Caedraw

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…….

Merthyr’s Lost Landmarks: Pant Baths

by J Ann Lewis

The Pant open-air swimming baths opened in 1937 at a cost of £6,000. The cost was met with a 100% grant from the Special Commissioner for Distressed Areas. Concern was expressed, as the grant only covered the cost of the construction; maintenance had to be provided out of the rates and could prove expensive. When Henry Seymour Berry, Lord Buckland, gave the gift of the Gwaunfarren Baths, it was on the condition that the running cost of it never added to the rates.

Up to 1924, Merthyr had no public baths, other than the privately-owned Turkish Baths in Caedraw. There was also the old Gwaunfarren Open-Air Baths belonging to the Bolgoed Estate that was let out to whoever would rent it. Ultimately, it became derelict and was then abandoned. It was on that site the Gwaunfarren Indoor Baths were built and presented to the Mayor of Merthyr, Councillor L. M. Jones, and opened on 3 July 1924.

The opening day at Pant Baths. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

The modern Pant pool was 100 ft long by 40 ft wide and 8 ft at the deepest end, and it was equipped with a 5-metre international diving stage, springboards and a chute. It had 16 changing cubicles for men and the same for women, and a great spectators’ gallery. The Pulsometer Engineering Co. installed the water filtration plant, but the delivery of sand for it delayed the opening. The lowest tender by Enoch Williams & Sons, Contractor, Dowlais, was signed on 28 May 1936.

In the same year, two local men were appointed Clerks of the Works; Thomas Dean of Penywern for Pant Baths , and Reginald McDonald of Gwladys Street, Pant, for the Edwardsville Baths which were being constructed at the same time. They experienced difficulty in obtaining carpenters, bricklayers, and steelworkers, and this, along with extremely wet weather further delayed the work. They eventually employed a foreman, 5 carpenters, a bricklayer and 3 labourers.

The chairman of the Corporation Baths Committee, Alderman Sam Jennings finally opened the baths on 20 May 1937.

Due to bad weather, the attendance was poor in the first few weeks, but picked up during August with 6,624 attending; £67 worth of receipts was taken. Unfortunately, during the warm weather, the tar from the asphalt surrounding the pool got onto the feet of the swimmers and caused discolouration of the water, so they subsequently covered the area with Cullamix (a hard wearing cement mix).

The pool held 180,000 gallons of water, and during the first quarter, ending 30 September 1937, 442,000 gallons had been used.

Pant Baths in the 1970s. Photo courtesy of J Ann Lewis.

It was well used during the warm summer months, and most of the local children learned to swim there, developing deep suntans – long before the dangers of sunbathing were learned. It was a great place for summer picnics, but on hot summer days, the queues to gain entrance were unbearable.

In 1985, and after years of use, the baths were in a shocking condition with graffiti covering the walls and windows boarded up. By July that year, the Council decided to demolish the baths, and accepted the lowest tender, submitted by Collinbourne Construction, for the sum of £5,575. It was advised that items of equipment from Pant Baths be utilised as a standby system at Gwaunfarren Baths.

It was a sad end for a place that had been such an important part of the community for many years.

Pant Baths being demolished in 1985. Photo courtesy of the Alan George archive.

Merthyr Historian Volume 31

The Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society is pleased to announce that, despite all of the difficulties due to Covid-19, volume 31 of the Merthyr Historian is now for sale.

Merthyr Historian Volume 31 – Contents
Chapter 1	Penydarren born Frank T Davies, 1904-1981, pioneer, geophysicist and polar explorer	Roger Evans
Chapter 2	Science at the cusp: Caedraw 1887 and education in Merthyr	John Fletcher
Chapter 3	‘Whom the gods love, die young’: the frail genius of Harry Evans, conductor	T Fred Holley & John Holley
Chapter 4	‘Kathleen Ferrier slept in my bed’: musical celebrities and wartime Merthyr Vale	Mair Attwood
Chapter 5	Robert Rees: the Morlais Nightingale	Stephen Brewer
Chapter 6	The female drunkard in the mid nineteenth century	Barrie Jones
Chapter 7	Cefn Glas: a forgotten colliery	Clive Thomas
Chapter 8	Emlyn Davies, Dowlais Draper: a family flannel and local business history	Alan Owen
Chapter 9	Merthyr relief and social work in the worst of times: Margaret Gardner (1889-1966)	Christine Trevett
Chapter 10	Appeal and response, Merthyr’s need 1930-31, from The Skip Collection	Clive Thomas & Christine Trevett
Chapter 11	Pulpit and platform, revival reservations and reforms: the work of the Rev John Thomas (1854-1911) at Soar, Merthyr Tydfil	Noel Gibbard
Chapter 12	The Rev G M Maber, Merthyr and the poet Robert Southey’s Welsh Walks	Barrie Jones
Chapter 13	The drums go bang, the cymbals clang. Three bands, Troedyrhiw 1921	T Fred Holley & John Holley
Chapter 14	The railways of Pant and Dowlais towards the end of steam	Alistair V Phillips
Chapter 15	Book Review: Merthyr Tydfil Corporation Omnibus Dept.	Keith L Lewis-Jones
Chapter 16	From Dudley to Dover and Dowlais: Black Country tram sales and their brief second careers	Andrew Simpson
Chapter 18	‘Here’s health to the Kaiser!’ Patriotic incident at Treharris, 1914	Christine Trevett
Chapter 19	Lady Charlotte and Sir John: the Guest family at large. A review essay on recent books	Huw Williams
Chapter 20	Dr Brian Loosmore (1932-2019). An Appreciation	T Fred Holly
Chapter 21	‘Rather less than four pence’: A case of benefits in Merthyr Tydfil in 1933 (transcribed)	John Dennithorne

It is a mammoth volume at350+ pages long and priced at £12.50 (plus postage & packing).

If anyone would like a copy of the book, please contact me at merthyr.history@gmail.com and I will forward your request to the appropriate person.