Tag: Courtland Terrace

Walter William Meredith – The Man Who Secured Penydarren Park for Sport

by Phil Sweet

History is full of individuals who accomplish notable deeds and then fade from memory. One such gentleman is Walter William Meredith. This short article will hopefully both bring his story to life and recognise his achievements.

Walter Meredith was born on New Year’s Day 1863 and was the second child of William and Harriet Meredith who resided at 125 High Street in Merthyr. Walter’s father was a successful jeweller and had the financial means to invest in his son’s education.

Meredith initially attended Lloyd’s School in Merthyr. It was at this school that he first participated in the code of football which existed at the time. When he was eleven Meredith attended Taunton School and, during the five years he spent there, represented the school at both rugby and cricket.

He then spent the next three years at Shrewsbury School and whilst a pupil at the school he became acquainted with Association Football. Meredith proved to be a quick learner and went on to represent the school at football, cricket and running. During this time his rugby skills weren’t forgotten as he occasionally turned out for Merthyr RFC whilst home on vacation.

Meredith’s talents were not just confined to the sports field and on leaving Shrewsbury School in 1882 he was articled to a firm of solicitors in the City of London. While he was in the Capital Walter’s sporting career continued to flourish. He joined the London Athletic Club and on Wednesdays played rugby for a team called the Anomolites which was a combination of members of the London Athletic Club and doctors from the various London hospitals.

He was also a member of the Hermits & Phoenix Football Clubs which later merged into the well-known Clapton club. Indeed whilst he was with Clapton Meredith played at right back in the Clapton team which won the London Association Junior Cup. A true sporting all-rounder Meredith also competed in cross-country competitions for the Clapton Beagles team and during the summer months was a regular and successful participant in athletic sports held within easy travelling distance of London.

In 1887 Walter passed his final law examination and qualified as a solicitor  This event saw him curtail his athletics career. However, his interest in sport was not extinguished completely as he served for a season as Secretary of London Welsh RFC.

In June 1891 Meredith returned to Merthyr to open his own solicitors practice in Market Square and resided with his parents and older sister Kate at 125 High Street. Back in his home town Walter wasted little time in throwing himself into the civic life of the area. As well as being President of Merthyr RFC and Secretary of Merthyr Athletic Club, in 1904 he was appointed High Constable of Caerphilly Higher.

Shortly after being appointed to the latter office Meredith made his lasting contribution to the sporting life of the town when he concluded the negotiations, on behalf of Merthyr Athletic Club, with the Bolgoed Estate for a 99 year lease on Penydarren Park which at the time was in great danger of being built on. This agreement secured for the people of Merthyr a central and well appointed venue for sporting activity which had previously been so lacking in the town.

Having secured the use of Penydarren Park for sport the twelve-strong syndicate of prominent townsmen who comprised Merthyr Athletic Club wasted little time in levelling the arena to create a playing field as well as athletics and cycling tracks. The ground was officially opened on Saturday 9th September 1905 when Swansea RFC took on Merthyr RFC and immediately became the home to Merthyr RFC, Merthyr Thursdays RFC and Merthyr Ladies Hockey Club.

These organisations were the first of many such clubs to take up residence at the ground. Although Penydarren Park has become synonymous with football in the town, having hosted both Football League and European Cup Winners Cup matches, the arena has also played host to touring international rugby teams and greyhound racing. Equally as significant is the fact that it has allowed countless thousands of children and adults in the Borough to engage in a variety of sporting pursuits.

Whilst securing the lease on Penydarren Park was undoubtedly Walter Meredith’s lasting civic legacy to Merthyr Tydfil his interests were not just confined to the sporting arena. As well as being an enthusiastic archaeologist and a recognised authority on the history of Merthyr Tydfil Meredith was the long-standing  Secretary of both the Merthyr & Aberdare Incorporated Law Society and Merthyr Chamber of Trade & Commerce.

Politically he was a strong supporter of the Conservative Party acting as party agent in the town for the first decade of the twentieth century.  Ten years earlier he had been one of the founder members of the Merthyr Constitutional Club eventually becoming the club’s president after holding the post of vice-president for eighteen years.

Walter Meredith was a bachelor who, following the death of his parents, moved with his spinster sister to 2, Courtland Terrace. He died on August 2nd 1932  whilst on holiday at Aberdw in Mid Wales where he was indulging in another of his life-long passions – angling. His funeral took place Friday August 12th at St David’s Church where he was life-long member. He is buried in Cefn Cemetery.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Evening Express
Merthyr Express
1871 Census
1881 Census
1891 Census
1901 Census
1911 Census 

Court Rangers and Frank Cass

by David Watkins

In the 1940s, young men living Courtland Terrace and the surrounding area decided to start off a football team, appropriately naming their club Court Rangers A.F.C.

They first played in the Rhymney Valley Football League before joining the Merthyr League. Ken Tucker remembers the exciting times and the camaraderie that existed between the players, also the superb organisation of Frank Cass the manager, John Power the captain and an enthusiastic committee.

There were many extremely talented individuals in the team, including a young Philip Jones – later to become famous as Philip Madoc, however I wish to concentrate on another fascinating individual.

During a conversation with Ken, he asked me if I was aware of a Court Rangers player named Frank Cass? Although I knew he was in the publishing business, I was very surprised at the Court Rangers connection!

Whilst a young man, Frank and his Jewish family from London moved to Merthyr Tydfil at the start of the Second World War, and found accommodation at Dowlais, later moving to Courtland Terrace. He immediately integrated himself into the community, enjoying his stay in Merthyr, making friends before joining the Court Rangers Football Club and furthering his education at the County Grammar School.

All his life Frank was passionate about reading and knew he wanted a career in the world of books. Leaving Merthyr at the age of eighteen, he returned to London, and fortunately, a year later, found a job at the Economist Bookshop in Bloomsbury. Frank opened his own shop in 1953, and then, onwards and upwards, he became the owner of a number of prestigious publish firms.

One of the most satisfying decisions of his illustrious career was to publish the Goon Show Scripts in 1972. He knew that the Prince of Wales was a Goon fan and invited him to the book launch, along with Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers. They all attended and the book became an instant bestseller.

Frank’s love of Merthyr continued throughout his life and because of this he later published a book of particular interest to Merthyr entitled “Labour and Poor in England and Wales, 1849/1951 – Vol 3 South Wales, North Wales”. The first ninety-six pages are devoted to the working class of Merthyr Tydfil, with an illustration of Dowlais Ironworks on the cover.

After a wonderful and fulfilling career in the book trade, Frank sold off some of his publishing interests for fifteen million pounds! Not bad for a boy from North London, who for a short time in his life enjoyed himself living, studying, playing football for Court Ranger A.F.C. in Merthyr Tydfil.

Frank Cass died in 2007 aged 77

A Full House – part 1

by Barrie Jones

My paternal grandparents lived in 12 Union Street, Thomastown, Merthyr Tydfil.  My grandfather Caradog JONES was born in Troedyrhiw in 1896 and was one of five brothers who were coal miners, as was their father, grandfather and great-grandfather before them.  Crad’s great-grandfather John Evan JONES was born in Abergwili, Carmarthenshire, in 1814, moving to Duffryn, Pentrebach, sometime in the 1840s to work in the local Plymouth Work’s mines.

By contrast, my grandmother Margaret Ann nee BAILEY was born in Merthyr Tydfil in 1898, her great-grandfather Abraham BAILEY, was born in Bristol, Gloucestershire, in 1804, arriving in Merthyr town with his extended family sometime in the 1850s.  Abraham was a street hawker of earthenware goods, and for a while in the late 1850s to 1860s, ran a china and earthenware shop in 6 Victoria Street, Merthyr Tydfil.  For the most part, he and his sons Abraham and Thomas, and his son-in-laws were street traders.  My grandmother must have inherited the Bailey entrepreneurial gene, as to augment the family income and help purchase number 12 Union Street; she took in boarders, mainly ‘travellers’ and ‘theatricals’.  My father once commented that coming home from school each day he was never sure where in the house he would be sleeping.

12 Union Street is one of 23 terraced properties in the northern portion of the long street that runs at right angles to the top of Church Street.  The southern portion of the street contains the imposing Courtland Terrace.  The dual terraces of Union Street leads off Church Street up to the boundary wall of the now derelict St Tydfil’s Hospital, formally the Merthyr Tydfil Union building, the ‘Workhouse’.  A terrace numbered 1 to 11 on the left hand side and a terrace numbered 12 to 23 on the right hand side.  All the houses were three bedroomed apart from numbers 1 and 23 which had extended frontages on Church Street and were much bigger properties.  Number 12 being an end of terrace property was flanked by the lane leading up to Thomastown Park and thence on to Queen’s Road.

Union Street – Coronation Party 1937

Union Street is in the Thomastown Conservation Area, the first area to be designated in Merthyr Tydfil.  Built from the 1850s onwards on a grid-iron pattern, Thomastown has the largest group of early Victorian buildings in Wales.  Built for the middle classes, the professional and commercial people of the town, its best examples are Church Street, Thomas Street, Union Street (Courtland Terrace) and Newcastle Street.  This area (Thomastown) striking toward the higher and open ground of the ‘Court Estate’ was the first exclusively residential area to be created by those in the top stratum of Merthyr’s population.  Thomastown was the forerunner of what was to occur at the end of the 19th century in the northern part of the town between the parklands of Cyfarthfa Castle and Penydarren House.  These later developments contained even larger and more prestigious properties.

The two terraces of Union Street must have been one of the later developments.  The 1876 Ordnance Survey Map shows only the single terrace of numbers 1 to 11.  The 1881 census records both terraces but 7 of the 23 properties are shown as uninhabited, (numbers 3, 6, 7, 15, 16, 17 and 18), indicating that the development of the street was barely finished in 1881.

The census returns for number 12 clearly shows that the occupiers in the early years were part of Merthyr’s ‘middle’ class:

3rd April 1881 – Margaret PRICE, retired publican

5th April 1891 – James JONES, decorator

31st March 1901 – Thomas GUNTER, boot and shoe dealer

2nd April 1911 – Thomas GUNTER, boot and shoe dealer

(Thomas GUNTER was the manager of the Leeds Boot Warehouse, no. 33 Victoria Street and was a leading figure in both the Merthyr Chamber of Trade and St. David’s Parish Church.)

To be continued…..

Christmas 1883

The article transcribed below appeared in the Merthyr Express 135 years ago today (29 December 1883), and gives details of how Christmas was celebrated in Merthyr all those years ago. It’s remarkable how so much has changed, yet the drunken revelling has not!!!!

CHRISTMASTIDE AT MERTHYR

There was nothing novel in the manner of spending Christmas at Merthyr. For years it has been the practice of a number of young men and women to usher in Christmas by perambulating the streets the livelong night, shouting and screaming and indulging in various kinds of horseplay to their own amusement and the disgust of steady-going citizens trying to get their measure of rest after a hard day’s work. This year was no exception to the disagreeable instinct which seems to have forced the custom upon us. One or two singing parties were out and did their best to relieve the monotony of the other voices by singing some appropriate pieces, but it was a rollicking time for the youngsters who verily did not go home till morning when daylight was about to appear.

The morning was foggy, but it cleared rapidly after sunrise, and such a beautiful, bright, mild spring day has not been experienced on the 25th December for many years. It was most unseasonably fine, and people went abroad in thousands. The Taff Vale Company ran their ordinary service, and the Great Western ran special trains between Merthyr and Hirwain (sic) and vice versa. These trains were crowded with passengers. The interchange of outward and inward traffic was enormous and appeared to be pretty evenly balanced. At a very early hour the High-street was in a state of congestion. The puddle of the roads had no perceptible influence upon the incessant motion of the living stream, and as Christmas day does not rank as a Sunday in the Closing Bill, it was an ordinary day for public houses, which had a tremendous run of business. There was a good deal of drunkenness apparent in the evening, but no rowdyism. The charges at the police station for drunken and disorderly conduct were not numerous.

The usual Christmas dinner to the poor was distributed at St. David’s schoolrooms to over two thousand persons, the expenses of which were defrayed by the subscriptions of the townspeople. The Rector, the High Constable, and a numerous staff of volunteer carvers and distributors were engaged upon this duty for over two hours, well earning their own Christmas dinners, and, as heretofore, they had Mr. T. B. Meredith as their right hand man. Mr. J. Howfield, confectioner, undertook the cooking, which was all that could be desired.

The deaf and dumb people of the Merthyr branch of the Glamorganshire Mission to the Deaf and Dumb were entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Rhys Davies at their residence at Courtland Terrace. A large number of mutes came from Merthyr, Dowlais, Aberdare, Tredegar, Rhymney, Cardiff, and Swansea. After dinner, the mutes went up the hill to see one of their number suffering from an injured foot at his house, and one of them took a hat and made a collection for the poor man. After that an adjournment was made to Mr. Davies’s house to tea, which finished, their pastor, the Rev. E. Rowlands, addressed them on the “Love of God”, and after a cordial vote of thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Davies for their hospitality, the mutes left, having spent a most enjoyable Christmas.

At the Workhouse and Aberdare School too, the usual sumptuous fare of roast beef and plum pudding was served to the inmates and greatly enjoyed, whilst the additional luxuries of tobacco to the old men and snuff to the old women, as well as tea and coffee, were highly acceptable and appreciated.

Four performances of “The Haymakers” were given by the Bethesda Choir at the Temperance Hall on Christmas and Boxing Days. The powerful attraction of Uncle Tom’s Cabin influenced the attendance here prejudicially, nevertheless, the receipts for the whole series of performances amounted to a considerable sum, and the choir will more than clear all expenses. The performances were highly creditable, and received well-merited applause, the stage scenery being particularly effective. A competitive meeting was held at Bethel Chapel on Christmas Day, and at Hope Chapel on the evening following, while entertainments, dancing parties, and other forms of amusements took place all over the neighbourhood. The Volunteer Band paraded the town on Christmas Day, while the Town Band played several selections on the Market Square on Boxing Day. Altogether, the Christmastide just past has been as busy as any like period for many years.