Month: June 2018

Historians wanted

I hope you are enjoying reading this blog as much as I am compiling it.

Yet again, I would like to say – if anyone has anything they would like to add to the blog, please send an e-mail to the address shown at the right. Whether you are an established historian or just a budding historian, and you would like to contribute – please get in touch.

I have had some excellent contributions from several people, but I am always on the look out for new contributors. I am sure there are people out there who have thought “Why hasn’t he covered that?” Now is your chance to write about something that you feel should be covered. If it is Merthyr related I will be glad to hear from you.

An International Drama Queen – Rose Marie Stephens

by Irene Janes

On 7 February, 1928, Rose Marie Stephens danced her way into the world. At school she was given the much-loved nickname Steve.

Even before she attended Cyfarthfa Grammar School, she immersed herself in her love of music and ballet. As a qualified State Registered Nurse, Rose Marie worked for several years in Merthyr at the General Hospital.  1951 saw her marry Vivian Evans from Rhydycar. The next eight years they lived in Oxford, Cuckfield and London and it was in that city her passion for the arts were rekindled. Nevertheless, even the capital could not hold on to her talent, and after the birth of their two children, Sheridan and Christopher, offers for Rose Marie and her husband Vivian led them to a four year stint in New Zealand (where their third child Sian was born). They set off to show the world ‘Merthyr’s got talent’ (sorry could not resist).

The Massey University benefitted from her talents as a choreographer and director; this gave her significant experience with several theatre and ballet companies. She also ventured into the world of radio as an (unseen of course) actress and radio presenter. However, those dancing feet would not rest and so in 1964 they took the family to Fiji.

At Fiji and the Suva University, Rose-Marie again worked as a choreographer and director. Her new home encouraged her to open her first ballet school, which continued under her name for many years after she had left. So where does she take us now?

Australia, to be precise, and the Western Australian Ballet Company as a choreographer, director, radio actress and presenter, whilst incorporating prominent theatre rolls from Shakespeare to modern musicals.

Rose Mary often returned briefly to Merthyr, but in 1969  another opportunity beckoned with a contract with the National Theatre Company, and so the family returned to Australia where she performed with the West Australian Ballet Company. Here she opened her own contemporary dance school and helped Rudolph Nureyev on his Australian touring production. Performances with the Western Australian Ballet School gave her prominent standing amongst the ballet community. Twice she won the Australia Best Actress Award judged by her peers and critics in 1969 and 1979. Her talent was noticed in Japan and they offered her an acting contract there, but family matters took over and she had to decline.

A number of her students went on to become prominent television and stage actors. One of them is Paul Mercuiro who is regarded as Australia’s greatest dancer who played, or should I say danced, the part of Scott Hastings in the cult film ‘Strictly Ballroom’.

However never one to give in Rose Marie created a theatre and arts department at Perth High School in the late 1980’s. It closed in 2006, but luckily it is due to be reopened in the same location. Her former students are lobbying the education department to have the arts wing to named after her.

Aged 50, Rose Marie pushed on and returned to full time study gaining a degree in teaching while working as a university lecturer. She was assigned a task of developing a Theatre Arts department at one of Western Australians most pre-eminent schools, City Beach Senior High School.

In the mid 1990’s she returned to the U.K. to settle with her daughter Sian. Although thousands of miles between them, Rose Marie and many of her students kept in touch, and she followed their achievements. Rose Marie died on 10 January 2017 and to the end she always liked being known as Steve Evans perhaps this is why combined with her travel lust, Merthyr lost sight of this talented shining star.

Rose Marie Stephens with a young pupil

Richard Trevithick – part 2

John Simkin’s article about Richard Trevithick continued from the previous post…

Trevithick was now employed by Christopher Blackett, who owned the Wylam Colliery in Northumberland. A five-mile wooden wagonway had been built in 1748 to take the coal from Wylam to the River Tyne. Blackett wanted a locomotive that would replace the use of horse-drawn coal wagons. The Wylam locomotive was built but weighing five tons, it was too heavy for Blackett’s wooden wagonway.

Trevithick returned to Cornwall and after further experiments developed a new locomotive he called Catch Me Who Can. In the summer of 1808 Trevithick erected a circular railway in Euston Square and during the months of July and August people could ride on his locomotive on the payment of one shilling. Trevithick had plenty of volunteers for his locomotive that reached speeds of 12 mph (19 kph) but once again the rails broke and he was forced to bring the experiment to an end.

Trevithick’s Catch Me if you Can

Without financial backing, Richard Trevithick had to abandon his plans to develop a steam locomotive. Trevithick now found work with a company who paid him to develop a steam dredger to lift waste from the bottom of the Thames. He was paid by results, receiving sixpence for every ton lifted from the river.

Trevithick found it difficult to make money from his steam dredger and in 1816 he accepted an offer to work as an engineer in a silver mine in Peru. After some early difficulties, Trevithick’s steam-engines were very successful and he was able to use his profits to acquire his own silver mines. However, in 1826 war broke out and Trevithick was forced to flee and leave behind his steam-engines and silver mines. After a unsuccessful spell in Costa Rica, Trevithick moved to Colombia, where he met Robert Stephenson, who was building a railway in that country. Stephenson generously gave Trevithick the money to pay for his journey back to England.

Although inventors such as George Stephenson argued that Trevithick’s early experiments were vital to the development of locomotives, in February 1828, the House of Commons rejected a petition suggesting that he should receive a government pension. Trevithick continued to experiment with new ideas. This included the propulsion of steamboats by means of a spiral wheel at the stern, an improved marine boiler, a new recoil gun-carriage and apparatus for heating apartments. Another scheme was the building of a 1,000 feet cast-iron column to commemorate the 1832 Reform Act.

All these schemes failed to receive financial support and Richard Trevithick died in extreme poverty at the Bull Inn, Dartford, on 22nd April, 1833. As he left no money for his burial, he faced the prospect of a pauper’s funeral. However, when a group of local factory workers heard the news, they raised enough money to provide a decent funeral and he was buried in Dartford churchyard.

To read more of John Simkin’s excellent essays, please visit:
http://spartacus-educational.com

Richard Trevithick – part 1

courtesy of John Simkin

Richard Trevithick, was born in Illogan, Cornwall, in 1771. Richard was educated at Camborne School but he was more interested in sport than academic learning. Trevithick was six feet two inches high and was known as the Cornish giant. He was very strong lad and by the age of eighteen he could throw sledge hammers over the tops of engine houses and write his name on a beam six feet from the floor with half a hundredweight hanging from his thumb. Trevithick also had the reputation of being one of the best wrestlers in Cornwall.

Trevithick went to work with his father at Wheal Treasury mine and soon revealed an aptitude for engineering. After making improvements to the Bull Steam Engine, Trevithick was promoted to engineer of the Ding Dong mine at Penzance. While at the Ding Dong mine he developed a successful high-pressure engine that was soon in great demand in Cornwall and South Wales for raising the ore and refuse from mines.

Trevithick also began experimenting with the idea of producing a steam locomotive. At first he concentrating on making a miniature locomotive and by 1796 had produced one that worked. The boiler and engine were in one piece; hot water was put into the boiler and a redhot iron was inserted into a tube underneath; thus causing steam to be raised and the engine set in motion.

Richard Trevithick now attempted to produce a much larger steam road locomotive and on Christmas Eve, 1801, it used it to take seven friends on a short journey. The locomotive’s principle features were a cylindrical horizontal boiler and a single horizontal cylinder let into it. The piston, propelled back and forth in the cylinder by pressure of steam, was linked by piston rod and connecting rod to a crankshaft bearing a large flywheel. Trevithick’s locomotive became known as the Puffing Devil but it could only go on short journeys as he was unable to find a way of keeping up the steam for any length of time.

The Puffing Devil

Despite these early problems, Trevithick travelled to London where he showed several leading scientists, including Humphrey Davy, what he had invented. James Watt had been considering using this method to power a locomotive but had rejected the idea as too risky. Watt argued that the use of steam at high temperature, would result in dangerous explosions. Trevithick was later to accuse Watt and his partner, Matthew Boulton, of using their influence to persuade Parliament to pass a bill banning his experiments with steam locomotives.

In 1803 a company called Vivian & West, agreed to finance Trevithick’s experiments. Richard Trevithick exhibited his new locomotive in London. However, after a couple of days the locomotive encountered serious problems that prevented it pulling a carriage. Vivian & West were disappointed with Trevithick’s lack of practical success and they withdrew from the project.

Richard Trevithick soon found another sponsor in Samuel Homfray, the owner of the Penydarren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil.

Penydarren Ironworks. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

In February 1804, Trevithick produced the world’s first steam engine to run successfully on rails. The locomotive, with its single vertical cylinder, 8 foot flywheel and long piston-rod, managed to haul ten tons of iron, seventy passengers and five wagons from the ironworks at Penydarren to the Merthyr-Cardiff Canal. During the nine mile journey the Penydarren locomotive reached speeds of nearly five miles an hour. Trevithick’s locomotive employed the very important principle of turning the exhaust steam up the chimney, so producing a draft which drew the hot gases from the fire more powerfully through the boiler.

A model of Trevithick’s Penydarren Locomotive at Cyfarthfa Museum. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

Trevithick’s Penydarren locomotive only made three journeys. Each time the seven-ton steam engine broke the cast iron rails. Samuel Homfray came to the conclusion that Trevithick’s invention was unlikely to reduce his transport costs and so he decided to abandon the project.

To be continued…..

To read more of John Simkin’s excellent essays, please visit:
http://spartacus-educational.com

Your weekly shopping

The following list of grocery prices appeared in the Monmouthshire Merlin 172 years ago today (6 June 1846).

Merthyr Market –

Beef, 6d. to 7d. per lb
Mutton, 6½d. to 7d.
Veal, 6d. to 7d.
Lamb, 7d. to 7½d.
Pork, 6d. to 6½d.
Bacon, 6d. to 8d.
Butter, 1s. to 1s. 1d.
Salt, 10d. to 11d.
Skim cheese, 6d. to 7½d.
Ducks, 2s. to 2s. 6d. each
Fowls, 1s. 3d. to 1s. 9d.
Cabbages, 1 ½d. to 3d.
Potatoes, from 6lb. to 8lb. for 6d.
New potatoes, 4d. to 6d. per lb.
Cucumbers, 3d. to 1s. each.

A very fine sample of the last named article was produced for sale by Mr. Hoare of this town, and being just gathered from the frames, they had a beautiful appearance, many of them measuring nearly two feet in length.

Prices at the railway station –

Hay, from £3. 10s. to £4. 10s. per ton
Straw, 2d. per boulting of 7lb., or 100 of ditto for 14s.
Potatoes, from 6s. 8d. to 7s. 6d. per cwt.