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.
In a cottage in the row, say 6 or 8 doors up, there was an old blind man, Thomas Evans, who had been a hammerman at Cyfarthfa. He was of the scientific society at the ‘Dynevor’, and was pleased if anyone would sit and read to him (this said advisedly and from experience).
Two dwellings followed owned by Mr David Williams (known as Williams of Pontyrhun). He was a widower, and had a family of two sons and two daughters. One of the later kept a school, but became Mrs John Jones (druggist etc.) of Aberdare. One of the sons, John, was the editor of the Silurian paper, which started at Brecon in the Whig interest, to whom the late Mr Peter Williams, of the Merthyr Telegraph, was apprenticed. The other son emigrated to Australia.
At the top, not many doors from the gate house, Mr Thomas Shepherd, then the cashier at Cyfarthfa Works lived. He removed to Navigation House after the death of Mr George Forrest, and then became superintendent of the Glamorganshire Canal.
Restarting from the bridge and crossing the tramroad, some short distance up on the left, a Mr Walter Morgan resided. He had been brought up as a solicitor, but was then in the brewery business. The brewery was situated behind the house, and had entrance from a road at the back.
Mr Morgan had two daughters and one son. The eldest married, but her painfully sudden death seemed to show that she was not happy. The youngest became Mrs Macnamara, wife of a barrister, who became judge of one of the East Indian courts. Her brother, who also was a barrister, became the same, but whether both were in Calcutta or elsewhere cannot be recalled.
The ascent was steep shortly after passing Mr Morgan’s residence. A Captain Oakey lived in residence on the left and overlooked the flat portion of Georgetown etc. He had been at sea for many years and then lived retired.
Upon Mr Crawshay – the grandfather of the present generation – buying a lot of old stores from Woolwich, they were sent to Cyfarthfa to be manufactured into bar iron, and there were some pieces of ordnance as well as round balls amongst the lot. Mr Robert Thompson Crawshay had one at least of the cannons taken to the tip above Nantygwenith and fired them (for I think there was more than one). The good old captain, who was enjoying his siesta upon the first firing and stretched upon his sofa, from association of his past life rolled himself off the sofa and on to the floor. So strange is habit.
Above Captain Oakey’s was the house occupied by Mr Jeffries, the blast furnace manager at Cyfarthfa. There were then no other houses except an isolated cottage or two until Penyrheolgerrig was come to.
To be continued at a later date……
Next up was former Welsh and British amateur champion Ben Marshall (left) of Newport. In only his fourth professional fight, Marshall faced the Welsh champion at Stow Hill Pavilion on March 21. Marshal decked Thomas in the sixth, the punch also opening a cut beneath his right eye – a wound from his previous encounter with Bill Softley. The injury troubled Tom in a toe-to-toe seventh, when he was floored twice, but survived to the bell only for his corner men to throw in the towel, leaving Marshal collecting the title, £100 side stake and an ornate gold belt put up by Newport promoter Jake Channing.
Thomas James Thomas, known as Tom, was born in 1901 when his parents James Lloyd Thomas and Mabel (née Davies) lived in Dynevor Street, Merthyr Tydfil. They were residing at 7 Park Street, Merthyr by the time of the 1911 census and the family had grown with two additions, namely, son William (known as Billy) age 5 years and 2-year-old daughter Emily. Shortly after the family moved to the village of Deri, in the Darran Valley where James was employed as overman at Groesfaen Colliery.
Tommy Milligan (left) of Hamilton, Scotland, proved far too good for Tom Thomas in a ten-round contest at NSC Covent Garden on 17 April. This bout was the eliminating contest for the Championship of Great Britain. Tom, from Deri, was K.O.’d in 4½ minutes of actual fighting, but apparently this was a thriller while it lasted and the Boxing News (8 Sept 1967) report read as follows “This was short-lived, though there was more real hard fighting crammed into the two rounds than one will often see in a 20-rounds contest. Right from the gong, they went at it, slamming and pounding away with the utmost vigour. Thomas wanted to score a knock-out and was aiming mainly for the head, but Milligan, forcing his way in close, smashed furiously at the body, and obviously with the greater force. Neither man worried much about defence, all their energies being concentrated on attack, and one felt sure that the affair could not last long at this gait. Milligan appeared to be shaken by a right to the jaw, but came on more furiously than before, and with a succession of body blows, sent Thomas on his back to the boards. It looked all over, but Thomas rose at ‘eight’ and the slamming continued until another drive to the mark sent the Deri man once more to the boards. Up again at ‘eight’ he fought on to the gong, though ‘dropped’ twice more for ‘three’ each time. In the second round Milligan came from his corner with a rush, met Thomas near his own corner, drove a left to the mouth, crossed heavily with his right to the jaw, and driving the Welshman to the ropes simply pelted him with blows until Thomas, overwhelmed, went through the ropes and out of the ring to be counted out.” Milligan went on to become the British and British Empire Welterweight Champion 1924-25; European Middleweight Champion 1925; and British and British Empire Middleweight Champion 1926-28.