Month: October 2019

Treharris Remembers – Treharris yn Cofio

by Eirlys Emery

During a recent visit to the Normandy coast in France, I was very impressed and moved by the efforts made to remember those who had died landing on the beaches on D-Day, 6 June 1944, 75 years ago. On each lamp post along the coast road was a photograph of members of the allied armed forces who were remembered.

Two examples of the commemorative photographs in Normandy

As it is another 75th Anniversary, of the end of World War Two, next year, and there will be VE (Victory in Europe) Day celebrations and commemorations on the weekend beginning on Friday 8 May 2020, I wondered whether any individuals, organisations, schools, youth club, community groups, churches, etc. in Treharris may be interested in doing some forward planning and research to commemorate those associated with Treharris who died during World War 2 ready for May 2020.

Treharris War Memorial – the Library Clock

I began an online search and discovered 45 people associated with Treharris were killed during the the war and I wondered whether there are relatives of anyone who died who would be able to assist with photographs or any other articles or documents which could tell the story of their loved one. I checked with the local Library and found that there is no list of names available at the Library of either World War, even though the Library Clock is a War Memorial.

After posting on Facebook on the Treharris and Quakers’ Yard Group pages, I began to receive information and interest from people locally and from as far afield as Australia, so that it seemed feasible that we should keep a public record of those who had died in World War 2.

A small community group was established: –

  • to commemorate those people who lost their lives during the 1939-45 World War who were associated with the Treharris Ward area of the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, and who have been recorded in records and on War Memorials throughout the world, as a result of their deaths during that period as a result of enemy actions or whilst in the service of their country.
  • to record information for wider public and educational purposes so that this current generation and future generations will have information and stories to understand how people in their community died in one of the deadliest conflicts in recent history, and the impact on their families and community.
  • to produce an exhibition of information, photographs and other media in time for the Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the end of the 1939-45 World War, to complete the Project by 4 May 2020.

At least 15 individuals have been in touch about their relatives who died in the war, some having sent precious photographs and related stories about their memories and what they had been told about their loved ones.

A meeting was held in Treharris Library on 15 October 2019, and seven people attended, all of whom supported these proposals, and some who were unable to attend sent apologies and promised to assist also.

After hearing about how the Treharris Remembers – Treharris Yn Cofio project came about and some ideas were discussed, it was felt that the minimum that ought to be achieved by the Project was to establish a permanent Book Of Remembrance in Treharris, containing the same amount and type of information about each of those whose names appear as having died during World War Two and who had strong associations and families within the Treharris Ward. We discussed whether we should include Trelewis names also, although it was agreed that they are commemorated on the Trelewis War Memorial and all know who they were. To extend the scope of the Project would require more resources and time than we have available. However, we will work with our friends in Trelewis and share information as it becomes available.

If we are to be able to produce and publish materials discovered during project, we are likely to require funding for printing, photographs, Book of Remembrance printed and bound, and perhaps other items not known at present. In anticipation of this, and before the Project began officially, and application had been made to the Ffos-y-Fran Fund to the sum of £300. Indications are that it will be granted but it is likely that further applications for grants and crowdfunding will have to be considered. An account in the name of Treharris Remembers – Treharris Yn Cofio has been set up with the Merthyr Tydfil Credit Union, and the Project’s Constitution, which was discussed and amended at the meeting, allows for fund to be raised. It was decided that the project should be as inclusive as possible and that no membership fee will be charged and it is open to all who have an interest in the Project. The Chair of the Meeting and of the community group is Councillor Gareth Richards, the Treasurer is Susan Burgess, and the Secretary is Eirlys Emery.

It was decided at the meeting that it is likely that we will not be able to find photographs of all those listed, but that we should undertake what research might be possible, so that we can begin to tell the story of how the war had an impact on people in Treharris. Schools may be able to help us in this aim, as they are taught about World War 2 as part of their studies. It was decided that schools should be asked to take part if possible, so that young people can be part of the commemoration next May.

Other community groups may be able to help us also, and this will also be pursued.

Given the information we have gathered to date, the 45 names from Treharris provide us with an understanding which goes far beyond what you might expect from the small town that it was then and is now. These people from Treharris were killed in incidents in almost every Theatre of War that was fought during 1939-45. They represent the sacrifices made on land, at sea, and in the air. They died in the Far East, in many places in Europe and North Africa. Most were in the armed forces but others were civilians based in Wales and England, and killed in air raid bombings or on Merchant Ships. Three of the 45 were women.

The Project will continue to involve the community in as many ways as possible to achieve its purposes, and to take part in commemoration and recording for history the sacrifice, bravery and debt we owe to those from our town who died.

Pilot Officer David Martin,
Died Aged 23, 23 May 1941.
Remembered at Sage War Cemetery, Germany
Photograph kindly loaned by his family

Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: The Berry Brothers

by Keith Lewis-Jones

This time we look at the plaques dedicated to three brothers born to Merthyr solicitor John Mathias Berry and his wife Mary Ann Rowe.

Henry Seymour Berry – Lord Buckland of Bwlch
Statue sited in front of Merthyr Tydfil Central Library

Henry Seymour Berry (1877-1928) acquired substantial holdings in steel, coal, transport, printing, and shipping.

He was made a Freeman of the Borough in 1923 and became Baron Buckland of Bwlch in  1926.

Statue & Plinth Grade II Listed

History
Erected 1931. Designed by W. Goscombe John RA.

Description
Standing, black-painted, bronze figure in full robes with cocked hat in crook of left arm; parchment grasped in right hand. Moulded pink granite plinth with inscription:

“Henry Seymour Berry, Baron Buckland of Bwlch, Hon. Freeman of the Co. Borough of Merthyr Tydfil. Born 1877 – Died 1928. Erected by Public Subscription”.

James Gomer Berry – Viscount Kemsley
Plaque sited on the plinth of the statue in front of Merthyr Tydfil Central Library

James Gomer  Berry (1883-1968) and William Ewart Berry together built a vast empire of magazines, regional and national newspapers, including the Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times.

Gomer became Baron Kemsley in 1936 and Viscount Kemsley in 1944. He was made a Freeman of the Borough in 1955.

William Ewert Berry – Viscount Camrose
Plaque sited on the plinth of the statue in front of Merthyr Tydfil Central Library

William Ewert Berry (1879-1953) and James Gomer Berry together built a vast empire of magazines, regional and national newspapers, including the Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times.

William was made Baron Camrose in 1929 and a Viscount in 1941.

More on the Berry Brothers coming soon……

The Temperance Hall

Most of us have passed, or even visited the Temperance Hall (or the Scala to those of you who were born after the 1960’s), but how many of you realise that it was in fact Merthyr’s first purposely built public meeting place?

The Temperance Hall in the early 1900s. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

The Temperance Hall was built by the Merthyr Temperance Society as somewhere to provide “instruction and amusement for the masses of the people”. The Temperance Movement began in the 1830’s. At first temperance usually involved a promise not to drink spirits and members continued to consume wine and beer. However, by the 1840s temperance societies began advocating teetotalism. This was a much stronger position as it not only included a pledge to abstain from all alcohol for life but also a promise not to provide it to others.

The Temperance Hall was opened in September 1852 by Henry Bruce, the M.P. for Merthyr. The original building measured approximately 80 foot by 40 foot, with a 12 foot wide platform, with a capacity of between 100 – 150 people.

In 1873, the Hall underwent major enlargement, was said to hold up to 4,000 people. For the next 20 years the Hall was the main theatre in Merthyr, mostly seeing off competition that came and went, from the Drill Hall, the short-lived Park Theatre and the many visiting portable theatres. Performances at the Temperance Hall ranged from musicals like “Les Cloches de Corneville” and the marionette spectacular “Bluebeard”, to performances of plays by Shakespeare and other leading dramatists.

As well these, the Hall was also used to host lectures and also religious and political meetings. One of the most famous of these was the meeting held in 1872 by Rose Mary Crawshay, one of the leaders of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the late 1800’s, which led to a petition for Women’s Suffrage being sent to Westminster.

A picture entitled “Emigration Agent Lecturing at the Temperance Hall” that appeared in The Illustrated London News 6 March 1875

In 1885 the management was controlled by a group of four brothers: Charles, Joseph, George and Harry Poole who continued with the mixed policy, and encouraged local amateur groups to use the premises as their regular base. By the turn of the century, however, the Temperance Hall was gradually becoming a music-hall and variety theatre, with the touring productions of musicals and straight plays tending to go to the Theatre Royal.

Israel Price

By 1914, the Temperance Hall was listed in the Kinematograph Year Book, so  it was clearly an early cinema conversion. The manager of the theatre by now was Mr Israel Price, who would become a legendary theatre manager of the South Wales area. From the outbreak of the War until the start of the “talkies” Israel Price provided variety performances and reviews as well as silent films. In 1927 he was able to advertise that the Temperance Hall was “now the only live theatre in the town”.

A group of performers outside the Temperance Hall in the early 1900s. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

The Temperance Hall was renovated and re-seated in 1930 and re-opened in August of that year, promoting itself as “Now one of the most comfortable theatres in the provinces”.

In 1939, Israel Price’s son (also called Israel) took over the running of the Temperance Hall, and he also eventually took over the management of the Theatre Royal. The Hall seems to have been used almost exclusively as a cinema during the Second World War, but in the post-war years it resumed live theatre, and in 1948 ran a forty-week repertory season under the direction of Barney Lando.

An advert for the Temperance Hall from the Merthyr Express 5 June 1937

By the 1953 edition of the Kinematograph Year Book the proprietors were listed as Messrs Price and Williams, and there were 624 seats, and by 1980 the Theatre had ceased presenting live shows and was used exclusively as a cinema having been renamed the Scala Cinema. It was owned by Dene Cinema Enterprises Ltd. and had 480 seats.

The cinema closed in the early 1980’s and in 1985 the building was converted into a bar and snooker club.

Good Housekeeping – How to Manage your Coal Shed

by Barrie Jones

Coal is a ‘dirty’ fuel and its emissions are partly responsible for air pollution and global warming with their adverse impact upon our health and climate change.  Strange that 50 years ago coal was the primary domestic fuel for our heating needs.  Since the mid 1970s I have not lived in a house with a coal fire and my sons have no knowledge of how to light or manage one.  As well as knowing how to clean a fire grate and light a fire, there was one other thing I learned when helping bring in my grandfather’s concessionary coal delivery; that was how to manage your coal shed efficiently.

At my parent’s house on the Keir Hardie Estate coal was delivered by the coalman by the sack full and was dropped unceremoniously into the coal bunker.  Over the weeks as the coal pile diminished, scrabbling about for suitable sized lumps of coal amongst the ‘small’ coal became ever more difficult.  It was so much easier in my grandfather’s coal shed with his system of coal storage.

The concessionary coal scheme was a perquisite for all employees of the National Coal Board (NCB) as part of their contract of employment.  The concession had been in existence long before the nationalisation of the coal industry in January 1947, with individual mines, lodges or districts negotiating schemes as part of their wage bargaining.  Attempts were made in the 1950s to standardise the various schemes within the industry but with little success as some districts faced a reduction to their existing arrangements.  I am not sure how much coal my grandfather received each year or how many deliveries it needed.  In 1951 it was estimated that some district schemes provided about 10 tons per year.

The concession still persists today as the Government’s National Concessionary Fuel Scheme (NCFS).  The Government became legally required to implement the scheme in 1994 following the privatisation of the coal industry.  The scheme provides free solid fuel or a cash allowance for fuel for ex employees of the NCB or British Coal Corporation (BCC).  Widows or widowers of ex employees are eligible to receive free fuel or cash allowances.  Fuel is delivered on average about every 4 to 5 weeks, while cash allowances are paid every three months.  In 2010, nationally, there were about 15,400 recipients of free fuel and 68,700 recipients of cash allowances, an overall total of just 84,000 recipients!  Then the average annual quantity of fuel was 4 tons at an average cost of £1,400.  It is estimated that the scheme will eventually peter out by 2064 on the deaths of the final recipients.  The demise of the coal industry accelerated over the 40 years after the Second World War.  In 1921 in south Wales alone there were 270,000 miners, and at the onset of nationalisation in 1946 there were 116,000 miners in Wales.

Dad (Caradog Jones) retired in 1961 at the age of 65, and afterwards never enjoyed good health, suffering from a weak chest and heart, the result of ‘coal dust and woodbines’.  Sometime in the mid 1960’s when in my mid-teens my father instructed me to “go down and help Dad bring in his coal”.  My grandparents lived at no. 12 Union Street, Thomastown, and the coal was delivered by lorry and ‘dropped’ on the kerbside outside their terraced house.  Fortunately, theirs was an end of terrace property with a side gate onto their garden; the coal shed was at the end of the garden, so no need to carry the coal with our dusty shoes through the passageway.  Coal isn’t a particularly heavy stone and large blocks although bulky can be carried short distances with relative ease, a full bucket of coal is another matter altogether and takes more effort.  Dad was stubborn and would insist on doing his share of the workload, so I just helped halve both the workload and the time taken to clear the road.

The coal had to be collected in precise stages: firstly the large blocks had to be carried in and only broken if too heavy to carry, these blocks were laid about a third of the way into the coal shed and laid on top of each other until a wall of blocks was constructed.  Next, the smaller lumps carried in buckets were tipped behind the wall and piled up against the back of the shed wall until a mound of coal lumps was formed. Finally, all the ‘small’ coal and scrapings from the road was carried in and deposited in front of the wall of coal.  A low wooden board across and inside the entrance of the shed door stopped the ‘small’ coal from spilling out.

Dad’s system of storage makes sense when you consider how the coal was collected from the shed when the coal bucket/scuttle needed filling for my grandparent’s many fires.  Firstly suitable lumps of coal were collected from the mound at the back, if too large to be considered manageable for the grate then they would be broken into smaller lumps in front of the wall.  As the mound of coal diminished then the larger blocks were taken from the wall and broken up and the lumps placed on the mound at the back of the shed.  Over the weeks breaking the coal into manageable lumps raised up the layer of ‘small’ coal.  ‘Small’ coal was never wasted, once sieved to retrieve the smaller pieces; the remaining finer coal was used to ‘bank’ the fires when a full blaze was not needed.  Covering the fire with a blanket of small coal maintained the heat but slowed down the burn.  To stop the small coal from falling through the coals, moistening the coal with water helped bind it.  Emptying the teapot dregs on the fire at regular intervals was a good way to maintain binding.  The only tools needed in the coal shed was the ‘coal’ hammer to break the large lumps, a short handled spade for scooping up the small coal, and a sieve/riddle, all conveniently hanging from nails on the shed wall.

I don’t know if my grandfather’s system was commonplace or how long this method had been used in my ‘family’, Dad was one of five brothers who worked underground and their father, grandfather and great-grandfather were coal miners before them.  I presume that hardly anyone in this country stores their coal in this fashion today.

Rosser Beynon 

Here is an article about a very important, but largely forgotten man in Merthyr’s musical history – Rosser Beynon.

Rosser Beynon was born in Glyn Neath in 1811, the oldest child of John and Elizabeth Beynon. In 1815 the Beynon family moved to Merthyr Tydfil where John Beynon secured a job at the Cyfarthfa Ironworks. Upon moving to Merthyr the family became members of Zoar Chapel.

Rosser Beynon began working at the Ironworks at the age of eight, but he also began attending a school conducted by a Mr MacFarlane. As well as this he also began teaching himself music and it was in this field he immersed himself and it is said that he would lose many hours of sleep trying to master some musical problem.

At the age of 18, Beynon was given the responsibility of training the choir at Zoar Chapel, and he remained in this position until he was given sole responsibility for conducting the choir in 1835. In about 1840, he began giving music lessons in his house in Bethesda Street, and his reputation was such that he was asked to travel all over South Wales to give lessons. In addition, he was invited all over Wales to adjudicate competitions for compositions of hymns and anthems, and became the musical editor of ‘Y Diwygiwr’, the monthly periodical produced by the Independent Union of South Wales. Between 1845 and 1848 he published ‘Telyn Seion’ a collection of hymns and anthems by many prominent composers.

In 1850, Rosser Beynon was among the 58 people who left Zoar to move to Ynysgau Chapel to bolster the congregation at the latter chapel following the crisis associated with the decline of Rev T B Evans. Upon arrival at Ynysgau, he immediately took over the leadership of the choir and remained in charge of the choir until 1872.

Throughout his adult life, Rosser Beynon continued to work as a miner in the Dowlais Pits and In December 1875, while supervising repairs in the mine, he contracted a cold which subsequently developed into bronchitis and pleurisy. Rosser Beynon died on 3 January 1876 at the age of 65. He was buried in Cefn Coed Cemetery and the inscription on his tomb reads:

Er Coffadwriaeth am
Rosser Beynon (Asaph Glan Taf), Merthyr Tydfil
A fu farw Ionawr 3ydd, 1876,
Yn 65 mlwydd oed.
Yma yn isel mae un o weision
Miswig a’i mawredd y’mysg y meirwon;
Canad dirwest, ac athraw cantorion;
Hunodd un Ngwalia dan nawdd angelion,
Ac yn Iesu cysga’i noson – a’i ffydd
Roes aur-obenydd i Rosser Beynon

Memories of Old Merthyr

We continue our serialisation of the memories of Merthyr in the 1830’s by an un-named correspondent to the Merthyr Express, courtesy of Michael Donovan.

From the work room of Mr Wm James, not only was there no storage or openings on that side of the High Street, but with the exception of three small shops adjoining the one on the corner of Glebeland Street, there was not a building of any kind.

The nearest i.e., the one first come to on the way up was the shop of a hairdresser named Davies. If I remember rightly, Bears Grease was considered the best one used on the human hair, and this Davies, upon one opening, had a bear hung up outside his shop, after the manner of butchers hanging calves brains was afterwards to be had, but whether the result of his enterprise was advantageous I know not.

An 1839 advertisement for Bear’s Grease

Either in the next, or following shop above, a Mr McGregor sold garden seeds, and the corner shop belonged to Mr Edward Morgan, grocer, who had a wholesale trade too. Mr Morgan resided on the other side of the High Street. He was connected by marriage, I think, with the Jones’s and Evans’s of the Bank.

The Post Office was on the corner of Glebeland Street and High Street, on the same site as at present, but before describing it, or going further up we will return to Gillar Street and come up on the right hand side of High Street.

First there was a grocer’s shop, and then the Crown Inn – a Mrs Richards was the landlady. Above this was the druggist’s shop kept by Mrs Jenkins, the mother of the late Dr T J Dyke. She also had two sons of the name of Jenkins. John, a clergy-man, who went to Natal, was  Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, a canon of the Church, and became vicar of Aberdare. He was the most charitable of men, but the most absent-minded as a boy. Upon asking what he intended being, his reply, in all earnestness, was “the Bishop of Merthyr”. His brother James became a Roman Catholic priest, but did not live many years.

An advert from 1835 mentioning Mrs Jenkins’ Druggist shop

Next above was a draper’s shop. Mr John James kept it, and made money enough to go into the wholesale trade in Manchester, but returned in a few years to Merthyr, and built a large premises opposite which is Victoria Street and called the Cloth Hall.

The Cloth Hall. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

There was a yard with wooden doors, and on the other side a grocer’s shop was kept by Mr Christopher James. Upon Mr James’s removal this business went into the hands of Mr John Jones, who had been with Mr James for some time. Mr James himself the for a while carried on a wine and spirit business near the Bush Hotel, but only for a short time, as he removed to Swansea, and went into the coal trade.

This Mr Christopher James was a brother of the Mr William James already alluded to, and another brother was Mr Job James, a doctor living in Pontmorlais, one of whose sons, Mr Frank James, was for so many years clerk to the Merthyr Union. Mr Christopher James has several sons. Vice-Chancellor William Milbourne James was, I think, the oldest (see http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=3084). Another was Mr David James, a tanner living on the side of the tramroad in Bethesda Street or Pontstorehouse.

Another son, Christopher, was in the shop with his father, and upon giving up a building on the canal bank which had been used as a storehouse for flour etc., 60 guineas were found hidden there, reputed to have belonged to him. Another son was the harbour master of Swansea 40 years ago, and his son succeeded him in that capacity for a short time. One of this Mr James’s daughters married a Mr Brock, the minister of the Unitarian Chapel in Swansea, and another Mr Joseph Henry Rowland, of the bank in Neath.

To be continued at a later date……