A BORTH Y GEST church is celebrating its 150th year this week with a special service to mark the occasion.

Bethel Independents Chapel, which has provided services to the village and the community since it opened in 1867, will hold two special services to make up their celebrations over the next two weeks.

Both services will be led by the Minister, the Rev Iwan Llewelyn Jones, who lives in the village.

It is hoped that many who have benefited from the services of Bethel over the years will attend one or both of the services.

The church has been described as one of the most ‘handsomest and comfortable chapels in which to preach and listen’.

Tom Brooks, secretary of Capel Bethel, said: “Borth y Gest School used the building for many years, as have organisations such as the village WI, local residents association, darts groups and Cyfeillion Borth y Gest. It is also the village polling station.

“There had been problems prior to 1865 in obtaining land from the Porkington Estate to build a chapel. But despite several successful ship launches from the new yards in the village and a parliamentary bill to extend the Croesor tramway to the village shipyards, the Porkington Estates’ new houses in the village were not selling well.

"The Porkington Estate eventually decided that if more houses were to sell, the village needed better amenities, and first on the list was a nonconformist chapel.”

The contract for the chapel was £500 and through the endeavours of Rev William Ambrose, together with the community, the church was opened without debts.

A portrait of Rev Ambrose has a place of honour in the chapel and the friends of the chapel say his business skill in establishing insurance companies was a foundation stone of Porthmadog’s commercial success. He also has a record of establishing another 17 new chapels.

The first celebration will be held in English at the church at 11.30am on Sunday, 6 November and a further service will held in Welsh at 2pm on Sunday, 13 November.