J. D. Williams – jeweller

by Carl Llewellyn

One of the most iconic buildings in Merthyr Tydfil’s High Street is Milbourne Chambers. Situated on the corner of High Street and Glebeland Street, presently the shop premises is empty but was formerly an established hairdresser’s named “Ladybirds”. For a majority of the towns-people though, they still refer to the premises by the name of the previous establishment, “H. Samuel” – jeweller, watchmaker and goldsmith, but what of the shop history and its association with the jewellery trade?

In this particular case the “H. Samuel” premises were formally rented by J.D. Williams’s jewellery business. The formation of J.D. Williams’s business began in 1856, when James David Williams returned to Merthyr Tydfil; he was the son of the Rev Benjamin Williams who was minister of Tabernacle Baptist Chapel, Merthyr.

After leaving school he was apprenticed to Job James, ironmonger, of Merthyr. When his apprenticeship was completed he moved to Soham, Cambridgeshire, to take up the management of an ironmongery establishment there, before moving to the city of Cork, where he obtained an introduction to the watch and jewellery business. It was not long before he secured an advancement from the position of an assistant to that of the buyer.

In 1856 he returned to Merthyr, where his family was well known and remembered, and commenced a business in November 1856 as a watchmaker and jeweller at premises in Market Square, which adjoined the old Merthyr Telegraph, and General Advertiser For the Iron Districts of South Wales.

Due to his admirable aptitude, both as a buyer and seller,  he quickly extended the business which he commenced in a smaller shop. He searched for more commodious premises, and finally, by April 1858 he purchased new business accommodation at No 129 High Street, which he continued to occupy to the end of his days when he died on 24 February 1890 aged 62 years old. After his death the business was taken over by his only son Frederick Carlyle Williams, who continued the business under his father’s name.

J. D. Williams shop at 129 High Street. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

In 1903 the Post office officials decided to build and relocate the Merthyr Post Office. Merthyr’s first postmaster was William Milbourne Davies, whose descendants were the owners of Post Office building and its land.

Due to the dilapidated state of the Post Office and the adjoining buildings, one of Davies’ descendants, Miss Mary Davies, decided to build a new block of buildings on the site, with the upper part of the building being used for living accommodation and offices. The building was to be named Milbourne Chambers in memory of William Milbourne Davies. Part of the building design included a shop premises, so as it was the intention of  Frederick Williams to expand and relocate his business, the opportunity manifested itself him to negotiate with the owners of Milbourne Chambers and he began a shop underneath the building and adjoining workshops.

The Merthyr Express dated 16 July 1904 recorded the pending opening opening of J.D. Williams & Co:-

There was a heavy copper name plate above the shop which gave a grand spectacle. There were handsomely appointed offices at the rear, and still further back, on Post Office lane, were elaborately equipped workshops, used for manufacturing, repairing and reconstructing items in the jewellery and watch making trade.

A word must be said about the clock. It was manufactured in the work shop, and it is a full sized one so far as the hands and dial are concerned, but no trace of the works can be seen. The clock is situated on top of the building, which faces Lower High Street, and proved over the years to be an impressive acquisition. The dial is five feet in diameter, and illuminated all through the night. The name of J.D Williams stood boldly on a handsome scroll with wrought iron sides – this was also illumined all through the night.

J. D. Williams new shop on the corner of the High Street and Glebeland Street.

On the day J.D Williams & Son, Jewellers opened at the new premises, Mr Walter West joined Mr F.C. Williams as a partner in the business.

By 1907 J.D Williams & Son, Jewellers had been sold to the H. Samuel chain of jewellery shops. The Samuel’s jewellery business was owned by Walter Samuel (1829-63). He married Harriet Wolfe in 1852, and after Walter’s death Harriet took over the family clock and watch business in Liverpool started by her father-in-law Moses Samuel. The first of the H. Samuel  Stores (“H” for Harriet) were opened in Preston in 1890, before long there were branches throughout Wales and England.

In 1907 the Merthyr Express dated 6 July 1907, advertised the new Samuel’s store:

The H. Samuel sign above the shop consisted of three panels, with lettering on each board, GOLDSMITH, H.SAMUEL & JEWELLER, but  by the 1960’s the signs were replaced by florescent lettering highlighting the name H. Samuel. For approximately 90 years H. Samuel served the town as one of the foremost jewellers, but in 1999 the business was finally transferred to 6 Graham Way in the St Tydfil’s Shopping Centre. Since H. Samuel moved, the premises in the High Street became a second hand furniture store, before becoming “Ladybirds”.

Merthyr’s Chapels: Elim Chapel, Dowlais

Elim Pentecostal Chapel, Dowlais

In 1873, a schism occurred at Beulah Chapel, and the Minister and 34 members left that chapel and started their own cause.

They acquired a piece of land on Walter Street and they built a small tin chapel there and called it Tabernacle. Within three years however the number in the congregation increased dramatically and it was decided to build a larger chapel. Three cottages and a shop were purchased in Ivor Street and new larger chapel designed by Mr John Williams, was built in 1876.

When, several years later, the schism between the two congregations healed, the congregation at Tabernacle moved back to Beulah, and Tabernacle became the Undenominational Christian Mission.

Tabernacle Chapel in Ivor Street after it had become the Undenominational Christian Mission. Photo courtesy of J Ann Lewis.

In 1919 a group of men, who were converts from the 1904/1905 Welsh Revival, invited Stephen Jeffreys of Llanelli to conduct a series of Revival Meetings. Both this group and Stephen Jeffreys himself had come into contact with some of the newly formed independent Pentecostal group.

Stephen Jeffreys. Photo courtesy of J Ann Lewis.

They were offered the use of the Undenominational Christian Mission, at first renting it and then, in December 1919 buying it at a cost of £600. Late in 1924 there was the first formal agreement between the leaders of the church and the Elim Pentecostal Alliance. The chapel was called Elim-Tabernacle and became the first Pentecostal Chapel on the British mainland.

This agreement was renewed in 1927 and the church became a member of the Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance in 1928.

The old chapel was forced to close and was demolished in 1974 due to the redevelopment of Dowlais and a new chapel, Elim was built in 1975 in Upper Elizabeth Street and continues to prosper.

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.

Quarry Row is an offshoot from the road to Jackson’s Bridge. It extended from about Bryant’s Old Brewery premises, almost and occasionally abutting the River Taff. Then came Caepantywyll, and a path by the river led on to the Cyfarthfa Works.

An extract from the 1875 Ordnance Survey map showing the area mentioned in this article.

Only a few yards from Bryant’s Brewery there was a passage between the houses for some short distance which thence was an open path up to the Grawen Road. The name of the resident has slipped my memory, but not many houses intervened before an observatory could be seen projecting above the roof, but it was not there as early as the place can be remembered by me. The owner was evidently an astronomer by inclination, though a grocer by trade. Persons by the name of Cornelius had a brewery not far off. The only person that can be called to mind was the Rev W Morris, who was the minister of the chapel in Caepantywyll.

A row of houses with the wall of the Cyfarthfa Works existed close by, and turning up by this wall (leaving the Cyfarthfa Works on the left) we should come out on the Brecon Road. Immediately opposite was a road leading to Gwaelodygarth, the Cyfarthfa Castle Park wall being on the left. We will, however, turn to the right, and return by the Grawen Road. There was a public house on the right, having its back to and overlooking Caepantywyll, kept by a very big man who had travelled as a giant, and there was also a small one who accompanied him as a dwarf.

The Grawen turnpike was nearer to Merthyr, and about there some years kept by Mr Scott was a grocer’s shop. That, during the absence of all the family at divine service, was broken into on a Sunday evening, and although a pretty extensive rummage had been made, the money bag was not discovered. It had been put where thieves would not be very likely to search – in and under the waste paper place of the counter. The time had been selected by those who were well acquainted with the circumstances for it was on a Sunday night following the Saturday’s ‘big draw’.

During the Chartist agitation, a William Gould, who was known as a prominent member, lived in Grawen Road (he too kept a grocer’s shop), and down towards the road was the home of the Evanses of Zoar, who were followed in the same house by the Owens of the same chapel. The brewery on the right, after passing a pond on the right at a lower level than the one on the left, was called Hopkin’s Brewery (it was this that Mr E L Richards was a partner in). Old Mr Hopkins was very fond of riding (he had a splendid jumper I remember).

In a field adjoining, and which was behind the row of houses then called Burnett’s Row on one side and the road to Pontstorehouse on the other, there was a very large block of limestone, which Mr Richards had moved there, and which he said was the fossil of a turtle. It was larger than those at the Zoological Gardens in London. At the end of Burnett’s Row we are at the house the Rev Mr Jones lived in, and we are back where we have already been.

To be continued at a later date…..

Rev Peter Price, Dowlais – part 2

by David Pike

Peter Price, who provoked such controversy while he was the minister of Bethania in Dowlais during the Welsh Revival, was born in Merionethshire in 1864. His family were members of Tabor Independent Chapel not far from Dolgellau – a chapel that for many years had served as a Quaker meeting house. His grandfather, who was a leading deacon there, had secured use of the building for the Independents as the Quaker group finally died out, having been compassionately involved in the care of the remaining elderly widows there. Later, Peter Price was himself greatly influenced by Quakerism, which partly shaped his own ministry.

After attending grammar school in Dolgellau, he studied philosophy at Aberystwyth University College and theology at Bala before being ordained in 1887 to Trefriw Chapel in the Conwy Valley. He served here for seven years, and in 1894 was invited to become minister of Great Mersey Street chapel, close to the docks in Liverpool. He had been invited to preach here on a number of occasions while at Trefriw, winning the hearts of the people. Here he gained a reputation as an excellent preacher and a sympathetic pastor who went out of his way to help alleviate hardship. He also gained a city-wide reputation for being a clear and uncompromising preacher of the Gospel. While he was in Liverpool the church released him in 1897 to study philosophy at Queen’s College, Cambridge, and he graduated in 1901. It is a measure of the respect and affection with which he was regarded at Great Mersey Street that they continued to support him in that period.

In was in July 1904 that he came to Bethania in Dowlais. By this time he had married Letitia Williams of Llanrwst, and she worked closely with him. They were both particularly engaged in working to alleviate hardship in the slums. Peter Price’s involvement in the Revival while he was here I have dealt with in an earlier piece.

The interior of Bethania Chapel as it would have looked in 1904. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

In 1910 Peter Price became the minister at Bethlehem, Rhosllanerchrugog, where the organist was the great Welsh composer Caradog Roberts. One newspaper report of his induction spoke of Peter Price as ‘one of the ablest preachers of the Welsh pulpit’.

R.H. Davies wrote of this period:

‘I am almost tempted to add that this was the most sympathetic and passionate circle of those in which he laboured. He was now in full swing as a preacher and lecturer. The people of Rhos had a ministry soaked and immersed in his own personal experience. It is said that the late Harry Evans, Dowlais, would whisper in his ear when he joined on Sunday evening cheerfully with the choir, ‘Keep it up’; but in later years in Rhos Caradog Roberts had to say more than once, ‘Keep it down, Doctor.’

Bethlehem Chapel, Rhosllanerchrugog

In 1913 Peter Price was invited to the USA on a preaching tour, and while there, he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity at Washington University, which he must have found gratifying.

During the Great War years, Peter Price was a strong advocate of pacifism, which probably reflects the influence of Quakerism on him.

In November 1920 Peter Price became the minister at Capel Seion, Baker Street, Aberystwyth. It was not long before the chapel was reinvigorated, and many of the university’s students attended the services and prayer meetings there.  Of this period, the chapel records report:

‘“Contributions have increased, members have been fired up, and new interest has been generated in the Cause. A strong wave of spiritual life has flowed into the heart of the Church …’”

Many students found their lives profoundly impacted by Price’s ministry, and they came to revere him. One of them was Iorwerth Peate who went on to establish the Museum of Welsh Life at St. Fagans. He wrote of the prayer meetings:

‘ … scores of us, if not hundreds, were loyal to him, and the parents of all denominations … The influence of that meeting remains today not only in Aber but throughout Wales … I know of no other Welshman, except Peter Price, who could do such a miracle, which is to draw together such an intractable collection of us, for prayer. He put faith in our hearts and hope in our spirits at a time when the minister needed only a little laziness to throw us over the edge of doubt …’

Peter Price retired from the ministry in 1928 and lived for a time in Swansea. For several years he continued to travel all over Wales to preach, in spite of increasing ill-health. Eventually, he was forced to pull back from itinerating, and he and his wife moved to Llanfairfechan in North Wales, and then to Prestatyn, where he died on 1st July 1940. His widow Letitia died in 1949. The two of them were buried together in the public cemetery in Prestatyn.

One of Peter Price’s biographers, D.J. Roberts, wrote of him:

‘Peter Price was a strong man with powerful opinions and passionate feelings, who was revered by his admirers but who also made enemies easily; a powerful preacher and an influential minister; a pacifist and an original character.’

Another, R. H. Davies, wrote:

‘Many a service I remember when I was completely humbled by his passion for the truth he spoke, and by his desire for the divine presence of the Saviour. …I miss the thunderous rapture of his voice, and the lightning that flashed from his eyes, but I remember with gratitude how much he did from 1904 to 1940 to heal my country’s religious atmosphere.’

If you would like to read more about the 1904 revival, please have a look at David Pike’s excellent blog……

http://daibach-welldigger.blogspot.com/

Rev Peter Price, Dowlais – part 1

by David Pike

In July 1904, Peter Price took up an appointment as the minister of  Bethania Welsh Independent Chapel in Dowlais. This was just four months before the outbreak of full-blown revival in Glamorgan under the ministry of Evan Roberts at the start of November. Remarks Price made later suggest that Bethania, while large and seemingly successful, had become somewhat complacent prior to his arrival. It was certainly galvanised in the weeks that followed as Price’s preaching, described by historian R. Tudur Jones as ‘majestic intense preaching’, took effect. It was not long before young miners and steel workers in the congregation were turned into evangelists, and the wider community began to feel the effect of the new minister’s work. An article in ‘Y Dydd’ early in December 1904 mentioned that 40 had been added to the church even before the Revival came, and that 150 had been added since; while a piece about Peter Price which appeared in ‘Tarian y Gweithwr’ in April 1905 included the following:

‘From the time of his arrival in Dowlais in July 1904, by the zeal and tireless labours of Peter Price, especially among the young, the church has greatly increased the number of its members – and its membership now stands at one thousand. On one Sabbath night alone, he received one hundred and four new members and has received about three hundred since his arrival at the place.’

Bethania Chapel as it would have looked in 1904. Photo courtesy of the Alan George archive

Undoubtedly, long before Evan Roberts himself came to Dowlais in January 1905, Bethania had been experiencing revival, as had several other chapels in the Merthyr district. Roberts led a meeting at Bethania on Monday evening 23rd January, which was only scantily reported in the press the following day. All that appeared in the ‘Western Mail was the following brief comment, part of the longer article about the meetings held in various chapels in the town:

‘ … the prayers and testimonies were numerous, but there was no outstanding feature in them. Still, there could have been no possible exception taken to the devotional character of the Dowlais meetings, unless the curiosity which naturally prevailed may he said to have, now and then, acted as a barrier to the “swing” of enthusiasm which is characteristic of Dowlais people as it is of those of anywhere in Wales.’

But it seems that Evan Roberts had been somewhat critical of a certain coldness of heart that he had detected in some of those who were occupying the Big Seat in the meeting, among whom no doubt would have been some of the chapel deacons, and probably Peter Price himself.

Peter Price subsequently wrote a letter to the Editor of the ‘Western Mail’ which was published on the last day of January 1905. It was highly critical of what he called ‘the Evan Roberts revival’ which he saw as a false, worked-up  and man-made phenomenon which was distinct from the true Holy Spirit revival which had been occurring in his own church and elsewhere. In the letter, Evan Roberts was portrayed by Price as an ill-educated and inexperienced newcomer who was not even trained as a minister, and who was causing untold damage to the churches out of a desire for personal prominence. More specifically, Price challenged Evan Roberts’ use of what might be called today ‘words of knowledge’ to identify in the meeting where people were coming to faith, questioning the spirit behind it; and also the apparent expressions of anger and rebuke when he sensed a coldness or unresponsiveness in the meeting. The letter was rather pointedly signed

“Rev. Peter Price, B.A. Hons., Mental and Moral Science Tripos, Cambridge (late of Queen’s College, Cambridge), minister of Bethania Congregational Church, Dowlais, South Wales.”

The letter created a furore in response, which found expression in a torrent of letters to the Editor of the ‘Western Mail’ which went on for several weeks.

Four fifths of the letters were strongly supportive of Evan Roberts (right), the young former coal-miner who in a few short months had emerged as a leading revivalist of the time; but the rest strongly took the side of the letter-writer himself. Evan Roberts  did not respond and privately denied that the letter attacking him had any impact on him personally. However, within a week of its appearance, he became unwell, and had to cancel engagements for a period. Among them was a long-awaited visit to Cardiff, which subsequently never happened.

The Revival gradually petered out thereafter; and the letter has ever since been regarded by many as a primary cause for its coming to an end. However, while the letter he wrote may have been unnecessarily vehement in its criticism of Evan Roberts, it is also unfortunate that it has tended to overshadow the very positive outcomes of his ministry both in Dowlais and elsewhere. In spite of the backlash, Peter Price remained unrepentant, a reflection on how sure he was of his point of view. In fact, in September 1905, he spoke publicly again of his views on the Revival when speaking in Liverpool, and once more there was widespread public consternation.

In some circles in Wales after the Revival Peter Price continued to be regarded with a significant degree of disfavour. Even today there are those who only know him as the man who opposed the Welsh Revival. But his ministry was undoubtedly fruitful in Liverpool and Bethania; and after the Revival, his powerful and direct preaching won him considerable favour both in Wales and further afield. His ministry as a whole will be explored separately.

To be continued……..

Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society

The Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society is pleased to announce that, after 18 months of disruption due to Covid, their lecture programme is due resume next month.

The first lecture will be at 2.00pm on Monday 6 September at Canolfan Soar, and the subject will be Morlais Castle.

Below is the full list of lectures for the rest of the year (fingers crossed). All members who paid their membership fee in 2020 will automatically have it carried forward to this year.

Everyone is welcome.

A Cyfarthfa Ghost Story

The following article is provided courtesy of ‘The Spooky Isles’ website.

140 years ago today in the August 17th 1881 edition of the Western Mail, the paper’s anonymous but “esteemed correspondent” sent in an “extraordinary narrative” which he “vouched for on the most unimpeachable authority.”

The story concerns the dormant ironworks at Cyfarthfa, Merthyr Tydfil and although the Mail declared its scepticism it published anyway because “the story is a good one.” And it is, very nicely told.

The Ironworks – A Little History

First opened in 1765 by a London merchant, by the 1790s the Cyfarthfa ironworks, under the direction of Richard Crawshay, became one of Britain’s most important iron producers – always handy for a nation almost perpetually at war somewhere in the world and in the midst of the industrial revolution.

The Crawshay family remained in charge, overseeing the works’ slow decline in the face of heavy foreign competition and rising costs. Still a hugely important local employer, profits from the ironworks were used to build William Crawshay II a grand home (Cyfarthfa Castle).

In 1875, the works closed, were re-opened and rebuilt to become a steelworks – a restructure that wasn’t completed until 1884, some time after the Western Mail’s story was published.

Cyfarthfa Works. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

The Ghosts of Cyfarthfa Iron Works

The tale’s unnamed narrator begins by mysteriously half-explaining that he and a friend visited the works although why “must remain unexplained” and it was “towards the gloomiest part of the night that we sallied forth, and made our way over tramroads and intricate paths to the scene.”

From here, it’s worth simply quoting the rest of the correspondent’s description in full, reading as it does, like a classic Victorian ghost story a novelist might have conjured up.

“Cyfarthfa Works had been familiar to me for many years, but they were associated with the fullest activity, with the glare of furnaces, the whirl of the rolls; and that picture was vividly in my imagination when we stood at length before the works that were slumbering in thick darkness, and as silent as the grave.

No change could have been greater, no stillness more profound. We were far enough from the town to lose its glare and its noise, and out of the way of the people journeying from one place to another. No place could thus be more isolated, even as no contrast from the wild dash of work to the utter quietude could be more intense.

We stood a while just within the dense shadow of one of the mills, just tracing the ponderous wheels and the dimly outlined rolls when suddenly the two huge wheels creaked and began to revolve, the rolls to move, and in a moment there was all the whirl of industry again, only needing the glare of light and forms of men to assure us that the works were in full action.

My companion, with an exclamation of profound astonishment, clasped me by the arm. Cool, iron man as he is, strong-minded and proof against the superstitions of the age, I felt his voice tremble as he said, ‘This is most strange. There are no men here; the works are stopped; no steam, no motive power.’

And the grip on my arm became severe.

I, too, felt alarmed, and am not ashamed to confess it. My imagination, livelier than that of his, conjured up misty shades, and I saw shapes flitting to and fro, and heard the cry of men and boys amidst the clanging iron. Involuntarily we stepped back into the air, and as suddenly as the medley arose, so it died away; not a wheel moved, all was hushed, and at rest.”

‘Cyfarthfa Ironworks Interior at Night’, by Penry Williams

The Old Man

“We walked away a little distance, our purpose unaccomplished, and talked to each other about this extraordinary incident. My friend, better able than I to afford a clue, was, like myself, utterly at sea, and could give no explanation. ‘But,’ said he, resolutely, ‘it must be fathomed, and we will find it out.’

With those words he hurried back to the works. I followed, and in a few minutes again stood looking into the silent mill. There was the same strange hush, the same weird gloom that appeared palpable did we but attempt to grasp it; but no sound.

‘Was it fancy?’ said my friend with his cheerful laugh. He had scarcely spoken when the great wheel again revolved, and machinery here and there, to the right, to the left, ponderous wheels and rolls, all sprang into motion, and the din of work was perfect in its fullness.

With this came the clanging of falling iron, the rattle of trams sounded strangely alike and again the impression was strong that puddlers and moulders flitted by, and ghostly labour went on. This was sufficient for us.

We hurriedly left the scene, and on our way home met one of the old ironworkers of Cyfarthfa to whom my friend related the circumstance. He knew the man as an old and respectable inhabitant, and made no secret of what we had heard.

‘Ha,’ said the veteran, stopping and leaning on his stick, ‘I have heard it too’: and, sinking his voice, he continued, ‘it always comes when the works are stopped.

It did one time before, many years ago, and when Mr Richard [Crawshay, died 1810] was living it came again. No one can say what is the reason, and perhaps it is best not to make any stir about it.’”

To read the original article, and also some other ghostly stories about Merthyr, please visit:

https://www.spookyisles.com/welsh-ghosts-western-mail/#A_Cyfarthfa_Ghost_Story_%E2%80%93_August_17th_1881