From the Aberdare Leader 100 years ago today (21 July 1919):
Merthyr’s Lost Landmarks: The Triangle, Pentrebach
One of Merthyr’s most sorely missed landmarks is undoubtedly the Triangle in Pentrebach.
The Pentrebach Triangle was a planned settlement of fifty-four houses constructed in the 1830s and 1840s, in association with the development of the Pentrebach Forge by the Hill family of Plymouth Ironworks. It comprised four rows of double-fronted terraced houses, two of them facing each other across Church Street (which was part of the Merthyr – Cardiff turnpike road to c.1840 when a new alignment was laid out to the west), and two rows enclosing a triangular space to the west of Church Street. The houses had two rooms and a pantry on the ground floor, and two rooms above, accessed by half-spiral stone stairs built into the very thick party walls between alternate pairs.
By 1813 there was already a row of terraced housing, Long Row, to the east of Church Street, and a building on the east side of Church Street itself, possibly an alehouse which was later converted to four houses.
Further building of Triangle probably began in the late 1830s, with two stages of six houses each on the east side of Church Street, attached to the south end of the alehouse building. The first seven houses of the south row (from the east end) of the Triangle probably also date from this period. The later houses used greyish-yellow bricks for window arches and chimneys.
All were built by 1851. At first there were no back doors, and all had small enclosures at the front, some of which contained sheds for coal. Water came from a pump and trough in the centre of the triangle, and a block of four privies was constructed behind the south-west corner. Later many of the houses acquired single-storey rear extensions.
The houses were Listed Grade 2 in February 1975, but had already been purchased by Merthyr Council and earmarked for clearance. Local civic and heritage groups fought to save them, and the Civic Society even produced a scheme showing that they could be renovated for less than the cost of new housing, and at the same time provide 12.5% more floor space than the basic basic new-build design of the day.
All the efforts to save them were in vain however, and The Triangle was demolished on 12 December 1977, and the whole site and all related landscape features have been obliterated by the building of large industrial units.
The demolition of the Triangle is one of the most grievous losses to Merthyr’s Heritage. It beggars belief that the powers that be sanctioned its destruction, knowing how important and unique it was, and in the face of such public opposition….but should we be surprised?
A Mystery Football team
Following on from yesterday’s post, here’s a bit of a mystery.
Alan Jones and David Watkins are currently researching Merthyr Tydfil A.F.C., and they have unearthed this photograph.
Can anyone shed any light on it?
The inscription on the football is all but illegible, but I have blown the photo up as best I can.
If anyone can help identify the team, please let me know and I will pass the information on to Alan and David.
Thanks
The Jones Boys
by Trev Jones
I’m Trev Jones from Birmingham, UK and now living in Wales. Together with my wife Debbie, we spent many years researching my Jones genealogy.
This is the story of my Grandfather, his four brothers from Penyard, Merthyr Tydfil and their sons who played professional football from 1918 to 1970. One family who sent player after player to grace the teams of the football league for over 50 years. Even today, the family have members still involved in the game.
Will John (Shoni) Jones:
The eldest of 5 brothers, my Grandfather. No more than an average player, but this was the beginning and no one was to know that his brothers would go on to achieve greater things at football. Shoni turned out for Aberdare and Ton Pentre when these teams were part of the football league.
He is pictured here with Ton Pentre from the 1921/22 season when they were beaten in the Welsh cup final by Cardiff.
Ivor Jones:
Ivor began to show the same skills as his elder brother Shoni. He was signed to Merthyr Tydfil FC and it wasn’t long before he was on his way to Swansea Town. From there his talents were spotted by West Bromwich Albion where he transferred in 1921.
He was the first of the family to gain international recognition, being selected to play for Wales 10 times during his career.
Emlyn Jones:
Signed for Merthyr Town in 1933. After six weeks he was transferred to Everton, playing alongside the likes of Dixie Dean. Moved on to Southend, playing over 500 games and becoming a firm favourite with the fans. Finished his career at Barrow after which he continued playing amateur football with Shirley Town in Birmingham.
Brynmor Jones:
Bryn started his career at Merthyr Town but soon moved over to Ireland playing with Glenavon. On his return to Wales, he played for Aberaman where he was quickly signed up by Wolverhampton Wanderers. A real favourite with the Molineaux crowd who nearly rioted when he was transferred for a record £14,000 in August 1938 to Arsenal. It was front page news, knocking talk of the impending world war that was facing the UK.
Bryn was selected to play for Wales no less than 17 times. He was in the side at Cardiff that beat England 4-2 in the 1930’s. He scored that day, along with another Merthyr lad, Dai Astley.
Bertrand Jones:
Aston Villa were after the talented Bert. However, with the outbreak of World War 2, Bert was sent to Burma with the South Wales Borderers. Unfortunately, he never returned, being killed in action against the Japanese.
Ken Jones:
Ken is the son of Emlyn. He played professionally at Swansea, Southend and Gravesend, but injury put him out of the game. He wasn’t finished with the game though, and became a sports journalist with the Daily Mirror. Following on from there he became sports writer at the Sunday Mirror and then the Independent.
Has written many books on sport including boxing and of course football.
Cliff Jones:
Perhaps the most famous of the Joneses. Signed to Swansea Town in the early 1950’s, Cliff was a wizard of the wing. In 1958 he was transferred to Tottenham Hotspur for another record fee, this time £35,000. He became a regular member of the Spurs first team, partnering Jimmy Greaves. The 60’s were known as the glory glory days at Tottenham, where the side were unbeatable. He was part of the double winning team of 1961 and 1962, and in the side that won the first European cup winners cup in England. Cliff was capped 58 times for Wales and collected three F.A. cup winners medals and the European cup winners medal. In 1970, after over 10 years at Spurs, he signed for Fulham where he retired from the game. He went on to teaching P.E.
Bryn Jones:
The elder brother of Cliff. He started his career as a forward but settled down to become a resolute defender. After playing at Swansea then Bournmouth he went on to captain Watford where he finished his playing career. Bill McGarry, the manager at Bournmouth says, “No player ever gave more for me, and he’s still the best full back I ever managed.”
Ivor Jones:
The youngest son of Shoni. This is my father seen here 2nd from the right back row with the England Schoolboys team at Ninian Park Cardiff in 1939. He was considered to be a full international of the future but with the war intervening and being of a somewhat shy nature declined to take up the sport as a professional.
To read the original article, please click the following link. http://joneshistory.com/the-jones-boys/
Pilgrimage to Cwm-y-Glo
Eighty years ago today, on 13 July 1939, a special service was held in the ruins of Cwm-y-Glo Chapel to mark the 300th anniversary of Non-conformity in Wales. The Merthyr Express, dated 15 July 1939, reported the service, and is transcribed below.
PILGRIMAGE TO CWM-Y-GLO
Welsh Independents’ Service in Chapel Ruins
Delegates from 55 churches attached to the North Glamorgan Association of Independents on Thursday made a pilgrimage to the ruins of Cwm-y-Glo Chapel, the secret worshipping place of Welsh Dissenters of the 17th Century.
The pilgrimage was part of the celebration of the 300th anniversary of Non-conformity in Wales, and the pilgrimage coincided with the quarterly meeting of the North Glamorgan Association at Ynysgau Congregational Church.
An impressive service was conducted around the ruins of the historic chapel and was attended by about 300 people.
Lying in a secluded spot on the mountainside overlooking the Borough, Cwm-y-Glo was built in 1669 by the Dissenters who had previously held their meetings at Blaencanaid Farm nearby. Blaencanaid became liable to raids by Government spies and soldiers, and for 20 years Cwm-y-Glo was used as a secret worshipping place until 1689 when the Toleration Act gave religious freedom to all Non-conformists.
Services were continued for many years afterwards until the members formed themselves into two groups – one going to Cefn Coed and the other to Ynysgau Chapel.
At the service at Cwm-y-Glo on Thursday an address was given by the Rev J T Rogers, pastor of Zoar Welsh Congregational Church, Merthyr, on “The Struggles of the Dissenters in the Merthyr area and the history of their worshipping places”. Mr Thomas Edwards of Edwardsville, president of the North Glamorgan Association, presided and prayer was offered by the Rev Watkin Jones.
Principal John Morgan Jones of the Bangor Independent College proposed a vote of thanks to the Rev J T Rogers and Mr W T Owen, Director of Education, seconded. The service concluded with the Benediction given by the Rev Cyril Bowen, Troedyrhiw.
ASSOCIATIONS CONFERENCE
A conference was held at Ynysgau Chapel in the morning, when Mr Thos. Edwards presided. Reports of the activities of the association during the past quarter were given by the Rev J T Rogers, secretary of the association.
The Rev H P Hughes, Cwmbach, was elected missionary secretary for the association and the Rev Glannant Jones, Aberdare, was appointed secretary of the Peace Committee.
Following the conference a service was held when the preacher was the Rev J R Salmon, Pontlottyn. Others who took part in the service were the Rev W Walters, Abernant; the Revs D C Jenkins, W Morse and W R Davies.
During the conference the Rev J T Rogers, who has been the association’s secretary for the past 12 years, was presented with a typewriter in recognition of his services. The presentation was made by Mr J Lewis, Aberdare, and Mr Rogers suitably responded.
A public meeting was held in the evening when the mayor, Mr Isaac Edwards, J.P. presided. The Rev T Glyndwr Jones, Dowlais, took the devotions, and addresses were given by Mr R Hopkin Morris, M.A., Director of the West Regional BBC Station, Cardiff, and Principal J Morgan Jones M.A.
Wanted!!!
Hello everyone.
This is my bi-annual appeal to all budding historians out there – please send in your articles.
As you know I am always looking for fresh ideas for this blog, so if anyone feels they would like to contribute a piece – no matter how short, any submissions will be gratefully received.
Everyone is welcome to contribute – whether you are an established historian or someone with a passion for local history who has never written something before.
Please send me your articles – help keep the blog fresh.
Thank you
Merthyr’s Footballers of the Past
Mountain Hare – an Early History
by Carolyn Jacob
MOUNTAIN HARE is the name of an old inn above Pen yr Heol Ferthyr which gave the district its more modern name – the 1851 Census Returns recorded Pen yr Heol Ferthyr (see below).
It is not certain when the inn was built, but it would seem to have ideally positioned for the time before industrialization and the road links and pre-1750 conditions, but the name suggests a post-1750 inn. It is an English name. The other public house in the area, the Farmer’s Arms, has the interesting nickname of ‘the Spite’, and there may be truth in the local legend that it was intended to ruin the trade of the other inn. However the name might be derived from the Welsh for a water spout because there was one there. There is another public house with this name in Carmarthenshire, and many of the residents of Mountain Hare came from there. This is very curious but the truth behind the name is hard to be certain of.
The Mountain Hare Ironstone Mine in mentioned by Clive Thomas in Merthyr Tydfil – A Valley Community, page 305, this pre-1860 ironstone mine was at Mountain Hare, just southwest of Dowlais No 2 Pit. In 1841 ironstone mining, coal mining and associated employment such as haulier are practically the only two occupations in the district, however, by 1851 there are different occupations in the area. Gradually the ironstone mining dies out and gives way to coal.
The 1851 census returns, which records place of birth, give clear evidence that the population of Mountain Hare (Pen yr Heol Ferthyr) came from various Welsh counties. We can find people born in Montgomgeryhire, Denbighshire, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire. There are only a few Englishmen here later but no Irish or Scots.
On 31 May 1856 the Merthyr Express reported the conversion of a small cottage to a Sunday School because of ‘the large number of children running about the whole of Sunday at Pwllyhwyaid. The school was connected to Zoar Welsh Independent Chapel.
Also, according to All Change by Josh Powell, page 63, a garden at Pen yr Heol Ferthyr was sold by David Robert Davies to Zion Welsh Baptist Chapel in 1861 for £20. A Sunday School called ‘The Bryn’ was then built on this site.
PEN YR HEOL FERTHYR: The ‘top of the road or ancient byway from or to Merthyr Tudful’, a place generally located below the old ‘Mountain Hare’ Inn, immediately east of the former Dowlais Inclined Plane, just above the former bridge which (in the 1940s) took the road called Heol Ferthyr alias Twyn yr Odyn Road across the Dowlais Inclined Plane. Sometime the name is on documents without the ‘yr’. The Dowlais Inclined Plane went right through this locality, mostly as a deep cutting, requiring a bridge to take Heol Ferthyr over the railway and another bridge lower down taking a lane over the railway to Tir Ysgubor Newydd homestead.
By 1885, the six-inch Ordnance Survey Map showed nearby Mountain Hare Inn, Maerdy, some houses to the rear and a row of houses alongside the road. This apart, there is very little if anything known of the history and occupants of this ‘farm’ or small-holding which lay alongside one of the main access roads to the village of Merthyr Tydfil. However, evidence taken from the census returns 1841- 1911 reveal quite a large number of persons residing in this district.
Mountain Hare was pictured in the Illustrated News of 1875 because this popular London based magazine did a feature about Merthyr Tydfil during the 1875 Strike, the longest strike to date. The men met at Mountain Hare for huge outdoor political rallies, but the area had long been a general outdoor meeting place gathering crowds of working men for sports and activities such as dog fighting (actually illegal from 1835) and bare knuckle fighting. Its main claim to fame is that the greatest politician of all time, Keir Hardie, spoke here to a gathering of working people in 1898.
Merthyr Regatta
The short article transcribed below appeared in The Cardiff Times 150 years ago today (3 July 1869). It is yet another example of the vibrant and varied events that marked the social calendar of Merthyr in years gone by.
The Merthyr Tydfil Boating Club regatta came off at Dolygaer Lake on Thursday, last week. The weather was very auspicious, it being bright, sunny, and warm, and convenient arrangements having been made for the running of trains on the Brecon and Merthyr Railway, there was a vast concourse of people at the lake early in the day. Trains were also run from Brecon, Cardiff, and Newport, and altogether it was calculated that there were about 8000 present.
The boat racing commenced about two o’clock, and while it lasted it created considerable excitement. The programme, however, which had been prepared for the occasion, was little more than half carried out. Even after the first race, which was easily won by the Hirwain crew, the zest of the competitors seemed to have been completely extinguished. The only spirited race afterwards was that in which a crew of Cyfarthfa mechanics and the Manship Bros., of Newport, had such and excitingly tight pull, that the former won by an almost imperceptible difference only. The regatta was not, for some reasons, attended with the success which has marked it occasion on former years.
Help us Preserve the Jewish Heritage of South Wales!
Dear Friends,
I am writing to you on behalf of the Jewish History Association of South Wales. Since January 2017, we have been working on collecting and preserving the Jewish heritage of South Wales; we recorded 72 oral histories and created a digital collection consisting of more than 6000 images. To share the results of our work, we have launched, on the 17th of June, a 14-week long travelling exhibition and are organising 22 talks across south Wales; one of the talks was delivered to Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society on the 3rd of June. Our current project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Jewish Historical Society of England, will end in September this year.
However, there is still so much more to do, and we are preparing a new funding application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund (to be submitted by mid-July at the latest). Our new project will include collecting oral histories and tangible material to preserve the heritage and working with local museums, archives, and libraries to identify the Jewish material in their collections, improve interpretations, and digitise the material to make it more accessible. We also intend to continue promoting Jewish heritage of south Wales by creating the Jewish heritage trails in Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil.
The new project is estimated at around £60,000 and we need to raise 10% (£6,000.00) of the total value to support our application. As part of our fundraising efforts, we have launched a 4-week long crowdfunding campaign, which can be accessed at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/jhasw. The aim of the campaign is to raise £3,000 as part of a bid for National Lottery Heritage funding.
This crowdfunding appeal runs in parallel with other fundraising efforts; in total, we are hoping to raise 10% (£6,000.00) of the project’s total value to support our application. We are running an ‘all or nothing’ campaign, which means that we need to raise 100% of our target to receive any money. If our project does not reach its target by Friday, the 12th of July, at 13:00, no money is taken from our supporters and our project will not be funded.
Please donate whatever you can – every donation, no matter how large or small, helps towards us achieving our goal. And please share the link to our crowdfunding page with your family and friends, and anyone who is interested in preserving Jewish heritage!
Please get in touch, if you have any questions: klavdija.erzen@jhasw.org.uk.
Klavdija Erzen
JHASW Project Manager