Tag: Dowlais Ironworks

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.

It was at the Dowlais Works the Bessemer process for the conversion of pig into malleable iron was tried, with the result, as told me by Sir Henry himself, “I was knocked down on my back, and for two years could not get up again”. The Bessemer process, as everyone knows, is to blow air through the molten metal and so burn the carbon out, but many years before that blowing steam through molten iron in the puddling was tried there. The furnace with the apparatus was seen in the upper forge – that is, between the Dowlais office and the fitting shop.

The Bessemer converter

Sir John himself conceived the idea of running the iron direct from the blast furnace into the refinery, so as to avoid the remelting usually followed. It was used for a while at the Ivor Works at the furnace next to the engine-house on the Pant side, but the refinery process itself was soon superseded to a great extent.

The Bessemer Converter at Dowlais Ironworks in 1896. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

It was at Dowlais the very first steam whistle was made, and although the tale has been previously told, the use of the whistle for railway purposes is so extensive that it will be again told in the words of the inventor himself as told to me personally by him.

For the better understanding of it allow my saying that a column of water about 27 inches high gives a pressure of a pound for every square inch of its area, and for the feeding of his boilers James Watt had designed an automatic arrangement, based upon the weight above mentioned. Even up to 10lbs, a standpipe 270m inches high would suffice, but when it comes to 50lbs the pipe would be excessive, and as some little looking after is needed, it would be rather inconvenient, so that the regulation of the feed became dependent on the care of the stoker, he being guided by the use of gauge cocks. Stokers are human, and therefore remiss; the feed goes too low, overheating of the plates follows. This reduces their strength, perhaps, too, the steam pressure increases, and disaster follows.

Adrian Stephens inventor of the first steam whistle

Something of this kind happened, and Sir John asked Adrian Stephens if it were possible to arrange something to indicate that the feed was getting low. The upshot of the conversation was that one of the pipes from the organ in the house was sent for Stephens’ consideration. In Watts’ arrangement a float was used for governing the feed, and Stephens very naturally followed the idea. The idea of an inside valve was evolved, and by the passing of steam through the organ pipe sound was produced. It then occurred to Stephens that if the emission aperture were made all around the pipe it would be better, and he made it so.

It did not bring him profit, nor was he ever honoured as he should have been. Some Manchester workmen were then down with tools for the fitting-shop, and they either communicated or took the idea back there, and not as a regulator for feed, but as a means of calling attention the whistle became used in locomotion.

To be continued at a later date…..

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.

George Thomas Clark by Henry Wyndham Phillips. Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery

Without being positive, it was early in the forties Mr George Thomas Clark can be first recalled at Dowlais. It was an open secret that he was not very acceptable to the Evanses, but a thunder-clap broke, and was stated that Thomas [Evans] was going away; that he was in fact going to Rhymney. His salary was £1,000 a year at Dowlais, but was to be £1,500 at Rhymney, with residence, and the other usual agent’s privileges. No doubt he would have gone had not Mr Clark left, and his salary increased to the Rhymney rate. The Dowlais Company had also to pay £800 for expenses the Rhymney Company had gone to in preparing a residence for him. This is proof of the value Sir John set on Mr T Evans’ services. He died, and Mr Clark afterwards became supreme at Dowlais.

It is thought appropriate to give some things that reflect that honour. Dowlais was ever progressive. There was neither lack of capital or skill. One consulting man engaged was Rastrick of Birmingham. When the drift into the coal was made at the back of the blast furnace yard, Rastrick designed a pair of winding engines the like of which is unknown. They were of the vibrating kind, moving upon trunnions at the bottom of the cylinders, with winding gear above.

The engines were made at the Neath Abbey Works, fixed and started, but some old and opinionated persons whispered, “Oh it will never do”. “Then I’ll put another” said Sir John. It did work, however, for years, but alas, as other things also, it did not get the attention it ought to have had, and with the alteration in the working of minerals it was disused.

Somewhere in 1838 or ’39 Mr John Russell, the doctor, was leaving, and in order to get the best man to succeed him, Sir John asked his London physician to visit Dowlais so as to learn the real condition of things in order to select the most suitable man he knew of. John L White was the only one selected, but Mawdesly (who has already been mentioned as the engineer of the Ivor Works) was ill, and was sent for to Dowlais House. The physician examined him and strongly recommended Mawdesly’ wintering in Madeira.

Some four days after, Sir John spoke to him about it, and Mawdesly frankly said it was beyond his means. “Don’t let that stand in the way; you shall go is you would like to” was told him to his comfort and the everlasting credit of Sir John. Returning is the spring better, he soon found himself falling back, and Sir John sent him for another winter to Funchal. Not much benefitted, he returned in 1841, and after a while left, first for Southport, his native place, and, going to Wolverton for a while, passed away there.

To be continued at a later date…….

Land Ownership in Merthyr Tydfil – part 2

by Brian Jones

Throughout the Medieval period the number of local farms increased and these Manorial farms improved their productivity whilst the population waxed and waned. The antiquarian, David Merch, studied the 1558 “Morganiae Archaiographia” and identified 14 freehold farms. Manorial Rent Lists became important historical sources and John Griffiths used these records in his detailed work “Historical Farms of Merthyr Tudful” (2012) he identified 120 farms (see map below) twenty five of which were “Charter Land Farms” which were freehold in 1630 suggesting that the aristocracy divested a proportion of their freehold land in order to accrue capital or to curry favour with landed gentry. The freeholders of noble birth had been established for hundreds of year however these were not continuous blood lines. For example, the Earldom of Plymouth title has been established three times, firstly in 1675 by Charles II and by 1765 there had been another different family line as the original title holders did not have children or near relatives required in order to inherit.                                     

Five centuries after Gilbert de Clare claimed freehold ownership of all of the Merthyr land by force, a number of entrepreneurs came into the valley to begin the manufacture of iron. Business people such as Anthony Bacon, William Brownrigg, Isaac Wilkinson, John Guest, Richard Crawshay and the three Homfray brothers jostled to gain leases to build the ironworks: Dowlais (1759), Plymouth (1763), Cyfarthfa (1765) and Penydarren (1784). These works were financed by wealthy individuals and distant investors aware that resources were available to include coal, ironstone, limestone, clay, timber and particularly important, supplies of water.

The rich absentee freeholders owned tracts of local farmland and were anxious to lease their holdings in the knowledge they could increase their income by leasing land for the extraction of minerals to the newcomers rather than from their existing tenant farmer. Two of the largest freeholders were the Earl of Plymouth and Earl Talbot whose forebears had concentrated on rural economies but now they changed their attitude to manufacturing and this opened a new chapter on the ownership of land in their possession. There was a rapid decline in the number of farms and an attendant change from a rural to an urban economy; houses were required for the influx of people to man the ironworks, quarry the limestone and mine the iron ore and coal. People left the land for the minor village which now began to increase in size.

450 years after Gilbert de Clare,7th Earl of Gloucester took possession of the land, later known as Merthyr parish, it is remarkable that three dynasties owned the majority of the freehold of the parish. At the beginning there were no maps to record existing land holdings and therefore landscape features assumed particular importance and the River Taff served as a boundary. Much of the land to the west of the river was owned by Lord Talbot whilst that to the east of the river was owned by the Earl of Plymouth with a portion around the parish church owned by the successors of the Lewis family. The leases for all four ironworks are set out in an authoritative work completed by John Lloyd in his 1906 book “The Early History of the Old South Wales Ironworks 1760 -1840”. This work draws on the extensive collection of leases drawn up by a Brecon firm of solicitors, Messrs Walter and John Powell. The first Cyfarthfa lease of 7th October 1765 with Anthony Bacon and William Brownrigg was for 4000 acres of land below the junction of the Taff Fawr and Taff Fechan, southwards down the valley, to the centre line of Aberdare mountain. The ancestry of William Talbot can be traced back to a Norman family in France, then to Sir Gilbert Talbot (1276-1346) Lord Chamberlain to King Edward III who married into the Welsh line of Prince Rhys Mechyll. William Talbot was created Earl Talbot of Hensol in 1761 and his legacy had spanned centuries intertwining noble ancestry, legal expertise and political service. His estates were extensive and he had links to Llancaiach Fawr in Nelson and Dynevor (Dinefwr) in Carmarthenshire. The family name is still linked to the premier noble seat of the Earl of Shrewsbury where the present Earl is also titled as Baron Talbot of Hensol.

The Cyfarthfa lease of 29 August 1765 with William Talbot was also joined with Michael Richards of Cardiff. There is some uncertainty as to this latter freeholder although there appears to be a connection with the Llancaiach estate and Rhyd-y-Car farm. It is likely that some time between 1685 and 1729, Jane, one of the two daughters of Colonel Edward Pritchard, sold her half share of the Merthyr estate to a Michael Richards who in a later lease is identified as the freeholder of Rhyd-y-Car farm. The other daughter, Mary, married David Jenkins of Hensol and their daughter married Charles Talbot in 1713. It is likely that the Talbots and Richards were closely connected by the date of the Cyfarthfa lease of 1765 and by then Michael Richards was of some social standing and wealth, living in Cardiff.

The lease for the land to the east of the river was held by the other major freehold interest with the 4th Earl of Plymouth of the 2nd Creation, Other Lewis Windsor Hickman, styled as Lord Windsor, made the Lord Lieutenant of Glamorgan in 1754. This family had combined a few years earlier with a wealthy landed Glamorgan family with firm links to the history of Merthyr Tydfil (Tudful). In 1589 the Lewis family had occupied the Courthouse (Cwrt) at the site of the present Labour Club in the centre of the town, then the location of the small parish village with the church of “The Martyr”. “The Cwrt” was possibly the court of the Welsh prince, Ifor Bach and then passed through his descendants to the Lewis family who left Merthyr and moved to Caerphilly at the time of Elizabeth I where they built a manor house with extensive parkland at the Van. Lewis of the Van became the Sheriff of Glamorgan in 1548 and in time the Glamorgan estates were gifted to the last survivor of the family line, Elizabeth, who married into the Earl of Plymouth line with the 3rd Earl of Plymouth in 1730 and hence the combined wealth of both families came into play.

In summary the ownership of land in Merthyr Tydfil (Tudful) changed from a sole landowner in 1267 with a small number of tenanted farms to increase to  about 120 in 1630. Three quarters of the farms were rented and perhaps 14 to 25 freehold. Most of the freeholds were of relatively small acreage with substantial acreages in the hands of the few families who were descended from  Norman lines. The Llancaiach estates and those of the Earles Plymouth and Talbot, and Richards, figure large in the leases for mineral rights agreed with the 4 local ironwork companies. Then the number of farms reduced and 100 years later the coal era building boom ensued to meet the needs of the new colliery villages. By that time the village became the growing town of Merthyr Tydfil, churches and chapels increased in number and the older churches reinforced their medieval rights as Glebe lands. As the 19th turned into the 20th century the vast majority of properties were leasehold however the Leasehold Reform Act of 1967 enabled leaseholders to acquire freehold interests and that ownership is now the norm.

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.

That Russian contract was not all the Dowlais Company anticipated, and from a very small cause. The drawing and specification of the rail were precise and minute, but in the drawing of the section and its figured dimensions there was a slight difference (it was really 1-10th of an inch), and this being pointed out to Mr Thomas Evans, he only berated the draughtsman for so doing.

Some thousand or more tons were made and delivered on the banks of the Neva, when lo and behold, the section was found to be incorrect. Workmen were sent from Dowlais to Russia to remedy matters, and Thomas Evans himself had one, if not two, journeys to St Petersburg. It was one of these journeys that that caused his illness and death. He is buried in the Vaynor Churchyard, and at his funeral the tears chased each other down Sir John’s cheek. This is fact, for my own eyes witnessed it.

Such a host of memories crowd on me that I scarce know where to begin. Having mentioned the Evanses, they will be first; yes, dear reader, even before Mr G T Clark, for the influence of the Evans family drove Mr Clark from Dowlais at one time.

John Evans, c 1856, William Jones, Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery

Strange, but true, that the whirligig of time should bring back a nephew of these Evanses, as not only a director, but one of the very influential ones. It is none other than Mr E Windsor Richards. Mr John Evans was, I think, the oldest, and was afflicted with gout, and being at all times hot-tempered, he was not in the best of moods while an attack of gout was on. He was of fine physique, and woe betide anyone who gave him cause for punishment.

It is said, and I believe the truth, that being upset with some intelligence from the works while confined with an attack, that he smashed, yes literally smashed, with his stick a lot of articles on his own sideboard. His position was that of blast-furnace manager. Mrs Evans was, I believe, a Miss Henry. They had two daughters, one became Mrs Simons, the other Mrs Dyke. Leaving Dowlais, Mr John Evans resided near Cardiff and is, I think, buried in Sully Churchyard.

Mr Thomas Evans’ department was, more especially, the forges and mills, but neither brother was exclusively engaged with his own part. Thomas seemed to be the upper of the trio; he was (probably from having been brought into the mingling with others) more suave. John was brusque, but had a good human heart under his ruggedness. There was one other peculiarity that others noticed. If Sir John had Thomas about him in the works, extensions or improvements were expected, but reduction of wages and or other cropping going on if John was the companion.

To be continued at a later date…….

Dowlais through German eyes….yet again

In January, I published an article regarding the Prince of Saxony’s visit to Dowlais (https://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=8138). Here is a transcription of another German visit from “Dawlais Works, die Eisen- und Schienen-Walzwerke des Hauses John Guest, in London, 1844” by Carl Klocke.

Anticipation mounts and, finally, at the end of the valley, where the mountains close in, lie the Dowlais works, and to the left and across the top of the peak is the hamlet Dowlais with a few protruding small churches and chapels. As we approach the place, our coachman identifies one of them as Sir John’s chapel, for it was Sir John Guest himself who had it built, then there is Sir John’s market hall and his estate situated directly above the works; next, the garden for Sir John’s horses and the three horsemen on an outing who are passing us, are none other than Sir John’s surgeons. Our omnibus terminates in front of a small, neat guesthouse on the High Street of Dowlais and we are finally at the end of our journey. One can hear the steam engines at work and the roar of the bellows; from the windows on the upper storey one can see the flickering flames of the blast furnaces which, like a nearby fire storm, then illuminate the bedrooms at night and it takes some adjustment in order to fall peacefully asleep. …

Yet, one would not have seen Dowlais properly without having gone for a walk over the surrounding heights during the late evening hours. At Dowlais, Sir John can offer his guests illuminations and fireworks every evening. By comparison, the famous fireworks of the Surrey Gardens in London (where they fabulously depict the Great Fire of London in the year 1666) are but child’s play. The blast furnaces resemble a burning city, whereas further below, the fires and forges, together with the illuminated tall chimney stacks of the steam engines, looks like a city which has just recently burnt down. In the evening light, the not quite extinguished slags gleam like glowing lava; raised up to towering heaps, here and there on the outermost edge of tall mountains, they flow to the valley like burning streams of lava. … However, to witness one such sight, one must never come to Dowlais on a Saturday or Sunday, because Sir John Guest not only quotes Nelson in saying ‘that he expects every man to do his duty’, but he also adds ‘that he likes to see every man enjoy his Sunday’.

It is for that reason that – except for the blast furnaces which, naturally, cannot suffer any disruption – at a fairly early hour each Saturday afternoon, all other fires and steam engines cease their groaning, and the workers and drawn carts swarm from the near and far factories towards town.

200 years of history at Gwaunfarren – part 1

by Brian Jones

At the junction of Alexandra Road and Galon Uchaf Road is a triangular piece of land on which are sited ten houses named as Gwaunfarren Grove at postal code CF47 9BJ. Of extra significance is an additional older property named “Gwaunfarren Lodge” positioned at the entrance to the much newer residential development. The location comprises a modern housing development on land which has undergone considerable change in the last 200 years. A review of the history of this small portion of the Gwaunfarren locality reveals a sequence of events which mirror cultural and social changes in pre- and post-industrial Merthyr Tydfil. This article plots the timeline of the land use played out between the latter years of the eighteenth century and the present day.

The Medieval Hamlet of Garth comprised of land stretching from Morlais Castle to Caeracca, then south to Gellifaelog, Goytre, Gurnos, Galon Uchaf, Gwaunfarren, Gwaelodygarth and Abermorlais. Some of this land was occupied by both yeoman and tenant farmers with pasture for sheep and cattle. The freehold ownership of the land, with its few farms, passed from family to family and at the geographical centre of the Hamlet was a parcel of land then called Gwaun Faren. In 1789 Gwaun Faren was mapped by William Morrice who noted that both farms, Gwaun Faren and the adjacent Gwaelod Y Garth, had been purchased by Mr William Morgan of Grawen in 1785. That map was redrawn in 1998, and annotated, by Griffiths Bros and show in detail the fields comprising Gwaun Faren farm. This revised map conforms to the 1850 Tithe Map and particular attention is drawn to the field marked C annotated as Cae Bach (little field). This field now relates to post code CF47 9BJ which is the locus for Gwaunfarren Grove.

The 1850 Tithe Map shows field number 1901 as the homestead identified as “The Dairy” at the centre of a number of fields which made up the farm named as Gwaun Faren. The name has varied over time to include Gwaun Varen, Gwain Varen, Gwaun Faren, Gwaun Farren to the present-day spelling of Gwaunfarren. There is some debate as to the meaning of part of the name: “Gwaun=meadow” however there is some uncertainty as to the origin of “faren/Farren”. The Welsh-English Dictionary “Y Geiriadur Mawr” does not have a translation for this word and there is some speculation that it may have originated in the Irish word “Fearann” pronounced “Farran” meaning “pasture”. The book “Merthyr Tydfil – A Valley Community” (1981) published by The Merthyr Teachers Centre Group records the name as “Gwaun=meadow” and “Farren= warren” thus “Warren Meadow”.

In 1850 the freeholder of the farm was Mary Morgan the widow of William Morgan and the farmland was leased to the Penydarren Iron Company. That ironworks was less than half a mile away and the roads accessing the general locality conform in major part to the present-day road system. These were trackways and subsequently they became the present-day Alexandra Avenue and Galon Uchaf Road. There is no evidence of coal mining on the Gwaunfarren farmland however it is likely that iron stone and coal transited the adjacent trackways into the nearby iron works. The 1850 map identifies the farm homestead as “The Dairy” and it is probable that the farm produced milk, butter and cheese for the growing industrial population. The nearby Penydarren Ironworks opened in 1784 in the ownership of the Homfray family and George Forman. This was the smallest of the four local ironworks and in due course it made the cables of flat bar link for the Menai Straits Suspension Bridge. The works closed in 1857 followed shortly thereafter by the Plymouth Ironworks in 1859 whilst the two larger works at Cyfarthfa and Dowlais remained open.

Field number 1901 on the 1850 Tithe Map configures with the 2-acre piece of land that is now identified as post code CF47 9BJ. This land was leased in 1862 to William Simons for 25 years and he funded its redevelopment He was the first of two successful wealthy individuals and their families who lived there in succession until the 1920s. William was a barrister practising in Castle Street and he lived in the house with his wife and children from 1862 until 1888. He purchased the farmhouse and set about making substantial changes to that building, laid out a new garden, driveway and built a Lodge at the main entrance to the drive. His great grandson, Graham Simons later recounted a story detailed by one of Williams daughters, Phoebe, that some of the walls of the house were 4 feet thick and this perhaps indicates that some of the original farm building had been incorporated in the new house identified in the 1850 Tithe Map as “The Dairy”. A plan of the new house and garden is shown below. Note that the architect identified the house as “Gwain-faren” later named as “Gwaunfarren House”.

Parts of the old farmhouse were retained, the building substantially increased in size and an impressive new facade was built based on a Victorian style of architecture much in vogue at the time as demonstrated in an early photograph of the new house.

Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive                                      

Margaret Stewart Taylor did not include the house in her essay titled “The Big Houses of Merthyr Tydfil” published in the inaugural edition of the “Merthyr Historian Volume I” in 1976. However this was indeed a large house necessary to accommodate the first large family to reside there. The 1871 census shows that in addition to William Simons and his wife, Clara, there were 8 children and 7 staff: a governess, nurse, nursemaid, cook, laundress and 2 housemaids. Ten years later the family had increased to 11 children making a compliment of 20 family plus staff. It is suggested that there were legal disputes between William Simons, the leaseholder, and the freeholder of the land which played a part in the move of the Simons family to Cardiff in 1888.

To be continued……. 

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.

A little way down was the Owain Glyndwr Inn, of which a Mr Thomas Williams was host. He was a brother to the David Williams, Angel. He had a son whom some of your readers may remember as a druggist; his name was John Teague Williams.

There were several roads and streets leading off from this, the High Street, to the road from the Dowlais Inn up to the church; one was called Horse Street from the fact that horses always went up that way; the one on the upper side of the Bush was Church or Chapel Street, I forget which, and would have been a nearer way, but it was exceedingly steep. One of the six shops mentioned was used as a reading room.

An 1851 map showing some of the areas mentioned.

The caretaker or librarian was Mr Henry Murton, a remarkably clever man. To illustrate the character of the man let me give some anecdotes. He was engaged in the Works to carry the patterns to and from the moulders. He had a failing, and was told he had been appointed to a better position on condition that he give up the cup. Expressing his gratitude, of course, the promise to do so was made, but alas broken before the day passed. He was clever too. In Basil Hall’s voyages, reference is made to the earthquakes in South America. Murton designed and made a model of a house that would not be affected by them – this I well remember.

Merthyr Guardian – 2 February 1833

If I may interpolate a personal matter I would say it was in this reading room in the Athaneum the first account of sun pictures was read. It was Fox Talbot’s paper read on the subject before the British Association at the sitting just concluded.

Necessarily Murton’s occupation brought him into connection with master moulder, who, although a man of substance, peculiarly was not a man well informed, and interrogating Murton as to how vessels went across the Atlantic, obtained information as to the mariner’s compass. “Well” said the moulder, “I thought a big ship took boats, and then somehow the boat would guide the ship that way again”.

Passing the entrance to the Dowlais Works there were no cottages on the right hand. The small building with their back to the road were used for store houses for the necessaries of the works. The Police Station was not built, but there was a dwelling inside contiguous to the office. A David Phillips lived there, and two or three generally had lodgings there. George Cope Pearce was one, Edward Davies (we called him Ned) another; he was a brother of R P Davies, an old Dowlais man, but whose name can be seen on the base of the clock in the Circle at Tredegar. R P Davies was for a while the London agent of Messrs Guest, Lewis & Co.

Poor Ned! The last time I ever saw him was a chance meeting near the Tower of London. He had been down to one of the docks to see the ship in which he was going to California. There was no lack of substance in him for he was desirous of making a bet that he would go to any three persons that I pointed out, and persuade them he was known to them. Finding the cause for this, its necessity was avoided, and I parted from him as he went into the City Club to see his brother.

Two others sailed with him, one, Cox by name, and assistant doctor from Dowlais, and another, I think it was a Bramwell, from Penydarren, but they never reached their destination, the ship was wrecked.

To be continued at a later date…….

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.

We have now entered Dowlais – yes, to some extent, truly called dismal and dirty. No doubt it has redeeming traits, but from personal recollections I do not consider it had even the amenities that existed in Merthyr. It was, or seemed to be, more brusque, more aggrandising, but if Merthyr was truly a village in the early thirties, Dowlais was somewhat less. “Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice” shall be my guide.

Up the brook a short way there was a brewery, erected by a Mr Powell of Abergavenny, whose father was a church dignitary there. The hill before us is steep, and the first road is one that doubles back in front of the Dowlais Inn, and then turns up to the right to the Dowlais Church, stables and on to the Ivor Works. This was kept by a James Henry, who went thence to keep another public house in Rhymney.

The Dowlais Inn. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

Keeping the coach road, another public house on the other side was the Vulcan. There were steps alongside down to the tramroad, and the lowest entrance gates into the works stood just there. Some short distance further there was another public house, whose name has slipped. It was, however, some four steps (nearly three feet) lower than the road. Mr David Williams and his aunt, Miss Teague, kept it awhile after leaving the Angel in Merthyr, but it was taken as the station of the railway from the Taff Vale, and used as such at the time.

Following this on the same side was a row of workmen’s cottages having their back to, but the ground floor much lower than the road. About six of what were then the best shops in the place being passed, the main entrance into the works and office was come to.

The shop nearest the entrance gates was, or had been, the old Company shop. It had, however, ceased to be carried on upon the truck system as far as can be recalled. A Mr Parnell was the manager, but there is some hazy idea of Mr Williams, the father of Mr Joshua Williams, of Aberdylais (sic), being connected with it. Mr Jenkins, the druggist, had a branch shop in the row; also a Mr D Lewis kept another druggist’s shop, and Mr Lewis, draper, of the London Warehouse, also had a branch. Immediately opposite to the entrance gates was the Bush Hotel, kept by Mr Richard Henry who had been a contractor in the works some years before.

The Bush Hotel in Dowlais c.1885. Photograph courtesy of the Alan George Archive

At the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832, Merthyr was made a borough, and privileged to send one member to Parliament. Sir John (then Mrs) Guest was returned, but he had previously been member for Honiton, and upon one occasion ordered a large number of pairs of boots and shoes there. They were dispatched to Dowlais to the company’s shop there, but Mr Parnell decline having anything to do with them. “He had not ordered them”, and knew nothing whatever about them.

Richard Henry was sent for to the office, he being then a contractor and having a great number of persons under him. “Dick I want you to sell a lot of boots and shoes for me” was said by Mr Guest. “Well, but master, I don’t want them, and how am I to pay for them?” was replied. “Oh that shall not trouble: you can pay when you sell the last pair”, was the rejoinder, and ‘Dick’ took them all but never sold the last pair. It is not possible to vouch for the strict accuracy of it, but I can vouch for having the narrative from Mr Richard Henry’s own lips.

To be continued….