Tag: Dowlais Iron Company

John Nixon

John Nixon was born at Barlow in Durham on 10 May 1815, the only son of a tenant farmer of that village. He was educated at the village school and at Dr. Bruce’s academy at Newcastle-on-Tyne, famous as the training-place of many great engineers.

Leaving school at the age of fourteen, Nixon was set to farmwork for a time, and shortly after was apprenticed to Joseph Gray of Garesfield, the Marquis of Bute’s chief mining engineer.

On the expiry of his indentures he became for two years overman at the Garesfield colliery. At the end of this time, in 1839, he undertook a survey of the underground workings of the Dowlais Company in South Wales. Some years later he accepted the appointment of mining engineer to an English company, working a coal and iron field at Languin near Nantes. He perceived, however, that the enterprise was destined to fail, and did not hesitate to inform his employers of his opinion. After labouring for some time to carry on a hopeless concern he returned to England.

During his first visit to Wales Nixon had been impressed by the natural advantages of Welsh coal for use in furnaces. On his return from France he found that it was beginning to be used by the Thames steamers. He perceived that there was a great opening for it on the Loire, where coal was already imported by sea. At the time, however, he was unable to obtain a supply with which to commence a trade. Mrs. Thomas of the Graig Colliery at Merthyr, who supplied the Thames steamers, was disinclined to extend her operations, and Nixon was compelled to return to the north of England. But business again taking him to South Wales, he chartered a small vessel, took a cargo of coal to Nantes, and distributed it gratuitously among the sugar refineries. He succeeded also in inducing the French government to make a trial of it. Its merits were at once perceived; the French government definitely adopted it, and a demand was created among the manufactories and on the Loire.

Returning to Wales he made arrangements for sinking a mine at Werfa to secure an adequate supply. After being on the point of failure from lack of capital he obtained assistance and achieved success. Continuing his operations in association with other enterprising men of the neighbourhood, he acquired and made many collieries in South Wales. In 1869 he began sinking the Merthyr Vale No 1 Colliery, and the first coal was mined in 1875.

Merthyr Vale Colliery. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

In 1897 the output of the Nixon group was 1,250,000 tons a year. Nixon succeeded, after a long struggle, in inducing the railway companies of Great Britain to adopt Welsh coal for consumption in their locomotives. He had great difficulty also in persuading the Great Western Railway Company to patronise the coal traffic, which now forms so large a part of their goods business.

Much of Nixon’s success was due to his improvements in the art of mining. He introduced the ‘long wall’ system of working in place of the wasteful ‘pillar and stall’ system, and invented the machine known as ‘Billy Fairplay’ for measuring accurately the proportion between large coal and small, which is now in universal use. He also made improvements in ventilating and in winding machinery. He was one of the original movers in establishing the sliding-scale system, and one of the founders of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coalowners’ Association. He was for fifteen years chairman of the earlier South Wales Coal Association, and for many years represented Wales in the Mining Association of Great Britain. Nixon materially contributed to the growth of Cardiff by inducing leading persons in South Wales to petition the trustees of the Marquis of Bute in 1853 for increased dock accommodation, and by persuading the trustees, in spite of the objections of their engineer, Sir John Rennie, to increase the depth of the East Dock.

He died in London, on 3 June 1899 at 117 Westbourne Terrace, Hyde Park, and was buried on 8 June in the Mountain Ash cemetery, Aberdare valley.

This article is a transcription from a publication now in the public domain:  Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1901.

The Guest Memorial Hall

One of the few remaining historical buildings in Dowlais is the Guest Memorial Hall, or the Guest Keen Club as it is more commonly know today. It has a fascinating, if troubled history.

When Josiah John Guest died in 1852, his widow, Lady Charlotte began thinking of projects to commemorate her husband. Her first project was to build a school for the children of the Dowlais area, and the Dowlais Central Schools were completed in 1855. Whilst the school was under construction, the work-men of the Dowlais Ironworks also wanted to contribute to another memorial to their former employer.

In March 1854, a public meeting was held, and it was proposed that a library and reading room should be built in memory of Josiah John Guest. A committee was set up, and subscription lists were issued – they even placed an advertisement in The Times newspaper. A sum of £2,200 was eventually raised, and Sir Charles Barry was commissioned to design the building.

The Times – 7 June 1854

Sir Charles Barry was one of the foremost architects of the day, his most famous work being the Houses of Parliament. A personal friend of Sir Josiah and Lady Charlotte Guest, he had been responsible for designing the Dowlais Central School.

Unfortunately, Barry’s plans proved too grandiose for the funds available. Work started in early 1855, but by the end of the year, over £5,000 had already been spent on the project. New trustees were appointed, and they were dismayed to discover that not only had a huge amount been spent in excess of the budget, but only the walls and roof timbers had been prepared.

The trustees, having paid for slating the roof and glazing the upper story, called an emergency public meeting. They offered two alternatives: firstly the subscribers could try to find the extra money required to complete the work; or secondly, they could hand over the project to the Dowlais Iron Company who would finish the work, and thus own the building. The subscribers decided on the latter course of action.

The Dowlais Iron Company took over the project, and the original subscriptions were returned to the trustees who used the money to provide annual scholarships for the children taught in the Dowlais schools.

A postcard of the Guest Memorial Hall from the early 1900s. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive.

The new library, which was a classical style cruciform two-storey building, the main rooms raised on a basement storey, built of massive stones with a Bath-stone balustraded pillared portico on the first floor, was finally opened in 1863. The total cost of the building was £7,000. The new library was equipped with an excellent collection of books in both Welsh and English, and newspapers and magazines were also available to the public. A part of the building was also set aside to be used as a museum, and fossils that had been discovered in local pits and quarries were displayed there.

The library closed in 1907 when the new Carnegie Free Library opened in Dowlais. The building subsequently became a social club and remains open to this day as a restaurant and as an events venue.

Penywern

by Carolyn Jacob

Penywern was a typical industrial village built for the workers of the Ivor Works in 1839. Here was the permanent barracks for the Volunteers. After the Merthyr Rising of 1831 soldiers were permanently barracked at Penywern to keep an eye on the growing town of Merthyr Tydfil. On the tithe schedule of 1850 the owner of the land here was the Dowlais Iron Company.

A section of the 1850 Tithe Map showing the barracks in Penywern

At first all there was in Penywern were the Barracks, as is shown on the 1850 Tithe Map, however by the 1875 Ordnance Survey map Penywern had developed and Lower Row and Upper Row are shown. The reservoirs and ponds which once fed water into the Dowlais Works are situated in this area. These are now of great historical significance, especially as so little now remains of the great Dowlais Works.  There are 2 large and 2 small ponds east of Penywern and also a reservoir to the south.

A section of the 1875 Ordnance Survey Map. Two of the reservoirs can be clearly seen.

This was a self-sufficient community and there were a number of shops here. Late nineteenth century directories show that Morgan Evans was a baker, grocer, tea dealer at number 4 Penywern. The working men of the area were mainly employed in coal mining. The community built their community church vestry during the General Strike of 1926, when so many skilled men were force to be idle due to the national economic climate.

Gwyn Alf Williams

 

The famous historian Gwyn Alf Williams was born in Lower Row in a cottage belonging to his grandmother, Mrs Morgan. In 2005 the Dic Penderyn Society and the Merthyr Tydfil Heritage Trust erected a plaque on the walls of this property in commemoration of the birth of Gwyn Alf.

 

There was quite a large Spanish community here before the First World War. The Spaniards who settled here from 1900 onwards built Alphonso Street and King Carlos Street.

Alphonso Street. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

The exposed height of this area means that it is very vulnerable when there are any falls of snow.  During the severe winter of 1947 a train at Penywern became snowbound for several days.

This village has undergone many changes in recent years; the Tre-Ivor Arms public house, now closed was once called the Ivor Arms. Penywern Chapel, was an Independent Chapel, but it was demolished in the late 1990s, and today modern houses are on its former site.

Penywern Chapel

Explosion at Dowlais

The article transcribed below appeared in the Western Mail 150 years ago today (28 October 1870).

THE EXPLOSION OF THE “KINGFISHER” LOCOMOTIVE AT DOWLAIS

INQUEST ON THE BODY OF JOAN THOMAS

The adjourned inquest on the body of Joan Thomas, aged 18, the woman who was scalded to death by the explosion of the locomotive known as the “Kingfisher” the property of the Dowlais Company, on the 1st instant, was resumed on Thursday by Mr. Overton, the coroner.

The nature of the accident may be best gathered from the evidence of David Price, the driver of the engine. He said: About half past eight on the morning in question, my engine was standing on a siding by the Bargoed pit, waiting for another engine to shunt trucks. I went to talk with the driver of another engine within twenty yards; and, within a few minutes of my leaving my engine, I saw the steam issuing from the fire-box. As I was passing from one engine to another, I met the deceased going towards my engine. She was employed by her uncle, who was the contractor for oiling the trams, and fetching nails and other things from Dowlais to the collieries, and was in the habit of travelling every day from Cae Harris Dowlais, where she resided, to the collieries, a distance of six miles, and returning in the evening. She was constantly in the habit of going backwards and forwards from the collieries to Dowlais for different things required at the works. I do not allow any persons to ride on the engine, unless they are engaged on the business of the company.

When I got back to my own engine, I found the deceased lying on the rails behind the engine. Mr. Matthew Truran came up at the time, and ordered the driver of the other engine to take her to Dowlais. She was scalded all over, and very bad. My two firemen were also scalded, but not severely. I then examined what was the cause of the accident, and found that one of the plates of the fire-box had burst, and caused the steam and water to escape. The locomotive was the Kingfisher,  a tank engine, built by Sharpe and Co., of the Atlas Works, Manchester, and it had been at work four years and a half. We had taken in a supply of water half an hour before. It had been leaking a little below the part that burst, and we intended sending it to be repaired that night. There is no regular inspection of the engines unless we suspect there is something amiss, when they are sent in and examined by the fitters. My engine was examined by David Edwards, the fitter, a fortnight before, and he never complained. The young woman died that night.

David Edwards, fitter, said: I examined the engine after the explosion, and found that there was a hole of about six by four inches on the left side of the fire-box, two of the stay heads broken off, and the smoke end of the boiler blown open. I believe the explosion occurred from the weakness of the copper fire-box, which was so thin as to be unequal to bear the pressure. The fire-box has not been renewed since the engine came, four and a half years ago. I cannot undertake to say whether the plate was weakened by some cause or was originally too slight. I think the fire-boxes ought to last nine years.

Mr, Samuel Truran, the mechanical engineer of the company, confirmed the evidence of Edwards.

Mr. Wales, the Government inspector, gave the following evidence:- I have made an examination of the locomotive in question. I found that the copper of which the fire-box was made was originally 7-16ths of an inch thick, but from some cause that thickness was, at the time of the explosion, reduced to the thickness of a sixpenny piece. This rendered the copper at that point unable to longer resist the pressure of steam, which was 1201bs. per square inch, and hence the explosion. It is difficult to arrive at an average length of time copper fire-boxes last, so much depends upon the quantity of coal or coke consumed, and the work done by the locomotive; but I fancy from twelve to fourteen years might be taken as a fair average in this I case. Of course repairs are required during that time. It appears that the fire-box in question had only been used between four and five years. The pressure of steam at which locomotives are worked varies from 90lbs. up to 150lbs. per square inch, and it appears that the pressure in this case was 105lbs. per square inch. I am therefore of opinion that the copper was not reduced in thickness by the pressure of steam, but by the action of the fire, which would be greatly increased if the coal used contained much sulphur. The only safeguard against such danger which suggests itself to my mind is, that the copper fire-boxes should be regularly and frequently examined by an experienced boiler-maker, and when any doubt exists after the usual tests, then holes should be bored to ascertain the thickness of the copper, and if it is found that the thickness has been slightly reduced, the pressure of steam should also be reduced; but if found reduced to any considerable extent the fire-box should be removed altogether.

Mr. Samuel Davis, of the Atlas Works, Manchester, said: I have attended this inquiry by the direction or Messrs. Sharpe and Co. They were the manufacturers of the Kingfisher locomotive. There were two pieces of copper sent to us by the Dowlais Company. They were described as part of the copper box of this engine. They are reduced to a very thin state – to about 1-30th of an inch. The thickness originally was 7-16th. We do not use any test to each plate separately, but our men would easily discover if there was any deficiency in the thickness. I feel satisfied that the plates of this box were originally 7-16th thick. From the appearance of the plates, I should say the fire was the cause of the reduction in thickness. There was no incrustation arising from the water, I cannot perceive any indication of any operating causes to explain the explosion beyond the wear and tear by use. It is usual on all railways to have the boilers periodically tested with water pressure, but I do not know what is done in iron works and collieries and I consider that it should be made imperative. I quite concur in the major part of Mr. Wales’s evidence.

The Coroner having summed up, the Jury returned the following verdict:-  “Accidental death from an explosion of a locomotive engine; and we recommend that in future a competent boiler maker be employed to make a regular inspection of the engines and boilers.”

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.

Behind this part, and alongside the river, was the quarter whose savour was anything but respectable; it was known as China. It only went down the riverside a short way, from which to the Morlais Brook the cinder tip abutted on to the river.

An extract from the 1851 Ordnance Survey map of Merthyr showing the location of China. 

The locality was also called Pontstorehouse, the origin of this name, according to my idea, being from the storehouse for general housing of the shop goods being a little way beyond Jackson’s Bridge on the right hand. It was, of course, on the canal bank, and the wharfinger, or storehouse keeper, was a Mr Lewis Williams of Cardiff. There was also another storehouse a little lower on the other side of the canal, kept by Mr Mathew Pride of Cardiff, but it had not the traffic of the upper one.

Between these there were one or two private stores, one of which belonged to Mr Christopher James, already alluded to. The wharves of the Dowlais and Penydarren Companies were between the canal and the river. First came the Dowlais one, with a house so that oats or other material damageable by rain could be discharged; then the Penydarren Wharf, walled round with an entrance gate (the Dowlais one described above also had its entrance doors) and adjoining was the other Dowlais Wharf, used solely for the discharge of hematite ore, or other kindred material. The tramroad ran to the end of this wharf and no further. There was a building below, which afterwards altered and converted into a brewery. It was afterwards owned by Mr David Williams.

Another extract from the 1851 Ordnance Survey map of Merthyr showing the old Tramroad crossing Jackson’s Bridge, and leading to Dowlais and Penydarren Wharves between the River Taff and the Glamorganshire Canal.

Having reached the terminus of the canal branch of the Old Tramroad, we could go straight on and join the road between the canal and Iron Bridges; but by so doing some parts would be omitted.

To return to the road passing over Jackson’s Bridge. Crossing the Canal Bridge between the Dowlais Wharf, partly covered, and Upper Storehouse, the first house on the left having entrance from the towing-path was occupied by Mr William Harrison, the clerk of the canal, whose office was at the Parliament Lock, a short distance down the canal, and nearly opposite the Ynysfach Works, on the other side of the canal.

There being some descendants of that name yet residing, I may perhaps interest them by saying Mr Harrison himself was rather short, inclined to be stout, and fond of his garden, which was kept in very good order. It is not for me to pry into anyone’s private history; but as it is clear that he was at one time engaged in the Forest of Dean, probably in connection with the timber of encroachments, he then took a wife, and a real good, kind woman she was. One of their sons was named Maynard Colchester (who became cashier at the Dowlais Ironworks), which indicates her to have been one of the family whose home was called the Wilderness, not very far from Mitchel Dean or Dean Magna.

Mr Harrison was a great hand at trigonometry. Keith being the author of his ideal books on those subjects. There were five sons and two daughters. Mr Harrison resided at one time at Pencaebach House, and was engaged at Plymouth Works. It is said he wrote to Pitt suggesting the putting of tax on the manufacture of iron, and suggesting that his own knowledge of the trade rendered his services of great value in the collection of such tax, if imposed. If I mistake not, this may be read by his grandchildren, and to them and every other whose name may be mentioned, I beg to tender as assurance that nothing is said but with due respect.

The road around to the Iron Bridge passed on one side of Mr Harrison’s garden, and the towing path of the canal on the other; but before turning down that road, let us glance around. One road is to the right, and led to the Nantygwenith turnpike gate; the road in front led up the hill to to Penyrheolgerrig, and on to Aberdare over the hill. A tramroad from Cyfarthfa to the Ynysfach Works crossed somewhat diagonally, and passed behind the Dynevor Arms, the first house on the left having only the road between it and the Canal House.

A more detailed version of the above map showing Mr Harrison’s house (Canal House)

To be continued at a later date…..

As an addition to this piece, I would like to send my best wishes to Mike Donovan who provided these marvellous articles. Mike has been unwell lately, and I,  (personally and on behalf of everyone who knows him) would like to wish him a speedy recovery.

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……

In Search of the Dowlais Railway

by Victoria Owens

When the Taff Vale Railway between Merthyr Tydfil and Cardiff received its authorisation in 1836, the Act gave the Railway Company leave to construct a branch to the tramroad at Dowlais. For various reasons, the Railway Company procrastinated over the work, with the result that the Dowlais Iron Company eventually took responsibility for making the Branch themselves. The terms of the 1849 Dowlais Railway Act authorised them to build not only the line, but also a passenger station, situated close both to the Iron Works’ lower entrance gate and the Merthyr-Abergavenny road.

Sir John Guest

Although the 1849 Act allowed the Iron Company five years to complete the railway, it was in fact ready in three. Financed by Sir John Guest, MP for Merthyr Tydfil, promoter of the TVR and soon to be sole partner in the Dowlais Iron Works, at a mile and sixty-eight chains in length, the steep gradient of its route up Twynyrodyn Hill meant that its lower part operated as an inclined plane. The Newcastle firm of R & A Hawthorn designed a stationary engine capable of drawing trains of up to six carriages in length and 33 tons in weight over s distance of 70 chains and 30 links, up the 1 in 12 slope. It had two horizontal cylinders of 18 inch diameter and 24 inch stroke and worked at 50 strokes per minute. The steam pressure was 30 lbs psi.

Viewing its erection in March 1851, a local newspaper drily enquired whether in ten years’ time, a ‘chronicler of local events’ might have reason to report the completion of a notional line ‘from Dowlais to the extreme point of Anglesey.’

Modest it might be, but at the Dowlais Railway’s official opening in August 1851, Royalty graced the ceremony. Three days before the event, just as Sir John and his wife Charlotte were about the set off on a carriage drive, the horse-omnibus drew up outside their home, Dowlais House, bringing Charlotte’s cousin Henry Layard, known as ‘Layard of Nineveh’ on the strength of his recent archaeological discoveries in Assyria, and with him, his friend Nawab Ekbaled Dowleh, whom the newspapers called the ‘ex-King of Oude.’

With the help of Works Manager John Evans, Charlotte organised every stage in the celebration, from welcoming a party of Taff Vale Directors who had travelled down from Cardiff for the occasion, to pairing up her ten children to walk in the procession: ‘viz. Ivor and Maria; Merthyr bach and Katherine; Montague and Enid; Geraint [Augustus] and Constance; Arthur and little Blanche.’ Flanked, probably as much for show as for protection, by the local police, they made their way to the station, decked with greenery for the occasion, with the school-children and company agents following. The ‘trade of Merthyr and Dowlais’ joined them along the way, all to the accompaniment of music from the combined bands of Cyfarthfa and Dowlais.

An 1880 map of Merthyr and Dowlais showing the Dowlais Railway – shown in red from top right to bottom left

From Dowlais station, the passengers travelled to the top of the incline where their locomotive was uncoupled. Messrs. Hawthorn’s engine lowered the carriages down the slope, and the intrepid travellers made their way on to Merthyr. Some of them chose to continue by TVR to Abercynon, but the Guests and their visitors preferred to return to Dowlais.

Later in the day, a ‘small party comprising about five hundred ladies and gentlemen’ enjoyed a sumptuous meal at the Iron company’s Ivor Works, to be followed by speeches and dancing. Sir John, whose health was none too good, left the festivities early but Charlotte remained on hand to propose the healths the Directors of the Taff Vale railway and to open the dancing with Rhondda coal owner David William James as her partner. With Layard as his interpreter, the Nawab set the seal upon the day’s pleasures by expressing his delight at the hospitality that he had received in Dowlais and asserting that he had never enjoyed himself so much as he had during his ‘brief sojourn’ in Wales.

Although Sir John envisaged the Dowlais Branch primarily as a mineral line, he seems to have been perfectly happy with the requirement that it should also accommodate passenger traffic. Records indicate that over 1853,it came in for usage by 755 first class, 1884 second class and 7253 third class passengers but, sad to say, disaster struck at the end of the year. December 1853 witnessed an ugly accident when a passenger carriage over-ran the scotches to hurtle down the Incline unchecked and two passengers lost their lives, with five more suffering serious injuries. Officially speaking, passenger traffic on the railway ceased in 1854.

Unofficially, as Merthyr Tydfil writer Leo Davies would explain, it was usually possible – given a combination of unscrupulousness and agility- to obtain a lift. In an article of 1996, he described the whole unorthodox procedure in graphic detail. Access was obtained via the wingwall of a bridge and through some railings. The sound of the hawser gave advance warning of the approach of a train on the incline – ‘four ballast trucks, each half-filled with sand.’ Travelling typically at ‘a nice, sedate trotting pace’ there was evidently ample scope for the non-paying passenger to grasp the outside rim of the buffer, and ‘swing both legs up and around the buffer spring housing.’

An aerial view of the Twynyrodyn area. The Keir Hardie Estate is being built to the left and the route of the Dowlais Railway can clearly be seen running vertically in the photo. Twynyrodyn School is visible middle right. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

The Dowlais Railway closed finally in 1930 and the trackbed would be filled in sixteen or so year later, over 1946-7. In the 1990s, when Leo Davies reminisced about the ‘Inky’ as he fondly calls it, the ‘straight, green, grass grown strip of land’ ascending Twynyrodyn Hill remained visible. Perhaps, with the eye of knowledge or faith it remains so. Admittedly, former pupils of Twynyrodyn School remember the old line’s route, but without local knowledge it is not easy to trace. Only a few yards of broad green path survive to mark the site – perhaps – of the old trackbed and the name ‘Incline Top’ given to a hamlet at the edge of a plateau of rough ground extending towards Dowlais and its great Ironworks commemorate the location of Sir John Guest’s last great enterprise.

Sign for Incline Top, photographed May 2019

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.

Let us now return to the post office, at the corner of Glebeland Street, and keep on that side for a while. The post office was situated in the same place, but it was also a shop, and had four or five steps to lead up to its level, but there was a small window in Glebeland Street beyond the curved one of the shop that was also used for postal purposes.

The Post Office on the corner of Glebeland Street. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

Upon entering the shop there was apparently a desk for five feet or so on the counter. There were some pigeon holes, and a small recess to the window mentioned above. This constituted the Merthyr postal business place. There was one postman, I believe, but his delivery was circumscribed, and once a day only. If a letter was expected, it could be inquired about at the window; inquiries were no welcomed over the counter. Mr Rhys Davis was the postmaster, Mrs Davis was one of the Willamses.

Unfortunately, the rest of that page is undecipherable due to damage.

A door or two on was at one time a watch and clock maker named David Jones Junior, his father keeping an establishment near the Lamb in Castle Street, being David Jones Senior, and he had a good reputation as an horologist. It is very probable that there are eight day clocks yet working having “David Jones, maker, Merthyr Tydfil” upon their faces.

In the window of David Jones Jun., a clock, or rather a small timepiece, was exhibited, having a ball running zig-zag on and inclined plate. The plate was moved upon two pivots, and the ball upon arriving at one end of the zig-zag struck a rod which disengaged it from the plate, and immediately after that, part or side of the plate was tilted up so as to cause the ball to run back to the other end, when, by the same arrangement, that which was of course the lowest side, to induce the ball to run that way, became the upper, and that which was the upper became the lower. My reason for mentioning this is to show that there was mental mechanical skill there exemplified.

It was within a few doors of this watch and clock-maker’s shop I can recall the office of Mr Wm Perkins, who, with Mr Wm Meyrick, were then the only two solicitors practising in Merthyr. The eldest son of the Mr Kayes, of the boot and shoe establishment in Three Salmon’s Court, was also a solicitor, but as far as can be recalled he was not in very good health, and I think he soon went over to the majority.

Mr Perkins was the solicitor of the Dowlais Company, and considered to be on the Liberal side in politics, while Mr Meyrick was considered the Tory lawyer. Mr Charles H James in his recollections gives some things about Mr Perkins. I desire to bear grateful testimony to him. True, he might have been a good sportsman or not, but as long as memory lasts he must be thought of and known as a gentleman. He lived in Professional Row, the middle house of the three. The one on the lower side was occupied by Mr Russell (the doctor of the works), and as far as can be recalled that on the upper side of the road to Thomastown was occupied by Mrs Davies (a widow), of Pantscallog.

There were several shops between Mr Perkins’ office and Castle Street, one was kept by a Mr Marsden, called the Manchester House at that time; then on the corner a William Jones, who also kept a shop in Tredegar, some time after kept a watch, clock and jewellery business. Here the late Mr W Meredith commenced his business. Mr Thomas J Pearce, who had married one of the Misses Davies of the Bush, afterwards carried on a grocery business here, but Mr Meredith, who took on Jones’ business, was there for a while prior to moving lower down. This Mr W Jones went to Port Elizabeth in South Africa, and reading the obituary notice of Mr Meredith lately, it occurred to me that Mr Meredith was introduced to his African trade by Mr Jones.

To be continued at a later date……