Dr. Thomas Dyke Plaque sited on the fence of the disabled car park at Swan Street, Merthyr Tydfil
Thomas Dyke (1816-1900) was born in Merthyr and played an active part in its public life for the greater part of a century. Trained at Guys and St. Thomas’s hospitals he was parish surgeon for various Merthyr districts and for the Dowlais Iron Company.
He was appointed Merthyr’s Medical Officer of Health in 1865.
The improvements in water supply, sewerage, sanitation, inspection, and housing, most of them under his guidance, meant that by the end of the century Merthyr’s average death rate was less than the average for other industrial centres and the death rate from infantile diarrhoea for most of 1865-1900 was the lowest of any town in the United Kingdom.
Dyke was also a prominent Freemason, a founder of the Merthyr subscription library and a keen advocate of town incorporation.
In our series looking at the bridges of Merthyr, we come to Merthyr’s most iconic bridge, and indeed one of Merthyr’s most iconic lost structures – the Old Iron Bridge.
Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
The Old Iron Bridge, or the Merthyr Bridge as it was originally called was commissioned by William Crawshay to replace a stone bridge that had been washed away by a flood. This act was not entirely altruistic on the part of Crawshay, as the only other bridge across the River Taff in town was Jackson’s Bridge, which had been built in 1793 by the Dowlais Iron Company.
Watkin George, the principal engineer at the Cyfarthfa Works was tasked with designing the new bridge, and he conceived a structure fabricated with cast iron sections. To span the River Taff, George had to design a bridge that would span between 65 to 70 feet from bank to bank, so single cast iron beams would be impractical, as they were limited to 20-25 feet in length due to the possibility of the iron failing due to the continuous traffic that would use the bridge.
He decided, therefore to build a structure comprising three separate sections between 22 and 24 feet long, the thickness of the iron being one and a quarter inches, and he constructed the bridge as a cantilever, with the two end sections mounted on buttresses built on the banks of the river with a convex central section fixed between them.
Work started on the bridge in the middle of 1799, and was completed by April the following year. The new bridge had an overall length of 64 feet, and was five feet wide.
The bridge was in constant use as the only bridge in the centre of Merthyr until a new bridge – the Ynysgau Bridge, also called the New Iron Bridge, was built next to it in 1880.
The amount of traffic using the bridge can be illustrated in the table below (originally from Merthyr Historian Vol 2, used with the kind permission of The Merthyr Historical Society). Following construction of the new bridge, The Old Iron Bridge was used primarily as a footbridge.
Courtesy of the Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society
In 1963, the bridge was dismantled as part of the refurbishment and ‘improvement’ of Merthyr. The remains of the bridge – indeed the vast majority of it, now lie gathering dust in a warehouse in Merthyr, and all attempts by local historical groups to have the bridge re-erected somewhere in the town (it can’t be re-erected in its former position as the river has been widened), have failed.
To read a fuller account of the history of the Old Iron Bridge, try to get hold of a copy of Volume 2 of the Merthyr Historian where you will find a marvellous article about the bridge by Leo Davies.
Richard Hill I (died 1806), who had had experience in Anthony Bacon’s iron-works (at Cyfarthfa and Hirwaun), became Bacon’s trusted manager of the Plymouth Ironworks. He was elected a burgess or freeman of Cardiff in 1784. He married Mary, the sister of Mrs. Bacon, and named his youngest son (born in 1784) Anthony, after Anthony Bacon. On the death of Anthony Bacon, as all the natural children were minors, the estate was placed in Chancery, and the receiver, William Bacon, granted a lease of the Plymouth furnace for fifteen and a half years from Christmas Day 1786, to Richard Hill I, during the minority of Thomas Bacon; this was approved by the Court of Chancery. Hill entered into an arrangement with Richard Crawshay of Cyfarthfa, to supply the latter with pig-iron, and seeing the possibility of increasing his output and of enlarging his works, he secured several leases in order to extend the mineral property attached to the works. About 1794, Richard Hill I had very serious trouble with the Glamorganshire Canal Navigation, then recently opened, for improperly taking the water from the Taff river which he required for his Plymouth works. Richard Hill II (died 1844), his son, then aged twenty, closed the sluices between the canal and the mill-race, and had a desperate encounter with the canal lock-keeper, as a result of which the lock-keeper was awarded substantial damages at the Glamorgan Great Sessions. At the next Great Sessions, Richard Hill I obtained a verdict in his favour and was awarded £300 damages for injury to his works by the Glamorganshire Canal.
In 1799, Thomas Bacon, who had been granted the Plymouth works under his father’s will, became of age, and agreed to surrender to Richard Hill I all his interest in the Plymouth works, and this he confirmed in 1803 when he was 24 years of age. Being now in full possession of the Plymouth works, he with his sons, Richard II and John Hill, entered into an agreement with the Dowlais and Penydarren iron companies for the construction of a tram road for their joint use, from their works to join the Glamorganshire canal at Navigation (now Abercynon). In the same year, 1803, Richard Hill I, who was a practical engineer, agreed to construct a tram road for the joint use of the same three companies to convey limestone from the Morlais Castle quarries. It will thus be seen that Richard Hill was on very good terms with the neighbouring ironmasters, which was far from being the case between the Penydarren and Dowlais companies.
Richard Hill and son were anxious to improve their business by adding a forge and mills, but were very short of capital for such extension. Partners were sought, and A. Struttle advanced £15,000 and John Nathaniel Miers (son-in-law of Richard Hill I), £5,000 to form the Plymouth Forge Company with a capital of £20,000. Work now proceeded briskly at the Plymouth iron-works where Richard Hill I was ably assisted by his sons, Richard II and Anthony Hill (1784 – 1862). But on 20 April 1806, Richard Hill I passed away leaving all his estate to his widow, Mary, his three sons, Richard II, John Hill (of London), and Anthony Hill, and his two daughters, Elizabeth, and Mary, the wife of J. N. Miers (of Cadoxton Lodge). By 1813, Messrs. Struttle and Miers seceded, and the three brothers became partners. On account of the withdrawal of capital, the brothers had to obtain a loan on mortgage of £54,000 from Messrs. Wilkins of the Brecon Old Bank. Richard Hill II for a time lived at Llandaff and looked after the sales side of the business, while Anthony ably managed the productive side, but the burden of the huge loan was a great impediment for many years to the successful working of the concern.
In 1806, the three furnaces at Plymouth produced 3,952 tons of pig-iron, while in 1815 the same three turned out 7,800 tons. A fourth furnace was erected at Plymouth and in 1819 the first furnace was erected at Dyffryn and c. 1824 two others were erected; like all the others these were worked by water-power in which Anthony had great faith — he was very slow in adopting steam-power as the other iron-masters were doing. With Anthony Hill as managing-partner the works were carried on with great vigour and ability, and their brand of bar-iron had a special value and was known for its excellence throughout the world. The produce of the blast furnaces continued to increase year by year. In 1820, it was 7,941 tons, in 1830, over 12,000 tons, by 1846, it was over 35,000 tons.
In 1826 John Hill sold out his interest to his brothers, Richard II and Anthony. Later, No. 8 furnace was built, which was said by Mushet, the great authority on iron manufacture, to be the largest in the world. Richard and Anthony continued as sole managers until the death of Richard in 1844, after which Anthony continued as sole managing director until his own death at the age of seventy-eight on 2 August 1862. Anthony Hill was regarded as the most scientific iron-master of his district. He carried out many experiments for the improvement of iron-making, and was the patentee of many new methods. Gradually he succeeded in paying off the loan burden and attained great wealth. His death was keenly felt in the district, as he had been ‘associated with good deeds, with broad and enlightened measures for his people’s comfort, for their religious welfare, and their education.’ He established a new church at Pentre-bach, and endowed it with £200 per annum; he also founded the Pentre-bach National School and left a sum of money for the ‘Anthony Hill scholarship’ for secondary schools which is still in existence. After his death the works were sold to Messrs. Fothergill, Hankey and Bateman for £250,000; they came to an end c. 1880.
In 1859, the Penydarren Ironworks closed. 160 years ago today (26 February 1859), the remarkable article transcribed below, written in anticipation of the closure appeared in the Merthyr Telegraph. It makes fascinating reading as the language used is so striking and almost poetic…a far cry from today’s brand of journalism.
Over the thresholds of a thousand houses stream the long and darkening shadows which forerun events of a stern and saddening character. In a few months that fierce light which so long has glared around Penydarren will be invisible, and the incessant clang of iron and harsh vibrations of monster machinery will no longer be heard. Penydarren works will belong to the past.
For several weeks the inhabitants of this town and neighbourhood heard of the rumoured sale of Penydarren works with incredulity. They could not believe that so great an establishment would be broken up, the works fall into decay, and the men scattered to the four winds of heaven. Yet, at last, the dread truth has forced itself upon our convictions, and we now doubt not that the end of Penydarren is at hand.
The Dowlais Iron Co., holding large works on the extreme edge of the mineral basin, have been for some time progressing with less than its usual vigour in consequence of a deficient supply of mine and coal. It is true new pits have been sunk at Cwmbargoed, but it will be two or three years before they will begin to yield, the enormous depth forbidding any earlier success, though the men are incessantly employed. Thus it became a serious consideration with the Trustees, where, and by what means, the requisite supply should be obtained from to meet the demand. The adjoining mine and coal field of the Penydarren Co. and the known desire of Mr. W. Forman to part with it, offered a solution of the difficulty, and hence, after a consultation and discussion by the principals of each place, one has been merged into the other, and Dowlais has become worthier even than before of being styled the largest iron-works in the world.
We may anticipate that on the opening of the new mill – a mill unequalled in the locality, a large number of additional workmen will be employed; the miners and colliers also may be expected to continue working as usual; but, we apprehend, there will still be many unemployed, and the change will tend to deteriorate the value of house property considerably in Penydarren, and the upper part of Merthyr, from Pontmorlais to Tydfil’s Well. There can be no doubt but that there will be much suffering in one way or another. Young men, full of vigour, may try their fortunes elsewhere broad shoulders and muscular arms will never fail to obtain their owners bread and cheese, but the old men, the semi-pensioners, the half used up veterans, cannot be expected to seek a subsistence in other districts, cannot be expected but to crawl, feeble worn-out beings, into the last resort of humble life – the Workhouse.
In addition to this, the first step towards a decline, we see evidences around us of a gloomy character. The lease of the Dowlais works is said to last only during the minority of the Marquis of Bute. When he comes of age a new lease, under new and perhaps impossible conditions, may be required.
It is also rumoured, on what authority we know not, that the Plymouth iron-works are for sale, and no one, acquainted with Mr. Hill, will hear this without fearing that the change of ownership, by whomsoever made, cannot be for the benefit of the workmen. No matter how good the next employer may be, new brooms have a tendency to sweep clean, and brush away old and good usages, pensions, perquisites and benefits to an alarming extent.
Again, at the Cyfarthfa works things wear an alarming aspect. The lease is yet unsettled. Mr. Crawshay has stated the sum he will give, and we all know that he will abide by his word, and blow out the whole of the furnaces rather than yield. And let us add that were Mr. Crawshay, unfortunately for us all, to be succeeded by another, we might find the system of iron-making on the hills introduced into Cyfarthfa, with its attendant Truck shops, which, God forbid for the sake of poor humanity! To this Truck the Crawshays have ever been firm opponents, much to their honour and the welfare of the town.
All these shadows warn us to be prepared for coming evils – to be on the alert towards lessening the trials of disastrous times – to prepare our several homes against the menacing storm.
Merthyr is a town called into existence by the discovery of the minerals underneath. With their exhaustion it fades as rapidly as it rose.
In these facts we trace the presages of decline. The tree which resists the skill of the gardener may exist for a time, unimproving, unprogressive, but when the storm comes the resistance is but weak, and beneath the tempest it falls!
Great excitement prevailed at Dowlais this evening consequent upon a terrible accident which occurred in the Lower Works. First reports stated that the machinery in the Bessemer department, bad been blown to pieces by an explosion and that about a dozen persons had been killed. For more than two hours the town was in a terrible state of agitation, and crowds of people flocked to the gates of the Lower Works. Such a state of excitement has never before been witnessed in the district. On inquiries being made, however, it was found that the accident was not quite so serious as was originally reported, but it was, nevertheless, one of the most terrible that has ever happened in any of the works on the hills.
For a few years past the Dowlais Iron Company have been engaged in the construction of it new Bessemer department in the Lower Works, and it was hoped that it would be completed in another three or four months. A part of the new works has already been started. Meanwhile the old machinery has been used, and the ‘old Bessemer’ has remained in its usual condition. Massive stone walls enclose the works, the roof was constructed of slate supported by massive iron girders. About, twenty minutes to six o’clock this evening the roof gave way, with terrible results. One of the men who were at the cranes says that at the time he was working, when he heard a creaking in the roof. Looking up he saw that the roof was gradually giving way, and he at once took shelter under one of the pieces of machinery.
About 70 or 80 men were working in the place at the time. Fortunately for them, the roof did not give way at once, otherwise they would all have been killed. As it was, the ledge of the roof, after falling from its supports, rested for a few a seconds on the top of the cranes and hydraulic machinery, and thus enabled the men to escape. They dashed out of the building, but although the majority escaped uninjured several were struck by falling slates and were injured more or less severely. One young man, named John Morgan, who was ‘teeming’ at the time, saw the roof giving way, and thinking to escape more rapidly than his companions, he rushed towards the cogging mill. He had not gone more than a few yards when the roof fell in with a terrible crash. Nothing more was seen of him until nearly two hours later.
As soon as it was deemed safe to do so, men were sent to explore the debris with the view of ascertaining whether any serious loss of life bad taken place. Several tons of debris lay about in all directions, and for a long time it was impossible to make any headway. At last one of the men struck his spade against something, and on removing the debris it was found that the body of a man lay beneath one of the massive iron girders which supported the roof. By the aid of screw-jacks the girder was removed, and Morgan was brought out quite dead. It was ascertained that one of the pieces of iron which had fallen with the slates had penetrated the poor fellow’s side, and he had also sustained other frightful injuries. Morgan leaves a young widow and a child aged only nine weeks. It is believed that Morgan’s is the only life that has been lost, but several other workmen received injuries of a more or less serious character, and have had to be surgically treated.
The loss sustained by the Dowlais Iron Company must be estimated at several thousand pounds. Nearly all the hydraulic machinery and the cranes have either been destroyed or considerably damaged. At the time of the accident the vessels were full of molten iron, and in the confusion and excitement which followed the catastrophe the contents could not be emptied. The iron has therefore cooled, and cannot again be extracted from the vessels, which are rendered useless and will have to be blown up by dynamite. Nor can the effect of the accident upon the workmen be as yet correctly stated. All the branches of the steelworks must necessarily remain idle until the Bessemer department is again put into proper working order. Several hundreds of men have been thrown out of employment and some weeks will certainly elapse before things can be put to rights again.
The cause of the accident is very simple. The iron girders naturally contract and wear away under the influence of such terrific heat as continually prevails in the Bessemer department. The recent severe weather has, moreover, been most disastrous to buildings of this kind.
In September this year, Merthyr lost one of its most esteemed historians, and indeed one of its best known and most respected citizens, when Josh Powell passed away at the age of 97. With the blessing of his family, and with thanks to his grandson David who provided the following narrative, I would like to pay tribute to this great man.
Josh was born on 1 May 1921 at Inspector’s House, Cwmbargoed to George and Selina Powell. His mother cared for her two younger sisters and brother, whilst his father was employed as a waterman by the Dowlais Iron Company.
Josh was named after his grandfather, Joshua Owens, a farm labourer who moved his family to Cwmbargoed from Gladestry in Radnorshire. Whilst many of the children in Cwmbargoed went down the Bogey Road to Twynyrodyn School, his house was to the north of the railway line and in the Dowlais ward, so he had to attend the famous Dowlais Central School.
In 1935, Josh passed his scholarship even though he had to miss some academic years due to ill health. He went on to study Latin, Welsh and chemistry. As he grew up and moved further up the school, examinations and reports became of vital importance but Josh still continued to play school rugby matches. In 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, he returned to sixth form to study Maths, Chemistry and Physics.
In 1940, Josh was called up for National Service before he could sit his Higher School Certificate exams. When he told his mother that he wanted to join the RAF, she was not willing. However, when he explained the alternatives, she reluctantly agreed and filled in the application form. He reported to RAF Uxbridge (No.1280653 AC2 J. Powell) in the May of that year.
He travelled with his friend Leslie Norris, from Merthyr Station to Uxbridge, but upon his transfer to RAF Norfolk, he caught Meningitis and was put under quarantine. Shortly after this illness, he was sent home back to Cwmbargoed on sick leave so he could rest.
Later, in 1941, Josh was transferred to Innsworth where he had to spend a lot of time in a tent (this put him off camping for the rest of his life!) Whilst he was there, he was able to go on weekend leaves and that’s when he met his future wife Nancy. On 2 January 1943, Josh and Nancy were married in Disgwylfa Chapel, Merthyr Vale. However, there was no honeymoon and they spent the weekend in Cwmbargoed before they travelled back to Gosport Camp where they lived in a haunted house. It was said that when Josh and Nancy left their house, the radio switched on and the doors swung open!
During this time, Josh became a Maths lecturer for airmen going to leave the RAF for new careers and completed his Inter BSC in Maths and Geography.
After his time in the RAF, Josh decided he wanted to embark upon a teaching career. He was demobbed on 9 April 1946; however, he wasn’t able to start Cardiff Teacher Training College until the September so he needed to find a job for five months. Josh joined a large gang of navvies digging and fitting trenches to connect the Bargoed gasworks to the ones at the bottom of Town and the Bont, due to lack of coal. Fortunately for Josh time flew by and as the front trench neared Cwmbargoed, he had finished work as a navvy and started college, to study Maths and Geography. When he passed his studies, he went on to work as a fully qualified teacher at a school in Nailsea as a Maths and Games teacher and then at Bromyard.
In 1953, Josh went to work at Troedyrhiw Secondary Modern as a Science teacher. He was more than pleased when he was allowed to take over the school soccer team, and he became chairman of the Merthyr League in 1957. His love for sport, and in particular school boy football, led him to become Secretary of Merthyr Schools FA in 1966; Chairman of Glamorgan Schools FA in 1971 and Chairman of Welsh Schools FA in 1973.
In 1967, Josh started teaching at the newly-opened Afon Taf School and whilst there he had set up a project to record the weather in Cwmbargoed for the MET Office. Every morning before breakfast and after school each evening, Josh recorded the wind, the cloud and the temperature in a log book. He was paid a small salary but the money didn’t matter to him, he wanted to get a record of the highest temperature. He absolutely loved recording the weather (Afon Taf even gave him a weather station, situated on the roof of the school!).
Afon Taf School Under 15s League and Keir Hardie Shield Winners 1967/68. Josh Powell is at the far left of the photo. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm
In 1981, Josh retired from Afon Taf after 33 years of teaching and knew he had lots of time on his hands. During this time, Josh became secretary of Zion Welsh Baptist Church in Merthyr Tydfil, a church he was part of for 48 years. Josh visited so many chapels and churches in the borough, as a lay preacher, a member of the congregation and to talk at Prayer meetings and Sisterhood fellowship.
Josh’s love of the past led him to joining and becoming a founder member of the Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society and he wrote entries for the publication, Merthyr Historian, and published several books including: ‘Living in the Clouds’, ‘All Change’ and ‘Gone But Not Forgotten’.
Apart from all this, Josh cherished his family – six children, 13 grand-children and 10 great-grandchildren.
Josh was a font of knowledge, always willing to help anyone with his extensive knowledge of local history, and as Carolyn Jacob once remarked, no-one had a bad word to say about him. He will be sorely missed.
The next chapel we are going to look at in our continuing series is Penywern Welsh Independent Chapel.
The cause at Penywern began in 1856 when Mr David Evans of Llanwrda and Rev Benjamin Williams of Gwernllwyn Chapel began holding meetings in Mr Evans’ house in Penywern. With the blessing of the congregation at Gwernllwyn, they also opened a Sunday School.
As there was no other room available, the Sunday School was held in the long room of The Ifor Arms, Penywern. The room was let by Mrs Nancy Rogers, the licensee, at a rental of 12 shillings a month. One rule was laid down by the officials of the Sunday School however, that “no intoxicants were to be consumed in the long room while the Sunday School was being held”.
As the congregation grew it was decided to build a chapel in Penywern. Land was leased from the Dowlais Iron Company for 5s per annum, and the chapel, designed by Rev Benjamin Owen, Zoar, opened on the first Sunday in March 1858, with Rev Benjamin Williams taking responsibility for the chapel in a joint ministry with Gwernllwyn Chapel until he left in 1861.
As the numbers grew the chapel was rebuilt in 1876-7 at a cost of £1000, and the new chapel opened on 19 August 1877. Rev Benjamin Williams was invited back to the chapel to take the opening services for the new chapel.
In 1910, a few of the young men at the chapel, encouraged by the minister Rev J H Hughes decided to start a small choir and elected Mr Evan Thomas to be their conductor. The choir quickly grew and evolved into the Penywern Male Voice Choir, which became famous throughout Wales. The choir, under the leadership of Evan Thomas, sang for King George V and Queen Mary when they visited Dowlais in 1912. They went on to win many auspicious prizes, culminating in 1927 when the choir won three Eisteddfodau, and Evan Thomas won the three Eisteddfod chairs which he donated to the chapel. Due to the depression in the 1930’s and the closing of the iron works, the choir membership dwindled and eventually disbanded.
Penywern Male Choir
In 1921 a large school room was added to the front of the chapel. As this was a difficult time financially at the chapel, the stone for the new school room was given by Messrs Guest, Keen and Nettlefold through the courtesy of the general manager Mr Howell R Jones. The school room was built by voluntary labour with horses and carts being used to transport the stone from the nearby quarry. The school room was completed and opened in 1922.
Volunteers beginning work on the new schoolroom
Like so many other chapels in Merthyr, the congregation dwindled over the years, and the chapel closed and was subsequently demolished.
Looking at these two photographs, it is encouraging to see that the Guest Memorial Hall hasn’t changed all that much in about a hundred or so years. A rare survivor of of Merthyr’s heritage.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of St Mair’s Church, seen standing behind the Guest Memorial Hall in the first photograph.
St Mair’s Church (or the Welsh Church as it was known), was the largest church in Dowlais, and built between 1871 and 1874 by the Dowlais Iron Company to accommodate the Welsh speaking members of St John’s Church.
The Church closed in 1962 and was demolished the following year.
You have probably never heard of Pearson Robert Cresswell, but had you lived in Dowlais in the late 19th Century, if you were lucky, he may have saved your life.
Dr Pearson Robert Cresswell
Pearson Cresswell was born on 24 July 1834, the second son of Charles and Ann Cresswell, a solicitor and his wife, then living in Henwick, near Worcester. It was in Worcester that Pearson grew up, although while he was still in school, the family emigrated to Australia. Indeed, it is in Melbourne, that his parents and siblings lived and died.
This was not to be Pearson’s destiny, however, as in the 1850s he returned to the UK to study medicine, training in Middlesex Hospital and the Medical Centre in London, qualifying in 1859 as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (he became a Fellow in 1873). But our interest in him dates from May 1860, when he secured the post of Chief Surgeon to the Dowlais Iron Company, an appointment he retained for the next 40 years, until his retirement and death on 22 Nov 1905 aged 71.
Pearson was a noted medic in Dowlais, running a private practice as well as working for the Dowlais Iron Company and running both the Dowlais Workman’s Hospital and the Merthyr and Dowlais General Hospital.
However, it was for his work on antiseptics, particularly for the treatment of gunshot wounds and fractures or other serious injury, that he was a pioneer. He published several papers on it, and influenced thinking and practice on surgical techniques, such as the use of gloves in operations. He also promoted vaccination, becoming both Public Vaccinator and Medical Officer of the First District of the Merthyr Tydfil Union and of the Pant Fever Hospital. He was a staunch advocate of First Aid, delivering lectures on the subject and encouraging ordinary people to understand the principles. As such, he became the president of the Merthyr Centre of the St John’s Ambulance Association from 1881, when it was founded in Merthyr, and indeed it is from this that he was awarded a special mark of distinction in 1897 as a honorary associate of the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in England.
You would have thought that all these activities would have kept Pearson Cresswell busy, but no. He was a Justice of the Peace for Glamorgan, held a special commission as a Justice in Lunacy, was Chairman of the Income Tax Commission and High Constable of Caerphilly Higher. In addition, he was a Church Warden of St John’s Parish Church in Dowlais, president of the South Wales Branch of the English Church Union and Chairman of the Dowlais Constitutional Club.
Perhaps it is his connection with the Volunteer Force that is the most difficult for us to understand today. Just after his arrival in Dowlais, Pearson was gazetted as an associate surgeon in the Administrative Battalion 2ndGlamorgan Rifle Volunteer Corps, founded the year before. By 1891 he had become the Lieutenant Colonel Commander of the Administrative Battalion for all the companies in the Taff Valleys, which by this point had been consolidated. He “professionalised” the Corps, turning it into first a territorial and then the Volunteer Battalion Welsh Regiment, standardising the uniform, creating a cycling corps and establishing an officers’ and non-commissioned officers’ mess, equipped the regiment with machine guns and cleared the debts. Thus it was that he was able to raise and send three companies from the Regiment to the South African War.
Glamorgan Rifle Volunteer Corps. Dr Cresswell is seated at the right
Pearson died after a short illness in November 1905, in Dowlais, leaving a wife, two sons and two daughters, both sons having followed him into the medical profession. He was buried in Malvern, next to his first wife and daughter.
A man of his time, he was part of a time of change in Dowlais, and it is recognition of the importance of Merthyr during the nineteenth century that a man such as Pearson Cresswell lived and influenced thinking and practise there and in the wider world, for 40 years.
We continue with Alan Banks’ fascinating article about the Bessemer process:
Bessemer first started working with an ordinary reverbatory furnace but during a test a couple of pig ingots got off to the side of ladle and were sitting above it in the hot air of the furnace. When Bessemer went to push them into the ladle he found that they were steel shells: the hot air alone had converted the outer parts of the ingots to steel. This crucial discovery led him to completely redesign his furnace so that it would force high-pressure air through the molten iron using special air pumps. Intuitively this would seem to be folly because it would cool the iron, but due to exothermic oxidation both the silicon and carbon react with the excess oxygen leaving the surrounding molten iron even hotter, facilitating the conversion to steel.
Bessemer licenced the patent for his process to five ironmasters, for a total of £27,000, but the licences failed to produce the quality of steel he had promised and he later bought them back for £32,500. He realised the problem was due to impurities in the iron and concluded that the solution lay in knowing when to turn off the flow of air in his process; so that the impurities had been burnt off, but just the right amount of carbon remained. However, despite spending tens of thousands of pounds on experiments, he could not find the answer
The simple, but elegant, solution was first discovered by English metallurgist Robert Forester Mushet, who had carried out thousands of scientifically valid experiments in the Forest of Dean. His method was to first burn off, as far as possible, all the impurities and carbon, then reintroduce carbon and manganese by adding an exact amount of spiegeleisen.
Robert Forester Mushet
This had the effect of improving the quality of the finished product, increasing its malleability – its ability to withstand rolling and forging at high temperatures and making it more suitable for a vast array of uses.
The Dowlais Iron Company was the first licensee of the Bessemer process, constructing the world’s most powerful rolling mill in 1857, and producing its first Bessemer steel in 1865.
The Bessemer Plant at Dowlais Ironworks in 1896
The Bessemer process revolutionized steel manufacture by decreasing its cost, from £40 per long ton to £6-7 per long ton during its introduction, along with greatly increasing the scale and speed of production of this vital raw material. The process also decreased the labour requirements for steelmaking.
Prior to its introduction, steel was far too expensive to make bridges or the framework for buildings and thus wrought iron had been used throughout the Industrial Revolution. After the introduction of the Bessemer process, steel and wrought iron became similarly priced, and most manufacturers turned to steel. The availability of cheap steel allowed large bridges to be built and enabled the construction of railways, skyscrapers, and large ships.
Other important steel products were steel cable, steel rod and sheet steel which enabled large, high-pressure boilers and high-tensile strength steel for machinery which enabled much more powerful engines, gears and axles than were possible previously. With large amounts of steel it became possible to build much more powerful guns and carriages, tanks, armored fighting vehicles and naval ships. Industrial steel also made possible the building of giant turbines and generators thus making the harnessing of water and steam power possible. The introduction of the large scale steel production process perfected by the Englishman Henry Bessemer paved the way to mass industrialisation as observed in the 19th-20th centuries.
Obsolescence
Commercial steel production using this method stopped in Workington in 1974. It was replaced by processes such as the basic oxygen (Linz-Donawitz) process, which offered better control of final chemistry.
The Bessemer process was so fast (10–20 minutes for a heat) that it allowed little time for chemical analysis or adjustment of the alloying elements in the steel. Bessemer converters did not remove phosphorus efficiently from the molten steel; as low-phosphorus ores became more expensive, conversion costs increased. The process permitted only limited amount of scrap steel to be charged, further increasing costs, especially when scrap was inexpensive. Use of electric arc furnace technology competed favourably with the Bessemer process resulting in its obsolescence.
Thomas Dyke (1816-1900) was born in Merthyr and played an active part in its public life for the greater part of a century. Trained at Guys and St. Thomas’s hospitals he was parish surgeon for various Merthyr districts and for the Dowlais Iron Company.
Josh was born on 1 May 1921 at Inspector’s House, Cwmbargoed to George and Selina Powell. His mother cared for her two younger sisters and brother, whilst his father was employed as a waterman by the Dowlais Iron Company.
The cause at Penywern began in 1856 when Mr David Evans of Llanwrda and Rev Benjamin Williams of Gwernllwyn Chapel began holding meetings in Mr Evans’ house in Penywern. With the blessing of the congregation at Gwernllwyn, they also opened a Sunday School.
