Month: April 2018

Rose Mary Crawshay – part 2

by Irene Janes

The efforts of Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the suffragist movement are not denied but perhaps in this year of 2018 when women, in this country, celebrate a hundred years of having the right to vote we should raise awareness of our very own Rose Mary.

Here in our town, Rose (I feel I know her so well I can drop the Mary) was one the most vocal members of the early feminist movement. The Women’s Herald described her as ‘one of the most enlightened pioneers of women’s emancipation’. She and twenty-six other women gave Welsh addresses when they signed the first women’s suffrage petition 1866.

1870 saw Rose became the first woman appointed to the school board in the wake of the Education Act of the same year.

What confidence and conviction she must have had when she spoke at meetings in Merthyr about the rights of women, one of which was held in The Temperance Hall, (now the Scala snooker hall), John Street. She spoke of how the vote would ‘benefit women’s characters’. Perhaps not surprisingly for those days, she was taken to task for ‘disturbing the peace and leading the women of Wales astray’.

Late in 1884 there was a decision by the delegates of the Aberdare, Merthyr Tydfil and Dowlais District Mine Association to support a series of talks by Jeanette Wilkinson on the rights for women to be able to vote. This may have been the reason there was little campaigning on the subject in Wales. This is the first recorded instance of interest by Welsh working men supporting female suffrage.

‘Lady Helpers’ this is not something I had heard before. However, Rose had some. She employed  women to work  alongside the male servants waiting on the Crawshay table. She hoped her scheme would encourage others to employ females for jobs other than dirty work. Rose was delighted when her husband suggested their home was becoming a home for the destitute. I would have loved to have been a fly on their bedroom wall. (Well they did have five children together so they must have met up now and again.)

This is not a rogue paragraph – these are quotes from the  1997 winner Dame Hermione Lee ‘the prize of five hundred pound isn’t a huge amount of money but the impact it has on its winners, including myself, can be huge’. Catherine Bates of author of  ‘Masculinity and the Hunt’, the 2015 winner recently told me ‘Women are still under represented in academia’  ‘Wonderful to have a prize that goes some way towards addressing the gender imbalance’ ‘it helps to give women scholars a visibility and recognition they may not get otherwise and  ‘an encouraging and validating experience’. Their indebtedness is down to our Mrs Crawshay.

The above was because in April 1888 Rose showed her suffrage side by setting up the ‘Byron, Shelley, Keats in Memoriam Yearly Prize Fund’ -a literary prize for female scholars. Since 1914, The British Academy has taken over the administration of the prize fund. Aptly renamed The Rose Mary Crawshay Prize Fund, one hundred and thirty years later, in this year of 2018, good old Mrs Crawshay is still enabling women.

My first conclusion, Rose Mary married an autocratic, showy, and notoriously tyrannical man in an era where woman were suppressed so she must have had a strong personality. My second, I bet she hated the title Mrs Robert Crawshay attached to her good deeds perhaps today as a philanthropist she would have been credited under her own name Rose Mary Yates.

Rose Mary Crawshay in 1886

Sadly there is a but – why did she have virtually nothing to do with her own daughters, Rose Harriette and Henrietta Louise? Odd don’t you think?

Rose Mary died in 1907 at Rose Cottage, Cathedine, Breconshire, at the age of seventy-nine.

Rose Mary Crawshay – part 1

by Irene Janes

Most of my life (67 years of it) the surname Crawshay has sent shivers down my spine and an innate hatred of the dynasty of Iron Masters of Cyfarthfa.

A few years ago, I came across a woman with intelligence, foresight, determination and inspiration, Rose Mary Yates, also known to us as, Mrs Robert Crawshay. True she is not a native of Merthyr Tydfil or Wales but her efforts transcend boundaries and time.

Rose Mary Crawshay in the 1870’s

As is the case of many wealthy, bored and unemployed women, charity work is often the ‘hobby’ of choice. With Rose Mary, this may have been true in the beginning. However having completed my little bit of research I see a different woman.

It could have been one evening, sitting in her home, with its turrets and three hundred and sixty five windows, she sat in front of yellow leaping flames throwing its heat from the coal dug out from one of her husband’s mines.  Her silk dress with layers of frilly petticoats may have rustled as she turned the pages to find one of her favourite poems by Lord Byron. With daylight fading perhaps, her attention wondered beyond the parklands walls to other yellow leaping fires of her husband’s family iron works in Cyfarthfa. Her life to those women and men labourers could not have been more different. Her home fire kept her warm, the works fires killed and maimed. Rooms she had many but in the town families were squashed into windowless, two roomed cellars with damp running down the walls. Children of all and any ages sent out to work, steal or beg, it didn’t matter which as long it was to help with their families’ survival.

If she was, a charity hobbyist this soon changed to philanthropist.

She organised soup kitchens and instructed them to be open three days a week. With the bodies of the needy and poor being fed, Rose Mary turned her attention to their overall well-being. She set up classes to encourage women to make clothes and make the patterns from old newspapers.

Books were given to her husband’s workers. Nevertheless, this was not enough for this particular Mrs Crawshay who knew the importance of education. In total, she opened seven libraries.

The citadel for working class males were the Workmen’s Institutes. Apart from socialising and drinking of beer it was here, the men could access text books and newspapers for knowledge or pleasure. Quite rightly, Rose Mary saw the inequality of it all. To counterbalance this she ensured her libraries opened on a Sunday too so women had the same opportunities.

Still recalled today, Abercanaid, February 1862 forty-nine men and boys were killed either from suffocation or burns in the Gethin Pit explosion. The pit had been sunk by William Crawshay II to provide coal for the Cyfarthfa works. Rose Mary visited every family who had lost some one in the disaster. Indeed, here is a woman who knew her own mind and no Iron master was going to stop her.

Exhuming the Dead

The disturbing article transcribed below appeared in The Weekly Mail 115 years ago today, on 25 April 1903:

MERTHYR CHURCHYARD.
PROPOSED REMOVAL OF 2,000 BODIES.

At the annual meeting of the Merthyr Urban District Council on Wednesday, the rector and Dr. W. W. Jones, churchwardens, attended as a deputation to ask that the council should withdraw that portion of the Bill they are promoting in Parliament which proposes to take in part of the parish churchyard for the widening of the lower part of High Street.

The Rector pointed out that it would be abhorrent to many families to have the remains of buried relatives disturbed, and indicated an alternative scheme whereby the widening could be effected by the removal of certain houses on the other side of the road.

Dr. Jones mentioned the startling fact that the scheme of the council in its present form would necessitate the removal of over 2,000 bodies. After some discussion upon the retirement of the deputation it was determined to adhere to the Bill.

Was it Murder at Cyfarthfa Castle?

By William Griffiths
Transcribed by Carl Llewellyn

Cyfarthfa Castle was built according to the plans of William Crawshay in 1825. He was an iron-master of the Cyfarthfa Ironworks; rich, with a strong will, unassuming yet energetic. While waiting for his Castle to be built, he lived with family at Gwaelodygarth House.

His influence and energy had such an effect on the builders that the Castle was completed in 12 months at a cost of £30,000. Situated in the area of a park, of meadows and woods, it was so placed that a full view of the Iron Works could be seen from its windows. The workers could likewise look upon the edifice and after the affluence of their iron-master up on its elevated ground. At night the blast furnaces illuminated the surrounding country-side, particularly the stone walls of Cyfarthfa Castle its windows reflecting the red and yellow glow of light, in an unusual pattern of colour. The Master had installed his castle with many servants, fit for the magnate he was. His gardeners had changed the grounds into a beautiful park. His gamekeepers patrolled it night and day, against poachers and marauders so prevalent in those days. One of the gamekeepers was named John Lloyd and he lived with his wife at Pontsarn, on the borders of the Cyfarthfa Estate.  They were always quarrelling and the servants at the Castle said they were not happy together. Their home at Pontsarn was a lonely place in a beautiful spot: almost at the base of the ancient Morlais Castle, adjacent to the historic site of Vaynor Old Church, where monks had once chanted their prayers and buried the dead of past wars.

Then someone remarked: “John Lloyd’s wife had not been seen for a number of weeks. Is she ill? Has she gone away?”  The servants of the Castle began asking questions. But John gave them no answers. The questions became persistent, to be told angrily that she had gone away to Llangyfelach Fair. More weeks passed with no sign of Mrs Lloyd. Meanwhile John carried on at his work in the Castle grounds.

The disappearance could not continue without Mr Crawshay getting to know of it. Eventually he sent for John to question him on the subject: for at that time an employer had far greater power over an employee’s personal affairs than exists today. The Master was waiting for him in one of the living rooms of the Castle, as John gave an extra rub on his boots, before being shown in by a servant. As he entered the magnificently furnished room Mr Crawshay was walking away from him towards the large fireplace. John stood waiting for the Master to turn around but did not, he stood with his back to him, addressing him in a firm tone.

“Well Lloyd – what have you to say about your missing wife? Now understand man: I want the truth.” He turned quickly, raising the tone of his voice on the last sentence. John Lloyd, not a good looking man held his head down making incoherent and confused replies. He pulled at his smock with his left hand, not knowing what to do with his hat, which he held in his right. The more questions Mr Crawshay asked the more nervous he became. It was a conflict between master and servant, emotion being displayed by both men for a basic reason. All the power of position was at the command of the rich industrialist, yet dissatisfied with the result, he waved his arms in front of his gamekeeper, telling him he had no alternative – he must inform the police immediately. “Go” he told him, “Return to your work”. The Merthyr Tydfil Police interviewed John Lloyd later, in conjunction with the Breconshire authorities, for it was situated in that county. They searched the house for clues. Apparently nothing important was found relating to the missing lady, so the mystery became a talking point at Cyfarthfa Works, and eventually the whole district.

The Merthyr Police had now officially contacted headquarters in London, requesting that two investigators be sent to the town to work on the case. They began methodically as compared to the local officers, by questioning all who were acquainted with John Lloyd, judging the character of good or bad behaviour. “Was he jealous of his wife?”. They asked “Did he bear her? Did she have any men friends?” They circled the suspect with their queries: then they approached him singly, and together: They searched his house; dug in his garden; went next-door; gossiped to the neighbours, while John was at work. All those actions they took in the nerve war against him. It was said of Lloyd that he was unperturbed by the investigations. Each evening he made his way home on the rocky path through the woods and lanes of the Gurnos farmland to Pontsarn. His two dogs running to and fro, as he walked: the glow of the Cyfarthfa Iron Works, lighting the place in a shadowy twilight. Guilty or not, the man acted naturally, notwithstanding the pressure of suspicion around him.

Many thought him guilty, saying he had an evil looking face, as if the look of a man’s face proved his guilt: whereas it is well known that the most handsome of men can be murderous. The London Police were not concerned about John’s looks. They had to get the facts. They followed him around the estate, talking to him on the subjects of game, or poachers in general. They made him stand near the furnace where he boiled down the bones and meal for the Cyfarthfa hounds. A careful examination was made of the vessels – the furnace itself. They collected samples while many eyes watched them from Castle windows. “Those London police are too late.” it was whispered from one to another: “John Lloyd had done his wife in: boiled her down as food for hounds!” “He was very particular in cleaning the vessels. Sir, after his wife was missing”, a servant volunteered to the police. The investigators followed all the suggestions made to them, and despite a detailed enquiry, had to admit they were baffled. John remained free, as far as he was allowed to be under the investigation, so days passed to months.

They eventually presented their report, which turned out to be of insufficient evidence. So John Lloyd was not charged with the murder of his wife. The police returned to London. It is not known if the suspect remained in the employment of William Crawshay at Cyfarthfa Castle Estate. He lived for about 25 years in the Merthyr area, dying in a Poor-law Institution, diseased and wretched so it is believed, but with no foundation in fact. At the time of Lloyd’s death, a skeleton was found on the borders of the estate, presumed although not established to be the remains of Mrs Lloyd.

John Lloyd was alleged to be the murderer of his wife: the investigation into the case was thorough at the time, when men were hanged for far less crimes than killing their wives. The evidence basically was that Mrs Lloyd was missing or disappeared. No additional facts were produced against Lloyd: therefore according to the enquiry, no charge of a crime was made against him. Let that be his epitaph, and so be it.

Merthyr Memories: The Closure of Abermorlais School

Following on from the last post about the opening of Abermorlais School, Clive Thomas, former teacher at the school, has kindly shared his memories of the closure of the school.

The Closure of Abermorlais Junior School
by Clive Thomas

In September 1968 a new headteacher took charge of Abermorlais Junior School. Mr. O.P. Bevan (Ossie), recently a teaching head at Heolgerrig Primary came to a school with a century of history and a reputation for high standards. After all hadn’t it assisted in the education of three peers of the realm? As well as providing for the general education for many thousands of children, probably the most celebrated of the school’s pupils were the  Berry boys, namely Henry Seymour Berry, Lord Buckland, William Ewert Berry, Viscount Camrose and  Gomer Berry, Viscount Kemsley.

Funded by the British and Foreign Schools Society, Lady Charlotte Schreiber (previously Guest) had laid its foundation stone in 1867. It was built on what was later to be known as the British Tip, an accumulation of iron and coal waste from  over a century of operations at the Penydarren Ironworks.  In its elevated position, the school overlooked the town to the south, Ynysfach to the west and to the north Georgetown and the Brecon Road. It was from the streets, terraces and courtyards of these areas that children had come to Abermorlais for over a century, but with the redevelopment of many of these districts and family movement to the new Gurnos Estate, pupil numbers had declined massively and left a very large school building only twenty-five per cent occupied.

Abermorlais School in 1969

By the mid ‘Sixties’, the building had suffered from many years of neglect and the school was in almost terminal decline. Initially built to accommodate over six hundred pupils, by this time fewer than two hundred were taught in only six of the downstairs classrooms. Foot worn sandstone stairs with iron railings led to the upstairs classrooms, all of which   had been vacated a number of years previously. Here were rooms where chairs, desks and other unwanted furniture and equipment were stored. A variety of old textbooks and teaching materials, some of great age had also been discarded here and in the imagination of many of the remaining pupils, these classrooms had to be haunted.  Shelves and ledges were coated by inches of black dust from the open fires which heated the still occupied classrooms and hall.

A classroom at Abermorlais School

This particular school year was a significant one in that it would be the last in which children from Abermorlais would sit the Eleven Plus Examination. Comprehensive education had already arrived in the lower part of the County Borough with the opening of Afon Taf High School the previous year.  Mrs Wendy Williams was the teacher who shouldered the onerous responsibility of ensuring that every child in what was still called Standard Four gave of their best.

Mr. John Lloyd was the school musician. A talented pianist, he played for the Pendyrus Male Voice Choir, then under the baton of the famous Mr. Glyn Jones from Dowlais. Mrs. Eleanor Davies, wife of the former head was fulfilling her final year as deputy-headteacher, while Mrs. Morgan and Sylvia Lloyd assisted with the teaching of the younger juniors. Like Mr. Bevan, Clive Thomas was new to the school and in the first year of his teaching career.

The staff at Abermorlais School in the summer of 1969. Back row – Mrs M Williams, Mr Clive Thomas, Mr John Lloyd, Mrs Morgan. Front Row – Mrs Eleanor Davies, Mrs Annie-Mary Protheroe, Mr Ossie Bevan (headmaster), Mrs Sylvia Lloyd, Mrs Wendy Williams.

At Heolgerrig, Mr. Bevan had been involved with the Welsh School Council work on Environmental Studies. He was anxious to continue this approach and actively involve children in work which would help them gain a better understanding of how the school and town had evolved. To say that Abermorlais was poorly resourced to achieve these aims would be an understatement but his ingenuity, perseverance and jovial nature enabled significant progress to be made.

A new school had been planned to replace Abermorlais, but was to be built in a corner of Cyfarthfa Park and on the edge of what was the old school’s catchment area. This, it was rumoured was to be a semi-open plan school (whatever that meant) and represent the aspirations   of a new age in education. Many of the staff, needless to say approached the move with a degree of trepidation.

Towards the end of the Autumn term in 1970 the staff were ready for the move and packed all that we wished to take with us. The Abermorlais foundation stone, which Ossie had planned to take to the new school proved to be something of a sham unfortunately. The inscription had not been cut skilfully by a late nineteenth century mason into solid stone but into a mortar coating. When the machine went to pick up the stone it fell into pieces and was lost in the rest of the debris. The historic building was left to the salvage and demolition crews.

Abermorlais School during demolition

Many thanks to Clive Thomas for this fascinating article, and for providing all of the photographs.

The Opening of Abermorlais School

Following on from a post that appeared on 20 July last year (http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=1011), 150 years ago today, Abermorlais School was officially opened.

Abermorlais School. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

Below is a transcription of an article from the Monmouthshire Merlin dated 18 April 1868 reporting the opening ceremony.

OPENING OF THE BRITISH SCHOOLS.

These schools were opened on Easter Monday, when a tea party was held in the rooms, which was attended by some thousands of persons. Simultaneously with the tea party, from the hour of four, a concert was given in the Drill Hall, to which parties who had taken tea obtained gratuitous admission. In the evening a public meeting was held at the Drill Hall, at which G. T. Clark, Esq,, of Dowlais House, took the chair. The hall was crowded, and addresses were delivered in English and Welsh, by Messrs. W. T. Crawshay, J. C. Fowler, Judge Falconer, T. Williams, D. Williams, J. Lloyd, and J. G. Phillips. The secretary of the British School Committee announced that only £135 were required to clear off the debt, and he sincerely hoped that before the schools opened for real work, on Wednesday morning, that amount would be subscribed, so that they might start with every possible advantage.

The schools are a series of buildings connected with each other and presenting an unbroken front, plain as a cottage, but they are most substantially built, and for accommodation will be found second to no school in South Wales. The entrance is by a double porch leading into first the central room, running from front to back of the building, and is intended as the infant’s school. This room is 95 feet long by 28 feet wide. On the east side of this is the girls’ schoolroom, 86 feet by 20 feet; and on the west side the boys’ room, 98 feet by 30 feet. These rooms are all lofty and well ventilated, and provided with admirable class rooms, lavatories, etc. At the back there are spacious playgrounds communicating with each other, but divided for the separate use of boys and girls, and a high boundary wall encloses them from the edge of the tip.

The coat of the building, including site, is somewhat over £4,700. The contract of the building alone was let to Mr. Williams, of Swansea, for £3,199. 19s. 9d., and the work was carried out under the superintendence of the architect, Mr. John Williams, of Morgan Street, Merthyr. A house for the master has been built adjoining the schools. The master is Mr. J. E. Jones, the mistress Miss Jenkins; there are two assistant masters and two assistant mistresses.

A geography lesson in the yard of Abermorlais School in the early 1900’s. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

Abermorlais School closed in 1970 and was demolished the following year.

Abermorlais School during demolition. Photo courtesy of Clive Thomas

Quakers Yard Viaduct – an addendum

Following on from yesterday’s article about Quakers Yard Viaduct, historian Victoria Owens, a regular contributor to this blog has sent the following fascinating observation.

Lady Charlotte Guest, found the viaduct a source of total wonder and delight. In her journal entry for 25 October 1839 she describes a visit to the site while the bridge was under construction. It sounds as though John Guest was keen to show it off to a party of his friends, which included Edward Divett MP (he would be one of the trustees appointed to run the Dowlais Ironworks on Josiah John Guest’s death) and his fragile-sounding wife. Charlotte writes:-
When the carriages had reached that point of the turnpike road nearest to the viaduct, we got out and walked to it. There was more scrambling to get there than some of the ladies liked – We crossed by the scaffolding as I had done before & all the party went back over it in the same way except Merthyr and myself and we went over the bridge itself, scrambling over the rough masonry. – Three of the six arches were not closed and in these places we had planks thrown down across for us & I believe I was the first female that ever crossed this bridge, and at the height of some 70 or so feet it appeared a perilous undertaking thought it was not really so . The expedition fatigued Mrs Divett so much that she was not able to dine with us, which the men regretted, as we had a very pleasant evening and had some singers to entertain us with welsh songs.