
though he would enter what is now termed ‘the rag trade’.
Such a career would have been quite normal for the area
round the Teifi Valley was known as the ‘Huddersfield of
Wales’. At the age of twelve the young Evan Phillips was
apprenticed to a tailor and travelled the district learning his
trade. After eight years his dislike of the constant travelling
made him give up tailoring to take a job in a shop in Adpar,
Newcastle Emlyn. Again he was unhappy and gave up the
job to go back to school, signing on at Adpar Grammar
School, Llanybri, Adpar Hill, at the age of 22 under the
tutelage of John Davies. Around this time he felt the urge
to preach and enrolled at theological college at Trefecca
near Brecon. However, homesickness a constant theme
throughout his life - struck again and subsequent ill-health
saw him return to the Teifi Valley. In 1855 he was accepted
into the Methodist Ministry and started preaching at
chapels on a ‘freelance’ basis being paid anything from four
to twelve shillings per service.
In1860 he was appointed Minister at Bethel on an annual stipend of £15 a year. His reputation as a forceful
preacher and a diligent pastoral shepherd overseeing his flock must have spread quickly for within three years
the Methodist Chapel at Dowlais tried to entice him from Newcastle Emlyn. He resisted the temptation and
stayed on at Bethel for over half a century until his death at the age of eighty-three. He was buried in 1912 in
the town cemetery out on the Cardigan Road. By all accounts he was an inspirational preacher and certainly
not given to long-windedness.  At that time congregations attending the Cyrddau Mawr, ‘the big services’
pairs. These serial sermons could last well over the hour. Evan Phillips was renowned for his brevity and was
known as ‘Evan Phillips Twenty Minutes’.
More Bethel