Cyfarthfa Park – Page 3 – The Melting Pot

The Holm Oak in Bethesda Street

by Clive Thomas

It was different when it was planted I suppose, whenever that was. Now it stands near a modern, regulated cross roads dedicated to ensuring the smooth running of traffic from one side of the town to the other. You see only a few pedestrians here and vehicle owners drive past, or sometimes frustrated, are required to halt and give their attention to the traffic lights. It does have some other green company now though from more recently Council-planted shrubs and small trees, but for many years it would have stood somewhat incongruously alone, alongside a very busy roadway. Its age is difficult to guess but it must certainly have been witness to many changes in the surrounding area. It stands sentinel with a strangely oriented boxer’s statue and the small but colourful memorial to a demolished chapel which only hint at the area’s rich heritage.

Aerial photograph of Bethesda Street. The Holm Oak can be seen prominently in the centre of the photograph, with Bethesda Chapel to the right and Abermorlais School at the bottom right. Photo courtesy of the Alan George archive.

This thoroughfare was originally called Jackson’s Street, after the contractor who was commissioned in 1793 by the Dowlais Ironworks to build the stone arched bridge which still straddles the River Taff nearby. Although giving the rapidly increasing population of Georgetown and Heolgerrig, an alternative means of crossing the river from the more famous Iron Bridge, this bridge’s main purpose was to carry the tram road from the Dowlais Works to the canal warehouse and wharf on the Glamorganshire Canal. The tramroad would remain a vital link for the Dowlais Company for many years, and thousands of tons of iron would have been carried this way by teams of horse drawn wagons. As the town developed and more cottages built, junctions were created here, with Quarry Row leading into the riverside community of Caepantywyll and the Vulcan Road climbing the slope to Brewery Street and Sunnybank. Towards Pontmorlais, Bethesda Chapel had been built in 1811 and its name would eventually replace that of Mr. Jackson. Over a period of years, the area became overlooked by the tip of furnace waste from the Penydarren Ironworks, which continued to grow towards the river for most of the first half of the nineteenth century. It was between this British Tip, Jackson’s Bridge and the Taff that the notorious area of slum dwellings called ‘China’ would grow up.

Bethesda Street in 1967. The Holm Oak is clearly visible. Photo courtesy of the Alan George archive.

In the 1970’s however, great changes were taking place hereabouts. The re-configuration of the road system and the construction of a new Taff bridge required the demolition of many adjacent houses. Lawn Terrace, Garden Street, Paynters Terrace, along with The Old Tanyard Inn and Bethesda Chapel all disappeared. The removal of a substantial portion of the British Tip meant that whole area underwent considerable change. Surprisingly and against all odds, the tree survived and remained healthy. As a result of representations from the Merthyr and District Naturalists’ Society, whose members became concerned about its survival, it was made the subject of a Tree Preservation Order under the 1974 Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Bethesda Street from the British Tip in 1989. The Holm Oak stands proud at the centre of the photograph. Courtesy of Clive Thomas

Quercus ilex, the Holm Oak belongs in Mediterranean climes and unlike our more familiar Sessile (Qercuspetraea) and Pedunculate (Quercusrobur) species, it is evergreen. Holm is the ancient English name for holly bush and it is indeed so like a holly that it is often mistaken for one. Its sombre evergreen foliage casts a very dense shade that nothing can grow beneath it and reflects the climatic conditions found in its native lands. There, the winter is rainy but fairly warm, while summers are dry and hot so thick waxy foliage is required to check undue loss of moisture. The tree is also unusual amongst the oaks in that its acorns take two years to mature. The species was first introduced into Britain in the sixteenth century at Mamhead Park, Devon and a large population is to be found on the Isle of Wight. It has naturalised in a number of areas of southern Britain.

One can only speculate at how it might have arrived in Merthyr Tydfil. The fairly close proximity of Cyfarthfa Park might offer one explanation. Several exotic species were imported by the Crawshay Family to enhance the landscaped parkland which surrounded their newly built gothic home. There are numerous Turkey Oaks (Quercuscerrris) on the banks of the Taf-Fechan near Cefn Coed which might have had their origins within the confines of the park. It is possible that this tree might have arrived as part of a consignment of saplings or perhaps even grown from a single acorn. Ironically now however, the species is thought to damage aspects of biodiversity in this country and is listed as an alien invader. Despite our own specimen’s somewhat anomalous existence, I hope it remains in situ for many more years.

Keir Hardie: Leader of the Labour Party – part 2

by Carolyn Jacob

‘The condition of the miners is desperate. Over 100,000 are starving, or on the verge of it; a whole province lies waste, so far as productive labour and the means of life are concerned.’

Keir Hardie came to South Wales early in his career and attended a meeting of Aberdare miners in 1887. In the winter of 1896 he first visited the town of Merthyr Tydfil. Later he remembered that the evening was bitterly cold. Although the meeting was not large or enthusiastic, he knew that these were very early days. In 1898 Keir Hardie responded to the request to help the Welsh miners during the Great Welsh Coal Strike and he walked around the Valleys giving public talks and speaking to the men. He referred to this time as his ‘best ever holiday’. During the Cambrian Collieries dispute, Keir Hardie used parliament to denounce army and police thuggery. He embarrassed the Home Secretary, Churchill, by giving all the details about government-sponsored violence against miners and their families.

After soldiers shot strikers at Llanelli during the Railway Strike in 1911, he wrote a pamphlet, Killing No Murder, to expose the government even more. Keir Hardie was equally prepared to align himself with any worker in struggle.

He campaigned passionately against poverty and was proud to be called the ‘member for the unemployed’, campaigning for the minimum wage and an end to child poverty. He pioneered social welfare, advocating a national health service financed from taxation.

‘His love of justice is quite genuine and you will find that he is respected by men who are attached to that attribute’.

Hiliare Belloc, letter to Wilfred Blunt, 18th April, 1911

‘I have said, both in writing and from the platform many times, that the impetus which drove me first into the Labour movement, and the inspiration which has carried me on in it, has been derived more from the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth than from all other sources combined .

James Keir Hardie explaining the influence of Christianity on his beliefs, 1910.

In his address in Cyfarthfa Park in July 1909, he spoke on the text ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ and concluded that, ‘Christ was not only thinking of bread, but of all the requirements of a healthy, human life. There were thousands of homes within the Merthyr constituency, which he had the honour to represent, where the bread-winner toiled from morning till night, and yet poverty was always hunting the home. He believed that there would never be true Christianity until they had Socialism. Was it Christianity for the rich to oppress the poor; for the Government to spend millions in building up war machines for the destruction of human life and grudge hundreds for the relief of poverty? Was it Christian for the Liberal Prime Minister to refuse to see a deputation of women asking for the vote, and then to have a hundred sent to prison because of that refusal? The present system was anti- Christian and, in many respects, anti-human as well’.

Keir Hardie enthusiastically congratulated the new Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council for purchasing Cyfarthfa Castle and Park. It was wonderful that working people now owned the home of a wealthy ironmaster, ‘This is all yours now’ .

‘When he was the only member of the Labour Party in the House of Commons, he did not mind that. To him it had never mattered whether he stood alone or as one of ten thousand, so long as he knew his principles to be right. Whether it be in public or in private life, that which distinguished a man in the truest sense of the word was that he should have a mind of his own, and not simply be one driven thither and thither by every wind, and swayed by every gust that blew’.

Speech by Keir Hardie in Cyfarthfa Park, July 1909

To be continued…..

A Short History of Merthyr General Hospital – part 2

by Ann Lewis

As the years passed the demands on the hospital increased and there was a serious lack of accommodation, so much so, that many urgent cases had to be sent to the Workhouse Infirmary. The Board of Governors felt that while there was nothing wrong with the treatment the patients received at the Infirmary, it was unfair that these men, who would have had to pay between 15 and 16 shillings a week for their maintenance there (a great deal of money in the 1910-20s) as they were already contributing to the fund of the General Hospital.

The doctors and staff were greatly concerned and approached Mr Henry Seymour Berry (right). Mr Seymour Berry, who later became Lord Buckland, was another man who played a prominent part in the development of the hospital.

After being approached, Seymour Berry offered a site on the Gurnos Estate (obviously before the development of the Gurnos Estate as we know it today), which was the area behind his home at Gwaelodygarth House, and £10,000 to erect temporary buildings to meet the emergency. His offer was rejected however, as it was felt that the site was inaccessible both for the patients and staff.

At one time, the Board of Governors had intended to purchase part of the Avenue to extend the hospital to accommodate between two to three hundred beds. It was decided to use the £10,000 to extend the hospital with two more wards, which cost just over £14,000 to complete. A lift and long corridor connected the front section with the new wards. A plaque was erected in the corridor which reads:-
“This building was presented by Mr and Mrs H. Seymour Berry as an addition to the Merthyr General Hospital October 1922”.

One ward was named after his mother Mrs M. A. Berry, the other after his mother-in-law Mrs R. Sandbrook. The building was intended to last 10 years although I doubt if Lord Buckland would have realised it would still be in use 63 years later, for the care of the geriatric patients, while St. Tydfil’s Hospital was being upgraded.

At Whitsun of 1923 the people of Merthyr held the first Fete and Gala in Lord Buckland’s honour, with all the proceeds in aid of the hospital. The carnival pageant which started at the fountain at the bottom of town stretched over 2 miles. It took over 1½ hours to travel through the town to be judged in front of Cyfarthfa Castle. There was the children’s fancy dress parade and many floats, one with the old woman who lived in a shoe and another holding the ‘Fete Queen’.

Miss Enid Mann being crowned the ‘Fete Queen’ in 1936

This first fete proved a great success and continued for 25 years with thousands attending each year to witness events like the death defying dive from a high platform into a tank of water, tight-rope walkers, comedy acrobats, gymnasts, and for many years there was a football match on bicycles with Merthyr vs. the rest. There were the horse and dog shows. And if anyone required a cup of tea it could be bought at the big tent. The Brass Bands played in the bandstand, and there was fierce competition between the many jazz bands taking part, some playing their ‘guzutes’. Great fun!

Each political ward throughout the Borough had their own stalls and there was friendly competition one against the other to see who could raise the most money. The young nurses in full uniform were sent around the town with collecting boxes and by the time they reached the park their tins were full.

In these 25 years £60,000 had been raised with a debt of gratitude owed to the committee and the ladies of the Borough for the many hours of voluntary work put into making it such a success.

Even though the fete and Gala was a great money making event, it was by no means sufficient for the smooth running of the hospital. We have already mentioned the weekly contributions, and the gifts and bequests but events like dances, whist drives, cricket matches etc., were held throughout the year. Most Merthyr people were involved one way or another and local clubs, societies and later factories contributed and took a pride in supporting their hospital.

When the Dowlais and Merthyr United Choir went to the Queen’s Hall in London in 1936, 80% of the 220 choristers were unemployed, but all proceeds went to aid the hospital.

Dowlais United Choir at Queens Hall in 1936

To be continued…..

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.

Merthyr Memories: Cyfarthfa Park Swings

by Laura Bray (née Bevan)

Do you remember the Cyfarthfa Park swings? Not those that are there now, which are but a pale shadow of their former incarnation, but those of the 1970s?

There were two sets of swings in the Park. The Bottom Swings, down by the Lake – more or less where the miniature railway now runs – contained a wooden, boxed-in roundabout; the most amazing helter-skelter slide which was about half the size, at least to my childhood eyes, of those found in a fairground; and the “baby swings”, for small children. There was also the paddling pool, usually empty of water, but I recall some hot summers where it was filled and crowded by children in varying states of undress, splashing, both themselves and those on the bank, watching. My main use for the paddling pool, however, was to cycle round the edge, where there was a band of differently coloured paving slabs and where we could see how fast you could go without going over the edge and into the painted blue depths of the dry abyss!

But for me, the main attraction was the Top Swings. These were just off the road between the Chalet where you could buy ice-cream, and the Quar Gate. They contained a six-seater iron rocking horse, which you could push until it banged against its metal supports; a spider’s web roundabout where, depending on how dizzy you wanted to get, you could push from the inside or the outside, then jump on the bars with your legs outstretched and spin till you couldn’t stand up; and a slide, not too high, but which people did seem to routinely fall off. And we ran up the steps to slide down the slide, or raced up the slide itself, turning round at the top to come back down again. In the hot summer of ’76, the metal on that slide burned the backs of your legs, and yet we came back for more.

There were swings there too – a set of cradle swings for small children and a set of normal swings where we raced to see who could swing the highest. Sometimes we would jump off mid-swing to land with a thud on the floor, and there was a kudos in letting go when the swing was high. Then we would run to the parallel bars and the staggered bars, where we could hang upside-down from our knees and see if we could touch the concrete beneath. Not for our generation the soft surfaces enjoyed by children today.

However, the star of the Top Swings was the Swinging Log. These have all but disappeared now but essentially this was a plank, suspended from an A-frame, on which there was space for four children seated. Two more stood, one at either end, and they were responsible for swinging it back and forth. Some of the boys could swing it so hard that the plank reached heights parallel with the top of the frame, 15 or so feet from the ground, moving at speed. How there were no injuries, I never know, either from falling off or from the risk of being knocked out if you stood too close to the swinging end. There were several near misses, but that was part of the fun.

A log swing similar to the one in Cyfarthfa Park

We would take our bikes and bump across the grass between the two sets of swings and then head home – hot and tired, with our hands smelling of rust and our trousers stained by grass. Those were the days indeed.

If anyone has any photographs of either of the playgrounds in Cyfarthfa Park, please let us know.

Elisabeth Parry – in memoriam

by Carl Llewellyn

On Thursday 27 July 2017, Elisabeth Parry passed away peacefully at her home in Wanborough, Surrey. She was 96 years old.

Mhari Elisabeth Forbes Parry was born in Aberdeen, Scotland on 9 September 1921, the great-granddaughter of Dr Joseph Parry. Educated privately at Eversley School, she passed the Oxford Board School Certificate with six credits in 1937, as well as the Associated Board Advanced Grade Piano and Intermediate Grade Singing. Elisabeth was offered a place at Oxford to study French and German in 1939, but refused this on the outbreak of war to join the Red Cross as an Ambulance driver.

She continued to study singing privately in London with Mark Raphael and the World famous tenor Dino Borgioli. She became a soloist with the Red Cross Staff Band and the Royal Army Medical Corps between 1940-1945, and toured extensively with them in Britain and the Middle East. Broadcasting frequently at home and abroad, she became a ‘Forces Sweetheart’ in 1944. She also gave many recitals for the Council for Encouragement of Music and the Arts, later the Arts Council, and sang in many concerts and oratorios.

Following the end of the war, she set up and ran the Wigmore Hall Lunch Hour Concerts in London from 1947-1949, and in 1947 joined the English Opera Group, making her operatic debut at Glyndebourne as Lucia in Benjamin Britten’s ‘Rape of Lucretia’. Awarded an Italian Government Scholarship to study at the Accadamia Chigiana in Siena with Giorgio Favaretto in 1951, she continued to study there and in Rome. She gave two recitals in Genoa and broadcast from France, Switzerland, and Belgium.

She went on to start the Opera Players, together with Phyllis Thorold, in 1950, and sang in hundreds of performances with them, and was Managing Director of the Company (now the London Opera Players) until 2001.

Elisabeth Parry, being one of the principal trustees of Parry Trust Fund, presented the residue of the Parry Trust capital into the capable hands of the Welsh National Opera Company. In February 2009 the WNO’s new production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro was funded partially by money from the Parry Trust, and enabled a rising baritone, David Soar, to make his debut as a principal in the role of Figaro. An annual bursary in the name of the Parry family was finally set up in 2010 to help gifted young singers.

As well as her musical activities Elisabeth took up climbing and colour photography in 1960, and gave illustrated travel talks all over the British Isles. Elisabeth was a Member of the Alpine Club, Association of British Members of the Swiss Alpine Club and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. She has translated a Rossini Opera, which has been broadcast and televised, and contributed articles to ‘She’, ‘Sphere’ and ‘Tatler’ magazines, as well as a number of mountaineering publications.

In 2011 she published her memoirs in a book entitled ‘Thirty Men and a Girl’.

Elisabeth’s association with Merthyr Tydfil began after Cyfarthfa High School won the Prince of Wales Trust Award in 1977. Preparations were made between the Merthyr Tydfil Council and the Prince of Wales Trust to mark the occasion by officially opening No 4 Chapel Row, Georgetown as the Dr Joseph Parry Cottage museum. The event took place on Friday 22 September 1978 when the Cottage was opened in the presence of the Mayor of Merthyr Tydfil, Mrs Mary John, and special guest Elisabeth Parry. Dr Joseph Parry’s grand-daughter Barbara Parry was originally invited to open the cottage but was unable to attend, so Elisabeth was invited in her place. The Dowlais Male choir was in attendance and sang Joseph Parry’s most famous composition, “Myfanwy”.

On 28 July 2002, to mark the centenary of the death of Dr Joseph Parry, an open air concert was arranged at Cyfarthfa Park. The guest soloists were Timothy Richards (Tenor), Rebecca Evans (Soprano), and Jason Howard (Baritone); accompanied by two male voice choirs, Dowlais and Pendyrus, and the National Chamber Orchestra of Wales, under the baton of Alwyn Humphreys MBE, conductor of Morriston Orpheus Choir. Again Elisabeth Parry, accompanied by her niece Rosemary Skipper, was invited to be a special guest at her great grandfather’s commemorative concert, and was later invited to the Mayor’s parlour by the Mayor of Merthyr Tydfil, Alan Davies.

Elisabeth Parry is last family link with Dr Joseph Parry, and it’s good to know she was proud of her family’s association with Merthyr’s musical heritage. Elisabeth kept up her ties with Merthyr to the end of her life, through the friendship that was forged between her and Mansell & Dwynwen Richards, and Carl Llewellyn.

If you would like to read more, Merthyr Historian Volume 16 is dedicated to articles about Joseph Parry and his family.

Elisabeth Parry 1921-2017

Grand Military Tournament

107 years ago today…..