Tag: Bedlinog

The Peace-Building Bedlinog Boy

by Christine Trevett

We very easily forget people on our own patch who tried to make a difference and to make the world a better place. One of those was Gwilym Davies, who was born in Bedlinog – though in his day (he died in 1955) Bedlinog was not part of the Merthyr Tydfil region patch, as it is now.

After the carnage of the First World War there were those in Wales promoting ties and understanding between nations through membership of the Welsh League of Nations Union.  The Rev’d Gwilym Davies (a Welsh speaking Baptist minister) was at the forefront of that work in Wales, was its secretary and became the WLNU’s honorary director. He tried to promote international understanding in other ways too. This was the man who in 1922 created the annual message of peace and goodwill from the children of Wales to the children of the world. It is still sent out each year through Urdd Gobaith Cymru.

The League of Nations had been founded in January 1920, following the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. This was the first ever organisation working inter-governmentally for international peace, for the settlement of disputes and co-operative working between nations. It was a sort of predecessor for The United Nations.  Then in 1925, almost certainly for the first time ever in Wales, the major non-conformist churches (chapels) got together with the Church in Wales in a public act for a cause which seemed more important than the many things which separated them. That was to try to persuade America to join the League of Nations. American churches might be a way forward in achieving that. It was Gwilym Davies who carried and publicly delivered the document.

2025 sees the centenary of that first Welsh ecumenical action.  There will be various events to commemorate it during the coming year, at a time when our world feels all-too wracked by wars and need for negotiation.

You can read about Gwilym Davies in Merthyr Historian, the publication of Merthyr Tydfil & District Historical Society. He appears in its 50th anniversary volume (no. 32, 2022), titled Troedyrhiw Southward and Taff Bargoed. Glimpses of Histories and Communities. You can see a video from the Welsh Centre for International Affairs about what the commemoration in 2025 is all about and his part in what happened

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPyQZXwUBbs

and better still, you can go along to what is happening on January 26th 2025. See the poster below.

There you will hear a range of speakers on the times, the people a century ago, the implication for our own times and about the Bedlinog boy Gwilym Davies.  January 2025 will bring the 70th anniversary of his death. All are welcome.

If further information is needed nearer the date, contact Judith Jones of Gelligaer Historical Society (judithjones131@gmail.com) or
(second best) Christine Trevett (editormerthyrhistorian@gmail.com)

Merthyr Historian Volume 32

What’s in the newly-launched 50th Anniversary volume of Merthyr Historian?

The answer is more than 450 pages about the history and communities and notable people linked with the lower end of our Borough.

It’s called Troedyrhiw Southward and Taff Bargoed. Glimpses of Histories and Communities.

This is what is in it …

FOREWORD: Lord Ted Rowlands

REGIONAL MAP       

WELCOME TO OUR 50th ANNIVERSARY VOLUME

 I. THE ROAD THAT RUNS THROUGH IT …       

  • Clive Thomas, ‘History, geography and the construction of the new A470 from Abercynon to Abercanaid’. A photographic account with commentary

II. PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE

  • Christine Trevett, ‘The Idiot of Cefn Fforest farm: learning disability, lunacy and the law in 17th century Merthyr parish’
  • Transcription, ‘Visit to the Merthyr Sewage Farm’ (1872,South Wales Daily News)
  • Huw Williams, ‘A North South divide and the Troedyrhiw Sewerage Farm: a case study in local history’
  • Bleddyn Hancock, ‘Fighting for breath, fighting for justice: how a small Welsh Trade Union took on the British government on behalf of tens of thousands of coal miners suffering and dying from chest disease’

III. WAR, COMMEMORATION AND  PEACEMAKING      

  • Eirlys Emery et al., ‘Treharris remembers – Treharris yn cofio: a recent community project to record the past’
  • Gethin Matthews, ‘Honour to whom honour is due’: reports of First World War unveilings in the Merthyr Express, with special reference to those in the south of the Borough’
  • Craig Owen, ‘Born of Bedlinog – the man who united nations. The Rev. Gwilym Davies, world peacemaker’

IV. COMMUNITIES AND PROJECTS

  • Mansell Richards, ‘The Gateway to Merthyr Tydfil Heritage Plinths project’
  • David Collier, ‘The Saron graveyard project, Troedyrhiw’

 V. LOCAL POLITICS AND WORKERS’ EDUCATION

  • Martin Wright, ‘Aspects of Socialism south of Merthyr and in Taff Bargoed in the 1890s: a window on Labour’s pre-history’
  • Daryl Leeworthy, ‘Workers’ Education in the lower County Borough: a brief history of an enduring idea’

 VI. BALLADMONGERS AND MUSIC MAKERS

  • Stephen Brewer, ‘Idloes Owen, founder of Welsh National Opera’
  • Alun Francis, ‘Getting your timing right at Glantaff Stores – and what happened next’
  • Wyn James, ‘The Ballads of Troed -y-Rhiw’

 VII. SPORT AND OUR COMMUNITIES             

  • Alun Morgan, ‘1950s football rivalry between Merthyr Town and the Troedyrhiw-Treharris clubs’
  • Ivor Jones, ‘A community and its sport, a short history of Bedlinog Rugby Football Club’

 VIII. THIS BOOK WOULD NOT BE COMPLETE WITHOUT …  

  • John Holley and T.Fred Holley, ‘Troedyrhiw Horticulture 1876 –’

IX. OUR HISTORICAL SOCIETY: SOME HISTORY

  • Clive Thomas, ‘Before heritage began to matter. Only the beginnings’
  • The Society’s Archivist: an interview

CONTENTS OF Merthyr Historian vols. 1-31 (1974-2021)     

BIOGRAPHIES OF CONTRIBUTORS      

Volume 32 of the Merthyr Historian is priced at £15. If anyone would like to purchase a copy, please get in touch with me at merthyr.history@gmail.com and I will pass on all orders.

Scheduled Monuments in Merthyr

I recently received an enquiry asking whether there were any Scheduled Monuments in Merthyr Tydfil. The following is transcribed from Wikipedia:-

Merthyr Tydfil County Borough has 43 scheduled monuments. The prehistoric scheduled sites include many burial cairns and several defensive enclosures. The Roman period is represented by a Roman Road. The medieval periods include two inscribed stones, several house platforms and two castle sites. Finally the modern period has 14 sites, mainly related to Merthyr’s industries, including coal mining, transportation and iron works. Almost all of Merthyr Tydfil was in the historic county of Glamorgan, with several of the northernmost sites having been in Brecknockshire.

Scheduled monuments have statutory protection. The compilation of the list is undertaken by Cadw Welsh Historic Monuments, which is an executive agency of the National Assembly of Wales. The list of scheduled monuments below is supplied by Cadw with additional material from RCAHMW (Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales) and Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust.

Name Site type Community Details Historic County
Gelligaer Standing Stone Standing stone Bedlinog A 2 m (6.6 ft) high stone on open moorland. Probably Bronze Age and with the possible remains of a Bronze Age burial alongside. An inscription on the stone, now mostly illegible, is described as either post-Roman/Early Christian or Early Medieval. Glamorganshire
Coed Cae Round Cairns Round cairn Bedlinog Located in a cairnfield with at least 19 stony mounds, the scheduling consists of a group of eight Bronze Age burial cairns. Glamorganshire
Gelligaer Common Round Cairns Round cairn Bedlinog A group of eleven Bronze Age burial cairns. Glamorganshire
Carn Castell y Meibion ring cairn Ring cairn Cyfarthfa

Troed-y-rhiw

 A ring cairn, possibly dating to the Bronze Age, with a 8 m (26 ft) diameter and surrounded by a 3 m (9.8 ft) wide stony ring bank. Glamorganshire
Brynbychan Round Cairn Round cairn Merthyr Vale, A Bronze Age circular cairn with a diameter of 18 m (59 ft). There is an OS triangulation pillar on the site. Glamorganshire
Cefn Merthyr Round Cairns Cairnfield Merthyr Vale Glamorganshire
Morlais Hill ring cairn Ring cairn Pant Glamorganshire
Tir Lan round barrow cemetery Round barrow Treharris The remains of six Bronze Age round barrows, three to the north-west and three to the south-east of Tir Lan farm. All six remain substantially intact despite being reduced by ploughing in the past. Glamorganshire
Garn Las Earthwork Round cairn Troed-y-rhiw The remains a circular burial cairn measuring 14 m (46 ft) in diameter, probably dating to the Bronze Age. Glamorganshire
Merthyr Common Round Cairns Round cairn Troed-y-rhiw A group of six Bronze Age burial cairns ranging from 5 to 19 m (16 to 62 ft) in diameter. Glamorganshire
Carn Ddu platform cairn Platform Cairn Vaynor Glamorganshire
Cefn Cil-Sanws ring cairn Ring cairn Vaynor Glamorganshire
Cefn Cil-Sanws, Cairn on SW side of Round Cairn Vaynor Brecknockshire
Coetgae’r Gwartheg barrow cemetery Round cairn Vaynor Glamorganshire
Garn Pontsticill ring cairn Ring cairn Vaynor Glamorganshire
Dyke 315m E of Tyla-Glas Ditch Bedlinog The remains of a later prehistoric/medieval dyke with a clearly defined bank and ditch running east-west across a ridge top. The 3 m (9.8 ft) wide ditch is 1.5 m (4.9 ft) deep at its east end. Glamorganshire
Cefn Cil-Sanws Defended Enclosure Enclosure – Defensive Vaynor Brecknockshire
Enclosure East of Nant Cwm Moel Enclosure – Defensive Vaynor Glamorganshire
Enclosure on Coedcae’r Ychain Enclosure – Defensive Vaynor Glamorganshire
Gelligaer Common Roman Road Road Bedlinog Glamorganshire
Nant Crew Inscribed Stone (now in St John’s Church, Cefn Coed ) Standing stone Vaynor A 1.5 m (5 ft) high square-sectioned pillar stone thought to date to the Bronze Age. A Latin inscription on the west face and cross incised on the north face are from the 6th and 7th-9th centuries. Holes in the stone indicate that it had been used as a gatepost. Brecknockshire
Platform Houses and Cairn Cemetery on Dinas Noddfa House platforms (& Cairnfield) Bedlinog Medieval house platforms, also prehistoric cairnfield Glamorganshire
Platform Houses on Coly Uchaf Platform house Bedlinog Glamorganshire
Morlais Castle Castle Pant The collapsed remains of a castle begun in 1288 by Gilbert de Clare, Lord of Glamorgan. The walls enclosed an area of approximately 130 by 60 m (430 by 200 ft). It was captured during the 1294-95 rebellion of Madog ap Llywelyn and may have been abandoned shortly afterwards. Glamorganshire
Cae Burdydd Castle Motte Vaynor A 3 m (9.8 ft) high motte and ditch dating to the medieval period. The diameter of 23 m (75 ft) narrows to 9 m (30 ft) at the top. Brecknockshire
Cefn Car settlement Building (Unclassified) Vaynor Glamorganshire
Gurnos Quarry Tramroad & Leat Industrial monument Gurnos Glamorganshire
Sarn Howell Pond and Watercourses Pond Town Glamorganshire
Abercanaid egg-ended boiler Egg-ended Boiler, re-purposed as garden shed Troed-y-rhiw Glamorganshire
Cyfarthfa Canal Level Canal Level Cyfarthfa Glamorganshire
Cyfarthfa Tramroad Section at Heolgerrig Tramroad Cyfarthfa Glamorganshire
Iron Ore Scours and Patch Workings at Winch Fawr, Merthyr Tydfil Iron mine Cyfarthfa Glamorganshire
Ynys Fach Iron Furnaces Industrial monument Cyfarthfa Glamorganshire
Penydarren Tram Road Trackway Merthyr Vale Glamorganshire
Iron Canal Bridge from Rhydycar Bridge Park Glamorganshire
Pont-y-Cafnau tramroad bridge Bridge Park An ironwork bridge spanning the River Taff constructed in 1793. The name, meaning “bridge of troughs”, comes from its unusual three tier design of a tramroad between two watercourses, one beneath the bridge deck and the other on an upper wooden structure which is no longer present. Pont-y-Cafnau is also Grade II* listed. Glamorganshire
Merthyr Tramroad: Morlais Castle section Tramroad Pant Glamorganshire
Merthyr Tramroad Tunnel (Trevithick’s Tunnel) Tramroad Troed-y-rhiw Glamorganshire
Cwmdu Air Shaft & Fan Air Shaft Cyfarthfa Glamorganshire
Remains of Blast Furnaces, Cyfarthfa Ironworks Blast Furnace Park Glamorganshire
Tai Mawr Leat for Cyfarthfa Iron Works Leat Park Glamorganshire
Deserted Iron Mining Village, Ffos-y-fran Industrial monument Troed-y-rhiw Glamorganshire

Please follow the link below to see the original:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scheduled_monuments_in_Merthyr_Tydfil_County_Borough

Gwilym Davies

The following article is taken from the marvellous website
http://www.treharrisdistrict.co.uk, and is transcribed here with the kind permission of the webmaster, Paul Corkrey.

Gwilym Davies CBE was a Welsh Baptist minister, who spent much of his life attempting to enhance international relations through supporting the work of the League of Nations and its successor, the United Nations. He also established the Annual World Wireless Message to Children in 1922, and was the first person to broadcast in Welsh, on St David’s Day, 1923. He was born in 29 Commercial Street, Cwmfelin, Bedlinog on  24 March 1879, son of D. J. Davies, a local Baptist minister.

He was a pupil teacher at Bedlinog when his father moved to the neighbourhood of Llangadog and he became a pupil at Llandeilo grammar school. He began preaching as early as 1895 and trained for the ministry at the Midland Baptist College, Nottingham, and at Rawdon College. There he won the Pegg Scholarship which enabled him to enter Jesus College, Oxford, where he graduated. Whilst at Oxford he edited The Baptist Outlook. In 1906 he was ordained minister at Broadhaven, Pembrokeshire, and the same year he married Annie Margaretta Davies, but she died 3 December 1906 and their baby son died four months later; they were buried in Cwmifor cemetery, Maenordeilo, Carmarthenshire.

In 1922 he retired from the ministry to devote himself to the cause of international peace. He joined with Lord David Davies in creating the Welsh council of the League of Nations Union with its headquarters at Aberystwyth. He was appointed a C.B.E. in 1948, and the University of Wales conferred an honorary degree of LL.D. upon him in 1954.

He suffered from ill-health ever since his student days. He spent much of his life in Cardiff and Geneva, and his work took him to all parts of the world. On 24 January 1942 he married Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Dolgellau (the second woman to be appointed an inspector of schools in Wales; she was granted permission to marry and to retain her post till 1943). They lived in 8 Marine Terrace, Aberystwyth. He died 29 January 1955 and his ashes were scattered at Lavernock Point, Penarth, where the first radio messages had been exchanged across water.

The District Nurse Always Got There

by Mansell Richards

Prior to the 1960s and the arrival of the mass-produced, affordable motor car, district nurses visited their patients on foot or by bus. These hard- working ladies often walked miles in extremely bad weather,- rain,  hail, snow and gale force winds.

One such lady was Nurse Frances Evans of Muriel Terrace, Caeharris, Dowlais. The mother of two children – David and Dwynwen; she had, sadly, lost an eight year old son, Elwyn to diphtheria in 1938, a child-killing disease of the time.

For several years during the 1950s her once-a-week journey was sometimes unusual to say the least.

Normally, she travelled every Tuesday on the 1.15PM train from Caeharris Railway Station  (located behind the Antelope Hotel on upper Dowlais High Street) to the  isolated, windswept former coal-mining community  of Cwmbargoed some 4 miles away,  the home of her elderly patient, former miner, Mr Horace Morgan. He was a surgical case who needed skilled attention every week. Back in those days the isolated village of Cwmbargoed was situated on the main line from Dowlais to Bedlinog.

THE COLLIERS’ TRAIN

Nurse Evans always referred to this train as ‘The Colliers’ Train’, recalling vivid  memories of her younger days when hundreds of colliers disembarked every afternoon at Caeharris Station from ‘The Cwbs’, (these were old, basic carriages with wooden benches for seats). These colliers were returning to their homes having completed their early morning shifts in the pits at Cwmbargoed, Fochriw and Bedlinog etc. With so many pit closures between the wars however, far fewer colliers by the 1950s were travelling on this route.

Meanwhile after puchasing a ticket at the ticket office (priced 6d each way), Nurse Evans would begin her journey to Cwmbargoed. But with other patients to visit, she would sometimes miss the 1.15pm train, the next train leaving some three hours later. On these occasions she would be given a lift by other means. But no ordinary train this. It consisted of a single steam-driven locomotive and a guard’s van. She would be offered the only seat and would sit uncomfortably, behind the kindly driver and his sweating, grime-faced, coal-shovelling fireman.

Dowlais colliers returning home c. 1930 by Dewi Bowen

JOURNEY’S END

On arrival at Cwmbargoed Nurse Evans would have a ten minute walk to the home of old Mr Morgan. On one occasion she fell into a snow drift and was rescued by a passing workman who heard her cries for help.

All district nurses had large areas to cover and they walked miles every day. In some parts of the country, some may well have adopted the means of transport favoured by a nurse in the modern, 1950s-based television series ‘Call The Midwife’, by making use of a bicycle. However, there is no evidence of local nurses relying on this method of transport.

Needless to say Nurse Evans, who retired in 1962 enjoyed her occasionally unusual  journey inside a hot and noisy  steam  locomotive, across the lonely, windswept moorland above the town of Merthyr Tydfil.

Older folk may recall Nurse Evans, a kind and gentle lady, who was held in great affection by her patients during the 1950s and early 60s.

(This story was taken from an article in the Merthyr Express on 8 March 1958. Meanwhile, I thank Sian Anthony, Dowlais Library Service, Terry Jones, John Richards and the family of the late Dewi Bowen for their valuable assistance).

Jones Brothers (Treharris) Ltd.

The following article is reproduced here courtesy of Peter Gould.

After the end of the First World War, John Jones was provided with a motorcar by his father, which he hired out as a means of livelihood. One of three brothers, he had been gassed in the War, and sadly died a few years later, however, not before the idea of providing charabancs in the district had taken hold. The brothers each purchased a new chassis on which they put second-hand bodies, the first vehicle taking to the road in 1919. By the end of the following year they had three vehicles and the business gradually developed.

In August 1921 a service from Treharris to Pontypridd was commenced, with another route to Nelson in 1925. At this time the brothers were trading as the Commercial Bus Service from premises at the Commercial Hotel, Treharris.

We think the driver was Howell Perrin from Gresham place not sure who the conductor was. (pic courtesy of W Phillips and Tony Evans)

To cope with the extra services two Thornycroft A1’s with Norman 20-seat bodywork were purchased during 1925.

By 1928 an additional route to Bedlinog had opened and more vehicles acquired, including two Thornycroft SB’s with Hall-Lewis B26D bodywork and two Leyland A13’s with Leyland 26-seat bodywork.

In March 1930 Jones Brothers introduced a short-lived service between Merthyr Tydfil and Pontypridd, which ceased shortly afterwards because of opposition from Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council. From August 1930 the company was incorporated as Jones Brothers (Treharris) Ltd. By 1931, however, other operators, including Imperial Motor Services of Abercynon, Aberdare Motor Services and Gelligaer UDC, were running along parts of Jones Brothers routes.

Under the 1930’s Road Traffic Acts Jones Brothers were granted operating licences for the following routes;

Nelson – Trelewis – Treharris – Pontypridd, and
Bedlinog – Hollybush – Nelson – Pontypridd.

Other routes were also applied for, including one to Tredegar, but were unsuccessful, however, in November 1932 another route from Blackwood to Pontypridd serving Treharris, Nelson, Ystrad Mynach and Pontllanfraith was granted, although the licence contained clauses protecting existing operators.

For some time Jones Brothers had been operating a joint service with Evans and Williams, originally a competitor, but their application to take over the route was denied and it passed to Imperial Motor Services.

By the onset of World War II the fleet had grown and had included examples of AJS, Dennis, Leyland, Lancia, Vulcan and Thornycroft vehicles. (It was reported that Jones Brothers had acquired an ex-London General Omnibus Company B-type open-top double-decker in the early years of the company, but that the vehicle was disliked and returned to LGOC. Whether it actually operated in service is unknown, but if so it would have been the only double-decker operated). During the War the inevitable Bedford utility vehicles made an appearance, including several OWB models. An interesting purchase in 1942 was an AEC Q, originally new to Corona Coaches of London in 1935, which gave several years of service with Jones Brothers before being withdrawn.

The Company operated in a livery of maroon and brown with cream lining.

On 1st November 1945, the stage carriage business was sold jointly to Caerphilly UDC, Gelligaer UDC, Pontypridd UDC and the West Monmouthshire Omnibus Board, with ten vehicles passing to these four operators, who ran the ex-Jones Brothers routes jointly.

A single vehicle, Dennis Lancet II (No.4; HB5236) now with Francis (of Swansea) C32C bodywork was retained by Jones Brothers who continued to operate the coaching side of the business until 1958, when it finally ceased.

A Jones Bros bus outside the old Merthyr Police Station. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

To read the original article, please use the following link – 

http://www.petergould.co.uk/local_transport_history/fleetlists/jones.htm