Has anyone read R L Lee’s remarkable book ‘The Town that Died’? The town in question is Dowlais, and the book recounts his memories of growing up there.
Dowlais is not a bad place at all, but when you compare the town today to how it was – for a lot of people from cherished memories, for others, relying on photographs, you can see that the epithet is a just one.
Below is an excellent photograph of Dowlais taken in 1920’s from the mountain behind the Ironworks (the present day Goat Mill Road). You can see what a large and bustling it place it was. A lot of the more prominent buildings are numbered and identified beneath the photo.
1. Gwernllwyn Chapel
2. Hermon Chapel
3. Shiloh Chapel
4. Elizabeth Street Chapel
5. Bryn Sion Chapel
6. Dowlais Works
7. Temple Buildings
8. Ivor Works
9. Elim-Tabernacle Chapel
10. Oddfellows Hall
11. Bethania Chapel
Almost everything in the photograph has gone. Of the buildings numbered above, only Bethania Chapel still remains.
Ninety years ago today, an enormous fire occurred in Dowlais, devastating one of the town’s most famous factories and destroying a chapel.
On the evening of Sunday 3 July 1927, “soon after worshippers had proceeded to service”, people reported seeing smoke coming from the Messrs D Jones, Dickinson & Company Ltd cake factory on North Street.
Starting with humble means, the two Jones brothers came to Dowlais from Breconshire in the 1870’s and started a small bakery in Union Street with the object “of bringing to the doors of the people the best food at the cheapest price, placing what had previously been a luxury to the wealthy within the reach of the purchasing power of the Working Classes”. Through a combination of untiring energy, determination and hard work, not to mention a talent in baking, the company, ‘David Jones & Co, Dowlais’ soon became a very successful business, and the goods produced by the firm were in demand not only in Dowlais and Merthyr, but all over Britain, and even as far as the Colonies
In 1886, the firm moved to larger premises in North Street, covering an area of over 1,100 square yards, with entrances on Union Street, Ivor Street and Wind Street, and which housed a modern and efficient factory with most up to date machinery. In 1895 the firm became a limited company called Messrs D Jones, Dickinson & Company Ltd.
Within a year however, the factory was destroyed in another fire which broke out on 25 May 1896. The damage, which was estimated at over £5000, was soon repaired and the business was up and running by the end of the year.
On the night of 3 July 1927, the alarm was raised soon after the first signs of the smoke, and the fire brigade soon arrived at the factory. By this time, however, due to the combustible nature of the materials in the factory, the fire had really taken hold, and flames were shooting up into the sky. The fire brigade, hampered by a poor water supply were overwhelmed by the blaze. The firemen concentrated their efforts on saving adjoining businesses and houses, and also Ebenezer Primitive Methodist Chapel in Wind Street which was next to the factory. The fire became so intense that residents on the opposite sides of Wind Street and Ivor Street were evacuated from their houses, and there was a fear that Tabernacle Chapel (later Elim Pentecostal Chapel) opposite the factory in Ivor Street was in danger from sparks and burning debris from the blaze.
Contemporary witnesses state the flames could be seen from Dowlais Top and Garden City, Penydarren, and the fire was described as the biggest blaze in the town for half a century.
By 11.00 that evening, the firemen had managed to bring the fire under control. They had successfully saved all the adjoining shops and houses, but the factory was devastated and Ebenezer Chapel was gutted.
Ebenezer Chapel was later rebuilt, in a much simplified building, further down Wind Street, behind the Oddfellows Hall, and then moved to Francis Street. Messrs D Jones, Dickinson & Company Ltd was rebuilt and continued trading, later moving to the Goat Mill Road Estate and trading as Delberry’s, supplying cakes to several National supermarkets.
