HistoryPoints News

Oct 11, 2020

How Bethesda got its name


Many villages and hamlets in Wales gained Biblical names because their chapels were their chief landmarks. Bethesda in Gwynedd was no exception, but the smattering of houses around the new Capel Bethesda in 1820 was replaced ...

by an entire town as the Penrhyn quarry expanded to become one of the world's largest slate quarries. The chapel is now a residential building named Arafa Don, after the famous tune composed by the chapel's organist. For more on the chapel's history - including the tale of a strike-breaker who needed a police escort as he left chapel - use your smartphone to scan the HistoryPoints QR codes on the post of the road sign in front of the chapel. Or click here