125 years ago today…..
Month: April 2022
A New Shop in Merthyr
120 years ago today…
Harri Webb – Poet
by Malcolm Llywelyn
The poet Harri Webb was librarian at the Dowlais Library from 1954 until 1964 when he was appointed librarian at Mountain Ash. He was a prolific writer of poetry, prose and political commentary and he has been described as the ‘People’s Poet.’ He was active in politics with the local Labour Party when he became a friend of S.O. Davies. Disillusioned with the lack of support for the policy of self-government for Wales he left the Labour Party and rejoined Plaid Cymru in 1960.
Harri Webb was a radical Welsh Republican and a well-known colourful character, who took an interest in the local history of Merthyr Tydfil. He learned Welsh in his early adulthood and he adopted the Dowlais dialect of the language. He was one of the founders of the eisteddfod in Merthyr Tydfil and the chairman for three years. A ‘squat’ in Garthnewydd was the home of Harri Webb for some 12 years where he was joined by other patriots and the house became a centre for Nationalist activities in the town.
Merthyr Tydfil, its history and people feature in several of the poems written by Harri Webb. Written in 1959, the poem Big Night, describes ‘big nights out’ in the Church Tavern, Vaynor, illustrated by the last verse:
‘And homeward we were staggering
As the Pandy clock struck three
And the stars of the Plough went swaggering
From Vaynor to Pengarnddu’.
The poem, The Lamb was written in 1963, about the iconic public house frequented by Harri Webb and many other colourful characters of Merthyr Tydfil.
The Old Parish Churchyard was composed in 1965 and describes the scene in St Tydfil’s Parish Church.
Cwm Tâf Bridge, written in 1968, is a poem dedicated to Penri Williams, a resident of Cefn Coed, who worked in the water industry.
Merthyr 1972, was written in 1972 and commemorates the great names in the history of Merthyr Tydfil:
‘And now, in kinder times, an old man dies
And the great names that blazed above the strife –
Hardie, Penderyn, Richard – are spoken anew…’
It was written at the time of the death of S.O. Davies and the poem To the Memory of a Friend is Harri Webbs’s tribute to his old friend S.O.
Born in Sketty, Swansea in 1920, a ‘Swansea Jack,’ Harri Webb in ill-health, moved to a nursing home in Swansea in 1994, where he died in 1995.
Colli Iaith
Colli iaith a cholli urddas
Colli awen, colli barddas
Colli coron aur cymdeithas
Ac yn eu lle cael bratiaith fas.
Colli’r hen alawon persain
Colli tannau’r delyn gywrain
Colli’r corau’n diaspedain
Ac yn eu lle cael cleber brain.
Colli crefydd, colli enaid
Colli ffydd yr hen wroniaid
Colli popeth glan a thelaid
Ac yn eu lle cael baw a llaid.
Colli tir a cholli tyddyn
Colli Elan a Thryweryn
Colli Claerwen a Llanwddyn
A’n gwlad i gyd dan ddŵr llyn.
Cael yn ôl o borth marwolaeth
Cân a ffydd a bri yr heniaith
Cael yn ôl yr hen dreftadaeth
A Chymru’n dechrau ar ei hymdaith.
Harri Webb
Colli Iaith
Losing language and losing dignity
Losing muse and losing bardism
Losing the golden crown of society
And in its place a shallow debased language.
Losing the old sweet-sounding strains
Losing the resounding choirs
Losing the harp’s skilful strings
And in its place the clamour of crows.
Losing creed, losing soul
Losing the faith of the old brave people
Losing everything pure and beautiful
And in its place dirt and mud.
Losing land and losing small-holdings
Losing Elan and Tryweryn
Losing Claerwen and Llanwddyn
And the whole country beneath a lake’s water.
Getting back from the door of death
A song and faith and respect for the old languge
Getting back the old heritage
And Wales begins her own journey.
Colli Iiaith was written by Harri Webb in 1966 as his response to the by-election won by Gwynfor Evans in Carmarthen. It was the first parliamentary election won by Plaid Cymru by its president Gwynfor Evans. The tune for the song was composed by Meredydd Evans, although it is usually sung unaccompanied and has been made popular by the well known singer Heather Jones. It reflects the losses suffered by Wales under English rule, but ends with a defiant challenge to redeem the ancient language. The fourth verse of the song refers to the reservoirs Elan and Tryweryn, valleys drowned to supply water to Birmingham and Liverpool. Claerwen was the last dam built in Cwm Elan and the village of Llanwddyn was drowned under Llyn Efyrnwy to supply water to Liverpool City.
The song featured in the Green Desert, a performance and album of the poet’s work in 1972.
Hughesovka: A Welsh Enterprise in Imperial Russia
In light of the terrible situation in Ukraine, the following article is transcribed with the kind permission of Glamorgan Archives:-
John Hughes, an engineer from Merthyr Tydfil, went to Imperial Russia in the 1870s. On the wide empty plains – the steppes – of the southern Ukraine, he set up an ironworks which developed into a huge industrial complex. Around the works grew up a town: Hughesovka.
John Hughes was born in Merthyr Tydfil about 1815. He was the son of an engineer at the Cyfarthfa Ironworks, and started his own career at Cyfarthfa before moving to the Ebbw Vale works, and then on to the Uskside Engineering Works in Newport. By the mid-1860s, John Hughes was a member of the Board of Millwall Engineering and Shipbuilding Company in London, with a world-wide reputation as an engineer.
Hughes came to the attention of the Imperial Russian government, which was anxious to develop its railways and heavy engineering industries. In 1868, he took up a concession from the government and bought land and mineral rights in the Donbass (then southern Russia, now the Ukraine). To finance his project, in 1869 Hughes set up the New Russia Company Ltd., with a capital of £300,000. In 1870 he travelled to the Ukraine to set up the works on the empty steppe.
John Hughes had married Elizabeth Lewis of Newport in 1844, and they had eight children. Four of Hughes’ sons – John James, Arthur David, Ivor Edward and Albert Llewellyn – were closely involved in the running of the works. When John Hughes died in St. Petersburg in 1889, they took over, sharing the responsibilities between them.
John Hughes set up his works on the wide empty steppes of what is now southern Ukraine, but was then part of the Russian Empire. The area was rich in coal and iron ore deposits, but isolated and not industrially developed. Hughes had to start from scratch in 1870, but by the beginning of 1872 the first blast furnace was in production producing iron, and by September 1873 iron rails were being produced. More blast furnaces followed as the works developed, and open hearth furnaces were built in the 1880s to produce steel. By the end of the 1890s, the works was the largest in the Russian Empire, employing 8,000 workers in 1896 and 12,000 in 1904.
Hughes established the works as a self-contained industrial complex. The raw materials for the iron and steel production came from the company’s coal and iron ore mines and limestone quarries; brickworks were set up to supply building materials; repair shops and chemical laboratories serviced the enterprise. In 1919, the works was taken over by the state; it continued in operation and the area remained a major industrial centre.
When Hughes was establishing the works he needed skilled workers, and he recruited many of these in Wales. Some stayed only for a few years, but others settled in Hughesovka, bringing out their wives and families. Over the years, although a Russian workforce was trained by the Company, it continued to employ skilled workers from the United Kingdom. A thriving expatriate community was established, with a school for the British children, an Anglican church, and an English club.
The town of Hughesovka grew up beside the works, with housing provided by the Company to house the British and some of the local workers. The British workers lived in a separate sector, some in substantial houses. By the first decade of the 20th century, the population of Hughesovka was around 50,000, most of them working for or dependent on the works.
Some families stayed in Hughesovka for several generations, their children marrying there and bringing up their own families in the close-knit community. Life could be difficult, with very cold winters and hot summers, and public health problems such as cholera and typhus, but the British families generally enjoyed a good standard of living. In 1896, there were 22 Welsh families living in Hughesovka.
Then in 1917 came the Russian revolution. Most of the British families left Hughesovka and returned home. The works was taken over by the state and Hughesovka was renamed Stalino, and later on Donetsk.
Glamorgan Archives has collected together a large number of records relating to Hughesovka in the Hughesovka Research Archive (HRA). The HRA is a collection of material brought together from a number of different sources, all relating to one theme. It contains papers and photographs deposited by descendents of Hughesovka families, copies of material acquired by the Archives, and material concerning the Hugheosvka-related activities of the Archives. The collection illustrates the achievements of one group of the highly skilled Welsh emigrants who founded and developed industries around the world. It is a useful comparator to other Welsh enterprises abroad – the Welsh colony in Patagonia for example – and an indication of the strength of Welsh industrial enterprise.
The main strength of the collection lies in the light it throws on the members of the expatriate community in Hughesovka, but it also contains material relating to the career of John Hughes, to the New Russia Company and to the works, including some technical information. It is particularly strong in photographic material, including numerous photographs of the town and works, and of the British families.
You can see the Table of Contents of the catalogue of the Hughesovka Research Archive on the Glamorgan Archives website. Note that the table shows main headings only. A complete catalogue can be consulted on the Glamorgan Archives catalogue Canfod.
To view the original article please follow the following link:-
https://glamarchives.wordpress.com/2017/11/03/hughesovka-a-welsh-enterprise-in-imperial-russia/
Happy Easter
A Lovely Easter Outing
125 years ago today……
Easter Commercial Break
A Welsh Quilt
At the recent launch of the remarkable new book ‘Dowlais Educational Settlement and the Quaker John Dennithorne’ by Christine Trevett, local historian Terry Jones recognised someone on a photograph shown during the presentation. Following a discussion between Terry and Christine, it transpired that the photograph came from an article (below) which appeared in the Merthyr Express on 31 January 1948.
Terry subsequently put the article on his Facebook page, and received the following message:-
The lady on the left is my mother. She was asked to make a Welsh bed quilt to raise American dollars after World War II. She agreed and my Dad made a special frame for her to use because the quilt was so big. He made it so that she could quilt then turn the frame under until she got to the middle, then because the material and padding got so thick, she started from the other end. The lady with her is the lady who drew the pattern in special chalking. That alone was amazing because she had to stay in exact pattern all the way through although she couldn’t see the rolled under quilt. The designer’s name was Miss Neale (not sure of the spelling). Other people in the UK were asked to make things too and the dollars raised went to help the repayment of the dollar debt the UK owed to America.
My mother was Mrs Gwyneth Pritchard née Richards from Caeracca Farm. She was living in 41 Edward Street when she was working on this quilt and it took up the whole of the front room. The furniture had to be removed to make room for the the frame to fit in.
At the end of the making it was put on exhibition in London, along with all the other hand made contributions and the Queen’s grandmother. Queen Mary wrote Mam a letter of congratulations to Mam for her excellence in work done on the quilt. I would love if we could find out who it was that eventually bought the Quilt.
One other incident that may raise a smile. When Mam was working on it, my sister Lynfa who was about two at the time, sat most of the time under the quilt. Mam had her there to keep an eye on her, and make sure she was safe.
Sybil Watkins
Many thanks to Terry Jones and Sybil Watkins for allowing me to use this article.
If you would like to purchase a copy of ‘Dowlais Educational Settlement and the Quaker John Dennithorne’ by Christine Trevett, please contact me at merthyr.history@gmail.com and I will pass your details on to the Merthyr Tydfil and District Historical Society who published the book.
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.
It may, perhaps, be apropros to explain as to the basin and Merthyr Tramroad. In “Tredgold on Railways” it is stated that the tramroad was made under Parliamentary powers, but upon my saying so in his hearing the late Mr Charles Herbert James told me it was not so, but that it was constructed by private arrangement. Be that, however, as it may, it is certain it was made with a branch to the canal at Merthyr, and the total number of shares was 14, of which nine belonged to the Dowlais Company, three to the Penydarren, and two to the Plymouth Companies.
These proportions remained until the Dowlais Company’s application to Parliament to construct the branch from the Taff Vale Railway to Dowlais, when, after a good deal of fighting, the Dowlais Company agreed to hand over their interest in the Tramroad if the opposing companies withdrew opposition.
It may, perhaps, be unknown to some of your readers that Parliament would not give powers to make a railway unless it was shown to be a public benefit, and, therefore, the conveyance of passengers as well as goods, other than the requirements of the works, had to be proved and the obligation of carrying for the public undertaken. The Act was passed, and the line being made, passengers were taken to Dowlais down the incline. Through carriages were run from Cardiff, and were detached at the bottom of the incline, and reconnected as necessary, but it did not do very well, and a fatal accident arising from the carriages running wild caused a discontinuance of that passenger traffic.
As far as can be recollected, some buses were started to run, but they were subsidized by the Dowlais Company for some time. At the first opening of the Taff Vale Railway to Merthyr – it had previously opened to Navigation (Abercynon) – the Dowlais Company made a connection, and drew their buses to the Basin tramroad alongside of what is now the connection; unloading, or rather, the transfer of their traffic from the railway to the tramroad being carried out at the foot of the incline. For their assistance by way of evidence, Mr John Locke, the engineer of the then so-called Grand Junction Railway was had, and in describing the old tramroad, he distinctly stated it was not usable for locomotives. Upon its being conveyed to him that there was in the committee room a person who had gone over it on an engine with load scores, if non hundreds of times, he corrected his stated, and qualified it by adding “not economically”.
It has been stated that nine shares were given up by the Dowlais Company; of these, five were apportioned to Penydarren, and four to Plymouth, their respective shares thus becoming: Penydarren, eight; Plymouth, six. Although the Penydarren Works came to a stop, these shares continued as an appanage, and upon the acquisition and re-starting of Penydarren by the Plymouth Company, the shares naturally passed to that company, and although the whole has now become of little value (at least, at the present) it would seem as if the old road from Penydarren end was now entirely vested in the Plymouth Company.
To be continued at a later date…..
The Star Inn
by Carolyn Jacob
Not to be confused with the Star Inn in Sand Street, Dowlais, the old Star Inn was at number 19 Lower High Street, Merthyr town. Few people now remember the old Star Inn as it was demolished in 1960.
In the nineteenth century there were a number of early coaching inns in Merthyr, the most famous being the Star Inn. The Star Inn was thought to be the oldest inn and the only one of any consequence for a long time; its position in the old ‘village’ area of Merthyr Tydfil and near to the parish church seems to confirm this. The first justice – room was at the Star. The earliest directory of 1792 shows that Margaret Jenkins was the landlady here. She is described as a doughty if slapdash matriarch by Chris Evans in ‘The Labyrinth of Flames’.
In July 1797 a special dinner for the local ironmasters was held in the Star Inn. The ironmasters were frequently at loggerheads with each other and this was a move towards better understanding. It was recorded in March 1800 that a group of ironmasters and coal owners met together in the Star Inn to petition Parliament for better security of their industrial enterprises.
William Hamilton visited Merthyr Tydfil in 1801 and was a guest of Richard Crawshay at Cyfarthfa House. He later wrote to Emma of this visit according to ‘Emma, Lady Hamilton’ by M. Hardwick. Sir William Hamilton, Lady Emma, Horatio Nelson and others visited Merthyr Tydfil in July 1802. Lord Nelson had begun a tour of South Wales and made a detour from the main route to Milford Haven to travel south to the Iron Works of Merthyr Tydfil, where the iron was manufactured for naval cannon.
He is reputed to have stayed at the Star Inn, near St Tydfil’s Church. It is said that a large admiring crowd gathered around the Inn where Nelson stayed. If he had hoped to have a quiet time in this ‘backwater’ with Lady Hamilton he was mistaken. Nelson was the main hero and idol of his day. An account says that whilst a band under his window played ‘Rule Britannia’; Nelson cheered and received’ three hearty cheers from the crowd’.
Pigot’s directory of 1835 lists John Richards as the Star’s landlord. John Griffiths, born in Crickhowell was the licensed victualler on the 1851 census. His 15 year old daughter, Tabitha, was the barmaid. As well as his wife, 4 sons and daughter, there were 2 general servants and another 2 visitors staying overnight in the Star. They included Llewellyn Williams, a harpist and a William Lewis a general labourer. Listed in directories in 1853, 1855 and 1857 John and Mary Griffiths and their children were still in the Star in 1861. The Young Britons Friendly Society met in the Star Inn at this time Slater’s 1889 directory lists Mary Griffiths as the landlady.
According to the 1901 census returns Octavius J. Davies was the licensed victualler of the Star. As well as his wife, two sons, daughter and cousin residing in the Star, there was a visitor, 7 boarders and a domestic servant. Among the boarders was Alfred Norton a circus proprietor and three music hall artists. By the 1911 census Octavius John had given up working as a landlord for work above ground in a colliery. According to the Merthyr Express, 28 August 1909, Thomas Henry Hamer, who was landlord of the Star Inn in 1909, seems to have been rather slack in his control and he was fined 40s. and costs for permitting drunkenness. The Merthyr Express recorded on 6 November 1909 that John; Humphreys, a North Walian, was summoned at the Merthyr Police Court for being drunk at the Star Inn, Merthyr, on Sunday, October 3rd. P.C. Rees said that with Detective Evans he visited the house, and saw several men there. Two said they came from Aberfan and two from Senghenydd.
In July 1910 there was a sale of freehold ground rents at Merthyr at the Bush Hotel, Merthyr, Messrs. J. M. Berry and Son offered for sale by public auction a number of freehold ground rents on the Llancaiach Estates. There was a large attendance of bidders. £30 per annum secured upon the Star Inn, High-street, Merthyr, together with the slaughter-houses and yard at the rear, the premises being subject to a lease of 30 years, from September 1901. According to Kelly’s 1923 trade directory William D Jones was the landlord then. An old photograph of The Star was given to Merthyr Library by the fashion designer Julien Macdonald, whose family once ran the pub. Sadly The Star Inn was demolished on 12 March 1960, and today only the Crown Inn remains of the original first ‘coaching inns’.
