Month: August 2023

Baptisms in the River Taff

by Alan Davies

So ran the headline in the Merthyr Express, a local newspaper published on 23rd January 1932. The article continued by referring to it as an “unusual scene “when new members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints were baptised” by immersion”. The scene was witnessed by a crowd of onlookers despite the rain storm on the day. The article concludes “It is understood that more of these baptisms are to take place.” Were they right to say that?

The Millennial Star[i] reported the following during 1932:

Millennial Star 11th February:

“Five persons were baptised by Elders Evan Arthur and Leon Whiting at a baptismal service held near Merthyr Tydfil Sunday January 10th. They were confirmed[ii] members of the church the same day by Elder Edward Rowe, Clarence Taylor, Evan Arthur, Marion Olsen and Elman Woodfield.”

Millennial Star 31st March:

“Onlookers numbering over two hundred and fifty were deeply impressed by a baptismal service held in the waters of the River Taff. Nine baptisms were performed ….and immediately after the new members were confirmed.”

Church records show the baptisms took place on 10th March 1932.

Millennial Star 14th July:

“Elder Frank Miller baptised two converts in the River Taff at Cefn Coed, near Merthyr Tydfil 18th June.”

Millennial Star 18th August:

“Elders Olsen and Butcher baptised three candidates 23rd July at Cefn Coed, near Merthyr Tydfil.”

Millennial Star 13th October:

“An impressive baptismal ceremony was held 17th September, near Merthyr Tydfil, in the River Taff, under the shadow of the huge railroad viaduct at Cefn Coed. Four candidates fulfilled the ordinance. Confirmation took place immediately afterwards during a service conducted in an adjoining cottage.”

The following year the Millennial Star issued on 9th February 1933 reported there had been 23 convert baptisms in the Welsh District in 1932. All are included in the separate reports above.

Not only was the original article correct to say “more of these baptisms are to take place,” it also reported that the baptismal scenes were witnessed by crowds of onlookers. A recently discovered photograph taken by the missionary Elder Donald K. Ipson[iii] impressively captures the baptismal scene on 17th September 1932 when the last four candidates were baptised.

In the mid-1800s missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints experienced considerable success in gaining news converts, but so many emigrated to join the main body of the Church in America, local congregations had disappeared by 1900. But after a quiet start for the church in Merthyr Tydfil at the beginning of the twentieth century, 1932 proved to be a turning point.
[i] UK publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from 1840 to 1970

[ii] After baptism, membership in the church is ‘confirmed’ by hands being laid on the head of the newly baptised person and a blessing being pronounced on them.

[iii]Donald K. Ipson mission collection, 1876-1934, available online at: https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org

Memories of Old Merthyr Tydfil

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.

Bidding goodbye to Plymouth, let us walk up to Penydarren, but to fall into line with what has been previously stated, now imagine ourselves at the old turnpike gate close to the Morlais Castle Inn. The road inclining to the right must now be followed.

After a short time the tramroad from the basin would be crossed, and only a few yards previously, the branch into the works would be seen. The gates, or rather the lower gates of the works are here, and passing through, the works would be virtually surrounding you, at least the rail shed, the brickyard, an the new mill, but persons other than hauliers with their horses etc. were not allowed in that way, so we must keep to the turnpike road for a short distance, having the tramway on the left, when another gate would be come to opposite the entrance to Penydarren Park.

A composite of parts of the 1851 Ordnance Survey Map showing Penydarren House and Gardens (left) and the Penydarren Ironworks (right)

Only a few yards further on the tramway again crosses the road, and over this very crossing the turnpike gate (the Penydarren gate) was hung. The gate house on the left was only recently removed by the District Council.

The clump of buildings on the right from the entrance gate to the works was agents or other employees residences, with the offices of the works in front of them. The tramroad kept to the right, and did not rise as fast as the turnpike road. There were no houses on the right-hand side of the road until the tramroad from the Morlais Limestone Quarries had been crossed.

The first come to was occupied by Mr Morgan, the blast furnace manager, but there were some cottages on the left before coming to the tramroad. There was a brick cistern near the crossing that was made for the use of the locomotives at work on the lower, or basin road, and upon one occasion, while being filled, the boiler exploded.

Before proceeding further, let us glance at the prospect on the right. Immediately in front were the blast furnaces, five in a row and one detached, a little to the right; but before reaching them the Morlais Brook, or dingle in which it ran, would be seen, then a long incline leading up on the left. This was used for the removal of cinders or other refuse, no doubt, after the tip on the riverside had become as large as could well be. On the other side of the incline were the blast furnaces, with a large spherical wrought-iron regulator for the blast between the engine houses.

To the left of the furnace yard are, or were, the hitting shops; to the right, after the blast furnaces, was the refinery, the the smiths shop, a self-acting incline to lower coal forge and mill use; then the rod lathe, the forge (or puddling forge) followed these mills where bars, sheets and slit rods were made. The rail mill was the lowest, and the sheds extended to the gates at the bottom of the works.

Penydarren Irnoworks

To be continued at a later date……

Keir Hardie and White Slave Traffic

The article below is transcribed appeared in the Aberdare Leader 110 years ago today.

“Bring the Names to the Light of Day.”

KEIR HARDIE AND WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC.

A meeting was addressed by Mr Keir Hardie at Thomastown Park, Merthyr, on Sunday evening. Mr Hardie, referring to the Queenie Gerald case, said he wanted the facts to be known, and he wanted Liberals and Tories to face the facts, not as Liberals and Tories, but as fathers and mothers.

Some vigilance officers saw two young girls, with their hair down their backs, walking about Piccadilly. One of the girls told them that they were inmates of a house kept by rich men. The outcome was the arrest of the woman. Her books were seized and her letters, and the prosecuting attorney told the Court that these letters and books showed her rooms to be one of the worst dens in London, and patronised by rich men. There were letters asking for young girls to be procured. The woman herself pleaded not guilty.

When the case came on for trial she pleaded guilty, and she was sent to prison for three months in the second division. When the case first came before the Court it was said that these men, who Mr Hardie said had bribed her with hundreds of pounds to do their foul work, could be prosecuted for their deeds and actions. When the case came on a second time all that was dropped. The woman pleaded guilty much against her will.

“How much she was paid for pleading guilty may never be known,” said Mr Hardie, “but the whole thing looks like a plot to ward rich and titled men.” These girls were but the victims, he went on; the real criminals were those who paid big prices to demoralise them. If they wanted to suppress the white slave traffic there was no better way of doing it than by bringing into light of day all the names of the men. (Applause.)

– Aberdare Leader 16 August 1913

The Pioneers of the Welsh Iron Industry

Following on from the recent article about Charles Wilkins, here is a transcription of an article written by him for an issue of his publication ‘The Red Dragon’, which appeared 140 years ago this month.

It is a little over one hundred years ago, in May, 1782, when a messenger came from Wales into the neighbourhood of Stourbridge with great news. One Mr. Bacon had started an ironworks near a village called Merthyr, and he wanted a lot of men. There was a good deal of gossip caused by this. A recruiting sergeant coming into an English village to enlist lads for glory could not have made a greater ferment. Merthyr was “far down in Wales,” and Wales to many seemed as distant as America. “You have to go,” said the messenger, “to Gloucester in a boat, and then trust to the channel and work round as far as Cardiff, and then it is a couple of days’ journey up the mountains.”

There was, I repeat, a good deal of ferment, and no little hesitation, but at last the requisite number of hands was got, and away they went, bidding sorrowful farewells—many of them knowing  it may be for years or it may be forever.” It would not do, they thought, to take their household gods with them, but the pets—Bill’s dog, and Tom’s cat—could not be left behind. The Lees carried between them a wicker cage in which was a shining blackbird. Let us look at them a moment, for they were the pioneers of our old English residents, the Homfrays, Hemuses, Lees, Browns, Turleys, Wilds, Millwards, and they are worthy of more than a passing notice. Powerful men, all of them, trained to labour from youth, and full of hope and of determination. They are going as settlers amongst strange people, who speak a different language, and who may resent the incoming of strangers. Well, let them. The strangers are not only strong, but God-fearing men, and they take sturdily to the boat which tediously carries them down to Worcester.

So tedious was the journey that when Worcester was reached one or two of the men wanted to go back home again, but Homfray, the leader, would not hear of it, and his hand being hard, and his voice strong, they gave in. Gloucester was at length reached, and at that place a barge was hired and down the Severn they went, hugging the coast wherever they could. But somehow or other when night came on the barge drifted out into mid channel, and to their horror on came a storm.

Now everyone wished himself back at the village of Stewpovey, where most of them came from! How fiercely they looked at Homfray, who had led them into this trouble. Presently, however, the storm abated, and they found themselves under Penarth Head, and there was not much difficulty after that in landing at Cardiff. Very small, very insignificant was Cardiff then; a few streets clustering about the Castle, and only a little life there when the boat came once a week from Bristol. At Cardiff, waggons were hired and up the wayfarers toiled through the valley, reaching Merthyr at last.

One of the old pioneers, pipe in mouth and grandson on knee, used in his declining days to tell the wondering listeners his experience of the voyage, and the journey through Merthyr to Cyfarthfa. It was a small place, he said, was Merthyr; just a village like; small houses, fields, and gardens on one side or the other. The houses were thatched, and as the strangers rode by in their waggons their heads were on a level with the eaves. The old inhabitants used to think a two-storied house extravagance. What was the use of mounting upstairs to go to bed?

On reaching Merthyr the wanderers lodged where they could. The “Star” was the principal inn, the “Crown” was a thatched house. At the “Boot,” Ben Brown, being short of funds, sold his dog for ninepence. It was like parting with his own flesh and blood! Then with the morning they were up, and in consultation with Bacon, who had contracted with Homfray to’ build a forge. The work was done as quickly as possible, for the American war was raging, and guns were needed. In due time the forge was got ready. Every man, woman, and child from the village came up to the opening. Shonny Cwmglo was there with his wonderful harp. Shonny could play every tune, although he had never learned a note, and he played away till he was a hundred, or ever the silver strings were loosed, and, his feeble hands falling from the strings, he laid him down and died. The boys and girls danced, and the men and women raised their voices in gladness when the forge was started.

A species of delirium seized upon everybody, and the harper played like the fiddler of Prague, increasing the madness. Homfray seizing Hemus’s new hat, a wonderful thing, threw it under the hammer, and his own followed like magic. Ale houses did a great trade that day and night. Robert Peel’s policemen and “Bruce” were all in the far-off future at that time. Many of the pioneers died at a brave old age, long before- policemen came into existence.

For several years Bacon and the Homfrays worked well together, but one day there was a falling out, and a fight, and the friendship was never renewed on the old lines. Homfray did not care to go back again with the Browns and the Wilds, who were now getting settled. Some of them had fallen in love with the dark-eyed daughters of the village; and courting had been so pleasant to a few that others had followed. The broken English of the maidens was so pretty, and their eyes had such a fire in them. Many a girl, though, had to be won by fierce fighting, for the boys of the village had no love for the strangers. On Saturdays, when strangers and villagers met, drank, and fought, the village constable discreetly kept out of the way. Things have changed since then.

To understand the story of the starting of Penydarran we must turn back a page or two of the book of history. Homfray passing by the ravine on the right of the roadway as you ascend from Merthyr to Dowlais, was struck with its adaptability for the site of an ironworks, and rented it for £3 a year. He and two other Homfrays were joined by a Londoner, named Forman, who held some kind of office at the Tower, and had saved a lot of money. Then together they built a furnace, and went along swimmingly. In 1796 they built furnace No. 2, and brought another lot of men from Staffordshire. In that year they fairly eclipsed even Dowlais itself; for while Dowlais turned out 2,100 tons in the year, Penydarran could show a make of 4,100 tons, or nearly double. Penydarran was regarded as the more important centre in every way. We have only to turn to the rate books to see that while Penydarran was rated at £3,000, Dowlais was only rated at £2,000, and Plymouth at £750. By 1803 Penydarran made fifty tons of bar iron weekly. It is to John Davies, father of Mr D. Davies, J.P., of Galon Uchaf, and of the Morriston Tinplate Works, that is due the honour of rolling the first bar. The son afterwards arose to be the owner of the works. What Penydarran accomplished in after days and how under Trevethick its owners started the first locomotive that ever ran, must be left for another paper.