From the South Wales Daily News 130 years ago today (1 September 1888).
A New Clock
Tag: Pontmorlais
Merthyr’s Chapels: Wesley Chapel
The next chapel in our series is Wesley Chapel in Pontmorlais.
In 1790 Samuel Homfray, owner of the Penydarren Ironworks introduced a new process for making iron and needed to send to Yorkshire and Staffordshire for men to help carry out this new process.
The new workers were followers of John Wesley’s doctrines, and so started their own cause, meeting at their cottages near St Tydfil’s Church.
As the cause increased a larger meeting place had to be found and the ever-growing congregation started meeting in the Long Room of the Star Inn.
Again the congregation increased and it was decided to build a chapel. A piece of land was acquired beside the Morlais Brook near the small wooden bridge that carried the then small road from Merthyr to Penydarren and Dowlais.
Money was collected and the foundation stone was laid in 1796. Thomas Guest, son of John Guest the founder of the Dowlais Iron Works, who was an ardent Wesleyan and also a preacher, contributed £50 towards the building fund, and indeed preached at the chapel when it was completed. The chapel was completed in 1797 at a cost of £602.13s.7d. This was the first English chapel in Merthyr.
The congregation continued to grow and in 1860 it was decided that a new chapel should be built. The builders were Messrs Morgan & Edwards of Aberdare. There was a disagreement between the minister, Rev Josiah Matthews and the congregation about the size of the chapel, so after the site for the new chapel had been marked out with stakes, Rev Matthews waited until that night, went out to the site and moved the stakes to make the chapel larger. This subterfuge was not discovered, and it was not until the chapel was finished did Rev Matthews reveal what he had done. The chapel was completed in 1863 at a cost of £880 and was officially opened on 15 January 1863. Incorporated into the building was a house on the north side of the chapel which was intended to be used as a manse for the minister, but it was never used as such and was instead let to private tenants.
In 1871 the trustees of the chapel decided to have a new pipe organ so set up a fund called the “Debt and Organ Fund” to raise enough money to purchase an organ and pay off the remaining debt on the chapel. By 1873 enough money had been raised for the new organ and it was installed at a cost of £192.10s.0d.
In 1913, it was decided to build a new and very grand Central Wesleyan Mission Hall on Pontmorlais Road West across the Morlais Brook from the chapel, on the site of the Old Drill Hall. It would have been connected to the chapel by an arcade. Plans were actually drawn up for the Mission, but before building began the First World War broke out. Due to the subsequent upheaval, the plans were shelved and the Hall was never built.
The chapel closed on 30 December 1979 due to prohibitive costs for necessary repairs to the chapel, and the congregation moved to Dowlais Wesleyan Chapel. The building has been since used as a furniture shop, and an arts and crafts centre.
Merthyr Memories: Merthyr’s Cinemas – part 2
by Kenneth & Christine Brewer
The biggest and most popular cinema in Merthyr was the Castle Cinema. It was very grand with a large foyer with a café and lounge upstairs. Inside the auditorium were three tiers of seats, and at the back there was a section that was partitioned off by glass so that you could watch (but not hear) the film whist you were waiting to go in.
The cinema was managed by Mr Cyril Smith, and the commissionaire was Vines Perry. The Castle also had a magnificent organ which would rise out of the floor, and the resident organist was Gene Lynne.
The Castle was owned by ABC Cinemas (Associated British Cinemas), and on a Saturday morning they would have the ABC Minors – a cinema club with special showings for children. At the beginning of each Saturday morning session, the “ABC Minors Song” would be played to the tune of ‘Blaze Away’, whilst the lyrics were shown on the screen with a bouncing red ball above the words to help the audience keep the place.
The Palace Cinema, which was in Pontmorlais (where the car park near Flooks is now), was smaller than the Castle. It only had two tiers of seating, but it too had a café upstairs. The manager at the Palace was a Mr Jones who was always smartly dressed in a black suit and a dickie-bow. The Palace was a very popular cinema, but the lasting memory is that in the winter it was always freezing cold there, so there would always be a scramble to sit near the radiator.
Also on the High Street, just a few doors up from the Castle Cinema, was the Electric Cinema. This was the oldest cinema in Merthyr, and by the 1940’s it was quite dilapidated and had a bit of a reputation – its nick-name was ‘The Bug-House’. I (Ken) only ever went there once when I was quite young. I had asked my mother to take me to see a George Formby film (I don’t recall which one), and when we got to Merthyr (from Abercanaid), the only cinema that was showing it was the Electric. My mother didn’t want to go there, but I finally persuaded her – but only on the understanding that I never told anyone that we went to the Electric!!!!!
The Theatre Royal and the Temperance Hall were also used for theatrical performances as well as being cinemas.
The Theatre Royal was also quite grand – it also had two tiers of seating, with a standing area at the back…..not glassed in this time though. Every Christmas there was a Pantomime there – I (Ken) remember seeing Cinderella starring Ronnie Ronalde (the yodelling music hall star) as Dandini and the radio stars Clapham and Dwyer as the Ugly Sisters.
The Temperance Hall also put on plays – it even had its own repertory company. One of the junior leads was Pamela Mant who left the company to play Christine Archer in ‘The Archers’. Another regular at the Temperance Hall was Pat Phoenix who went on to star as Elsie Tanner in ‘Coronation Street’. When you went to see a film at ‘The Temp’, you had to be careful where you sat. Some of the seats downstairs were behind the pillars supporting the balcony, so you would be forever dodging from side to side to see the screen. Also, one of the rows of seats was quite rickety, and if you weren’t careful, you would find the whole row falling backwards…..with you on it!!!!
Of the other cinemas in Merthyr, the only others I (Ken) visited were the Oddfellows Hall and the Victoria in Dowlais – this was because the queues in Merthyr were so long that we caught the bus to Dowlais to watch the films instead. I only visited each of them once. I remember the Oddfellows Hall was quite big, but a bit old fashioned, and I particularly remember the Victoria because when you entered the auditorium, you came in from under the screen. I had never seen that before.
Those days were poorer, but simpler times, but we were far more contented, and it is sad that all of the history of those days is being washed away.
The Olympia Rink
The next time you travel past the General Hospital heading towards Pontmorlais, you may very well see a street sign on the left for ‘The Rink’….but why ‘The Rink’?
In the first decade of the 20th Century, a new craze hit Britain – roller-skating. In Merthyr, skating rinks were opened at the Angel Hotel and also at the disused theatre of the Old Market Hall, but in 1909, a purpose built skating rink was begun in Pontmorlais. Commissioned by The South Wales Rinks Co. Ltd in partnership with Messrs Cross and Cross of Walsall, the rink was designed by Mr Longworth to accommodate 3,000 people. A prospectus was issued by the company, and 2,000 shares were sold in the first weekend alone. The building which was 208 ft long and 70 ft wide, had a hard rock maple floor, orchestral gallery, lounges, a refreshment buffet, and was lit by 30 electric pendant lights. The Rink opened on 19 March 1910.
When completed, it became one of Merthyr’s major venues (and certainly one of the largest), and as well as being used for roller skating (the Olympia Rink even had its own roller-hockey team), the building was used for balls, political meetings and other special events. Following the death of Keir Hardie, the former Merthyr MP, a Memorial meeting was held at the Olympia Rink.
Sadly, with the advent of the First World War and the inevitable wane in interest in roller-skating, the Olympia Rink began to lose money, and by the end of 1916, was put up for sale. Very little information is available about the building after this, and it sadly burned down in the 1920’s.
If you have any information about the Olympia Rink you would like to share, please leave a comment to the left or email me at: merthyr.history@gmail.com