Photographs of Church Street, Abertillery, 12 March 1977

Description

These 1977 photographs appear to have been taken on Church Street in Abertillery, with one picture showing the arcade. Included is a picture of the furniture showrooms that were located in a converted church, the Trinity Calvinistic Methodist Chapel.

A Hebrew Congregation was founded in Abertillery by the early 1900s but had ceased to exist in the 1950s. The Jewish Chronicle records in 1905 that a Rev S. Kahn had been elected Chazan, Shochet, and Teacher of Abertillery congregation. He was soon succeeded by others, including Rev Snadow who moved on to Newport in 1910. A synagogue with a Hebrew school was erected behind 2 Newall Street around 1910 and had space for 100 worshippers. By 1939, the Abertillery community had shrunk from around 100 members to 14. The Jewish Chronicle reports that in 1942 religious services for evacuee children were held in a private home in High Street.

Sources:
'The History of the Jewish Diaspora in Wales' by Cai Parry-Jones (http://e.bangor.ac.uk/4987);
JCR-UK/JewishGen (https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Community/val1_abertillery/Abertillery_Press_Reports.htm);
"The Hebrew Synagogue – Abertillery" by Graham Bennett (https://outoftheblueartifacts.com/the-hebrew-synagogue-abertillery).

Depository: Gwent Archives.