65 years ago today….
A History of St Gwynno’s Church, Vaynor – part 2
by Ena Moreton
Many thanks to Hywel George, administrator of the Cynon Culture website for allowing me to use this article.
The land for a new building was given by Mrs Mary Williams of Penrhadwy. Vaynor, and work was about to start when Robert Thomson Crawshay, ironmaster at Cyfarthfa, four miles away, offered to build the church at his expense if the money already raised by the congregation, about £700, was put towards what is now St John’s in Cefn Coed. For many years this church was known as St Gwendoline’s, a mistaken dedication caused by confusion among scholars over Welsh and English usage.
Father Silas Morgan Harris (1888-1982) corrected the name whose scholarship embraced the Welsh saints and the history of mediaeval Welsh church. St Gwynno appears to have been Abbot Gwynno, born either in 487 or 507, whose feast day falls on October 22 and one of that company of Celtic saints who travelled spreading Christianity throughout these lands. In Scotland he is known as Guinochus and also credited with founding Plouhinec in Britanny and Kilglin in Co. Meath in Ireland. A contemporary view of St Gwynno can be seen in the fine bas relief near the entrance; He is shown with his shepherd’s crook and the invocation ‘St Guinoce, OPN’ – his Latin name and initials of Latin invocation Ora Pro Nobis (Pray for Us). The sculpture is signed AJJA, work of Arthur Ayres, winner of the Prix de Rome 1931 whose works can be seen in major international permanent exhibitions.
This work is in memory of Canon William Henry Harris (1884-1956), elder brother of Father Silas. Both were born in Pontsticill and firmly on the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church. Canon Harris, known as Father Bill, was professor of Welsh at Lampeter, precentor of the chapel and canon treasurer of St David’s Cathedral. Continuing the family connection, the stained-glass window opposite, depicting the Blessed Virgin and Child, was given by the Harris brothers in memory of their mother, Ann, and is inscribed in Welsh with a line from the Hail Mary “Blessed art Thou amongst women”. The figure of the guardian angel further down the church could not be more distinctively Victorian. The angel is in memory of the four daughters and two sons of the Williams family at Penrhadwy, whose mother gave land for the church. All died in quick succession in their twenties and early thirties in the 11 years between 1859 and 1870.
The angel is by Joseph Edwards, Merthyr-born sculptor whose works are also to be found in Westminster Abbey. He was born in 1814, son of a stone-cutter, and is said to have been in love with one of the Penrhadwy daughters. The angel is reputed to have been modelled on her; one of the final three works in a career that saw 70 of his sculptures exhibited at Royal Academy.
The altar and reredos, with its carved woodwork and panelling, date from 1912 given in memory of Herbert Kirkhouse (died 1904, aged 72) a mining engineer at Cyfarthfa Works who married Maria Teresa, one of the Penrhadwy daughters. Maria Teresa is commemorated in the oak font, given by her son in 1930.The present St Gwynno’s was completed in 1868 a year before consecration by Dr Ollivant Bishop of Llandaff, standing in for Dr. Thirlwell, Bishop of St David’s.
The churchyard is noted for the grave of Robert Thomson Crawshay, the church’s benefactor, with its 11-ton granite slab inscribed ‘God Forgive Me.’ There are also graves of people at the lead edge when Merthyr was at the height of its industrial power, though many have been lost to the march of time.
The vegetation on the steep slope running down to the banks of Taf Fechan is now sanctuary to wild life, plant and animal; a protected nature reserve. Speed was not a speciality of Gruffydd Shon, the old bachelor, whose lady love tired of waiting for him and married a farmer. Gruffydd who died of a broken heart composed his own epitaph that existed as late as 1870 but vanished when his gravestone was broken during demolition of the old church. It read:
Here lies the body of Gruffydd Shon
Covered here with earth and stone
You may sweep it up or leave it alone
It will be just the same to Gruffydd Shon.
In the 140 or so years since St Gwynno’s re-build it has shown signs of strain. In 1969 the church tower on the verge of collapse was taken down and remodelled with a new steeple costing £2000. In the 1980s the church was re-roofed with pantiles as near the original as possible; in the late 1990s the internal floor was replaced and whilst work was going on services were held in Pontsticill village hall; the churches own parish hail having been sold in a few years earlier. For most of its 1200 years St Gwynno’s was mother church for the scattered farms and cottages of Vaynor. When Dolygaer reservoir was completed in 1862 and work began on Taf Fechan reservoir in 1910, Pontsticill, the village that originated as home to those involved in the water industry, grew up a mile from the church where many of its congregation now live. The only other building in the immediate vicinity is the Church Tavern, built in 1823, which started life as a Court where law was administered and later became a celebrated local hostelry until its conversion into a house in 2000.
Below are two recent photos of St Gwynno’s Church – Old and New.
To read the original article, please visit: http://cynonculture.co.uk/wordpress/merthyr-tydfil/history-of-st-gwynnos-church-vaynor/
A History of St Gwynno’s Church, Vaynor – part 1
by Ena Moreton
Many thanks to Hywel George, administrator of the Cynon Culture website for allowing me to use this article.
The story of St Gwynno’s goes back to 8th Century. The original form of the parish name was Maenor Gwynno, manor of Gwynno. The first early wooden church is believed to have been burned down in 1291 during the battle of Maesyfaenor, an epic struggle between the two neighbouring Norman lords, Humphrey de Bohun, 3rd Earl of Brecknock and Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester, over the ownership of the nearby Morlais ridge and surrounding lands.
De Bohun won, at the cost of much bloodshed on both sides. Many were buried under the mound beyond the old church known as Cae Burdydd, or field of slaughter, about 100 yards down the track from this church. St Gwynno’s was rebuilt in 1295 and lasted for some 600 years when it became unsafe and was abandoned in the middle of the 19th Century.
De Bohun and De Clare
A fierce dispute broke out between Humphrey de Bohun, and Gilbert de Clare, which led to fighting between the two powerful Barons on the borders of Glamorgan and Breconshire.
De Clare had built a strong castle at Morlais near Merthyr on land which de Bohun claimed as his own. Raids were made on either side and this part of the country became lawless and swarmed with brigands (“The Welsh Wars of King Edward the First” by John E. Morris). The King’s Writ did not run in the Marcher Lordships. As the Marchers had fought for; and won their estates, they claimed the right to do as they pleased, within their own territories. In Glamorgan, they were known as “Arglwyddi Pren a Phwll” (Lords of the tree and the pool), as they had all the power to order men culprits be hanged and women culprits to be drowned (Rice Merrick and “Edward the 2nd on Glamorgan” John Griffiths). Both King and Marchers were aware, now that the power of the princes of North Wales had been broken, that the custom of private wars between the Marchers would have to be stopped. Edward was determined to enforce the doctrine that the dignity of the Grown was to be respected, and that the Lord. Marchers should be placed on a footing similar to that of the Crown tenants in England.
This private war between the Earls of Gloucester and Hereford was a unique opportunity for interfering and breaking the custom. Accordingly, the King sent a strongly worded proclamation to the two Earls to abstain from active hostilities on 25 January 1290, which Hereford obeyed. Gloucester’s men, however, under his bailiffs with the Earl’s banners, marched from Morlais castle and arrested and killed men from Vaynor, Penderyn and Ystradfellte parishes on three occasions during 1290. They carried, off 1070 head of cattle, 50 horse and bulls and countless sheep and pigs, of which the Earl received the usual one-third share. And soon brigands, who swarmed in the district, people who had been driven from their own homes when de Clare’s had extended their forests in Miskin or had escaped punishment or misdeeds by running away, also began to take part in the raids. In. addition to killing people and stealing animals, they committed sacrilege by taking away the chalice and ornaments from Penderyn Church, they set on fire together with Ty Ralph, Possibly the loot was taken by the brigands through ‘Bwlch y Lladron’ near Hirwaun.
Following these disorders, the King decided to act. Early in 1291, the Bishop of Ely, the Earl of Pembroke and two regular judges were commissioned to hear the case. The two Earls were to appear with the incriminated bailiffs at Ystradfellte on Monday, March 12th 1291. What a “Red Letter Day” this must have been for this quiet and secluded village!
Probably never before or since has such an assemblage of the most eminent notabilities in all their splendour, Barons in mail-armour on well-groomed horses been seen at Ystradfellte. The trial was to have taken place as Castell Coch, Ystradfellte; Hereford arrived punctually but Gloucester, who was married to the King’s daughter and was the most powerful baron in the country at that time, defied the king.
The Court adjourned, to Llanddew, near Brecon, but Gloucester was again absent. The trial proceeded and Gloucester and his bailiffs were found guilty, the damages being assessed at £100. Eventually at a great Council of Archbishops, Bishops, Earls and Barons, presided over by the King in person at Abergavenny at Michaelmas 1291, both Gloucester and Hereford, who were present, were sentenced to be imprisoned and their great lordships and estates to be confiscated. Gloucester was fined 1000 marcs and £100 for damages, and Hereford 1,000 marcs. Gloucester only lived for three and a half years longer, a sadder and wiser man.
In 1294 there was a general rising throughout Wales against being sent overseas to fight in Gascony and against the extortions of sheriff’s and bailiffs. The men of Glamorgan were led by Morgan or Rhys ap Morgan against de Clare and possibly this was the occasion or the origin of the stirring tune:
Rhyfelgyrch Cadben Morgan
Rhwym wrth dy wregys gleddyf gwyn dy dad
Atynt fy machgen dros dy wlad
The King cancelled his voyage to Gascony. He marched through Wales from North to South and was in Merthyr Tydfil on June 14th and 15th 1295, when he received the submission of the men of the Taff and Cynon Valleys, who had previously declared, that they had risen against Gloucester and not the King.
Gilbert de Clare, the Red Earl, died on December 7th 1295, and his young son Gilbert was killed at Bannockburn, in 1314. The great possessions in England and Wales were divided among three married sisters.
To be continued…….
To read the original article, please visit: http://cynonculture.co.uk/wordpress/merthyr-tydfil/history-of-st-gwynnos-church-vaynor/
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.
On the other side of the road where the Town Offices now stand, there was first a small place used as a butcher’s shop, then the opening into the Bunch of Grapes yard, a public house of that name being at the top, then a drapery shop kept by Mr Samuel Smith, who had a sister living with him. Their brother was Mr John Smith, the mineral agent of the Abernant works, and father of Mr W Smith, now manager of Rhymney Collieries, and then what was afterwards the Canton Tea Warehouse of a Mr Watkins.
We are now facing the Castle Hotel, and as far as can be recalled it is the same as in 1834-5, or at least as regards its externals. The steps remain, and the entrance and bar are so, but there have bee some slight alterations in other parts. At the date just mentioned Mr Edward Purchase was the host. Mrs Purchase and two or three daughters of hers were there also.
From all I ever heard, at the time of its building, persons wondered at its being so, for the position was not thought appropriate, but Mr John Treharne was right. Mr Treharne was evidently a person of some decision of character. He was known among his convivial friends as Sir John, and upon his widow marrying Mr Purchase she was sometimes referred to as No 25.
The Castle Hotel (right) at roughly the time detailed in this article
Immediately above the Castle, in fact a portion of the premises, was a gin shop, used also as the booking office for the coaches. Whether adjoining, or a door or two above, there was a hairdresser’s place, kept by Mr Abbott, who had made himself very unpopular to some by swearing to the identity of Dick (sic.) Penderyn of the riots of a few years before, and who had been executed for being implicated therein.
Some doors above was the Vulcan. There was an alley with cottages on two or three of its sides, then a public house – the William IV, then another narrow opening leading to the Morlais Brook, with Zoar Chapel on one side, just where Messrs Thomas had a drapery shop, and then an opening, and on the corner beyond, the residence of Mr Job James, the doctor. He had been, I always understood, a naval doctor. Next door lived his mother-in-law, Mrs Williams.
A person named Brown kept a shop adjoining, and the English Wesleyan Chapel followed. The residence of the minister of the chapel adjoined, and some doors above a Mr Thomas Williams, followed afterwards by a Mr Anstey upon Mr Williams removal to Victoria Street. Mr Thomas Williams was the father of the late Mr Thomas Williams, some time coroner. Only a few doors further and the Morlais or Pontmorlais turnpike gate was come to.
To be continued at a later date……
Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: Arthur Trystan Edwards
by Keith Lewis-Jones
Arthur Trystan Edwards
Plaque sited in the main entrance of The Court House, Merthyr Tydfil, CF47 8DU
Trystan Edwards (1884-1973), had a brilliant undergraduate record at Oxford before embarking on an architectural career.
He served his articles under Sir Reginald Blomfield and began to lecture at Liverpool University in 1911. He joined the Ministry of Health after serving in the navy during World War I, dealing principally with housing policy.
In 1933 he was ahead of his time by founding the Hundred New Towns Association, a policy which didn’t bear fruit until after the Second World War.
In private practice he wrote a number of books about architectural and planning philosophy. He also wrote “Merthyr, Rhondda and the Valleys” published in 1958.
Merthyr’s Chapels: Salem Chapel, Heolgerrig
The next chapel we look at is Salem Welsh Independent Chapel in Heolgerrig.
In 1838 a group of three men:- Jenkin Prosser, Moses Richards and Thomas Jones began to hold prayer meetings at their homes, and decided that they should start a Sunday School. Within two years the congregation grew to such an extent that they decided to build their own chapel.
Permission was given by Evan Evans, owner of the Six Bells Inn to build on a piece of land behind the Inn for an annual rental of one shilling. The cost of the building was kept to minimum due to materials being donated and labour given free, and as most of the congregation were also members of Bethesda Chapel, the latter chapel also backed the project.
The small chapel, which they called Bethlehem, measured just nine yards long by six yards wide was completed in June 1840 at the cost of just £120. The chapel remained a branch of Bethesda until 1842.
By 1855 the congregation had out-grown the chapel and it was decided to build a new chapel on a more accessible site and Salem Chapel was built to replace it.
Land was acquired between the main road and the factory pond with a ground rent of 10 shillings per annum. Because the land was so narrow, the chapel was built along the road rather than facing it. The new chapel cost £368.8s.7d and the members decided to call it Salem.
The congregation continued to grow, so the chapel was enlarged and re-built in 1872.
Salem became one of the focal points of Heolgerrig until well into the 20th century, and the choir and dramatic society at the chapel were famous throughout the borough, but as we have seen so many times, the congregation began to dwindle in the latter half of the century.
Due to prohibitive costs for the upkeep of the building, the main chapel was demolished in 1990, and the vestry was converted into a smaller chapel. Salem Chapel was one of the only chapels in Merthyr to still conduct its services entirely in the Welsh language until its closure in 2015.
Merthyr’s Boxers: Tosh Powell
Thomas Morgan ‘Tosh’ Powell was born in Mountain Hare in 1908. His father, Richard, a collier moved to the Cynon Valley to work when Tosh was still a child, with the family settling in Llwydcoed.
Although there is no record of when “Tosh” Powell first started fighting, he was an amateur fighter over a year before he turned professional, with a recorded fight at the Drill Hall in Merthyr in April 1926. Powell’s first recorded professional fight was against Trealaw’s Nobby Baker, at Merthyr Tydfil on 30 April 1927. Baker was the more experienced professional with seven undefeated contests to his name. The fight went the full fifteen rounds, with Baker winning by points decision. Despite his lack of professional fights, Powell’s next opponent was against Johnny Edmunds, the holder of the Welsh bantamweight title. The fight took place at Snow’s Pavilion in Merthyr on 9 July 1927 and was scheduled for twenty rounds. Edmunds, with 48 fights was vastly more experienced, but Powell stopped him via technical knockout in the tenth round, taking the Welsh title.
Two months after the contest with Edmunds, Powell was given a re-match against Nobby Baker, which was also recognised as a title defence for Powell’s bantamweight belt. Baker had been the busier of the two boxers in the four months between their meetings, contesting six matches to Powell’s single fight against Edmunds; though Baker’s last two bouts had seen him face defeat for the first time in his career. The fifteen round match, held in Pontypridd, ended after just seven rounds when Powell stopped Baker in the seventh round on a technical knockout. This contest is regarded as a successful title defence.
Nearly five months later Powell faced Tom Samuels, a novice professional from Treharris. The match lasted only seven rounds when Samuels was disqualified. Although this is recorded as Samuels’s only professional fight, this was regarded as a challenge for the Welsh bantamweight championship, and thus a second successful title defence for Powell. On 1 March 1928, Powell fought his first contest outside Wales when he travelled to Liverpool to fight local boxer Lew Sullivan. Sullivan, who had 25 professional matches behind him, had only been stopped once in his career, in the fifteenth round of an encounter with Kid Rich. Powell made it a short contest by knocking Sullivan out in the first round. This would be Powell’s only clean knockout in his professional career.
Powell was invited back to Liverpool two months later, with a fight arranged against Dutch featherweight Rein Kokke. The fifteen round match only lasted three rounds when Kokke was stopped through a technical knockout. Powell had now fought in six professional fights with five wins and just one defeat. Six days after his fight with Kokke, Powell was back in the ring, a hometown match in Aberdare, in his third encounter with Nobby Baker. This time the fight was not considered a title defence, which was fortunate for Powell who was stopped for the second time in his career, and the second time to Baker who again beat him on a points decision after the contest went the distance.
Powell’s final fight would take him to Liverpool for the third time in his professional career, when he was arranged to fight with London bantamweight Billy Housego. Housego was slightly more experienced with twelve pro fights, but his record was poorer with only five wins, and of those, four were won by points. Boxrec states that the fight took part on 31 May 1928, though other sources agree on the following day, Friday 1 June. The fight at The Stadium, was scheduled for fifteen three-minute rounds, and in a close contest the fight reached the last round. With only a minute of the fight remaining Housego knocked Powell to the canvas. Powell recovered to his feet on the count of seven, but after returning in a daze to his corner he collapsed. The referee, Mr Gamble, stopped the contest with the match awarded to Housego on a technical knockout. Powell was carried to the dressing rooms, where the doctor on attendance recommended that he be taken to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary. His death, which occurred on Saturday 2 June at 5:50pm, was attributed to a haemorrhage of the brain, he was 20 years old.
At the inquest, Powell’s father Richard, testified that his son had not been training before the encounter with Housego, and that he had tried to cancel the fight. Richard Powell stated that the Liverpool promoter, Albert Taylor, had threatened that he would have his son’s license suspended if he pulled out of the fight. Taylor denied these claims. The doctor who performed the autopsy testified that the rupture ‘might happen to anybody’, the charges were dropped but the promoter was censured.
Tosh Powell was buried in the town of his birth, at Pant Cemetery. Thousands lined the route of the funeral to pay tribute to the young boxing star. Among the floral tributes was a wreath in the shape of a torn harp. It came from Billy Housego.
I have had several requests for more articles about boxers, and one specific request for Tosh Powell – hence this article. As I am not an expert on the subject, however, most of the text in this article is transcribed, with permission, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tosh_Powell. I try not to use Wikipedia articles verbatim, but this is an exception. Please forgive any mistakes.
If anyone would like to contribute any articles about the excellent boxing tradition in Merthyr – please get in touch…I am sure there are people much better qualified than me to write about Merthyr’s boxers.
In the Money!
From the Weekly Mail 110 years ago today…..
The Dowlais Educational Settlement
Hello everyone. My name is Christine Trevett and I’m writing a history of the Educational Settlement in Dowlais from 1928, through the Depression to beyond the Second World War, for Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society. Some people in the Borough still have memories of it.
I am coming across names of people who were linked with that Dowlais Settlement work and with John Dennithorne the Settlement’s Warden, but there are limited details or no details about the people named. Were they perhaps members of your family? Have older family members heard of them and of activities linked to the Dowlais Settlement? I would love to know.
That Settlement’s work was centred around the Horse Street Club for unemployed men, The Armoury, Trewern House, Gwernllwyn House and The Hafod, Pant. Here are the people I would like to learn more about:
From the early 1930s onward
- Margaret Gardner (née Margaret Morgan Jones), social worker distributing relief in food vouchers and clothing, later a Councillor, lived in West Grove.
- Jeannie McConnell
- ‘Bill’ (no surname) who may have been the local unemployed miner who was put in charge of the gym from around 1929. Or Bill may have had different roles in the Horse Street Club (in which case who was the ex miner who ran the gym?).
- Beryl (née Evans). She and ‘Bill’ were helping at the Settlement at the same time.
- Celeste Davies – worked with young children at the Horse Street site
- James Sullivan, gym instructor (was he known as ‘Jim’?)
- Edward Bruten – who ran some classes at the Settlement
- Bard Bracey – similarly was a tutor – and what was his relation to F.A. Bracey who taught French and German and ‘Swedish drill for juniors’ at the Settlement?
- Mr Fuente, who taught Spanish.
Also
- Beryl Williams of Pant and
- Valerie Hargraves of Pant – these two may have had roles at The Armoury.
- Mary Horsfall of Gwernllwyn House, art patron and friend of the Settlement.
If you can shed any light on this I can be contacted by email: rctcasagroup@gmail.com
Thanks, Christine
Grand Concert
120 years ago today….
