positive impact. It was from the chapels that the great wave of popular political engagement in Wales erupted from the 1860s onwards, and nonconformist ministers played an important role in the success of the Liberal Party in Wales. The chapels also became the mainstay of various community activities, such as choral festivals and eisteddfodau, though some of these traditions predated the ascendency of Nonconformity. Nonconformity was also central to various developments in education, from the post-1870 Board Schools, which in Wales were largely influenced by the chapels, to the first Welsh university established at Aberystwyth in 1872. Nonconformist ministers The influence of nonconformist ministers on Welsh society was significant. There were many hundreds of ministers in Wales by the late 19th century, and many of them came from an unprivileged background. For example, Thomas Price of Calfaria, Aberdare, began life as a domestic servant, while his contemporary David Price of Siloa, Aberdare, worked as a miner. Their style was essentially populist, and they enjoyed a spontaneous relationship with their congregations, not only in delivering fiery and often fundamentalist sermons on Sundays but also in popular lectures on figures such as Oliver Cromwell and Garibaldi. They also had a profound influence on the Welsh-language press, not only through their own denominational journals but also more widely. See also Welsh Church Act 1914, the Disestablishment of the Church in Wales References Bibliography Further reading Davies, Ebnezer Thomas. Religion in the Industrial Revolution of South Wales (University of Wales Press, 1965). Field, Clive D. "Counting Religion in England and Wales: The Long Eighteenth Century, c. 1680 – c. 1840." Journal of Ecclesiastical History 63.04 (2012): 693–720. New estimates of the religious composition of the population in 1680, 1720, 1760, 1800 and 1840. Jones, Anthony. Welsh chapels (National Museum Wales, 1996). Jones, David Ceri, and Eryn Mant White. The Elect Methodists: Calvinistic Methodism in England and Wales, 1735–1811 (University of Wales Press, 2012). Jones, J. Gwynfor. "Reflections on the religious revival in Wales 1904–05." Journal of the United Reformed Church History Society 7#7 (2005): 427–445. Morgan, D. Densil. The Span of the Cross: Christian Religion and Society in Wales, 1914–2000 (University of Wales Press, 1999) online Randall, Ian. "Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Methodist Spirituality." Wesley and Methodist Studies 5 (2013): 97–122. (1899-1981) History of Christianity in Wales