From the Merthyr Express 80 years ago today…..
Tag: Edwardsville
Christmas Shopping in Treharris
From the Merthyr Express 70 years ago today…..
Quakers’ Yard – A Potted History
In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson’s Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Quakers’ Yard like this:
“QUAKERS-YARD, a village in the E of Glamorgan; on the river Taff at the influx of the Bargoed, adjacent to the Taff Vale Extension railway, at the junction of the branch to Hirwain, 7½ miles S S E of Merthyr-Tydvil. It took its name from an old burying-place of Quakers; stands in a fine curve of the valley, engirt all round by hills; and has a station with telegraph at the railway junction.”
The village of Quakers’ Yard was originally known as ‘Rhyd y Grug’ or ‘The Ford of the Rustling Waters’, grew up at the confluence of the Taff Bargoed River and the River Taff, and the name was derived from the fact that the Taff was quite shallow here and there had been a ford crossing the river at this point. The village later became known by its more usual name because of the Quaker burial ground that was erected in the village (see previous article – http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=5069).
Quaker’s Yard was, until the second half of the 19th century, a quiet rural spot. There was a corn mill, Melin Caiach and a small woollen mill on the banks of the Taff Bargoed, as well as a small scattering of houses. With the building of a bridge across the Taff to replace the ford, the village could even boast two inns – the Quakers’ Yard Inn and the Glantaff Inn.
The Industrial Revolution, of course, changed all that. Soon the coal trade totally revolutionized the nature of the environment, creating booming and burgeoning communities like nearby Treharris and Trelewis. The link to Quakerism remained strong. Treharris was named after William Harris, a Quaker businessman whose family owned a fleet of steam ships, while streets in the new towns were named after famous Quakers such as William Penn and George Fox.
Religion in the village wasn’t confined to Quakerism. In 1831, members of Groeswen Chapel in Caerphilly broke away from their chapel and built and Welsh Independent Chapel called Soar in the village, The Welsh Independents also built Libanus in 1833 and the Welsh Baptists built Berthlwyd in 1841. There was also a Welsh Wesleyan chapel – Horeb, and a Primitive Methodist chapel – Ebenezer. Finally, in 1862, the Anglicans opened St Cynon’s Church at Fiddler’s Elbow.
In 1858 the Quaker’s Yard High Level station was opened. Together with the village’s Low Level station this created a lively and bustling railway junction where passengers could embark for places like Merthyr and Aberdare and coal could be dispatched down the valley to the docks at Cardiff. In 1840 the engineer – and guiding force behind the Great Western Railway – Isambard Kingdom Brunel began work on a six-arched viaduct across the River Taff. While the High Level station closed in 1964, the viaduct is still there, carrying traffic from Merthyr to Cardiff.
As the village grew so schools were built here or in the surrounding area. In 1894, the borough’s infamous Truant School was built in Quakers’ Yard, and in 1906, the Woodlands Junior School was built along the river Taff; 70 years later the building was used for a Welsh Medium Junior School, Ysgol Cymraeg Rhyd y Grug. After the First World War, Merthyr Tydfil acquired some prefab buildings for a new secondary school and on the 2 May 1922 Quakers’ Yard Grammar School officially opened by Mayor David Davies, although this wasn’t actually situated in the village, but in Edwardsville.
Perhaps the most famous man to emerge from Quaker’s Yard was the world flyweight boxing champion Jimmy Wilde (right) who was born in the village in 1892. Known as ‘the ghost with a hammer in his hand’, Wilde fought an amazing 864 bouts, losing only four of them, and reigned as champion between 1916 and 1921 (see previous article – http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=150).
Pilgrimage to Cwm-y-Glo
Eighty years ago today, on 13 July 1939, a special service was held in the ruins of Cwm-y-Glo Chapel to mark the 300th anniversary of Non-conformity in Wales. The Merthyr Express, dated 15 July 1939, reported the service, and is transcribed below.
PILGRIMAGE TO CWM-Y-GLO
Welsh Independents’ Service in Chapel Ruins
Delegates from 55 churches attached to the North Glamorgan Association of Independents on Thursday made a pilgrimage to the ruins of Cwm-y-Glo Chapel, the secret worshipping place of Welsh Dissenters of the 17th Century.
The pilgrimage was part of the celebration of the 300th anniversary of Non-conformity in Wales, and the pilgrimage coincided with the quarterly meeting of the North Glamorgan Association at Ynysgau Congregational Church.
An impressive service was conducted around the ruins of the historic chapel and was attended by about 300 people.
Lying in a secluded spot on the mountainside overlooking the Borough, Cwm-y-Glo was built in 1669 by the Dissenters who had previously held their meetings at Blaencanaid Farm nearby. Blaencanaid became liable to raids by Government spies and soldiers, and for 20 years Cwm-y-Glo was used as a secret worshipping place until 1689 when the Toleration Act gave religious freedom to all Non-conformists.
Services were continued for many years afterwards until the members formed themselves into two groups – one going to Cefn Coed and the other to Ynysgau Chapel.
At the service at Cwm-y-Glo on Thursday an address was given by the Rev J T Rogers, pastor of Zoar Welsh Congregational Church, Merthyr, on “The Struggles of the Dissenters in the Merthyr area and the history of their worshipping places”. Mr Thomas Edwards of Edwardsville, president of the North Glamorgan Association, presided and prayer was offered by the Rev Watkin Jones.
Principal John Morgan Jones of the Bangor Independent College proposed a vote of thanks to the Rev J T Rogers and Mr W T Owen, Director of Education, seconded. The service concluded with the Benediction given by the Rev Cyril Bowen, Troedyrhiw.
ASSOCIATIONS CONFERENCE
A conference was held at Ynysgau Chapel in the morning, when Mr Thos. Edwards presided. Reports of the activities of the association during the past quarter were given by the Rev J T Rogers, secretary of the association.
The Rev H P Hughes, Cwmbach, was elected missionary secretary for the association and the Rev Glannant Jones, Aberdare, was appointed secretary of the Peace Committee.
Following the conference a service was held when the preacher was the Rev J R Salmon, Pontlottyn. Others who took part in the service were the Rev W Walters, Abernant; the Revs D C Jenkins, W Morse and W R Davies.
During the conference the Rev J T Rogers, who has been the association’s secretary for the past 12 years, was presented with a typewriter in recognition of his services. The presentation was made by Mr J Lewis, Aberdare, and Mr Rogers suitably responded.
A public meeting was held in the evening when the mayor, Mr Isaac Edwards, J.P. presided. The Rev T Glyndwr Jones, Dowlais, took the devotions, and addresses were given by Mr R Hopkin Morris, M.A., Director of the West Regional BBC Station, Cardiff, and Principal J Morgan Jones M.A.
The Edwardsville Tornado – part 2
The storm reached Edwardsville where the destruction was devastating.
The signal box on the Taff Vale Railway was severely damaged, and all the trees in the path of the storm, which was now 150 yards wide, were torn from the ground and flattened, blocking the old tramroad with timber, whilst at Goitre Coed Farm, a horse and cart were hurled against the wall of the barn.
At Edwardsville the storm first hit Prospect Place, all but demolishing the cottages there, before reaching Beechgrove Cemetery where the wind flattened most of the tombstones, demolished the cemetery chapel and caused severe damage to the sexton’s house.
The storm moved on to Windsor Road, Nantddu Terrace and The Avenue where tremendous damage was done to most of the houses, and the post office was almost totally destroyed. The postmaster’s son, 13 year old Gomer Israel was seriously injured and was rushed to Merthyr General Hospital with a fractured skull. He would eventually succumb to his injuries a few days later.
Professor T D Edwards who lived at Rock Cottages had the roof blown off his house. Such was the force of the gale that he later found a ladder embedded in the wall of his house. As neither he nor any of his neighbours owned a ladder, one can only speculate how far this ladder had been blown for it to be so firmly embedded. On a lighter note, one of his neighbours had gone to bed early and was woken by the noise of the storm…..only to find himself, in waking up, in a different bedroom to the one in which he had gone to sleep!!!
A few doors away, the roof was ripped off the Edwardsville School, and the English Congregational Chapel was severely damaged. The chapel’s caretaker, Mrs Wheeler, was cleaning the chapel with her two daughters at the time the storm hit. They were buried by debris and had to be rescued. One of the daughters, Gertrude, aged 9, sustained serious injuries and was taken to King Edward VII Hospital in Cardiff.
On 27 October, Ton Pentre Football Club had been playing at Treharris. The team were returning to the Railway Station when the storm hit. Frank Owen (Corby) Woolford, right-back and captain of Ton Pentre FC, Walter Breeze, trainer at Ton Pentre FC and Fred Tregrage another player and were walking ahead of the rest of the team. As they entered The Avenue, the full force of the storm hit and all three were picked up off their feet and hurled over 50 yards. Breeze and Tregrage were injured, but Woolford was hit by a falling slate which sliced through his head. A local policeman, P.C. Fisher rendered first aid at the site and the injured men were taken to a nearby shop where Dr Evans, Maesybryn treated Woolford. A car was immediately made available by Mr Thomas, a local chemist, and Frank Woolford was rushed to Merthyr General Hospital for emergency treatment. Woolford’s injuries proved too great and he died at 2am the following morning. He was 22 years of age.
Elsewhere in Treharris, everyone did what they could to help with the injured and homeless. Rev J R Morgan, the minister at Trinity Forward Movement Chapel in Treharris, who lived in Edwardsville gave shelter to many people at his home. His neighbour Rev Thomas, minister at Saron Welsh Wesleyan Chapel in Treharris, immediately offered assistance, despite his own house being badly damaged.
Having caused devastation at Edwardsville, the storm left the valley and began to lose some of its force, and it travelled in a straight line via Cefn Forest before hitting Bedlinog. Houses were damaged in Hylton Terrace and Bedw Road, but the force was going out of the storm. Leaving Bedlinog, the storm continued over the Rhymney Mountain and on to Tredegar where the torrential rain overwhelmed the drains and caused severe flooding.
The storm continued to move northwards throughout the night, but having left the confines of the Taff Valley, the storm’s ferocity had by now dissipated, and the storm front was now about 7 miles in width. However, the storm continued to leave a trail of destruction in its path with severe damage to buildings reported in Shropshire and Cheshire, until it eventually abated during the night.
An investigation was instigated by the Meteorological Office (now known simply as the Met Office) in the aftermath of the storm, and concluded that the tornado contained winds blowing in an anti-clockwise direction. Reports of the tornado’s duration varied from two seconds to five minutes. The Met Office investigators concluded that “…the storm was circular in shape; …it advanced at thirty-six miles an hour; …the width in South Wales was three hundred yards; ….the maximum duration of the storm at any one place must have been about seventeen seconds.”
It is inconceivable that so much destruction could be caused in just seventeen seconds. Four people were killed in the tornado – the worst confirmed death-toll for a UK tornado, scores injured and damage to property was estimated at £40,000 in terms of repairs required – a considerable sum equivalent to around £2.5 million today.
If you would like to read more, a fuller account of the tornado has been published in the Merthyr Historian – Volume 25. Please contact me at the e-mail address shown if you would like to purchase a copy, and I will forward your request.
The Edwardsville Tornado – part 1
Today marks the 105th anniversary of one of the most destructive incidents in the Merthyr Valley and indeed in South Wales’s history, when on 27 October 1913, a force six tornado hit the Taff Valley south of Pontypridd and moved up the valley wreaking havoc until it reached its peak at Edwardsville, causing destruction on a massive scale, killing four people and injuring hundreds of others.
Contemporary accounts state that Monday 27 October 1913 was, in Edwardsville, a fine day – actually an unseasonably mild day, but by 4pm, the sky began to darken and within an hour, rain was falling which would soon turn torrential. By 6pm the full force of the storm was pounding the village and causing destruction on an unparalleled scale.
The first reports of the storm came from the Exeter area at about 4pm, and it continued to move north into Somerset and crossed the Bristol Channel coast at Watchet, about nine miles east of Minehead, and made landfall on the Glamorgan coast near Aberthaw at about 4.40 pm. The storm then seems to have developed somewhere between Efail Isaf and Llantwit Fardre, just east of Llantrisant and moved into the Taff Valley.
At around the same time, a secondary storm of less intensity had started near Treforest. At about 6pm the two storms met at Treforest, the secondary storm joining the main storm at an angle of about 45 degrees. According to witnesses, there was suddenly heard a ‘rushing sound’ which some people described as the sound of a train leaving the Severn Tunnel, which in a few moments became a raging wind which struck with tremendous force, lifting people off their feet and levelling any temporary structures.
The storm developed on the Western side of the Taff Valley, but swept diagonally across to the eastern side of the valley, where it hit the hills south of Pontypridd and, damaging Glyntaf Church and vicarage en route, was diverted up the valley towards Pontypridd itself. Gathering pace as it progressed up the valley; the wind tore the roof off Calvary Baptist Chapel in Pontypridd and caused major damage at the athletic ground.
By the time it had reached Cilfynydd, the ferocity of the storm had increased and it was approximately 200 yards in width. Due to the position and linear layout of Cilfynydd, it was badly hit, with the storm sweeping through the entire village from South to North. The local branch of the Ynysybwl Co-operative Society which stood in Howell Street had its corrugated iron roof ripped off. Some of the corrugated iron sheets were later found on Graig Evan Leyshon Common over a mile away, and one of the sheets was so firmly wrapped around a telegraph pole that it could not be removed.
The roof of every chapel in the village was damaged, the North wall of Rehoboth Baptist Chapel was blown inwards, and the roof of the school was blown off. A vast amount of structural damage was done to houses in the village and all of the shops in Richard Street had their windows smashed by falling debris, their goods strewn over the road, mingled with debris from the structural damage. The local branch of the Miners Federation at Albion Colliery was totally destroyed.
Thomas John Harries, a 35 year old collier of Oakland Terrace was walking down the street when he was lifted into the air by the wind and carried over the roofs of the houses. A search was made for him, but it wasn’t until the following morning that his body was found in a nearby field, having been killed by the fall.
Having wreaked havoc in Cilfynydd, the storm carried on up the eastern side of the valley before hitting the Llanfabon Mountain where it was deflected across the valley once again, striking the eastern part of Abercynon. Fairview Terrace was almost totally destroyed, as was the Royal Oak pub.
A short distance away stood Old Station House, home to Mr Alfred Blake, aged 86, a former inspector on the Taff Vale Railway and his 74 year old wife. The house, taking the full force of the storm, collapsed. Mrs Blake managed to escape the worst of the destruction but Mr Blake, his son and Miss Pierce, their servant, were trapped in the building. After some time they were rescued from the ruins. All three were taken to hospital, but Mr Alfred Brake succumbed to his injuries and died two days later.
The storm then followed the river northwards, and, funnelled by the railway cutting at Goitre Coed (south of Quakers Yard railway station); the winds reached over 160 mph and hit Edwardsville with devastating force.
To be continued…..
Merthyr’s Bridges: Pont y Gwaith
Although Merthyr is world famous for its ironworks, most people don’t realise that there was an ironworks established in the Merthyr Valley as early as the late 16th Century. In 1583, Anthony Morley, an ironmaster from Sussex, set up a small ironworks on the western side of the River Taff between Merthyr Vale and Edwardsville.
The location had plentiful supplies of water for power and wood for charcoal, with iron ore readily available from surface deposits or shallow pits, but supplies and materials had to be transported over the river. To accommodate this, a wooden bridge was built and called Pont y Gwaith – literally Works’ Bridge. The small hamlet that built up around the ironworks took its name from the bridge.
The Pont y Gwaith Ironworks eventually closed, but the hamlet flourished, but by the early 19th Century, the Merthyr Tramroad, where Richard Trevithick ran the first locomotive on rails in 1804, had been constructed between Penydarren and Abercynon, bringing additional goods traffic to the area. The tramroad had a passing place on the east side of the river near Pont y Gwaith.
With the increase in traffic, the old wooden bridge wasn’t deemed suitable, so a replacement bridge was built. A new stone bridge was built in 1811 founded partly on bedrock and partly on squared masonry abutments. Its single arch spans 16.8m span, with a 4.8m rise. The slope of the approaches has been designed so that the curve of the parapet walls echoes the steep rise of the arch.
The bridge shares several design features with the longer-span William Edwards Bridge (Pontypridd, completed 1756), including the use of narrow stones to form the arch ring, the steep road gradient and a plan form that narrows from the abutments towards the midspan.
By the 1970’s mining subsidence had caused significant distortion resulting in the arch becoming pointed at midspan, so in 1979 the bridge was restored and a lightweight concrete saddle was used to strengthen the arch.
The bridge was awarded Grade II listed status in June 1988, and later became part of the Taff Trail from Cardiff Bay to Brecon. In 1989, it was closed to vehicles. In 1992-93, the bridge was repaired by Mid Glamorgan County Council and received a commendation from the Civic Trust.
Photos courtesy of Janice Lane.