Ammanford
From Sawiki
Tucked away unpretentiously on land to the rear of Margaret Street (on what was at one time scheduled to become a future access road for further development of land), is Ammanford's Citadel, or Church, of the Salvation Army, a modern building constructed in 1995 and extended in 2000.
The Army's initial association with Ammanford goes back further than this however, to the 'Crusaders' from Swansea, Neath, Llanelli, Gorseinon and other neighbouring centres, who regularly visited the Amman Valley area to hold open-air street meetings. By all accounts these were lively and stimulating events which encouraged a dedicated and enthusiastic band of local supporters to establish the Ammanford Corps on 5th May 1921, organised within the Swansea Division.
The first meetings of Ammanford Corps were in the open air, but the unpredictable weather conditions led to all kinds of difficulties in sustaining meetings on a regular basis, so eventually the Corps turned their attention to acquiring their own premises. A vacant church property in Margaret Street (now the Catholic Church) was first investigated, but the cost proved to be prohibitive, so a vacant plot just off Margaret Street, behind the houses on the way to the current Amman Valley Comprehensive and the leisure centre, was purchased instead.
Of course, a hall now had to built on this site, and improvisation was necessary in order to achieve this with a limited budget. In 1926, a large timber framed, corrugated iron sheeted building at the rear of the Palace Cinema, measuring 90 by 21 feet and used as a boxing gymnasium, became available. This was dismantled and a section of 50 feet was secured and re-erected on the Margaret Street site. This became the Army's Citadel/Church for over 60 years until the new building in 1995.
It was not the most ostentatious of buildings compared with the architectural splendour of some of Ammanford's other places of worship, but at least it was a shelter, a home, and a place of worship. The Salvation Army has never embraced pomposity, their principle being that people hold priority over earthly, material grandeur, and it is a tribute to their commitment that they are still here in Ammanford where other, much larger, churches have fallen by the wayside. Or is it a sad reflection on our society, more advanced in some ways but less so in others, that we still provide plenty of work for the Salvation Army to do.
