Brecon Road – Page 2 – The Melting Pot

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.

We must, however, return to the Canton Tea Shop opposite Castle Street, and keep up that side of the road. There were but few shops on that side, the majority being cottages. There was no opening through to the tram road, but courts of some kind existed. The large chapel (Pontmorlais Chapel) was building or about being finished, and next above was a coal yard of the Dowlais Company, chiefly for the supply of coal to their own workmen. Mr John Roberts had charge there, I should say, perhaps, that the coal was brought down by the old tramroad, and there was a short branch into the yard from it.

Some ten or a dozen cottages intervened between the cottage of the coal yard and the one that projected towards the road. This had a few poplar trees around it, and was years after, I cannot say how long previously, occupied by Mr Morgan, a stone and monumental mason, now in business on Brecon Road.

Morgan’s Stonemason’s in Pontmorlais. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

On the upper side of this was an opening to the tramroad, which was not above 80 or 100 feet from the High Street, and then a painter and glazier’s shop kept by Mr Lewis, who afterwards removed a short distance into the Brecon Road, and the shop became that of a saddler (Powell by name). Adjoining this was the Morlais Castle Inn, of which Mr & Mrs Gay were the host and hostess. Mr E. R. Gay, the dentist, of High Street, is the youngest, and it is thought, the only survivor of the family, which consisted of three boys and two girls.

A narrow shop intervened and the turnpike gate was reached. Only a few yards beyond a cast iron bridge spanned the Morlais Brook. On the left a person named Miles lived. His son, Dr Miles, increased its size and subsequently practised there.

One road now leads off to Dowlais, and the other towards Brecon Road, or as it was generally called, the Grawen, but immediately in front is a wall 10 or 12 feet high there, but as the road on either side ascends is tapered down on both sides. The old Tramroad from the Dowlais and Penydarren Works to their wharves on the Canal side near Pontstorehouse ran over this embankment, and a cottage nestling in the trees there was occupied by Mr Rees Jones. No other residence of this kind existed on the Penydarren Park except the house itself and its three lodges. At one time there were some steps leading up to the Park near the turning and junction of roads, one going to the Grawen and the other going to Pontstorehouse, but that gap was built up, and the only public entrance then became that close to the Lodge in Brecon Road by the pond.

The old steps leading to Penydarren Park (now the site of the Y.M.C.A. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

To be continued at a later date……

Merthyr’s Lost Landmarks: Garthnewydd

by Laura Bray

One of Merthyr’s forgotten houses is Garthnewydd, situated on the crossroads of Brecon Rd, Abermorlais Terrace and Bethesda St, opposite the Catholic Church and, for those of us old enough to remember it, The Glamorgan Arms. It was demolished in the 1970’s, when the area was redeveloped.

Garthnewydd House and Brecon Road in the early 1900s. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

There is scant history now about this dwelling. We know it was a well established landmark by 1891, as it was offered for sale by auction as the former residence of Mr Frank James, and was billed as a “dwelling house, with billiard room, two-stall stable and coach house”. In the same auction (7th July 1891), the two adjoining properties of 47 and 48 Bethesda Street, were also under the hammer.

I haven’t been able to find out who bought the house, but one occupant after this date was the Mayor, Mr C Biddle, and another was Dr Llewellyn Jones. After Dr Jones’ death in the late 1920s/early 1930s, the house came into the possession of our old friends, the Berry brothers – specifically William and Gomer – who gave £400 to complete the purchase of Garthnewydd, which was then gifted to the town for the use of unemployed workers. The Berry brothers also provided money to adapt the building, which became known as the Garthnewydd Unemployed Social Club, – at one point it had a membership of 400 men and boys, each paying 1d/week towards its upkeep.

Garthnewydd became a thriving community centre, offering activities to its members such as physical training; educational opportunities for example art, drama, shorthand and book-keeping classes; talks were given weekly and there were areas for wireless enthusiasts, for carpentry, boot repairing, chemistry and for the Ladies Sewing Circle. There was a games room (everything from billiards to dominos), a library which issued in excess of 150 books a week, and a soccer team, which played in the Merthyr and District League. During the Second World War, Garthnewydd was even a centre for Y.M.C.A. work amongst the armed forces.

Following the War it became the home of the Merthyr branch of the Y.W.C.A., opening in 1946, it continued to house the Y.W.C.A. until 1958.

Over time, Garthnewydd became a centre for more political activity, first pacifism and then Welsh Nationalism, through which both the Triskel Press and “Poetry Wales” were conceived and inaugurated. But gradually the usage of the building declined, and the fabric of it deteriorated, until the final organisations vacated it in the 1970s.

Garthnewydd in 1970. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

‘China’

by Carolyn Jacob

There was district in Merthyr Tydfil south of the Brecon Road and bounded by the canal and the Abermorlais / British Tip (not far from Bethesda Chapel), which was known as ‘China’. There was not one Chinaman in nineteenth century ‘China’, although the district ‘China’ in Merthyr Tydfil did have its own Emperor. ‘China’ was not a Chinatown in the same way places of this name exist today. ‘China’ may not have been unique, as every large city had its rough ‘no go’ area, but at one time it was the most notorious district in the whole of Wales.

An extract from the 1851 Public Health Map showing the area known as ‘China’.

The terms ‘China’ and ‘Chinese’ are used frequently in the police reports, but always with inverted commas to indicate that this was merely a nickname. The census returns, which were taken every ten years from 1841, prove that the residents of ‘China’ were from all over the country. These ‘Chinese’ residents were mainly English, Irish and Welsh, but at times there were also some Germans and Eastern Europeans. A Jewish businessman was ridiculed in the newspaper for spending too much time with the ‘ladies of China’ until he found himself robbed by them.

There were a number of Merthyr Tydfil newspapers published from 1832 onwards and the Merthyr Telegraph had long accounts of ‘China’, mainly under the ‘Police Court’ column. When young men strayed into China and escaped with little more than the clothes on their backs, generally the judge had very little sympathy for them for being foolish enough to enter this dangerous area.

There are two interesting articles written on the subject, one by the historian David Jones, who was the expert on crime in Wales and the other by Dr Keith Strange, whose doctorate is about Merthyr Tydfil in the 1840s.

Keith’s fascinating article, ‘The Celestial City’ describes ‘China’ as a den of drunkards, thieves, rogues and prostitutes, whose general behaviour was completely foreign to the normal hard working respectable Welsh Chapel way of life. He once said that he thought the term ‘China’ might have arisen because Britain had a long ‘Opium War’ with China and the early nineteenth century newspapers are full of stories of China as the dreadful land of our enemies, and foreigners; equally ‘China’ in Merthyr Tydfil was the land of undesirables and foreigners (possibly also the place where opium could be smoked).

China was in the news and it was known that here was the ‘Forbidden City’ which no one could enter and return from alive. Few strangers were able to return safely from ‘China’ in Merthyr Tydfil with all their possessions. The attitude of police was that you entered China at your peril; certainly the police themselves did not dare go into China.

Entering China was not easy as the district was bounded by water, a dangerous smoking tip and a row of large dwellings, the entrance to ‘China’ was under an arch and there were door-keepers to send messages warning the residents.

This photograph from the 1890s shows the Pontstorehouse Shop, which was situated approximately near the entrance to Dixon Street, and the archway (which can be seen on the left hand side) appears to be one of the few ways of entry from Bethesda Street to China. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

However, by the 1880s there were reports in the Merthyr Express that ‘Old China is not the same’. Gradually ‘China’ declined; the professional criminals moved to Cardiff for richer pickings and in the twentieth century ‘Riverside’, which also had an entrance under an arch, became the most notorious part of the town. Although it must be said that many people today remember old Riverside as a place with very decent people.

Four Generations

From the Evening Express 110 years ago today (28 May 1909):

Merthyr’s First Synagogue

by Carl Llewellyn

With scant records regarding the Jewish migration to Merthyr Tydfil, I decided to research the beginnings of the Jewish community in the town. It has been reported that there has been a Jewish presence in Merthyr Tydfil since the 1820s. One example is Polish born Solomon and Leah Bloom, whose eldest daughter Ann was born in Poland in 1826, with their eldest son Abraham being born in Abercanaid in 1828. Subsequently all of Solomon and Leah Bloom’s other children were born in Merthyr Tydfil. Therefore Solomon and Leah Bloom came to Merthyr Tydfil around 1827.

With the rapid expansion in the iron industry in Merthyr, in the 1830’s another Jew named Joseph Barnett came to the town from Swansea. Joseph and his wife Sarah were born in Poland, all of their children were born in Swansea. Joseph Barnett opened a shop on Merthyr High Street – on the 1841 census it describes Joseph Barnett as a shopkeeper but in reality he was Pawnbroker. The 1841 census indicates there were at least 21 Jews living in Merthyr Tydfil.

With four iron works dominating the Merthyr Tydfil locality, more Jews escaping the persecution in the Russian controlled countries became attracted to Merthyr Tydfil, with business prospects either as Pawnbrokers, Hawkers or Glaziers.

By the late 1840’s the number of Jews trebled. Up until now the Jewish religious services may have been held either at Solomon Bloom’s or Joseph Barnett’s houses, it was rumoured a synagogue was located in the area of Bethesda Street and Brecon Road, but there is no evidence of this whatsoever. However a synagogue did exist at the rear of No 28 Victoria Street – Joseph Barnett’s pawnshop. Below is an extract from an 1851 map of Merthyr showing this synagogue.

The usual date given for the establishment of the Merthyr Hebrew Congregation was 1848, but statistics for Merthyr Tydfil dated 1846 clearly states that a Jewish place of worship existed with 30 seats and 25 in attendance at services. As the statistics were published in 1846 it could be determined the figures were probably collated in 1845. Yet in T. E. Clarke’s guide to Merthyr Tydfil dated 1848 it does not mention the existence of a synagogue in Merthyr Tydfil.

At that time there was a Rabbi by the name of Barnett Asher Simmons. According to Ben Hamilton’s article “The Hebrew Community” he visited Merthyr Tydfil and officiated at services for the Merthyr Tydfil Hebrew congregation before the arrival of Rabbi Harris Isaacs from Ipswich, in 1850.

Harris Isaacs, a widower, had served the Jewish community at Ipswich for 27 years before coming to Merthyr, and living at 53 Glebeland St. His calling as a Rabbi did not provide him with living wage so he opened a Pawnshop to supplement his income.

By 1852 the number of Jewish families in Merthyr Tydfil had grown considerably, and congregants were in want of a larger place of worship. An appeal was sent to the Jewish Chronicle for assistance with funding for a new synagogue, Adverts appeared in the Jewish Chronicle dated 27 February 1852, 12 March 1852 and 9 April 1852. Below is the notice which appeared in each edition giving a list of donations, which included 18 members of the Merthyr Hebrew congregation.

When sufficient money had been collected, the Jewish elders of Merthyr Tydfil began making preparations for acquiring a site and requesting quotations from builders to build a new synagogue. The laying of the foundation stone for the new synagogue, which was situated behind the Temperance Hall, took place on 28 May 1852, and it took another eight months for the new synagogue to be completed. The Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian Glamorgan Monmouth and Brecon Gazette dated 19 February 1853 mentioned the inaugural ceremony took place 22 February 1853, when the Chief Rabbi A. L. Green of the Great Synagogue, London officiated on the occasion. Sadly there are no newspaper reports giving a detailed account of the opening of the Synagogue, but it was reported that there was accommodation for 93 persons, with 60 seats reserved for Jewish gentlemen, and 33 seats for Jewish ladies. Seat rentals ranged from £5.4s to £1.6s per annum.

An excerpt from an 1860 map of Merthyr showing the second synagogue

Keir Hardie: Leader of the Labour Party – part 4

by Carolyn Jacob

‘The life of one Welsh miner is of greater commercial and moral value to the British nation than the whole Royal crowd put together.’

Keir Hardie June 1894

‘One day in June, 1894, in the Commons, an address of congratulations was moved on the birth of a son to the Duchess of York. Hardie moved an amendment to this address, crying out that over two hundred and fifty men and boys had been killed on the same day in a mining disaster, and claiming that this great tragedy needed the attention of the House of Commons far more than the birth of any baby. He had been a miner himself; he knew. The House rose at him like a pack of wild dogs. His voice was drowned in a din of insults and the drumming of feet on the floor. But he stood there, white-faced, blazing-eyed, his lips moving, though the words were swept away and he was dismissed for spoiling the joy of a Royal occasion’.

R. Clynes, Memoirs, 1937

Attacking the Royal Family was hugely unpopular but Hardie was grief-stricken for colliers’ families and bitter that others did not seem to even care. He later criticised the visit by the Russian Czar because Russia had recently treated trade unionists savagely, shooting demonstrators. In reply Keir Hardie and two others were removed from the list of Members invited to Court functions. In the Merthyr Express Keir Hardie seemed amused not to be invited to the Royal Garden Party, an invitation he would not have accepted, as he could not return the compliment by inviting the Court to tea in his small terraced house in Lanarkshire.

‘I thought the days of my pioneering were over but of late I have felt, with increasing intensity, the injustice inflicted on women by our present laws’.

Keir Hardie, speech at the Labour Party Conference, 1907

‘That there is difference of opinion concerning the tactics of the militant Suffragettes goes without saying, but surely there call be no two opinions concerning the horrible brutality of these proceedings? Women, worn and weak by hunger, are seized upon, held down by brute force, gagged, a tube inserted down their throats and food poured or pumped into the stomach’.

Keir Hardie, letter to Votes for Women, 1 October, 1909

The Pankhursts converted Hardie to the cause of women’s suffrage, although not all of his fellow socialists shared this commitment. In 1907 when Miss Arscott of Merthyr Tydfil, daughter of the Brecon Road grocer, was imprisoned in London for taking part in a demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament Keir Hardie visited her in prison to offer his support and encouragement. He had many female supporters in Merthyr Tydfil, including the daughter of the Liberal MP, D.A. Thomas.

‘Keir Hardie has been the greatest human being of our time. Asked to write a motto, he would choose Votes for Women and Socialism for All.’

The Women’s Dreadnought, 2 October, 1915

‘His extraordinary sympathy with the women’s movement, his complete understanding of what it stands for, were what first made me understand the finest side of his character. In the days when Labour men neglected and slighted the women’s cause or ridiculed it, Hardie never once failed us, never once faltered in his work for us. We women can never forget what we owe him’.

Isabella Ford, a member of the NUWSS

‘Politics is but a kind of football game between the rich Tories and the rich Liberals, and you working men are the ball which they kick vigorously and with grim delight between their goalposts’.

Keir Hardie, The Labour Leader

Keir Hardie devoted his life to the working class and, contrary to the lies of the Conservative Party, he accepted no money for himself. Hard work wore him out, in some photographs he looked like Old Father Time but he was only 59 when he died.

‘The moving impulse of Keir Hardie’s work was a profound belief in the common people. His socialism was a great human conception of the equal right of all men and women to the wealth of the world and to the enjoyment of the fullness of life. He had a touching sympathy for the helpless. I have seen his eyes fill with tears at the news of the death of a devoted dog. He carried to his end an old silver watch he had worn in the mine, which bore the marks of the teeth of a favourite pit pony, made by the futile attempt on its part to eat it’.

Philip Snowden

Keir Hardie could not understand how working-class men could fight each other for a ‘Capitalist Cause’. He was a firm opponent of all wars.

‘I knew that Keir Hardie had been failing in health since the early days of the war. The great slaughter, the rending of the bonds of international fraternity, on which he had built his hopes, had broken him’.

Sylvia Pankhurst

‘The long-threatened European war is now upon us. You have never been consulted about this war. The workers of all countries must strain every nerve to prevent their Governments from committing them to war. Hold vast demonstrations against war, in London and in every industrial centre. Down with the rule of brute force! Down with war! Up with the peaceful rule of the people’.

Keir Hardie at the Merthyr Olympia Skating Rink, 30 October 1914

Keir Hardie disagreed with the Labour Party over the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, as a pacifist, he tried to organize a national strike against Britain’s participation in the war and was saddened that the recruiting in Merthyr showed patriotic zeal. He was concerned about the threat to civil liberties and to the living standards of the working class. Although seriously ill, Hardie took part in several anti-war demonstrations and some of his former supporters denounced him as a traitor.

In December, 1914, Hardie had a stroke and he returned to the House of Commons in 1915 before he had made a full-recovery. Numerous meetings in various parts of the country and staying in people’s homes took their toll. His London home, was an attic in Nevill Court and he does not appear to have taken much care of himself. Politics concerned him more than personal comfort. Once when his doctor told him to rest, he went to Belgium to meet other social democratic leaders but was arrested as he was mistaken for an anarchist!

‘Hardie died of a broken heart. He had always been a pacifist; when British Labour refused to inaugurate a great strike on behalf of peace, Hardie became a broken man’.

R. Clynes, Memoirs

‘What could Hardie do but die?’

George Bernard Shaw

Merthyr Memories: The Closure of Abermorlais School

Following on from the last post about the opening of Abermorlais School, Clive Thomas, former teacher at the school, has kindly shared his memories of the closure of the school.

The Closure of Abermorlais Junior School
by Clive Thomas

In September 1968 a new headteacher took charge of Abermorlais Junior School. Mr. O.P. Bevan (Ossie), recently a teaching head at Heolgerrig Primary came to a school with a century of history and a reputation for high standards. After all hadn’t it assisted in the education of three peers of the realm? As well as providing for the general education for many thousands of children, probably the most celebrated of the school’s pupils were the Berry boys, namely Henry Seymour Berry, Lord Buckland, William Ewert Berry, Viscount Camrose and Gomer Berry, Viscount Kemsley.

Funded by the British and Foreign Schools Society, Lady Charlotte Schreiber (previously Guest) had laid its foundation stone in 1867. It was built on what was later to be known as the British Tip, an accumulation of iron and coal waste from over a century of operations at the Penydarren Ironworks. In its elevated position, the school overlooked the town to the south, Ynysfach to the west and to the north Georgetown and the Brecon Road. It was from the streets, terraces and courtyards of these areas that children had come to Abermorlais for over a century, but with the redevelopment of many of these districts and family movement to the new Gurnos Estate, pupil numbers had declined massively and left a very large school building only twenty-five per cent occupied.

By the mid ‘Sixties’, the building had suffered from many years of neglect and the school was in almost terminal decline. Initially built to accommodate over six hundred pupils, by this time fewer than two hundred were taught in only six of the downstairs classrooms. Foot worn sandstone stairs with iron railings led to the upstairs classrooms, all of which had been vacated a number of years previously. Here were rooms where chairs, desks and other unwanted furniture and equipment were stored. A variety of old textbooks and teaching materials, some of great age had also been discarded here and in the imagination of many of the remaining pupils, these classrooms had to be haunted. Shelves and ledges were coated by inches of black dust from the open fires which heated the still occupied classrooms and hall.

This particular school year was a significant one in that it would be the last in which children from Abermorlais would sit the Eleven Plus Examination. Comprehensive education had already arrived in the lower part of the County Borough with the opening of Afon Taf High School the previous year. Mrs Wendy Williams was the teacher who shouldered the onerous responsibility of ensuring that every child in what was still called Standard Four gave of their best.

Mr. John Lloyd was the school musician. A talented pianist, he played for the Pendyrus Male Voice Choir, then under the baton of the famous Mr. Glyn Jones from Dowlais. Mrs. Eleanor Davies, wife of the former head was fulfilling her final year as deputy-headteacher, while Mrs. Morgan and Sylvia Lloyd assisted with the teaching of the younger juniors. Like Mr. Bevan, Clive Thomas was new to the school and in the first year of his teaching career.

The staff at Abermorlais School in the summer of 1969. Back row – Mrs M Williams, Mr Clive Thomas, Mr John Lloyd, Mrs Morgan. Front Row – Mrs Eleanor Davies, Mrs Annie-Mary Protheroe, Mr Ossie Bevan (headmaster), Mrs Sylvia Lloyd, Mrs Wendy Williams.

At Heolgerrig, Mr. Bevan had been involved with the Welsh School Council work on Environmental Studies. He was anxious to continue this approach and actively involve children in work which would help them gain a better understanding of how the school and town had evolved. To say that Abermorlais was poorly resourced to achieve these aims would be an understatement but his ingenuity, perseverance and jovial nature enabled significant progress to be made.

A new school had been planned to replace Abermorlais, but was to be built in a corner of Cyfarthfa Park and on the edge of what was the old school’s catchment area. This, it was rumoured was to be a semi-open plan school (whatever that meant) and represent the aspirations of a new age in education. Many of the staff, needless to say approached the move with a degree of trepidation.

Towards the end of the Autumn term in 1970 the staff were ready for the move and packed all that we wished to take with us. The Abermorlais foundation stone, which Ossie had planned to take to the new school proved to be something of a sham unfortunately. The inscription had not been cut skilfully by a late nineteenth century mason into solid stone but into a mortar coating. When the machine went to pick up the stone it fell into pieces and was lost in the rest of the debris. The historic building was left to the salvage and demolition crews.

Many thanks to Clive Thomas for this fascinating article, and for providing all of the photographs.

The Meaning of Grawen

by Carl Llewellyn

Although there is a farm in Cwmtaf called “Grawen”, most residents living in Merthyr Tydfil would recognise the name being associated with the area around the Quar, Brecon Road, known as the “The Grawen”.

The Welsh word for “rough” is “garw”, and in the old Welsh language meadow is “gwaen” or “waen”. If these two words are combined we have Garw-waun, drop one “w” and the “a” in waen we have “Grawen”. In the old Welsh the “r” frequently changes its position and so “Garwen” would become “Grawen”.

This is conjectural – the word “garw” (rough) combined with “nant” (a valley or a brook), gives us “turbulent brook” with the word “rough” associated with water – hence Nantgarw, Pontypridd, and an area near Cwmtaf is known as “Garwnant”. In Dewi Cynon’s history of Farm names the word “garw” or “rough” refers to the bed of the brook being “coarse” hence “rough brook”.

The ‘Round House’ in the Grawen, Brecon Road

A Letter from Germany

The following article appeared in The Merthyr Pioneer 103 years ago today, on 26 September 1914 – just after the outbreak of the First World War….

As reported in our issue of August 29, Miss Margaret Gilleland, daughter of Mr and Mrs Gilleland of Brecon Road, is one of the British subjects who were unable to leave Germany before the outbreak of the war. As was explained in that issue of the Pioneer, Miss Gilleland took up the post of governess with a German family residing at Posen in April last, from which place, however, the family have since gone to Borkun, probably in view of the advance of the Russian Army towards Posen.

Mr and Mrs Gilleland have naturally been somewhat concerned about the safety of their daughter, from whom they had received no communication since August 1 until the following letter arrived from a lady residing at The Hague, Holland, in which was enclosed the few lines written to her parents by Miss Gilleland in German (all letters posted in Germany at present must be in the German language), and translated by the lady who kindly forwarded the note to the family in Merthyr. By the courtesy of the family we are able to publish the letters as received, and Miss Gilleland’s friends in the district will be delighted to know that she is in good health and ‘very happy.’ The letter is as follows:

“The Hague
15th Sept 1914

Dear Sir and Madam, – You will probably be surprised to receive a letter from a total stranger. Fraulein Tietz, from Zulchan (Germany), asked me if I could write to you for your daughter, as you would be longing to know how she is getting on. On the overleaf you will find a translation of her German letter to you, for, of course, she cannot but write in German. So if you would kindly write your daughter in English, and then sent the letter to me, I will translate it, and forward it to her.

I have tried to translate it as well as I could, but please to forgive me if the language is not quite correct. Hoping you will soon send me a reply for your daughter. – I am, with kind regards, Yours sincerely,

L Huijgen de Raat”

Miss Gilleland’s note to her parents (as translated) is as follows:

“My Dear Parents, – I will write to you just a short letter to tell you that I am quite well and very happy. I also want to state that when in newspapers it is put that we foreigners are badly treated, this is absolutely untrue.

Please let me know how you are, and where George is. Much love, from yours lovingly,

Margaret Gilleland”

Below is a photograph of Margaret Gilleland that appeared in the Merthyr Guardian on 5 September 1914.

Merthyr’s Trams

78 years ago today saw the last tram journey run in Merthyr. To mark the occasion, local historian Keith Lewis-Jones has provided the following fascinating article.

The first thoughts of a tram system in the Merthyr area were in 1878, when a scheme was proposed by Messrs. Taylor, Forester and Sutherland, to construct a horse or steam tramway between Merthyr and Dowlais. In 1879, a public meeting was held at the Bush Hotel in Dowlais for the three promoters to explain their plans and to canvass support for the proposed system. The tramway failed to materialise for a variety of reasons, both financial and fear that the toll on the horses hauling trams up gradients, as steep as one in eleven, would make the tramway unprofitable to work.

By 1890, the population of Merthyr was 60,000, and the service of horse cars and brakes was wholly inadequate for the transport needs of such a large population. By this time a large section of the working population was employed at the Dowlais Works, with many living along the Brecon Road corridor and in Cefn Coed

It was therefore proposed to lease out, to a private company, the right to construct Light Railways between Cefn Coed and Dowlais, with a branch running to the centre of Merthyr at Graham Street. As is always the case with such progressive ideas, a great deal of vigorous and influential opposition was forthcoming from vested interests. It was decided to set up a commission to hear evidence and propose a way forward.

In May 1898 the Merthyr Tydfil Electric Traction and Lighting Co. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of British Electric Traction (BET), made an application for a Light Railway Order under the Light Railways Act of 1896, and the order was granted on 16 May 1899.

The Light Railway Order authorised the construction of three railways.

Railway no. 1 was to be 3 miles 1 furlong 2.8 chains long and was to run from opposite the Morning Sun public house in Cefn High Street via Cefn Bridge, Brecon Road, Pontmorlais Road West, Penydarren Road, High Street Penydarren, New Road & High Street Dowlais to a terminus opposite the Bush Inn.

The section from the Morning Sun to the Merthyr side of Cefn Bridge was not to be constructed until Cefn Bridge had been re-constructed or replaced.

Railway no. 2, 3 furlongs 3.5 chains in length, was to run from the north side of the Owain Glyndwr on Pontmorlais Road West to Graham Street via High Street, terminating at the west end of Graham Street.

Railway no. 3 was 1.7 chains in length and formed the third side of the triangle at Pontmorlais, joining railway no. 1 with railway no. 2 on the east side of the Owain Glyndwr.

The Tram Depot, known as the Traction Yard, was constructed on the site of Penydarren Ironworks and was reached by way of a branch line which left the Dowlais route at the Trevethick (sic.) Street Junction. As well as providing facilities for tram maintenance, the site also housed the generating station for 550 volts direct current. As can be seen in the Company’s name, not only was it set up to operate trams but also to provide lighting within the area.

For the opening of the system, thirteen single deck and three double deck trams were obtained. The single-deckers, nos. 1-13, were built by the Midland Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. Ltd., of Shrewsbury. They seated twenty-six passengers.

The open top, double deck trams came from the Electric Railway & Tramway Carriage Works Ltd. (ERTCW), of Preston – part of Dick, Kerr & Co. Ltd. They were numbered 14-16 and seated forty-eight passengers.

The first passengers were carried 6 April, 1901 with Dowlais route trams displaying a triangle and Cefn route vehicles a square on the front. The trams ran between 5.15 a.m. and 10.15 p.m. Passengers fares were one penny per mile or part thereof. Some examples being – Merthyr to Dowlais 2d and Cyfarthfa to Merthyr 1d. The fare for a journey from the Morning Sun in Cefn to the Bush Hotel in Dowlais would be 4d.

A tram outside the Bush Hotel in Dowlais

1903 saw the only serious accident to affect the tramway. On 22 January car number 10 left the rails while descending New Road, Dowlais causing no serious injuries, but the tram was badly damaged.

Passenger numbers had declined to 2,086,684 by 1936. The 1930’s had seen a decline in the number of passengers carried, partially due to the high rate of unemployment in the Borough – 41.7% in 1936.

The Corporation had been prevented from competing with the trams under the provisions of the Merthyr Tydfil Corporation Act of 1920 and so the tramway was eventually purchased by the Corporation for £13,500 in 1939, and abandoned on 23 August, leaving the Company to continue electricity generation until 1948.

During its life, the tramway carried an estimated 85 million passengers and the tramcars covered a distance of around 8 million miles. Apart from the system in Cardiff, Merthyr’s tramway was the longest lasting in South Wales.

A fuller account of Merthyr’s Tram system by Keith Lewis-Jones can be found in Merthyr Historian volume 20.

All photos courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm