Dowlais House – Page 2 – The Melting Pot

The Opening of Abermorlais School

Following on from a post that appeared on 20 July last year (http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=1011), 150 years ago today, Abermorlais School was officially opened.

Abermorlais School. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

Below is a transcription of an article from the Monmouthshire Merlin dated 18 April 1868 reporting the opening ceremony.

OPENING OF THE BRITISH SCHOOLS.

These schools were opened on Easter Monday, when a tea party was held in the rooms, which was attended by some thousands of persons. Simultaneously with the tea party, from the hour of four, a concert was given in the Drill Hall, to which parties who had taken tea obtained gratuitous admission. In the evening a public meeting was held at the Drill Hall, at which G. T. Clark, Esq,, of Dowlais House, took the chair. The hall was crowded, and addresses were delivered in English and Welsh, by Messrs. W. T. Crawshay, J. C. Fowler, Judge Falconer, T. Williams, D. Williams, J. Lloyd, and J. G. Phillips. The secretary of the British School Committee announced that only £135 were required to clear off the debt, and he sincerely hoped that before the schools opened for real work, on Wednesday morning, that amount would be subscribed, so that they might start with every possible advantage.

The schools are a series of buildings connected with each other and presenting an unbroken front, plain as a cottage, but they are most substantially built, and for accommodation will be found second to no school in South Wales. The entrance is by a double porch leading into first the central room, running from front to back of the building, and is intended as the infant’s school. This room is 95 feet long by 28 feet wide. On the east side of this is the girls’ schoolroom, 86 feet by 20 feet; and on the west side the boys’ room, 98 feet by 30 feet. These rooms are all lofty and well ventilated, and provided with admirable class rooms, lavatories, etc. At the back there are spacious playgrounds communicating with each other, but divided for the separate use of boys and girls, and a high boundary wall encloses them from the edge of the tip.

The coat of the building, including site, is somewhat over £4,700. The contract of the building alone was let to Mr. Williams, of Swansea, for £3,199. 19s. 9d., and the work was carried out under the superintendence of the architect, Mr. John Williams, of Morgan Street, Merthyr. A house for the master has been built adjoining the schools. The master is Mr. J. E. Jones, the mistress Miss Jenkins; there are two assistant masters and two assistant mistresses.

A geography lesson in the yard of Abermorlais School in the early 1900’s. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

Abermorlais School closed in 1970 and was demolished the following year.

Abermorlais School

The article transcribed below appeared in The Monmouthshire Merlin 150 years ago today.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THE BRITISH SCHOOLS

The foundation stone of the British Schools now in course of erection on Newfoundland-tip was laid on Thursday se’nnight, by Lady Charlotte Schreiber. About half-past two the school children belonging to the different chapels of the town assembled in the Square, and having formed in procession marched flags and banners to the ground. They arrived there about half past three, by which time from six to seven thousand people had assembled.

Lady Charlotte Schreiber arrived shortly afterwards from London, accompanied by G. T. Clark, Esq., of Dowlais House. Her ladyship, who lived many years at Dowlais, Lady Charlotte Guest, was warmly received. The ceremony was performed with a silver trowel, which was presented to her by the contractors, Messrs. Williams, of Swansea. The stone having been laid, Mr. C.H. James returned thanks on behalf of the meeting to her ladyship for having come down to perform the work. Mr. Clark returned thanks for Lady Schreiber in an admirably appropriate speech, and then expressed a hope that her ladyship would speak afterwards herself. Lady Schreiber responded by addressing the meeting herself in a clear and distinct voice, being frequently interrupted by the cheers of the audience, especially at her reference in the vernacular to “Yr hen wlad” (the old country).

In the evening a meeting was held at Zoar Chapel, at which G. T. Clarke, Esq., took the chair. Capital speeches were made by the Chairman, the Rev. John Thomas, C. H. James, Esq and others. It appeared from the secretary’s statement that since April over £1600 had been subscribed, and at the close of the meeting he announced that one gentleman who had already subscribed £100 had doubled his subscription, an announcement which was greeted with loud cheers. We believe this gentleman is Mr. Clark, the chairman of the meeting.

The schools are rapidly progressing, and are expected to be opened before winter.

Monmouthshire Merlin – 20 July 1867

The foundation stone at Abermorlais School. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

The Royal Visit of 1912

105 years ago today, Merthyr was honoured with a visit from King George V and Queen Mary.

On 25 June 1912, the Royal Couple had embarked on a three day visit to Wales, the primary reason for which was to lay the foundation stone for the new National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. The King, however, had expressed a wish to see the social conditions of the area and Sir William Thomas Lewis (see previous posts) arranged a tour.

On the 27 June they travelled on the Royal Train, first visiting the Lewis Merthyr Colliery at Trehafod, then on to the Mines Rescue Station at Dinas. The tour then continued by train through Pontypridd, Llancaiach, Bedlinog, Cwmbargoed, to Caeharris (Dowlais) Station where the King and Queen were scheduled to visit the Dowlais Works.

Dowlais Works decorated for the Royal Visit

To mark the occasion, craftsmen at the Dowlais Works had specially constructed two monumental archways for the Royal Couple to pass through – one made of coal and one made of steel.

The Coal Arch (left) and the Steel Arch (right)

They entered the works on foot, through the ‘Coal Arch’, and were greeted by a rousing rendition of ‘God Save the King’ by the Penywern Choir, who had been invited to entertain the Royal party. A message was later sent by the King and Queen to the conductor of the choir – Mr Evan Thomas, complimenting them on their singing, saying that the Penywern Choir “were the best choir of voices they had heard on their tour of South Wales”. The Royal Couple then entered Dowlais House where they met several invited distinguished guests and were served a sumptuous lunch. The Penywern Choir entertained the visitors during the lunch from a marquee that had been specially erected in front of the dining room.

Following lunch, the King and Queen were given a tour of the Works by Sir W T Lewis and Mr Arthur Keen, the owner of the works (he had purchased to Dowlais Iron Company from Ivor Bertie Guest in 1899, and the Works were now operating under the management of Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds). Having visited the Blast Furnaces, the Bessemer Plant, Goat Mill, Sleeper Mill, Sole Plate Mill, Fishplate Mill and the Siemens Plant, the Royal Couple exited the Works via the ‘Steel Arch’, and proceeded to Merthyr in their own Daimler car, to arrive at the Town Hall steps at 4.00pm where Sir W T Lewis presented them to the Mayor and Mayoress, Mr & Mrs J M Berry.

Crowds outside the Town Hall in a specially erected stand

The Dowlais Works have since closed, the Steel Arch was dismantled in the 1920’s and the Coal Arch was dismantled in 1960.

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

Sir Josiah John Guest

Today marks the 164th anniversary of the death of one of the most famous figures in Merthyr’s history – Sir Josiah John Guest.

Josiah John Guest was born in Dowlais on 2 February 1785, the eldest child of Thomas Guest, manager and part owner of the Dowlais Ironworks, and Jemima Revel Phillips. His grandfather John Guest had moved from Shropshire to South Wales, where he helped to start a furnace at Merthyr Tydfil in the 1760s; he then became manager at Dowlais, which was transformed over successive decades by the Napoleonic wars and the international development of the railway, from a modest venture into the largest ironworks in the world. In turn Guest followed his father into management of the Dowlais Iron Company in 1807, having gained a valuable informal apprenticeship in the works after attending Bridgnorth grammar school.

From the mid-1830s to the late 1840s the Dowlais Works were in their heyday. By 1845 they boasted 18 blast furnaces (the average number for ironworks was three), each producing over 100 tons weekly. The site covered 40 acres and the workforce numbered more than 7,000. A second works, the Ifor works (the Welsh spelling of Guest’s eldest son’s name), had been erected in 1839 at a cost of £47,000. As the railway network expanded at home and abroad, so the Dowlais Iron Company seized opportunities for new contracts both within Britain and further afield, notably in Germany, Russia, and America. In 1844, for example, an order was placed for an unprecedented 50,000 tons of rails for Russia.

Guest was forward thinking, engaging with key figures in scientific and technological development. He was elected a fellow of the Geological Society in 1818 and of the Royal Society in 1830. In 1834 he became an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers. His business interests included coal mines in the Forest of Dean and he was the first chairman of the Taff Vale Railway Company.

Guest’s first wife, Maria Elizabeth (née Ranken), whom he married on 11 March 1817, was Irish, the third daughter of William Ranken. She died in January 1818, less than a year after their marriage, aged only twenty-three. There were no children. On 29 July 1833 Guest married into the English aristocracy: Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Bertie (1812–1895) was the eldest child of the late Ninth Earl of Lindsey; she was twenty-one and remarkably gifted. They went on to produce ten children.

The Guests lived in Dowlais House in the 1830s and 1840s; in 1846 they also purchased Canford Manor near Wimborne in Dorset for over £350,000. With the help of the architect Sir Charles Barry they turned Canford into their main home (although Dowlais House was retained). Guest was made a baronet on 14 August 1838 but his eldest son, Sir Ivor Bertie Guest, was elevated to the peerage, becoming the first Baron Wimborne in 1880; and a viscount in 1918.

Dowlais House. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

Guest was also a politician. Between 1826 and 1831 he represented Honiton, Devon, initially supporting the Canningite Tories, but then becoming increasingly independent and in favour of parliamentary reform. During the reform crisis he lost his seat but he was returned in the new reformed parliament of 1832 as a Whig, the first Member of Parliament for Merthyr. He retained his seat until his death twenty years later. He won some support from the non-voters as well as from the small electorate, adopting a fairly progressive stance on a number of issues. He had helped to mediate during the Merthyr Rising of 1831.

The Dowlais Iron Company did not, however, own the land on which the Dowlais Works stood. In the 1840s its proprietor, the Tory Marquess of Bute, prevaricated over the renewal of the lease, endangering the livelihoods of about 12,000 families now dependent on the Dowlais Works. Annual profits were consistently high from the mid-1830s until 1848—in 1847 they exceeded £170,000—but fears over whether the lease would be renewed in 1848 resulted in the deliberate running down of operations. By the end of the decade profits had plummeted, and for 1849 amounted to less than £16,000. When the dispute was settled in 1848, the Guests were greeted in Dowlais like triumphal feudal lords returning from battle.

In his last years, severe kidney problems forced Sir John to rely increasingly on his wife’s business skills, and on the management structure he had evolved. When he died on 26 November 1852 an estimated 20,000 gathered for the funeral in Dowlais and The Times attributed to his foresight much of the wealth and prosperity of mid-nineteenth century Britain.

Sir Josiah John Guest’s Tomb at St John’s Church, Dowlais. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm