Why Did Nevil Williams write Eddie John and the Lost Community?

Why Did Nevil Williams write Eddie John and the Lost Community?

There were two reasons

Firstly, I wanted to write a tribute to my very kind stepfather, Eddie John. He picked up some very bad habits after the death of his mother Emily Jane who he adored. Her last words to him in 1919, as she lie dying of the Spanish flu which was rampant at the time, eventually led to his conversion on 1 March, 1923. After that his life was transformed. He became a member of the Evangelistic Hall, Arthur Street. He was spurred on to building the Bury Gospel Hall in Machynys in 1930 through the preaching of Alfred Gardner of Hereford. His sermon was entitled “Vision and Venture” being based on Proverbs 29:18,”Where there is no vision the people perish”. The Hall opened in January 1931. Eddie was well-known locally for his preaching and pastoral ministry. The Gospel Hall closed around 1969 when the houses of Machynys and Bwlch-y-Gwynt began to be demolished.

This leads me on to the second reason which is, to preserve a record of these two villages in which I lived for twelve years.There was a lovely community in both. It’s a shame that the council uprooted and scattered the residents. So I moved to Trinity Road in September 1969. I attended the Morfa Gospel Hall as I did the Burry Gospel  Hall.The members of the Burry Gospel  Hall bought the Institute of the Morfa Tinworks in 1955 and converted it into the Morfa Gospel  Hall. It closed in March 1991 because of the council’s Land Regeneration Scheme.Thankfully, the Lost Communities of Bwlch-y-Gwynt and Machynys, the Glanymor and Tyisha History Group with the Llanelli Community Heritage have been working hard to record the history of the area.