Heritage Plaque – The Melting Pot

Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: Lucy & Robert Thomas

by Keith Lewis-Jones

Lucy & Robert Thomas

Plaque sited at CF47 8DF

Lucy Thomas (1781-1847), was one of the most remarkable people in the South Wales coalfield. She is considered to be the ‘Mother of the Welsh steam coal trade’.

It was the coal from the Waun Wyllt Colliery at Troedyrhiw opened by her husband Robert in 1824, that helped to establish the reputation of Welsh coal on the London market.

Lucy & Robert Thomas are commemorated by a decorative fountain at the southern end of Merthyr High Street. This was formerly sited further south, close to the site of the present roundabout.

Grade II Listed

History

Later C19. Designed by W Macfarlane & Co, architectural ironfounders of Glasgow. Inscribed plate records the erection of the fountain “in commemoration of Robert and Lucy Thomas of Waunwyllt, the pioneers in 1828 of the South Wales Steam Coal Trade”. Given by Sir W T Lewis and W T Rees of Aberdare, ca 1890.

Description

Octagonal, openwork iron canopy (in sections) with circular ribbed dome enriched by interlaced foliage trails, all surmounted by a heroic classical figure. Filigree spandrels to cusped arcades with rope-mouldings, circular armoria and guilloche bands. Griffin finials over volute brackets to angles, polygonal foliage capitals to leaf shafts with foliage frieze above square bases.

Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: Gwyn Alf Williams

by Keith Lewis-Jones

Gwyn Alf Williams

Plaque sited at Lower Row, Penywern, CF48 3ND

A native of Dowlais, Gwyn Alfred Williams (1925-1995), was a lecturer at Aberystwyth University followed by professorships at York and
Cardiff.

His books on Welsh subjects include – ‘The Welsh in their History’ 1982, ‘The Merthyr Rising’ 1978, ‘When Was Wales?’ 1985 and ‘Madoc: The Making of a Myth’ published in 1979.

He was a Marxist who later joined Plaid Cymru.

He took part in many television progammes of which his series with Wynford Vaughan Thomas, ‘The Dragon Has Two Tongues’
aroused much interest.

The plaque has a mistake in that Gwyn Alf Williams died, not in Cardiff, but in Dre-fach Felindre, Carmarthenshire.

Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: Richard Trevithick

by Keith Lewis-Jones

Richard Trevithick

Monument sited at CF47 0LJ
Frieze sited at Tesco car park CF47 0AP

Richard Trevithick from Camborne in Cornwall was carrying out work on the stationary steam engines at the Penydarren Iron Works for Samuel Homfrey. For some time he had been experimenting on self-propelled steam vehicles. Whilst at Penydarren, he had the opportunity to try his railway locomotive on the Penydarren Tramroad.

On 21st February, 1804, Richard Trevithick’s locomotive was used to haul a train of 10 tons of iron and 70 passengers along the Penydarren Tramroad from Merthyr to Abercynon (then known as Navigation), a distance of nearly ten miles. This was the first steam engine to haul a load on rails!

Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: Howard Winstone

by Keith Lewis-Jones

Howard Winstone

Plaque sited at CF47 8EG

Howard Winstone, 1939-2000, was born in Merthyr Tydfil. He lost three fingertips in a factory accident which meant that he was never a great puncher, but won a Gold Medal at the 1957 Commonwealth Games followed by the ABA championship.

He turned professional in 1959 and became the undefeated British & European featherweight champion from 1961 to 1968. He fought three times for the World Championship losing each time before, after the retirement of Vincente Saldivar, winning the World Title in 1968. Having passed his best, he lost the title in the same year.

He was made a Freeman of the Borough in 1969.

Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: Dic Penderyn

by Keith Lewis-Jones

Dic Penderyn

Plaque sited at Merthyr Library, CF47 1AF

Richard Lewis (1807/8-1831), better known as Dic Penderyn, was a native of Aberavon.

At the time of the 1831 Merthyr Rising he was a miner in Merthyr Tydfil. He was charged with feloniously wounding Donald Black of the 93rd (Highland) Regiment. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. Despite a petition of 11,000 names for his reprieve, he was hanged at Cardiff on 13th August, 1831. His last words on the scaffold were reported to be ‘O Arglwydd, dyma gamwedd’ – ‘O Lord, what injustice’. He is buried in Aberavon.

Later in the century another man confessed to the crime for which Lewis had been hanged.

Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: Dr Joseph Parry

by Keith Lewis-Jones

Dr Joseph Parry

Plaque sited at 4 Chapel Row,CF48 1BN

Joseph Parry was born on 24 May 1841 in the front, side room of 4 Chapel Row, Georgetown, Merthyr Tydfil. At the age of seventeen he began to take music lessons and made rapid progress. He sent four compositions to the Swansea Eisteddfod in 1863 signing them ‘Bachgen Bach o Ferthyr, erioed, erioed’ (A Merthyr boy forever and ever).

In 1868 he entered the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studied for three years.

It is estimated that his songs numbered about 300, including the well-loved ‘Myfanwy’, in addition to some 300 anthems, chorales, glees, choruses, operas and orchestral works. He is probably best known internationally for his hymn tune ‘Aberystwyth’ – ‘Jesu, lover of my soul’.

Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: Leslie Norris

by Keith Lewis-Jones

Leslie Norris
Plaque sited at the main entrance of the Merthyr Central Library, CF47 8AF

Merthyr-born Leslie Norris (1921-2006), was much influenced by his upbringing in the South Wales valleys.

He spent most of his life in England and the United States, where he earned his living as writer-in-residence at various academic institutions.

He came to prominence in the 1960’s and soon established himself as a major figure in Welsh literature in English. He published over twenty books of short stories, translations, poetry and criticism.

Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: Eddie Thomas

by Keith Lewis-Jones

Plaque sited at CF47 8LR

Eddie Thomas, 1925-1997, was born in Merthyr.

He was a miner who won the Amateur Boxing Association lightweight title in 1946. He turned professional and became the British, European & Empire welterweight champion from 1949 to 1951. His weight difficulties and injury forced his retirement in 1952.

He became a very successful manager and took both Howard Winstone & Ken Buchanan to World Championships.

He was Mayor of Merthyr Tydfil in 1994 and later became a Freeman of the
Borough.

Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: Johnny Owen

by Keith Lewis-Jones

Johnny Owen
Statue & plaque sited at St Tydfil’s Shopping Centre, CF47 8EL

Johnny Owen, 1956-1980, began boxing at the age of eight.

By the time he was 24, he was the British, Commonwealth and European Bantamweight Champion.

He was shy, kind and unassuming outside of the ring which was the only place where he was ‘comfortable’. He became known as ‘The Matchstick Man’ owing to his skeletal frame .

In 1980 he was knocked unconscious in a World Title fight in Los Angeles. He went into a coma and died six weeks later.

Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: William Thomas Lewis – Lord Merthyr

by Keith Lewis-Jones

Plaque sited outside the old St Tydfil’s Hospital, CF47 0BL

©Photo courtesy of the National Library of Wales

William Thomas Lewis (1837-1914), later Lord Merthyr, was probably the most powerful figure in Welsh industry in the decades before 1914.

From a lowly beginning in 1855, he rose, by 1880, to be the manager of all of Lord Bute’s mineral, docks, railways, urban and agricultural property. He became a major coal owner and established the Lewis Merthyr Consolidated Collieries Ltd. He was Chairman of the Coalowner’s Association and was totally opposed to trade unions.

He was made a Freeman of the Borough in 1908 and was raised to the peerage in 1911.

Statue & plinth – Grade II Listed

History

Granite plinth dated 1900. Bronze statute by T Brock RA, sculptor of London, 1898.

The monument was relocated from the original site outside the General Hospital.

Description

Standing, bearded figure with arms across front holding unrolled document or plan. Miners’ lamp and pile of papers at rear of feet. Tapering pedestal with moulded cornice and stepped plinth. Bronze heraldic plaque to front.

Long (rear) inscription of good works begins: “Erected by the Voluntary Subscriptions of Friends and Admirers….”.

Scheduled Ancient Monuments information kindly supplied by The Royal Commission on the Ancient Monuments of Wales – RCAHMW ©