120 years ago today, Radcliffe Hall Chapel in Penydarren opened for worship. Below is an article that appeared in July 1905 edition of ‘The Torch’, the official journal of the Forward Movement Methodist Denomination.
The Growth of Football in Merthyr Tydfil – part 1
Transcribed by Phil Sweet
These articles which appeared in three consecutive editions of the Merthyr Express in March 1921 are Harvey Boots’ own reminiscences of the development of three football codes in the town up to that date.
ARTICLE 1 MERTHYR EXPRESS 5TH MARCH 1921
THE GROWTH OF FOOTBALL IN MERTHYR
(By Harvey Boots)
While sitting in the grand stand and gazing around at the sea of faces assembled on Penydarren Park to watch Merthyr and Swansea play some weeks ago, my mind naturally reverted back to know what would be considered the “old days.” Sitting behind me was a personality who, probably, had as much to do with the assembling of that vast crowd as anyone in the history of Merthyr football. The gentleman I refer to is now a successful London businessman known as Mr. J. H. Evans, better known to the football fraternity as “John Ben”. My reasons for opening with this statement will appear later on in a subsequent article. Sitting next to me on the occasion referred to was the genial Editor of the Merthyr Express, who, after hearing our conversation about old times, etc., asked me point blank if I could manage to give him a few lines for the Merthyr Express on Merthyr’s football history as far as I could go. The bait was skilfully laid; I nibbled, and here I am – hooked. As I have no data to go upon, but simply giving a short history of my own recollections, there will obviously be a few inaccuracies which, I trust, will be excused and, at the same time, be non-controversial.
In my early days Rugby was the only code in the district, as a Soccer ball was quite a rare event, and so this portion of my story will be entirely of the Rugby game. My earliest memories recall to mind some of those giants of the past whom I used to see deporting themselves of the old game. Indeed, I have an old photograph before me now (kindly lent me by Mr. E. Beynon, of Abercanaid), and it would be interesting to recall some of the names of the group, vis, J.T. Harrup, Gomer Thomas, Arthur Howfield, the late Major H.H. Southey, J. Beynon, Tom Morgan, Jenkin Williams (Cowbridge), Ivor Thomas, son of Mr. William Rees Thomas (chemist), Claude Biddle, T.T. Fryer, the late Gwilym Thomas and Howell Thomas, Crad Evans (son of the late Roger Evans, draper) Tommy Elliott, W.R Southey and Joe Jones (Manchester House). At that time the playing venue was at the Goitre Field – quite a good walk both before and after, a match. A little later we come to another period when I recall the names of Fred Beddoe, G. Truran, “John Ben”, and Shenkin Davies.
At this period, or it may be prior to this, the playing pitch was Penydarren Park, which was quite a different proposition from what it is to-day. In those days there were numerous trees in the ground then utilised, and often the players, while careering down the field, would come in contact with one of those obstacles and become hors de combat. Indeed, I believe it is on record that several very serious accidents occurred from this source. About this time Mr. W. H. Baker, The Garage, used to bring a team from Newport on Good Friday to play for the benefit of the Railwaymen’s Society, and I believe he, with one or two others, was largely responsible for approaching Major Morgan, Bolgoed, with a view to having the trees removed; which was subsequently done. In those days the various playing pitches were anything but deluxe, and bathing accommodation often consisted of three or four tubs in some back room of whatever hostelry happened to be the headquarters of the team we were playing. On a particularly muddy day the biggest sprint of all was after the game to be one of the first “to tub”. The condition of the water for the last bathers can better be imagined than described. Hot and cold showers, massage, etc. were an unknown luxury in those days. But in spite of those little drawbacks the game was played with a zeal that to-day would be truly refreshing. The fun and good fellowship we used to get out of our football more than compensated for those little inconveniences. I remember one incident en passant which occurred when we were playing Bedford at the latter place. We were getting beaten for possession of the ball in the scrum, and our captain, who was also a forward, and shall be called “X” shouted out, “There is somebody not pushing, who is it?” Promptly, came the reply from poor old Crad Evans (a great wit, now, alas no more!) “I think it’s “X” naming the captain.”
To be continued….
Measles in Merthyr
From the South Wales Echo 140 years ago today….
A Society Wedding
From the Monmouthshire Merlin 170 years ago today……
Merthyr’s Lost Landmarks: Lost Chapels of Merthyr
Following on from the recent pictorial look at Merthyr’s lost churches, (https://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=8922) I have had a number of requests to do a similar one for Merthyr’s lost chapels. As there are so many, I have divided them up into various areas. We start with the chapels in Merthyr itself.
Adulam Welsh Independent Chapel
Lower Thomas Street, Merthyr Tydfil
Built 1831. Rebuilt 1857. Demolished late 1990s
Ainon Welsh Baptist Chapel
Dynevor Street, Georgetown
Built 1860. Demolished 1971
Bethel English Baptist Chapel
Bethel Street, Georgetown
Built 1809. Rebuilt 1826, 1855. Demolished 1983
Bethel Apostolic Church
Brecon Road
Built 1951-2. Demolished ?
Bethesda Welsh Independent Chapel
Bethesda Street
Built 1811. Rebuilt 1829, 1880. Demolished 1995
Bethlehem Calvinistic Methodist Chapel
Waterloo Street, Caepantywyll
Built 1841. Demolished 1979
Church of Christ
Plymouth Street
Built 1904, Demolished 1995
Ebenezer Welsh Baptist Chapel
Plymouth Street
Built 1793. Rebuilt 1831. Demolished ?
Market Square Congregational Chapel
Graham Street
Built 1841. Demolished 1969
Morlais English Baptist Chapel
Glebeland Place
Built 1881. Demolished 1925
Salem Welsh Independent Chapel
Heolgerrig Road, Heolgerrig
Built 1855. Rebuilt 1872. Demolished 1990
Trinity Forward Movement Presbyterian Chapel
Baden Terrace, Penyard
Built 1907. Demolished ?
Twynyrodyn Unitarian Chapel
Court Street
Built 1821. Demolished 1969
Tydfil Hall Forward Movement Presbyterian Chapel
Pontmorlais Promenade
Built 1907. Partially demolished 2010s
Ynysgau Welsh Independent Chapel
Victoria Street
Built 1749. Rebuilt 1853. Demolished 1967
If anyone has photographs of any other chapels that are no longer with us, and there are a few I can’t find photos of, or if anyone can fill in any details, please get in touch.
My Street – part 1
by Barrie Jones
My Street Location:
Wheatley Place, Keir Hardie Estate, Merthyr Tydfil, CF47 0TA,
Ordnance Survey Grid Reference 305 701 Easting, 205 427 Northing,
What Three Words: visual. human. light.
Introduction
We are all local to somewhere – to places, as large as a city, county or country, and to places as small as a street or house. In 2020 a nationwide initiative was set up to encourage people to write the history of the street they live in or once lived in. “The Story of Our Street,” invited research into the history of the land the street occupied, the street’s origin, its buildings, and significant events and notable inhabitants, if any, that may be associated with the street.
In 1948 I was born at number thirty-seven Wheatley Place, Keir Hardie Estate, and lived there for the first twenty-five years of my life. Wheatley Place was a brand-new street built in 1948 as part of Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council’s post-war house building programme. Not a street of great age compared with streets in other parts of the Borough of Merthyr Tydfil but after seventy-seven years it has a history, albeit small, that needs telling. This is an account of the street and the land it occupies from its beginnings to the time my parents left number thirty-seven for a new home in Bro Dawel, Plymouth Street, in 1980.
Keir Hardie Estate was built on the remaining portion of Ysgubornewydd Farm, and to those living in the area the estate was known as the “Sgubor or Skeepo.” Once, Ysgubornewydd was a much larger farm sandwiched between the parish road; ‘Heol Ferthyr,’ to the east and the Nant Blacs to the south. The farmland sloped down the valley side from its eastern boundary; the top of Gilfach Cynon (Heol Ferthyr), westwards towards the Merthyr turnpike road, now known as Plymouth Street.
The chapters which will appear over the next few months tell the story of Ysgubornewydd Farm, Keir Hardie Estate, prefabricated BISF houses, and Wheatley Place and our house number thirty-seven.
To be continued……
A Lovely Day Out
90 years ago today……
Welsh Cakes
by Barrie Jones
The Welsh cake is part of our national fabric, who among us has not proudly presented a cake to our non-Welsh friends as if it was our national emblem. When living in England, on or near every Saint David’s day, a batch of cakes would be taken into work to share with our work colleagues. Two of our granddaughters living in England, and who call themselves Wenglish, always take some into school for their teachers.
Baked on a bakestone/griddle, the ‘stone’ can form part of family tradition and be handed down from generation to generation. Early on in our marriage, my father who was the maintenance electrician at Vaynor Quarries, had the works blacksmith make us our bakestone. Made of cast iron, 25cm in diameter and 1cm thick, it weighs a hefty four kilos, which needs careful handling whether hot or cold. The ‘stone/maen’ has served us well for over fifty years and was used for this Saint David’s day (2025).
The following recipe for Welsh cakes is from an old dog-eared Be-Ro recipe book; hence the measures are imperial not metric. Be-Ro, formally Bells Royal, introduced their recipe books in 1923 to try and encourage the use of self-raising flour as opposed to plain flour; “Be-Ro cuts out oven doubt” The current Be-Ro book is in its 41st edition, ours is the 34th. Strangely, the recipe is titled Welsh Girdle Cakes, girdle being a North of England word for griddle.
Recipe:
Ingredients:
- Eight ounces of self-raising flour
- ½ teaspoon of salt (optional)
- Four ounces of margarine or butter
- Two ounces of caster sugar
- Two ounces of currents or sultanas
- One egg (beaten)
- Two tablespoons of milk
Stages:
- Mix flour, salt in a basin, and rub in margarine or butter.
- Add sugar and currents or sultanas.
- Mix to a fairly stiff dough with egg and milk.
- Roll out thinly on a floured surface, cut into rounds with a two or three-inch cutter.
- Bake on a moderately hot, well-greased griddle for three minutes each side.
Each serving provides 357 Kcal, 5g protein, 46g carbohydrates (of which 18g sugars), 16.5g fat (of which 10g saturates), 1.5g fibre and 0.7g salt.
The above recipe will make approximately twenty-two cakes using a two-inch cutter, while a larger cutter, three-inch, will make about ten cakes.
Work by eminent 19th century Welsh sculptor rediscovered
In 2016 a bust with major Merthyr connections was discovered in Aberystwyth University. Below is the story of the discovery, transcribed with the permission of the University.
A missing marble bust by eminent Welsh sculptor Joseph Edwards (1814-1882) has been rediscovered overlooked in an under-stairs cupboard in the Old College at Aberystwyth University.
The bust, of prolific nineteenth century scholar and historian Thomas Stephens of Merthyr Tydfil (1821-1875), is believed to have reached Aberystwyth along with Stephen’s papers which were donated by his family to the National Library of Wales.
At the time, the National Library of Wales was housed in the Old College.
The bust may have been overlooked when the papers were transferred to the new National Library of Wales building in the late 1930s.
Neil Holland from the School of Art explains: “A great deal of work has taken place since the 1960s to re-catalogue and re-assemble artefacts and collections donated to the University since 1872, and as far as we can recall we have never come across any accession record for the bust of Thomas Stephens in all that time. So it has been hidden away for at least 40 years.”
Joseph Edwards
Joseph Edwards’ love of carving was revealed at an early age. Also from Merthyr Tydfil, and the son of a stone cutter, Edwards left for London in 1835 at the age of 21, after two years apprenticed to a memorial mason in Swansea.
There, after almost succumbing to starvation, he was taken on as a studio assistant by sculptor William Behnes. Two years later, in 1837, Edwards entered the Royal Academy of Arts, where he won several awards for his work.
Numerous commissions followed, and in the ensuing years Edwards created a large number of allegorical works such as The Last Dream, Religion consoling Justice, a monument to Sir Bernard Bosanquet and Religion which was shown at an international exhibition.
In 1838 he was taken on by sculptor Patrick MacDowell, and assisted him in the production of works such as Girl Reading, Triumph of Love and Virginius.
In 1860 Edwards’ began assisting Matthew Noble, and upon Noble’s early death in 1876 Edwards was given responsibility for the considerable task of completing his outstanding commissions and selling original plaster models for the benefit of Noble’s widow and children.
Upon completion of this work Edwards found himself in straitened circumstances and in 1881, sponsored by painter and sculptor George Frederic Watts, Edwards’ was awarded a financial award of £50 per annum under the Turner bequest. He died shortly after receiving the first instalment.
A year after his death The Red Dragon: The National Magazine of Wales wrote, ‘Of Joseph Edwards it may be said that Wales never had a truer or a more gifted son.’
Edwards was also well known for his portrait busts of contemporary figures and funerary monuments, often memorialising fellow Welshmen. Examples of his work can be seen in churches and cemeteries throughout Wales and England.
Thomas Stephens
Despite a lack of formal education, Thomas Stephens, an apothecary by profession, became one of Wales’ most innovative scholars, social reformers and cultural critics. His critical essay on the history of language and literature of medieval Wales, Literature of the Kymry, published in 1849 was met with international acclaim and even appeared in a German translation in 1864.
An important public figure in Merthyr Tydfil, Thomas Stephens led a number of initiatives to improve educational provisions, health and welfare of the town, where living conditions were deplorable and social unrest was prevalent. He co-founded its public library, helped to establish its health board, and advocated state-aided secular education.
Dr Marion Löffler from the University of Wales Centre for Celtic Studies Aberystwyth, who is currently leading a Leverhulme-funded research project focusing on Thomas Stephens, was delighted with the find: “This bust is an important part of Welsh intellectual and art history. Thomas Stephens is one of the best examples of a self-made Welsh Victorian and represents European amateur scholarship at its best.
“The story of the commissioning of the bust speaks volumes itself. When Stephens retired from his post as secretary of Merthyr Library on grounds of severe illness in 1862, a collection was made, but he refused the money. The committee then decided to commission fellow Merthyr man, Joseph Edwards, to create a commemorative artwork.”
In 1878 the Art Journal, the most important Victorian magazine on art, commented on Edwards’ bust of Thomas Stephens: ‘{The Welsh} may well be proud of their countryman, Joseph Edwards. There are artists who will make as good busts, but there is no living sculptor who can produce monumental work so pure, so refined, so essentially holy.’
To see the original story, please follow the link below.
https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/news/archive/2016/03/title-181749-en.html
Opening of the Olympia Rink
110 years ago today, 29 March 1910, the Merthyr Express reported the opening of Merthyr’s latest great attraction, the Olympia Skating Rink, which had taken place on 19 March:
MERTHYR’S NEW SKATING RINK
OPENING CEREMONY BY THE MAYOR
ENTHUSIASTIC ASSEMBLAGE AT THE OLYMPIA
Roller-skating is attaining to great popularity in Merthyr. It was only in December last that the Central Rink, Wellington-street, was started. The proprietors found their enterprise successful, and also that the growing requirements of the public called for increased accommodation. Hence they embarked on a much larger undertaking, for which they took a site on Mr, Thomas’s land, Park-place, and entered into a contract with Messrs. Cross and Grose, Ltd., Walsall, for the erection thereon of a capacious rink — the Olympia — with approach opposite the Penydarren promenade, the spot being on the Merthyr and Dowlais electric tramway route, and easily accessible to visitors.
The new buildings, which has a length of 208ft., and an average width of about 70ft, rose as if by magic, the contractors being experts in such affairs, and having contracted rinks and floors at Dudley, Wolverhampton, Bath, Leamington, Walsall, Colchester, etc. The outside manager for the firm was Mr. J. James, a gentleman of twenty-three years’ experience, and who may be congratulated upon the admirable way in which he carried out his duties. The election of the new rink, with its extensive hard rock maple floor (so constructed as to reduce sound to a minimum), its accessories and fittings, offices, refreshment buffet and lounges, orchestral gallery, was completed in sixteen days — which constitutes a record for rapidity. — The concrete foundation had been previously prepared by Messrs. Warlow and Warlow, Merthyr.
Special attention has been given to the electric lighting, thirty pedants being distributed throughout the Rink by the Merthyr Electric Traction Company; and the decorative effects, which have been carried out by Mr. F. P. Dymond, Cardiff, are very pleasing. The Rink may, therefore, be regarded as not only one of the largest, but most attractive in Wales. The enterprising directors have catered lavishly in all respects for the entertainment and comfort of the public, and take every care to conduct the four sessions which are held daily, with the utmost regard for decorum and good order. The experienced attendants are civil and obliging, and the instructors are of the very best.
RINK OPENED
The opening ceremony on Saturday afternoon was an encouraging success. It was known that the Mayor (Councillor F. T. James) would inaugurate the proceedings, and the crowd of people attending from Merthyr, Aberdare, and surrounding districts was very large. The Mayor, who was accompanied by the Mayoress (Mrs. F. T. James) and the Misses James, was received, upon entering the building, by the Chairman S. Phillips), and conducted to the dais, which had been erected for the occasion on the rink floor beneath the orchestral gallery. There was a very representative gathering. The first item in the programme was a well-played march by Mr. Cunningham’s military band.
The Chairman then rose to address the assemblage. He referred to the aims and accomplishments of the directors, and offered a hearty welcome to all present. He especially recognised the kindness of the Mayor and Mayoress in attending upon that interesting occasion, and mentioned that the new rink in which they had met possessed a skating capacity of £10,000 square feet, which was ten times greater than the floor space of their first venture, the Central Rink, and that the electric light equalled; 6,000 candle-power. He then invited the Mayor to perform the opening ceremony.
The Mayor, who was accorded a cordial reception, said that whatever might be said of rinking, one was bound to acknowledge that it was an exceedingly good exercise and a source of enjoyment to those who were young and active enough to engage in the healthful pastime. He had much pleasure in declaring Olympia Rink open for the purposes to which it was devoted (cheers).
The Band played the National Anthem, and at this point, Miss Peggy Lewis (daughter of Mrs. Henry Lewis) skated up gracefully to the dais, and in a pretty speech handed, as from the directors, a large and beautiful bouquet to the Mayoress, who bowed and briefly expressed her sense of the compliment.
A photograph of the opening ceremony was taken by Mr Charles Harris. Mr. John Plows referred to the interest which the Mayor had always taken in the affairs of the town and district, and to his public-spirited conduct on all occasions, and moved that a hearty vote of thanks be given him for the part that be had so ably taken in the proceedings.
Councillor F. S. Simons seconded the proposition, which was carried with enthusiasm. — This was acknowledged by His Worship, and Mr. Cunningham’s Band performed another attractive selection.
EXHIBITION OF EXPERT SKATING
An elaborate exhibition of expert skating, with musical accompaniments, was given by the instructor (Mr. Frank K. Deverall), Mr. Johns, and the instructress (Miss Wilkes). It may be mentioned that Mr. Deverall comes from the County Rink, Surbiton, and was previously associated for some years with Mr. J. F. Davidson, the champion skater of the world; and that Mr. Johns, whose capabilities are also of the highest order, is from Widnes, Lancashire. Miss Wilkes, whose style is very; elegant and graceful, comes from Folkestone. Hundreds of visitors put on skates, and there was high carnival during the afternoon. During the evening also, there was a very large attendance, and the proceedings were marked throughout with great success.
– Merthyr Express 26 March 1910
