The before – Graig Houses. I knew, loved and lived in these housesGraig Houses in 1968. Photo courtesy of Clive Thomas.
I remember the after, before they were torn down in the mid to late 1970s supposedly because of subsidence, only to have 4 new Bungalows built on the same land.
2. I remember only the house remaining where the Pritchard family lived and playing in the cemetery hide and seek, and also with no disrespect at the time being a child. Swinging on the chains around one of the graves. No damage or vandalism was done just childhood fun.
3. Like you Stephen and many others from Graig Houses and Pond Row I too remember the slag tips covered by grass and the times I played hide and seek. Even sliding down, the deeper ones when snow came.
4. I remember the day I went to Afon Taf High School and was scared out of my mind. From Abercanaid Infants and Juniors with a total amount of pupils maybe 100 to a school of 1500 and no preparation for the transfer, unlike pupils of today. I recognise people in the picture besides Mr Powell Headmaster, does anyone else?
5. I remember the day I started my nursing career at Gwaelodygarth House Merthyr Tydfil, myself and my soon to be friend Susan Payne started in April 1974 where we were among the 30 who started that day. That was a very important day for us all, we learned how to do the nursing procedures from basic and how the body and its anatomy worked. The Matron would check that you were doing your assignments correctly and if not, boy didn’t you and everyone else in your group know, no softly, softly, approaches then, unlike today.
We continue our regular look at Merthyr’s chapels with Nazareth Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapel in Troedyrhiw.
Sometime during the middle years of the 1800’s, several members of Pontmorlais Chapel decided to start a Sunday School in Troedyrhiw.
The Sunday School was firstly held at the Harp Inn until these premises were given over to the Welsh Independent congregation. The Sunday School then moved to a house in Wyndham Street and finally to the long room of the Heath Conservative Club.
The local Methodists, however, had to travel to Graig Chapel in Abercanaid to worship, so it was decided to build a chapel in Troedyrhiw. Nazareth was built in 1858, the architect being Rev Evan Harris, minister of Pontmorlais Chapel, and the builder was Mr Rees Powell. At first, services were conducted by deacons from Pontmorlais Chapel, but by 1874 membership had grown sufficiently to warrant calling their own minister, and Mr D G Jones was appointed Nazareth’s first minister.
Major renovations were carried out in 1897 to a design by Dr Aaron Davies which gave the chapel its current appearance. The vestry was also built at this time. Further renovations were carried out in 1926 at a cost of £1,411.1s.7d.
The 1904 Religious Revival affected the fortunes of the chapel with dozens of people joining the congregation. By 1917 the chapel had 162 members, with 238 attending the Sunday School which had 27 teachers and 2 superintendents. By the 1960’s however, the congregation and Sunday School attendance had declined drastically, with the children’s Sunday School eventually closing in 1977, and the chapel closing in 2000.
I was born in 1937, so my memories begin during the War when I was about 3 years old, and I started school. I clearly remember carrying a cardboard box that contained my gas-mask, and during school lessons the bell would go, and we were all ushered into the yard and instructed to lie lay on our stomachs in case there was an air raid. The classes in those days numbered about 40 pupils due to the influx of evacuees, so the teachers were very busy.
Abercanaid itself was very self-supporting, meeting the needs of the people who lived there. There were two bakers, a butcher and three grocery shops, plus a number of small corner shops. There was also an official ‘layer-out’ for the village, and when we saw the elderly lady in question hurrying along with her little bag, you knew someone had passed away.
What went on in the village, mostly centred around the church and the chapels. St Peter’s was the church, and the chapels were: Sion Independent Chapel, Deml Baptist Chapel and ‘my chapel’ Graig Methodist Chapel. The members of these chapels and church would regularly stage concerts and amateur dramatic performances to entertain the villagers. For the children there was ‘Band of Hope’ and ‘Rechabites’ so we rarely left the village. As children, we didn’t have chance of misbehaving – everyone knew everyone so any misdemeanours would soon reach our parents.
As in most places, the pubs outnumbered the chapels. In Abercanaid we had The Colliers Arms, The Richards Arms, The Glamorgan Arms, The Llwyn-yr-Eos Inn, the Duffryn Arms (also known as the Teapot), and in Upper Abercanaid – The White Hart.
We also had our own Police Station, Library, football ground – The Ramblers, and a Social Centre on the Canal Bank which was built by the villagers themselves. Abercanaid was also served by two Railway Stations – Pentrebach Station on the Merthyr to Cardiff line, and Abercanaid Station on the old Rhymney Line.
Ladies exercise class in the Abercanaid Social Centre in the 1940’s.
If anyone wanted to know where someone lived, you could tell that person, not just the street, but the exact house. Neighbours were so important, and everyone was ready to help in an emergency. During the war everything was in short supply, floor coverings consisted of home-made rag mats or coconut matting. My family were considered posh because we had some carpet mats! The items were actually hand-me-downs; my mother had worked for Price Brothers, the bakers and wholesale merchants in Merthyr, for over 25 years, so when their carpets were beginning to wear, they replaced them, and the old ones were given to my mother. Many times I came home from school to find the carpets missing from the front room – when I asked about them I was always told that “Mrs So-and-so has visitors so she has borrowed the carpets”.
Another incident I recall occurred one Sunday lunchtime. The meat was cooked, and the vegetables were ready, and my grandmother (who lived with us) was making the gravy. There was a knock at the door, and a close neighbour stood there in tears, distraught because her brother and three children had turned up from Cardiff and she didn’t have enough meat to give them for lunch. The result was that she had our meat and we managed on vegetables and gravy! I wonder if such a thing would happen today?
Things were undoubtedly hard at that time in Abercanaid, as elsewhere, but I’m sure the wonderful community in our village helped us to cope a lot better with the deprivations and stresses of the time.
We continue our series on Merthyr’s chapels with an article about Graig Calvinistic Methodist Chapel in Abercanaid.
In 1846, a number of people from Abercanaid who attended Pontmorlais Calvinistic Methodist Chapel began holding meetings in the village. Rev Evan Harris, the minister at Pontmorlais Chapel at that time, supported the small group and was instrumental in arranging for a chapel to be built in Abercanaid.
In February 1847, Rev Harris and Mr Evan Jones, a tea dealer, led a deputation to the annual Methodist Association meeting held in Bridgend, and permission was obtained to build a chapel, chapel house and cemetery on Coedcaellwyd field in Abercanaid, next to the Glamorganshire Canal. The chapel was completed and opened for worship on 15 March 1848.
The original Graig Chapel
Over the years the chapel was renovated three times, including in 1897 at a cost of £365. However in 1899 it was discovered that cracks were appearing in the walls of the chapel due to the structure of the building being affected by the underground workings of Abercanaid Colliery.
It was decided to build a new chapel in the centre of the village of Abercanaid. The old chapel closed in 1903, and the new chapel, designed by Mr Charles Morgan Davies, was completed in 1905 at a cost of £2000. The cost of building the new chapel was helped by a compensation payment of £509, and the stone provided free by the colliery. In the period between the closure of the old chapel and the opening of the new chapel, services were held in Abercanaid School.
New Graig Chapel
In 1948, Graig Chapel celebrated its centenary with a series of events, but the celebrations were tinged with sadness as the old Graig Chapel was demolished in the same year.
With ever decreasing membership, Graig Chapel was forced to close and the building was demolished in 1996. A house has since been built on the site. The cemetery of the old chapel still exists but is badly overgrown, and is almost totally inaccessible.
There were two magnificent memorials, pictured below, to prominent members of the chapel situated behind the pulpit in the original chapel, and these were subsequently moved to the new chapel. They were the work of the renowned sculptor Joseph Edwards (see previous article – http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=344). The memorials were removed before the new chapel was demolished and moved to Cyfarthfa Castle Museum.
