Caedraw

Memories of Old Merthyr

We conclude our serialisation of the memories of Merthyr in the 1830’s by an un-named correspondent to the Merthyr Express, courtesy of Michael Donovan.

© William Menelaus (1818-1882); Hagarty, Parker; Cardiff University; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/william-menelaus-18181882-15929

To some it is probable that to say much of Dowlais and leave the name of Mr Wm. Menelaus not prominently mentioned is like enacting the play “Hamlet” and leave out Hamlet himself. To such it is fair to say my knowledge of the place is antecedent to meeting with that gentleman prior to his going there. That he did much to keep up the prestige of the place is truthfully admitted. That he did not accomplish all his desires is also a fact; his intention and actual conversion of some portion of the works to another branch of manufacture can be doubtless recalled by many. Let me bear my humble tribute to his memory. Wishing Dowlais well, I will now part with it, and hope its future will be prosperous.

Instead of returning to Merthyr by the road, let us take a pleasanter way, and, mounting some steps by the roadside at Gellifaelog, cross by the footpath over a field or two, and then take the lane (or maybe paved road) back, passing by Gwaunfarren across the limestone tramroad there (there was also a limekiln close by), and we are close to the Penydarren Park again.

Before making my congé, let me recall some things that are now gone, most probably gone forever. One is the ‘Merched y Wern’ from Neath; they were well known, Their vocation in life some 60 or 70 years ago was to go to Swansea Pottery, and, getting a large crate or basket, in reality of ware, return to Neath upon the next morning loaded with the ware, walk to Merthyr to dispose of it. They were necessarily hardy and masculine. During their walks shoes or boots, as well as stockings, were taken off, only to be put on when entering a populous place. They were generally reputed to be well able to protect themselves. Generally there were two, three or four together, and evil betide any who raised their wrath. There is a tale of a man having said something being induced to accompany them for awhile, when at a suitable place he was denuded of clothing and bound a la Mazeppa – not to a horse but to a tree. Cwm-ynys Minton, not far from the Gelly Tarw junction, is the locus in quo of the episode.

Another class that has passed away are the old butter carriers, who, with their cart and horse, took weekly journeys from various parts of Carmarthenshire. They travelled 36 or even 48 hours at a stretch. Occasionally two or three would be in company; at night, some were thus able to sleep in their carts.

Then again there were the sand girls who earned a livelihood by gathering the stones from the river, calcining them and by ‘pounding’ reduce them to sand for use for domestic purposes. There are some stones far more suitable than others for this purpose – those of the silicious kind being more in request. However clear of them the river might be occasionally, a heavy flood brought down another stock, and so it went on. I am not aware if any such an employment now exists, but formerly the river from Caepantywyll to the bottom of Caedraw was the hunting ground of the sand girls.

The River Taff below Jackson’s Bridge, possibly showing some sand girls collecting stones. Reproduced by permission of The National Library of Wales Creative Archive Licence

The produce of the works, too, has undergone a strange metamorphosis. Not only are there no iron bars now made for tin works, but split rods have ceased to be so, and, while formerly large cargoes of ‘cable iron’ went to the Grecian Archipelago and other places in the Mediterranean, in vain should I look in all of South Wales for a bar bent to the shape of the camel’s back for conveyance across the desert. Advisedly, I say thousands of tons have gone from Merthyr for such a mode of conveyance.

‘Cable’ iron was also made, but if made now cannot be made from similar materials to what it used to be. I do not know of any South Wales works making cold blast all mine iron, but, if there is such it certainly not contiguous to Merthyr, where it was at one time made. Do not, however, suppose I consider Merthyr drawing to the close of its career:

“For I doubt not through the ages an increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened by the process of the suns”

Here for the present do I close but if “The sunset of life gives me mystified life” and coming events cast their shadows before my brain, I may endeavour to say a few words respecting “What of the future?”

Notes on Post War Developments on the Merthyr Tydfil High Street

by Carolyn Jacob

After World War II more street lights were powered by gas than electricity. Electricity was then supplied by the Merthyr Electric Traction and Lighting Co. Ltd and gas mainly by the Dowlais Gas Company and the Merthyr Tydfil Gas Company.

High Street Sewers

From the 1850s onwards the Board of Health continually argued as to how a High Street sewer was to be paid for and how to clean up certain problem areas such as Caedraw.

The drainage of the High Street was a problem as the town had no means of proper drainage. Mr. Hill said that sewers were made large for the purpose of admitting men and boys to clean them and that he would prefer draining the worst localities in the town first, especially those which had been afflicted with cholera like Caedraw.

Caedraw in the early 1900s. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

Merthyr Tydfil had a 100 miles of sewers varying in diameters between 9 inches and 30 inches. In 1946 a new main sewer was built from Dowlais to Troedyrhiw, the trunk mains in the upper part of the Borough being defective and inadequate. It was proposed to broaden the whole of the old High Street.

In 1949 Trystan Edwards (left), father of the New Towns Movement and opposed to tower blocks became the architect for Merthyr Council. His classic book on ‘Style and Design in Architecture’ by Mr Trystan Edwards’ of Merthyr Tydfil was published in 1950. Mr Trystan Edwards who had a high reputation as a town planner and architect made 3 objections in September 1952 to the new Merthyr Tydfil Development Plan. It seems that as early as 1905 a new Town Hall was on the cards and he objected to its proposed position and not a new building itself.

Caedraw Central Housing Development

In the 1960s came the new Caedraw flat scheme at a cost of £540,000. The new police station was officially opened in April 1965 by James Griffiths, the Secretary of State for Wales. He said the development had transformed the area from an over-crowded slum to an ultra modern residential area ‘ bold and imaginative’ as he had a conducted tour of the estate.

Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

St Tydfil’s Shopping Centre

The bridge from the St Tydfil’s Shopping Centre to the car park constructed 1969 was the first of its kind 300 foot cost £55,000 to build. Gareth Morgan a ten year old boy from Dowlais received a prize of £25 for naming the one and a half million new shopping centre St Tydfil’s. All 80 suggested names were connected with the history of the town and variations of the name Winstone were common. The centre developed by Chesterfield Properties Ltd included 48 shopping units, 2 supermarkets, a market hall, one large departmental store, public house, entertainments centre, 25 maisonettes and office accommodation.

The Market Square Chapel was demolished.

In July 1966 the Eagle Hotel was completely renovated and modernised throughout. The landlord and land lady were Mr and Mrs Parry.

Oldway House, Castle Street was begun in 1966 by Oldway Properties Ltd. as part of the new Merthyr and took 13 months to complete. The building itself was a frame structure.

Oldway House during construction. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

The new central Police Station cost £150,000 in Swan Street was completed 1968, it was only a 75 yard move from the old Merthyr Police Station at Graham Street.

Police Station in Swan Street. Courtesy of Mansell Richards

Victoria Street clearance 1966

In the 1970s it was decided that the High Street was extremely congested and it was unsafe for pedestrians and it was decided in the 1970s that there ought to be a traffic-free shopping centre. The High Street became a haven of peace and quiet in September 1976. The Welsh Office gave a grant of £103,725 to take the traffic out of the High Street This ring road was to get the traffic out of the High Street

In 1988 the shops and offices in the High Street in Pontmorlais were treated to a facelift under a commercial improvement scheme. A car park and flower beds were created at the junction with Bethesda Street.

‘A past, a tradition, an experience in space and time we seem hellbent on bulldozing away … A man who loses his memory is half a man … A man who destroys his won memory is a madman’.

From an address given by Professor Gwyn Alf Williams to the first meeting of the Merthyr Tydfil Civic Society.

David Davies J.P.

By J Ann Lewis

David Davies was born in July 1857, the youngest of ten children.

His father died when David was just seven years of age, and at the age of ten, he began working at a candle factory at Caedraw. When the factory closed, David returned to school for a short time before gaining employment at another candle factory in Victoria Street. When he was 18 he began working at the Plymouth Works Rolling Mills, and after their closure, he found employment at the Ifor Works Rolling Mills.

In 1878 he became a conductor on the London and Northwest Railway omnibuses which connected the train passengers with the Brecon and Merthyr Railway at Dowlais Central Station. When the Morlais Tunnel opened in June 1879, the buses were no longer required, so he became a porter and later signalman. He married Mary in 1881 and moved to Pant, and the couple had six children – Annie, Albert, William, Arthur, Frank and Bryn, Albert losing his life in the First World War.

A man deeply involved in local politics, fighting for an improved living standard for others, he organised a large demonstration at Cyfarthfa Park, asking for 2,000 new houses to be built. He was also a J.P., served on the Board of Guardians for nine years, was one of the founders of the Dowlais Co-operative Society (later becoming its chairman), and he was also a founder member of the Dowlais Railwaymen’s Coal Club, which had its own wagons, and by cutting out the middle-man, saved the profits for its members.

In 1919, he was the official candidate (Dowlais Ward) for the Merthyr Trades Council and Labour Party. Points of his campaign were:-

Free medical and nursing care for infants.
Clean, plentiful, cheap milk; managed by the people for the people and thus eliminating private profit.
Free meals for hungry children.
Free medical treatment for the needy and sick.

He was elected mayor in 1925-26.

David died in 1940, his principal aim in life having been to leave the town of his birth a better place than he found it.

The Execution of Dick Tamer – part 2

Continued from the last article…..

CONFESSION OF RICHARD EDWARDS.

In the early part of the week, the Culprit made the following statement to the Chaplain:-

“I was not alone when my mother came by her death There were three presents beside me. My child (10 months old), was in bed in the room. My mother died on Thursday night. When dead, two women placed my mother in bed beside my little boy, where the corpse remained until the Monday night following. The two other persons present, beside me and my wife, when my mother died, were the nearest relations of Peggy (my wife). Peggy and the other person had been in the womb of the other. These three persons told my father-in-law and my mother-in-law’s sister, that they had passed that night in Cefn Coed Cymmer. I gave my mother a blow about the jaw, because Peggy cried out that my mother was beating her. My mother fell down under my blow.

Peggy, her mother, and brother then laid hold on my mother. My mother did not speak; she groaned for some time. I saw Peggy and the other two squeezing her throat until she ceased groaning. I was in liquor: the three others were not. This happened about 12 or 1 o’clock, I cannot tell exactly, for there was no clock or watch there. And now, if Peggy had been allowed to be examined by me in the Hall, I would have made all this known then. Peggy asked me to bury her. I said I would not, I would leave her there, for I was afraid to be seen. I told them they had killed my mother. They begged me to keep everything secret. We all remained in the house till the dawn of day. I then went up to Dowlais, and the others returned home (to my father-in-law’s, as they say) and told their story about being at night at Coed y Cymmer.

I met my wife again about six o’clock the evening of the following Monday, at her aunt’s house, at Cae Draw (Jane Phillips’s) and we went together, the child in her arms, to my mother’s house. My wife placed the child in the opposite side of the bed to where my mother’s body was lying. We then together dragged the corpse out, and placed it under the bed. We continued to live in the house dining the rest of the week sleeping five nights in the bed under which the corpse lay! I was full of anxiety all the week, and on Saturday I started off the day my mother’s body was discovered, leaving my wife in my mother’s house. I was absent from Saturday until the following Wednesday, when I was apprehended in the Cast-House at Dyffryn, and wandering about.

I tell the best truth – the truth I should tell in the presence of God, where I shall he next Saturday – to you now. My blow did not kill my mother, for she groaned afterwards. Her death was caused by their meddling and scuffling with her on the ground. I know not exactly ill what manner. I mean Peggy, and her mother, and brother was scuffling with her. Neither of these three charged me at this time with having killed my mother. This is all true as I shall answer to God. I know nothing of the death of any other human being, male or female. If I did, I should confess it now, having gone so far. But I am guilty of every other sin or crime, excepting theft or murder. And now I have no more to say, having told the whole truth, and my heart is already feeling light. I began to feel lighter yesterday, when I determined and promised you to confess everything”.

The mark X of RICHARD EDWARDS.

The whole of the foregoing statement was read over in Welsh by Mr. Stacey, and explained to Richard Edwards, and signed with the mark by him in my presence, this 18th day of July 1842.

JNO. B. WOODS,

Governor of the County Gaol.

Grand Auction

150 years ago today…..

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.

There has not been much reference yet to Caedraw, nor can there be much recalled to describe. The Gas Works were erected here, a Mr Evans being the first manager, and a brother of his the deputy. There were two breweries near the end of the road joining Bridge Street, one owned by a Mr John Toop; the other, which was smaller, owned by Mr Anstie, who kept the shop in Pontmorlais previously. This Mr Anstie bought the property between the road in Caedraw and the Isle of Wight, and came to reside there after improving the buildings.

A section of the 1851 Public Health Map showing Caedraw

The basin tramroad was ordinarily used as a pedestrian thoroughfare, in fact many houses had no other way of approach. I cannot recall anyone ever being prevented from walking the tramroad, although it might not have always been judicious to do so on account of safety. Things are so altered now, and we are accustomed to the change, that it takes consideration to recall things quite decidedly. For instance, brakes to slacken the speed or stop conveyances were unknown. The ‘sprag’ was the only thing used, and these projected at variable distances from the wheels of the trams, if the trams were going fast – for they would occasionally run wild – it was a serious matter to be caught in any narrow part of the road. It was also a hazardous thing for the haulier to put them in or take them out, and many a limb as well as life has been lost by a slip.

As one instance of there being no other way of going to or coming from a residence on the Tramroad, somewhere behind the Morlais Castle Inn can be cited. It was the residence of Mr Roger Williams (I think it was his own property). He was a public functionary, but whether relieving officer or assistant overseer is not remembered now. If we went down the Tramroad towards Twynyrodyn, before coming to Professional Row we should see a door on the right hand. This is where a Mr Russell stayed. He was a brother of the Mr Russell who was the doctor of Dowlais, Penydarren and Plymouth Works at one time. He lived in the lowest of the three houses in Professional Row, and his surgery was at the back with public entrance from the Tramroad.

Old Mr Russell, his brother, and others attended the surgery, but the one very often attendant upon the patient was the brother, about whom I remember the remark that after enquiring as to symptoms he always gave two pills in a paper, and the patients were often (very often) so hurt, that the pills used to be thrown over the Tramroad wall into the field on the other side, whence they were collected to again be served out.

To be continued at a later date……

Merthyr’s Chapels: Zoar Chapel

Zoar Welsh Independent Chapel

In 1794 a group of worshippers dissatisfied with the form of worship at Ynysgau Chapel left to start their own cause, and met in the Long Room of the Crown Inn; paying £6 a year for the hire of the room. In 1797 the congregation asked Mr Howell Powell of Newport to come and minister to them, and within a year they decided to build their own chapel.

An extensive piece of land was acquired to build a new chapel and the building began in 1798. The land that was acquired stretched from the main road to the Morlais Brook, and was leased for the sum of 12 guineas per annum, but the congregation could not pay that sum of money. Consequently, Mr Henry Thomas or Harri’r Blawd as he was frequently called, took the lease from them and gave them the land on which the present chapel is now built for a rent of £3.7s.

Despite this, the congregation still struggled to find the money to build the chapel, but thanks to a number of donations, the chapel was finally completed in 1803. With the new chapel completed, the members asked Rev Daniel Lewis to become their first minister.

From the outset of his ministry, Rev Lewis was determined to clear the chapel’s debt and thus travelled to London to raise money. On his return however, he presented the chapel with a list of his expenses incurred during his trip. Several of the members objected to the amount of the expenses and instigated an investigation by several ministers from other church. The investigation exonerated Rev Lewis, but those members who had instigated the investigation were unhappy the result and left to start their own cause, which eventually became Bethesda Chapel.

Within two years of this controversy, Rev Lewis decided to leave the chapel, and in 1810 Rev Samuel Evans (right) was ordained as minister, and it was under his ministry that the chapel began to prosper and eventually became one of the most important chapels in the area.

With Rev Evans’ influence the congregation grew rapidly, and in 1825 a new chapel was built at a cost £600. The membership increased steadily, but sadly Rev Samuel Evans died on 27 June 1833 at the age of 56.

For two years following Rev Evans’ death the chapel was without a minister as the members felt that it would be impossible to find someone qualified enough to fill the place of “twysog a’r gwr mawr oedd wedi syrthio” (the prince and great man who had fallen).

However, before the end of 1835, Rev Benjamin Owen (right) from Pembrokeshire was invited to become minister of the chapel. Rev Owen proved to be a worthy successor to Samuel Evans, and the chapel went from strength to strength.

By 1840 the congregation had once again grown considerably and it was decided to once again build a new chapel. Rev Owen was himself a gifted architect, and he designed the new building. The stonework was completed by Messrs Thomas Williams and David Richards, and the woodwork by John Gabe. The new chapel, one of the biggest in Wales, was completed in 1842 at a cost of £2300.

In 1849 Merthyr was hit by a devastating cholera epidemic in which 1,682 people died in Merthyr and Dowlais alone. In the aftermath of this, a religious revival occurred in the town and hundreds of people joined the congregation at Zoar, with 120 people actually being accepted into the church on one Sunday alone.

Due to the increase of numbers, in 1854 it was decided to build two schoolrooms at a cost of £800 – one in Caedraw and one in Pwllyrwhiad. In 1867 another large schoolroom was built in front of the chapel. Two houses were bought to make room for the building and the schoolroom was built at a cost of £550. In 1907, another large schoolroom was built at Queens Road at a cost of £750.

By 2009, the membership of the chapel had dwindled to just six people, and it was reluctantly decided to close the chapel.

The chapel is now listed Grade II, as being of Special Architectural and Historic Interest.

The future of the chapel is ensured as it has been bought by Canolfan a Menter Gymraeg Merthyr Tudful and has been given a grant pledge of £527,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to transform the Chapel and Vestry buildings into a centre for performing arts and community activities. The project has also been supported with £300,000 from the Heads of the Valleys programme.

The new complex opened in 2011 and it is now a highly regarded and very important hub in the town.

The interior of Zoar Chapel just before it was converted into Canolfan Soar

by Carolyn Jacob

Following on from the last post here’s a potted history of Caedraw by Carolyn Jacob.

Caedraw means ‘the field beyond’, as it was just outside the traditional village of Merthyr Tydfil and a district beside the River Taff. Although in the eighteenth century it was just a field, as soon as Merthyr started to develop an iron industry this area had houses erected on it for workers and it soon became a built up area. Caedraw first started to have houses from 1800 onwards. Streets here included Taff Street, Upper Taff Street, Picton Street and streets with curious names, such as Isle of Wight and Adam and Eve Court. There was once an old woollen mill in Mill Street. This district was bordered by the River Taff and the Plymouth Feeder.

Along the banks of the river as well as a woollen mill there was a tannery, a laundry, a gas works, together with shops and public houses. The Taff was at its most polluted here, having industrial and household waste, together with the black waters of the Morlais Brook, ‘the Stinky’, carrying the filth of Dowlais and Penydarren Ironworks. Thankfully the herons on its banks find the river much cleaner today.

A hundred years ago Caedraw School was multicultural with English, Irish, Italian, Jewish and Welsh pupils. The old Caedraw School was built in 1872 and had some very famous ex pupils, such as the freeman of Merthyr Tydfil and miner’s leader, Arthur Horner. The school was situated by the old gas works.

Caedraw School with St Tydfil’s Church behind. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

Because the district was very near to the river Taff, the first laundry in Merthyr Tydfil was set up here but sadly the workers here succumbed to cholera in the 1849 epidemic and this resulted in the Parish publishing a newspaper advertisement to tell people not to boil their water. According to the 1881 census there was a woollen factory between numbers 37 and 42 Picton Street. There were a number of public houses, lodging houses, and a bakehouse in Vaughan Street.

This built up area consisting of lots of small courtyards was very densely populated. The houses themselves were very clean, but small and without any modern conveniences. The old rambling buildings along tightly packed streets of Caedraw became very old fashioned and in need of repair by the 1950s. Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council decided to redevelop Caedraw and build modern flats here to replace the old houses. From 1959 onwards old Caedraw was gradually pulled down but not without a certain feeling of sadness, despite a headline in the Western Mail on 24 April 1959, ’12 Acres of ugliness being razed, Merthyr’s biggest face lift. More than 200 houses, two shops, two pubs and a club were put under the sledge-hammer in one of the biggest redevelopment schemes in South Wales’.

An aerial view of Caedraw before it was redeveloped. Caedraw School can be seen in the bottom right hand corner with the gasworks in front of it, next to the river. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

The official opening of the Caedraw ‘Central Housing Redevelopment Project’ was on Thursday 22 April, 1965 by James Griffiths, Secretary of State for Wales. The Caedraw Scheme of 193 dwellings consisted of 66 one-bedroomed flats in the 12 storey point block. There are 64 two-bedroom maisonettes, 24 three-bedroomed maisonettes and 8 bed-sitting room flats in 8 4-storey blocks. The remainder of the accommodation is contained in two 3-storey blocks containing 19 two-bedroomed maisonettes, 9 one-bedroom flats and 3 bed-sitting room flats. The tender of George Wimpey and Co. Ltd. was accepted by the Council in January 1963 and work on the flats commenced four months later in April. The completion date in the contract was April 1965 but the scheme was completed and handed over six months ahead of this date.

Caedraw in 1965 after the redevelopment. Photo from the official ‘Opening’ programme of the Caedraw Project

Each block of flats was named after an important figure in the history of Wales. St Tydfil’s Court (the Celtic Saint buried here), Portal House (Portal wrote the report of the Royal Commission of 1935 into the state of Merthyr Tydfil), Wilson Court (Harold Wilson was Labour Prime Minister when the flats were opened), Buckland House (Lord Buckland a wealthy financier born in Merthyr), Attlee House (Clement Attlee Labour Prime Minister after 1945), Hywel House (Hywel Dda was a Welsh King who had the laws of the country written down), Trevithick House (Trevithick was the first to use a locomotive to transport iron from Penydarren and unwillingly carried passengers too).

Merthyr’s Bridges: Caedraw Cart Bridge

By the end of the 19^th Century, the only means of crossing the River Taff in Merthyr, south of the Iron Bridge, was by means of a the Rhydycar Ford – little more than set of stepping stones.

An extract from an 1860s map showing the Rhydycar Ford

This crossing was totally inadequate, as, except when the weather was exceptionally fine, the crossing was impassable and exceptionally dangerous. Indeed, it was reported as early as 1835, that a young man from Waunwyllt, having crossed the ford to visit his fiancée in Merthyr, upon returning to the spot to make his way home, found the ford flooded. In desperation, he took refuge in the warmth of the Caedraw kiln, but overcome by the heat, fell asleep and suffocated. For many years after this requests were made that a proper crossing be erected.

By 1890, no progress had been made, and indeed the minutes from the Board of Health’s meeting on 14 May 1890 show that the question of a bridge at Caedraw was still being raised, and that a Surveyor’s Report had in fact been carried out the previous year, but the Board decided that they had more important projects to carry out and that “the question of this Bridge be deferred for the present year”.

Wranglings over the bridge continued for another three years, until the Board finally decided to give the go-ahead for plans to be drawn up for a cart bridge to be built across the Taff at Caedraw with the proviso that the building of the bridge and approaches should cost no more than £450.

By November 1894, concrete foundations and masonry footings had been erected for the abutments for the new bridge, and orders had been placed for iron girders, iron flooring and timbers. The girders forming the main span of the bridge, with iron cross-members covered by the timber forming the base of the bridge. Timber was chosen to form the ‘flooring’ of the bridge over steel flooring suggested by the surveyor, as it was £39 cheaper to use wood than iron.

Within ten years however, this ‘false economy’ proved the surveyor correct, as the wooden flooring of the bridge was disintegrating badly. Throughout 1910 and 1911, arguments continued about repairing the bridge. Again it was suggested that steel flooring be laid on the bridge, but the Board decided that creosoting the timbers would suffice. In March 1938, however, the floor of the bridge collapsed and the bridge was closed to traffic. Even though it was eventually patched up and was put back into use again, the bridge was condemned in 1951, and it was demolished in 1966.

In retrospect, the bridge was doomed from the start. In order to cut costs, the Board of Health insisted on using the wrong materials, and indeed, the materials that they did use were all second-hand, and technically unsound.

Caedraw Cart Bridge. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

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.

An extract from the 1851 Public Health Map showing the area in question

The first thing met would be another turnpike, then a few cottages; one was a public-house, next to which a space or front yard of the Plymouth Arms. On the right hand side for some distance a wall was the only thing between Bridge Street and the River Taff, but the weir not far down diverted its water into the feeder as it was called. The continuation of the river wall kept the road safe for traffic, until further down, after passing the Isle of Wight and the entrance to Caedraw at the end of Swan Street there really was not any protection. However, even that had some advantage, for a leading tradesman, in his evidence as to the sanitation of Merthyr, recommended the use of buckets and their discharge into the watercourse! Brilliant idea!

From the Plymouth Arms dwellings adjoined each other. One was the Duke of York Inn, whose money-box was ransacked in the lodge-room once, and the thief never detected.

A little lower was the Greyhound. The son of the person who had kept this was Mr Edward Lewis Richards, a barrister, who through its becoming known that he was a partner in a brewery there, did not receive the appointment he had hoped for, viz, the stipendiaryship of Merthyr; but got that of Judge of a North Wales County Court, and died at Mold many years ago. A Mrs Todd kept a grocer’s shop a little further on, and then small cottages continued awhile. The rectory was not built.

The end of Albert Street was only an entrance into the field now covered with buildings, and The Hollies was Mr Meyrick, the solicitor’s office. He resided at Gwaelodygarth, which was his own property.

After the death or removal of the Rev Mr Jones a Rev Thomas Williams officiated in the old church, and he resided between Swan and Salmon Streets on the left. It was an old house; it stood by itself, with its gable abutting the road alongside the feeder.

There were three or four bridges over the watercourse. The first was to the house and shop of the Williamses “over the pond” as they were known by. Old Mr Williams had been a veterinary man. His son kept an ironmonger’s shop there. One daughter became a Mrs Davies, another a Mrs David James, and another a Mrs Petherick. Another bridge lower down was to the slaughter-house and the Crawshay’s Arms adjoining; a third, at the end of Three Salmons Street led into Caedraw, and a fourth to the public house adjoining the road.

Just below were the ruins of the old grist mill, which formed an important factor in a lawsuit at one time, but which will be told with other things connected with it by-and-by.

We are now again at the end of Mill Street, with the stocks at its other end, and have completed a peregrination right around the chief part of “the village” as it then existed. Only the short roads have yet to be traversed, the one Quarry Row, and the other the Grawen, or Brecon Road, and after that we will go through Penydarren to Dowlais.

To be continued at a later date…….