Do you have memories of going to the cinema when you were younger?
Picture Palace, Troedyrhiw. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
Merthyr and the surrounding area had almost a dozen cinemas in years gone by, and Dr Steven Gerrard of the Northern Film School at Leeds Beckett University (and a Pentrebach boy) is working on a project to collect people’s memories of them.
To achieve this, Steve will be holding a drop in session at Canolfan Soar between 10.00 and 12.00 on Monday 20 November for people to come along and share their memories.
If you would like to take part, please come along and have a chat about your memories – you will be guaranteed a very warm welcome.
To recap – Canolfan Soar – 20 November – 10.00 to 12.00. Please come along and share your memories.
Gene Lynn at the Castle Cinema organ. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
Following on from the last post we’ll have look at some of the eleven (yes it’s hard to believe) cinemas that were in the borough in the mid 1900s, but have since been demolished.
Merthyr Electric Theatre
Opened in 1910, it was Merthyr’s first ‘purpose-built’ cinema.
The Electric Theatre. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
Palace Theatre
Merthyr’s second cinema, opened in 1912.
The Palace Theatre. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
The Castle Cinema
Opened in 1929, it was built specifically to show the new ‘talkies’, and was Merthyr’s grandest cinema.
The Castle Cinema. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
The Cosy Cinema, Penydarren
Opened in 1914
The Cosy Cinema
The Victoria Cinema, Dowlais
Opened in 1910, it was Dowlais’ first, and only ‘purpose-built’ cinema.
The Victoria Cinema. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archivepubl
The Oddfellow’s Hall
Built in 1876 as a meeting hall, it housed a cinema for many years.
The Oddfellows Hall. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
The Picture Palace, Troedyrhiw
Opened in the 1920s
Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
The Electric Cinema, Aberfan
Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
The Palace Theatre, Treharris
Opened in 1891 as the Treharris Public Hall, it later became the Palace Theatre.
The Palace Theatre, Treharris. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive.
Do you remember visiting any of these cinemas? If you do, please share your memories.
Youngsters today might be surprised that there was a time, not a million years ago, when Merthyr was a hub of all kinds of entertainment: several cinemas showing a variety of films, plays being performed by both professional and amateur companies at several venues – not to mention live music at several ‘night spots’.
Below is just an example of what was regularly on in Merthyr – all of these adverts appeared in a single issue of the Merthyr Express 70 years ago today, 21 February 1953…
The above is just a small example of what was going on in Merthyr – there was something new happening every week somewhere up and down the borough. How times have changed.
Do you have any memories of going to any of these places? If so, please share any memories with us.
A Merthyr Express headline 60 years ago today, on 18 August 1962 read “Captain Nelson M. Price: the Man Who Stopped a King is Dead”.
The headline referred to an event in 1936 during the visit of King Edward VIII. Captain Price had organised an unofficial parade of his former colleagues in the old Fifth Welsh Battalion in front of the Castle Cinema. As the procession passed, the Royal car stopped, and Captain Price told the King “These men want you to see them, in the hope that you may be able to bring new industries to the Borough so that they may find work”. The King got out of the car, to the astonishment of his ministers, and spoke to the 52 men on parade. The King again departed from the official programme and paid a visit to Dowlais, and it was there that he made the famous remark, “Something must be done”.
Nelson Price was born on 22 May 1892 near Bethesda, North Wales, and when he was quite young, his family moved to Dowlais, settling in Broad Street. Within a few years however, his father died, leaving a widow and eight children.
Nelson volunteered for service on 4 August 1914, the very day that the First World War was declared. He served in Gallipoli, Egypt and Cyprus before being discharged as no longer being fit for service, and he returned to working in the collieries, where he had been studying to become a mining engineer prior to the outbreak of the war.
Following the armistice, he decided to become involved with welfare work relating to the war disabled, war widows and orphans. He was a founder member of the Royal British Legion, becoming the first Chairman in the Wales Area. He also worked tirelessly for the War Pensions Advisory Committee, and was appointed Chairman of the North East Glamorgan War Pensions Committee, being acknowledged as an authority on War Pensions Regulations. He was a champion for the War disabled for over 42 years, and his work was recognised when he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1939, Officer of the Order in 1946 and Commander of the British Empire in 1960.
It was during his time as Chairman of the British Legion in Wales, that he was instrumental in negotiating the gift of Buckland House in Bwlch (the former home of Henry Seymour Berry, Lord Buckland) to the British Legion as a home for ex-servicemen.
During his lifetime, Nelson Price was also appointed Chairman of the Merthyr Magistrates, Chairman of the Lord Buckland Trust, Lifetime President and Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Merthyr and District Angling Association. He was also a lifetime member of the Cardiff Athletic and Rugby Club.
At the time of his death in 1962, he was living in Caeracca Villas in Pant, in a house named ‘Cilfoden’ – the village of his birth. His wife Jane Ann survived him by two years.
Below is an example of some the varied entertainment that was available in Merthyr in years gone by. All of these adverts appeared in the Merthyr Express 70 years ago today.
I lived in Pant and one of my earliest memories is the smell of baking bread from Jenkins’ bakehouse. I was often dispatched to get a loaf, which would still be warm. By the time I got home I would have eaten half the crust. Delicious, never tasted bread like it since.
I remember walking to school in the snow (to Cyfarthfa) as the buses wouldn’t be running. If Mr. Lee, a teacher who lived in Caeracca, could get there, then we were expected to as well.
The Castle Cinema on Saturday night. The last bus to Pant went at 10.30 so if it was a long film you had to choose between seeing the end or a long walk home.
On the same note, ABC minors and getting a bag of chips in newspaper on the way home.
Going shopping in Dowlais with my grandmother (when I was about 8 or 9) and it seeming to take hours as she knew everybody and stopped to talk. I was expected to stand still and not interrupt. Did hear some juicy bits of gossip though!
Happy days!!!
If you would like to submit an article for the ‘I Remember That’ series, please get in touch at merthyr.history@gmail.com
By the late 1920’s, with the burgeoning popularity of ‘moving pictures’, Merthyr already had a number of purposely built cinemas: the Electric and the Palace in town, the Cosy in Penydarren, the Victoria in Dowlais and the Picture Palace in Troedyrhiw. Everything changed in 1927, however, when ‘The Jazz Singer’ was released. This was the first ‘talking picture’, and cinema was revolutionised.
Unfortunately, none of the cinemas in Merthyr had the technical apparatus to show ‘talkies’, so it was decided that a new purpose built cinema was to be erected. Merthyr Cinemas Ltd, a company which had been set up in 1916 by Henry Seymour Berry to oversee the growing number of cinemas in the town, undertook the planning for the enterprise, and the new cinema was built on the site of the old Castle Hotel. It was designed by the architect O.P. Bevan with the building work carried out by a local contractor – Mr George Warlow using stone supplied by Vaynor Quarries. The overall cost of the building was £300,000.
The Castle Cinema was opened on 11 February 1929 by the mayor, Alderman David Parry at a grand ceremony. The following description of the building appeared in the Merthyr Express on 16 February 1929:
“The Castle Cinema is capable of seating 1,700 people, and ranks among the most commodious and luxuriously fitted film theatres in the Provinces. The main entrance is on Castle Street, so that patrons are spared the discomfort of congested traffic conditions in High Street. The foyer, approached through three pairs of double doors is of an irregular shape, spacious and is beautifully decorated. Leading from the marble foyer are staircases to the mezzanine floor and the gallery, and double doors opening to the ground floor, where there is an excellent fall towards the stage and screen. The walls are beautifully decorated by murals paintings of singular beauty and charm. Large landscape panels, designed by Mr. J. Jones, a local artist, for the decorators (Messrs. W.R. Lewis and son, Merthyr) show stately castles and medieval settings, and across the ceiling is colour washed a brilliant sky illuminated from two light ray domes. An electrically controlled passenger lift carries patrons to the balcony, and gallery floors. The hall is built of fire resisting materials, and the various inlets are supplemented by numerous emergency exits. The Cinema is adapted also for concerts, and a dance or tea-room is provided on the Mezzanine floor, from where runs a small circle, with seats for fifty persons.
One of the famous Christie unit organs has been installed. It combines the musical features of the finest Cathedral pipe-organ, with the manifold voices of a symphony orchestra. no fewer than one hundred miles of electric wire is used in the construction of the mechanism, while 20,000 contacts , all of sterling silver and soldered joints, are contained in the console and action machines, and there are a thousand pipes. The three manual console is provided with 150 stop keys and a remarkable simulation of the human voice is produced by means of the vox human. The organist is Mr Gwilym Jones L.R.A.M., will also direct the Castle Cinema orchestra, which will be under the leadership of Mr Ronald Jones, from the London Symphony Orchestra.”
In 1932, the cinema was bought by Associated British Cinemas and renamed the ABC Castle Super Cinema. In 1954, the organ, which had been falling into disrepair for many years was removed, and in 1972 the cinema was bought by the Star Group who decided to alter the cinema – converting the stalls into a bingo hall, and converting the balcony into two small ‘studios’.
From 1977 the cinema passed into the ownership of several independent operators, and in 1998, the bingo hall closed and a new 300 seat cinema was opened in its place the following year. The cinema closed in 2003 and soon fell into such a state of disrepair, that despite several failed ventures (a skating rink and a pub), the building was demolished in 2011.
Nelson Price was born on 22 May 1892 near Bethesda, North Wales, and when he was quite young, his family moved to Dowlais, settling in Broad Street. Within a few years however, his father died, leaving a widow and eight children.
