From the Merthyr Express 110 years ago today….
Here is a clearer photo of the ambulance….
A New Ambulance
Tag: Blue Pool
Who was Lewis Cobden Thomas?
Lewis Cobden Thomas was born on 6 August 1865 in Merthyr Tydfil, the fourth son and fifth of eleven children of Thomas Thomas, an ironmonger, and his wife Gwladys, nee Jones. He was given the name of the radical liberal MP, Richard Cobden, who had fiercely opposed the Corn Laws, campaigned for their abolition and for an improved system of education.
He was educated at Merthyr College, Queen’s College Taunton, University College Aberystwyth and University College Cardiff where he obtained a 1st Division Certificate London Matriculation.
A natural sportsman, he played rugby as a forward for Cardiff in 12 matches and scored 7 tries in the 1883-84 and 1884-85 seasons. He was described in the South Wales Daily News in December 1884 as one of the best forwards in Wales. He won his two international caps against England and Scotland in the two matches played by Wales in the 1885 Championship. In the match against England at St Helen’s Swansea in front of a crowd of 5,000, in which the young Arthur Gould also won his 1st cap playing at full back, the first half was closely contested but the Wales team was well beaten in the second half by a strong English side who scored five tries to the two scored by Wales.
His second and final appearance for Wales was in the scoreless draw against Scotland a week later on 10 January 1885 at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow in front of 3,000 spectators. The South Wales Echo wrote:
“The Welshmen were lighter than their opponents, but nevertheless held their own well in the scrums. L C Thomas played splendidly and was admirably supported by A F Hill and R Gould”
He played for the University College Cardiff rugby team against Neath on 24 October 1885 during the 1885-86 season, but the profile of the university club was far inferior to that of the Cardiff team he had played for in the previous two seasons so the chance of adding to his tally of Welsh caps was slight. The South Wales Daily News commented on 2 November 1886:
“By the way, what has become of the South Wales College team? They have lately dropped altogether into the background. Surely this is not creditable to a club which has possessed such sterling players as H M Jordan, L C Thomas and A C Davies.”
It is believed that a knee injury later in the 1885-86 season led to his premature retirement from the game as no further mention of him has been found in any of the Welsh papers in connection with his rugby career.
His rugby career was in effect only a distinguished interlude in a very full life. A strong swimmer he saved a man from drowning in the notoriously dangerous Blue Pool at Pontsarn in June 1887. This heroic act led to him being awarded The Royal Humane Society’s Certificate in Vellum for which the citation read:
“Lewis Cobden Thomas is justly entitled to this Honorary Testimonial of this Society inscribed in Vellum which is hereby awarded to him for having on the 19th day of June 1887 gone to the rescue of Cornelius Allen who was in imminent danger of Drowning in Pwll Glas, Pontsarn, and whose life he gallantly saved.”
He was articled as a solicitor to a firm in Merthyr and spent the last year of his articles in London with Schultz & Sons. Having qualified as a solicitor, he came to Neath in 1880 and joined in partnership with Samuel Thomas Evans practising in offices in St Thomas Chambers, Church Place. Evans left the partnership a year later to study for the bar and Lewis Thomas continued to practise on his own. He served on the Neath Borough Council from 1897 to 1903 and was Mayor of Neath in 1900-01, a memorable year in which he led the formal responses of the town to the death of Queen Victoria.
He assisted in the formation of a mining company, The Thomas Merthyr Colliery Co Ltd, in 1906 set up by two of his brothers. He remained a Director of the company until 1911 and the company survived the vicissitudes of the industrial climate between the wars before being nationalised with the Coal Industry in 1946.
Lewis Thomas devoted his main attention to his law firm for many years but his health was not good in the years after the war and he suffered from increasing deafness. He died in Neath on 14 April 1928 aged 63.
Article supplied courtesy of researcher Richard Steele and the World Rugby Museum, Twickenham.
Merthyr’s Lost Landmarks: Penydarren House
In the very first volume of the Merthyr Historian, published in 1976, the eminent local historian Margaret Stewart Taylor wrote an article entitled ‘The Big Houses of Merthyr Tydfil’. One of the houses she mentions is Penydarren House.
That excerpt is transcribed below, with the kind permission of Dr Fred Holley, President of the Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society.
Penydarren Place, or as it was also called, Penydarren House, was the first luxurious house in Merthyr and I imagine it must have been a status symbol, something that made younger men envious. The Penydarren House we knew, that was pulled down about ten years ago, had been divided into two, Penydarren House and Penydarren Place, but the rooms inside were off fine proportions and showed what a grand mansion it was originally. It was built about 1786 by Samuel Homfray, joint owner of the Penydarren Iron Works with his brother Jeremiah. The two were sons of a Staffordshire ironmaster, Francis Homfray. He started the Penydarren Ironworks and besides three sons, also had two daughters who married Crawshays.
Elizabeth Homfray was the wife of the William Crawshay who built the Castle in 1813, when her brother’s grand house was in its glory. There is a description of Penydarren Place by J. G. Wood in that year:-
“The splendid Mansion of Mr. S. Homfray at Penydarren- situated upon a gentle declivity – is sufficiently removed from the town by the extent of the pleasure grounds, and contains all the conveniences and luxuries requisite for a family of wealth and importance. The gardens, which at first wore the appearance of sterility and barreness are now abundantly productive. The hot-houses, grape-houses, etc., furnish their respective fruits in profusion; and walks laid out with taste and judgement present several points from whence the silver Taff may be seen to great advantage.”
Penydarren House
Samuel Homfray is said to have entertained lavishly until he left Merthyr after becoming High Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1813. He also owned the Tredegar Ironworks. He went to reside at Bassaleg, and became a Member of Parliament, while Penydarren House was inhabited by William Forman, who had put a great deal of money into the Works and was one of the owners. Forman was an ordnance agent at the Tower of London, then headquarters of a government arsenal, and he was known in the City of London by the nickname of ‘Billy Ready Money’, owing to his wealth and readiness to finance speculative ventures. A smaller house, Gwaelodygarth Fach, later known as the Cottage, and only demolished after the war, was built at the top of what is now The Grove for one of his sons, Edward. This Edward Forman was an enthusiastic swimmer and intended to have a swimming pool in the grounds, but before it was dug, he went, as he often did, to swim in the Blue Pool, Pontsarn, had an accident there, and was drowned in 1822. The name Forman survives in Forman Place, near Garth Villas.
Penydarren House was demolished in 1957.
Margaret Taylor Stewart’s full article can be read in Volume 1 of the Merthyr Historian.