Saron Graveyard · Troedyrhiw
Friends of Saron is a volunteer-led project to conserve the historic nonconformist graveyard at Saron, Troedyrhiw — and to tell the stories of those buried here.
About the project
Saron graveyard sits on the hillside above Troedyrhiw in the Merthyr valley. Established in the early nineteenth century, it became the final resting place of ironworkers, ministers, tradespeople, housewives, children and others from this part of industrial South Wales.
The Friends of Saron group formed in 2009 when local residents became concerned about the deteriorating condition of the site. Since then volunteers have cleared vegetation, repaired boundary walls, stabilised headstones and begun the careful task of recording each burial.
“Saron is part of the story of how ordinary people in the valleys lived, worked, worshipped and cared for each other.”Friends of Saron volunteer
History
1820
A number of people in the area decided to start a Sunday School with help from Bethesda Chapel in Merthyr. Initially the school and services took place from house to house but later at the Old Mill and the Harp Inn.
1835
Land is provided by Sir Josiah John Guest of the Dowlais Iron Company, who claimed ownership, for the building of Saron Chapel and the associated burial ground.
1852
Saron Chapel is rebuilt to accommodate a growing congregation drawn from the rapidly expanding mining and ironworking community. The actual landowner was found to be Wyndham Lewis and he granted a lease for this purpose.
Late 19th – early 20th century
Burials reflect the social history of the valley: industrial accidents, epidemics, migration, revival movements and the impact of war are all recorded in the inscriptions.
1960s – early 2000s
With the decline of heavy industry and changes in patterns of worship, chapel attendance falls. Following the closure of the chapel in 1983 and its subsequent demolition, the burial ground progressively becomes overgrown and the condition of the memorials and boundary walls deteriorates.
2009
Concerned local residents form the Friends of Saron group to take action. Regular work days begin, and links are made with Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, the landowner, the leaseholder and a variety of organisations and individuals potentially capable of providing guidance and support.
Today
Volunteers continue the painstaking work of vegetation management, stone conservation and inscription recording. The online Burials Register allows families and researchers around the world to explore Saron’s story.
What we do
Regular work days see volunteers clearing vegetation, making safe leaning stones, repairing boundaries and improving access paths. All work is done with hand tools and taking great care to avoid damage.
No specialist skills are required – just appropriate clothing and a willingness to help. Training, tools and plenty of tea are provided.
Every legible inscription is transcribed, photographed and cross-referenced with census records, parish registers, nonconformist burial records and Welsh newspaper archives.
This work feeds directly into the public Burials Register — a permanent, searchable record for families tracing their South Wales ancestry.
We hold regular open days, guided walks and talks in partnership with local schools, Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council and heritage organisations across South Wales.
Volunteers of all ages and backgrounds are welcome — no experience required. Just bring enthusiasm for Welsh history and comfortable footwear.
A section of the graveyard has been designated as a managed wildflower habitat, supporting pollinators and providing a peaceful green space for the community.
Gallery
Our Story in Pictures
These dated photographs trace how Saron graveyard has changed — from an overgrown and derelict site to the cared-for place of remembrance it is today — thanks to years of community effort and volunteer work.
2009
2009
2012
2013
2019
2020
2024
2025
2025
2025
2025
Volunteer
Friends of Saron is a small group of local people. Everything you can see on this site — the cleared ground, the reset headstones, the burial records, the photographs — was done by volunteers, most of them in their own time and at their own pace. There is always more to do than there are hands to do it, so if any of the following sounds like you, we would be glad to hear from you.
On site
Clearing brambles and ivy, cutting back, tidying paths, making leaning stones safe. Hand tools only and always carefully, because the stones are fragile. No experience needed — come for an hour or come for the morning. Tools, gloves and tea are provided.
From home
Checking names against the census, birth and death indexes and the Welsh newspaper archives. Chasing down a date that does not quite add up. This can be done from a kitchen table anywhere in the world, and it is how most of our register was built.
Photography
Hundreds of the people in our register have no photograph of their memorial yet. If you are handy with a camera or even just a phone, a morning of careful photography adds something permanent that anyone searching for their family can see.
Welsh language
Many of the older inscriptions are in Welsh, some of it worn and some of it verse. If you read Welsh, you can help us get the wording and the translations right — and tell us when we have got them wrong.
Groups
A group can take on a whole row or a corner of the ground and see a visible difference in a single session. We will show you what needs doing, work alongside you, and record what your group achieved so it is on the public record.
Skills
Stonework, dry stone walling, joinery, gardening, fundraising, minute-taking, publicity, teaching, or simply knowing who to ask in Troedyrhiw. Small groups run on whatever skills turn up. Tell us what yours are.
A row that was under brambles in the morning is readable by the afternoon. Very little else in life gives you that.
A few hours of steady outdoor work with other people, at whatever pace suits you. Several of our volunteers came for the history and stayed for the company.
Reading a worn inscription, tracing a family through the records, handling old stone without damaging it. These are proper skills, and we will teach you them.
Every inscription recorded is somebody's ancestor found by somebody else, sometimes from the other side of the world. We have had visitors from Patagonia.
FAQ
Use our Burials Register page — search by surname, first name, year of death or plot number. You can also browse row by row using the interactive plot map. If your ancestor isn't yet listed, contact us and we'll check our offline records.
Yes, Saron graveyard in Troedyrhiw is open to visitors. We recommend wearing sturdy footwear as the ground is uneven in places. Guided tours can be arranged by contacting us in advance.
Use the contact form on this site or come along to one of our regular work days — usually the first Saturday of each month. No experience needed; training and equipment are provided.
We are putting proper arrangements in place for this and are not accepting online donations yet. In the meantime the most useful thing you can give us is time — see the volunteering section, where even an hour is worth having. If you would still like to contribute towards materials, conservation work or archive access, get in touch through the contact form and we will explain where things stand.
The graveyard is divided into rows A through K, and each row contains numbered plots, so plot B-14 means Row B, plot 14. You can explore the rows we have confirmed on the interactive plot map on the Burials Register page.
Not every burial we know of has a plot against it yet. Rows A, B, C and K have now been walked and checked against the stones; the rest are still being surveyed, and until a row is checked we show its burials without a plot rather than risk pointing you at the wrong grave.
If so, and you have information that you are willing to share about Saron chapel or those buried in its graveyard, please use the ‘Contact us’ option below. We will be very pleased to hear from you.
Contact usIf you have information about those buried at Saron, would like to volunteer, or wish to arrange a visit or talk, please use the form below.
Thank you — your message has reached the Friends of Saron volunteers, who will reply to you by email.
Burials Register
The burials we have been able to identify so far at Saron graveyard, Troedyrhiw.
0 people recorded so far from the standing stones at Saron. Search a surname, a forename, a year, a plot number such as G-11, or any wording from an inscription.
This register is a work in progress. Some inscriptions are worn beyond reading and some graves are unmarked, so where we are unsure the record says so. If you know better than we do, .
| Surname | Forenames | Died | Age | Plot | Notes |
|---|
Plot Map
Tap a plot to see who lies there.
Site Plan
The grid above is a simplified guide. Plots at Saron are not a standard size and are set out differently in each row, so this measured plan shows how the graves actually sit within the graveyard. An X marks an unmarked plot, and “+ approx” notes show where the number of graves in a gap is an educated estimate. The survey is ongoing, so this plan will be updated as more graves are identified.
Owain knows this graveyard. Ask him about a name on a stone, a family in the register, or the story of the chapel itself — he'll answer from the project's own records, and tell you plainly when a stone is too worn to say.
Croeso — welcome. I've spent a long while among these stones, and I'm glad of the company.
Ask me about anyone in the register, or about Saron itself. If a stone is worn and I can't read it, I'll say so rather than invent something.
Know something about the people buried here?
Some of the people buried at Saron left more than a name and a date. A newspaper report, a chapel minute book, a photograph in a family album — enough, sometimes, to see a whole life. These are those people.
Saron was more than a graveyard. It was a chapel, a choir, a Sunday school and a hundred years of village life. These are the photographs, maps and portraits that put the names in the register back into the place they came from.
Adopt a Grave
Saron is looked after by a handful of people, and there are more graves than they can reach. Adopting one means keeping an eye on it — the ground around the stone, the inscription staying readable — or finding out who the people named on it actually were. Either is worth doing. Both is better.
Nobody is asked to do both, and nobody is asked to commit to anything for longer than they want to. If you take a grave on and find you cannot keep it up, tell us and we will pass it to somebody else. No awkwardness.
Keeping the grass and growth around the stone in check so the inscription stays visible and the plot does not disappear again. A few visits a year is enough for most graves. Nothing needs specialist tools, and nothing involving the stone itself should be attempted without speaking to us first — old stone is easier to damage than it looks.
Following a name through newspapers, censuses, chapel records and family trees until a person comes into focus. This can be done entirely from home, from anywhere in the world, and it is how nearly every story on this site began. Several of our graves are still just a name and a date.
Every grave someone looks after is one that a descendant can still find, read and photograph. People write to us from Canada, Australia and the United States looking for a Troedyrhiw ancestor. Whether they find anything depends entirely on whether somebody here kept the record and the stone in reach.
Three areas have been surveyed closely enough for us to say with confidence which grave is which. You are welcome to adopt a single grave anywhere in them. But if no particular name is drawing you, we would gently suggest taking two or three that sit next to each other. A run of neighbouring graves is far less work than the same number scattered across the ground, and it leaves a visible stretch in good order rather than a patchwork.
All of them are listed. There is no set order to work through and no route anybody has to follow — take the one that means something to you, or the one nearest where you park. Where a grave has already been taken you will see who looks after it.
Showing 0 graves
There are several hundred more people we know were buried at Saron whose exact plot we have not yet fixed. Those graves cannot be adopted for maintenance, because we cannot yet point to which stone is which. But their research is wide open, and it is some of the most useful work anybody could do for this project. If a surname in the register means something to you, say so — you do not need a plot number to start.
