Capel Bethlehem, Pwll-trap, St Clears
This Independent chapel was rebuilt and enlarged several times as its congregation grew. The earliest recorded Muslim burial in Wales took place in the chapel’s cemetery in 1893 – see below.
The first chapel here was built in the 1760s. The chapel we see today dates from 1833, with alterations from c.1910.
The Rev T Miles Evans of Abergwili travelled to the chapel one Sunday in December 1895 to lead an evening service. As he was stepping down from the carriage outside the chapel, the bridle slipped and the horse took fright. The minister was thrown from the step and hit a telegraph pole, fracturing his skull. He died three days later.
In the 21st century, the chapel’s community facilities have been improved. As of September 2024, services begin at 10.30am each Sunday except the third in the month, and the chapel’s “clwb croeso” welcomes anyone for refreshments and chat every Tuesday 10.30am to 12.30pm.
Many Welsh chapels had no cemeteries but here there is a spacious burial ground, where Amelia Kadija Baksh was buried in 1893 – the earliest recorded Muslim burial in Wales. The photo shows the grave with the southern cemetery wall in the background.
She was born Amelia Davies in 1867 to Mr and Mrs Joseph Davies, of the Bush, St Clears. She had moved to London by 1891. There she met Sheikh Meeran Buksh, a member of a prominent and wealthy Indian family who was studying law in London. Amelia converted to Islam and the couple married in 1891 at the Liverpool mosque, then the UK’s only mosque. She died two years later, aged 26. There was a large attendance, in heavy rain, for her funeral at Capel Bethlehem.
According to Cardiff University academic Abdul-Azim Ahmed, the community appears to have accepted Amelia’s conversion to Islam and her burial under her Muslim name, Kadija. He suggests that the Welsh Nonconformist tradition may have treated Islam as another brand of Christian reform.
With thanks to Abdul-Azim Ahmed, of Cardiff University
Postcode: SA33 4AN View Location Map
More about Amelia Kadija Baksh – Cardiff University website