Volume Eleven - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - some more aspects - The Growth of Wesleyan Methodism at Penarth . . .

Miss Morgan was the elder daughter of Edward Morgan of Merthyr Tydfil ; a man of substance who had moved to East Barry House. She had 'means' of her own and bought a house in Glebe Street, Penarth for Peter Bethell, 'Town Missioner', as he is described in the census of 1861. 'Bethell, from Halkyn, Flintshire, was cast in the mould of John Wesley and is known to have preached in a roofless stable in the centre of the town to congregations of mixed persuasion. He was at this time thirty-seven years of age. He died aged forty-two and was buried in St. Augustine's churchyard.'

Miss Morgan made him an allowance of £200 a year. The work prospered and there were attendances of upwards of two hundred people at prayer meetings and services on Sundays. In 1863, an application was made to the Plymouth Estate for a site on which to build a chapel. Designs were submitted to Lady Windsor and a 'slightly building' was stipulated and ' a design applicable to the locality.'

The Methodist Church was able to meet these requirements. The Rev. F. J. Jobson had published in 1850 an authoritative book on 'Chapel Architecture particularly appropriate to the Wesleyan Methodists' in which the model Gothic Chapel was described. The building which was to be erected in Arcot Street bears a striking resemblance to this. The seating in the Chapel was for 450, with accommodation in the adjoining schoolroom for 500 children.

The foundation stone of the Chapel was laid by Miss Morgan on the 7th October 1863. The Rev. W. Russell Maltby wrote in the Cardiff Conference Handbook of 1911 :  'Wild and windy weather prevailed and as the Superintendent Minister began the Service by saying 'We are now going . . . . . ' the temporary platform gave way and the Superintendent and others vanished. Arcot Street began in rain and ended in fire,' Russell Maltby was referring to the fire which later partially destroyed the Arcot Street building in 1898.

By the 1880's, Arcot Street Chapel was thriving within the Cardiff Loudoun Square Circuit, but the shift of population in the town was to the west of the Taff Vale Railway line ; indeed, that part of Penarth was already know as 'The West End.'