Tag: Ivor Bertie Guest

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.

Here is fairly good evidence as to the time the Ivor Works were built. Why they were so may be difficult to determine, but the lease of the old works was drawing to an end, and the new, being on freehold land, was proof that the works might be carried on if terms for renewal could not be come to.

The Ivor Works from an 1875 map

There 14 blast furnaces at the old works with six blast engines for supplying them. The las of these, the No. 6, was on the yard at the top of the furnaces, as there was no room with the others on the lower yard. There was also the son, Ivor, to whom the translation of the Mabinogion had been dedicated, whose name could be used and possibly perpetuated thereby. Canford Manor was purchased about this time, but did anyone then think Ivor Bertie Guest would become Lord Wimborne?

The Ivor furnaces were amongst the first in South Wales that were erected so as to require the materials to be lifted to their top. This now used, but the recent ones are all built cupola fashion, that is (with the upper part at least) circular, but Ivor furnaces were truncated pyramid fashion.

Mr Thomas Wales, who afterwards became the Government Inspector of Mines, was the coal agent. He was succeeded by George Heppel, who afterwards went to Plymouth. Mr George Martin was also taken as the mine agent. His term of service was a long one. Some few years ago I was in Llangammarch Wells for a few hours, and having finished the purpose of my visit, turned into the churchyard, when to my surprise the resting-place of one who was known to me in 1838 was seen. Mr Samuel Truran was in charge of the blast engines and Mr Dan Williams the engineer of the forge etc.

 

An aerial view of Dowlais from 1929. Dowlais Works are bottom right and Ivor Works are top middle. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

There was an exodus of Dowlais men to Cwmavon. Frederick Evans; David Harris, forge carpenter; Lamphier, who has been mentioned, and others; but Dowlais has supplied other works also, Rhymney to wit, for Mr Josiah Richards was one, and by an accident, in fact a fall in the engine house, was killed. John P Roe went with him as draughtsman, and succeeded to his position after Mr Richards’ death.

It may not be generally known that William Thompson of Penydarren, was then a part proprietor of Rhymney Works, and being a Governor of the Blue Coat School in London, was the cause of Mr E Windsor Richards being educated there.

Maynard Colchester Harrison was the forge clerk, and Sydney Howard went first to Cardiff and then to London in the same service. Mr Lewis Lewis, who in later years retired to Treodyrhiw, was looking after the stables etc., and there was lodging with him John C Wolrige, who afterwards went to Plymouth, and Edward Jones (called Liverpool Jones), who became manager at Hemmetts at Bridgwater, and afterwards manager of the Patent Shaft and Axle Works, Wednesbury.

There were many others. One was Mr Wm. Jenkins, manager of Consett subsequently (his father was the storekeeper in the works and clerk in the church), and one Goodall, brother to the artist of that name. For a time after he came he used to dream so  much – cross-adding the colliers’ pay was no joke – that he was doing it in his sleep.

There had been one at Dowlais I never remember, It was he who put up what was then the foremost mill of the time. His name was William Gardner, and the big mill was put up by him, but from all I ever learnt, he it was who brought the false rider into good use. Simple as this is, it was exceedingly advantageous. To explain it, allow my saying it is placing of very cheap and simple casting to break and so save expensive damage to other parts.

To be continued at a later date…..

The Royal Visit of 1912

105 years ago today, Merthyr was honoured with a visit from King George V and Queen Mary.

On 25 June 1912, the Royal Couple had embarked on a three day visit to Wales, the primary reason for which was to lay the foundation stone for the new National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. The King, however, had expressed a wish to see the social conditions of the area and Sir William Thomas Lewis (see previous posts) arranged a tour.

The Royal Train at Treherbert

On the 27 June they travelled on the Royal Train, first visiting the Lewis Merthyr Colliery at Trehafod, then on to the Mines Rescue Station at Dinas. The tour then continued by train through Pontypridd, Llancaiach, Bedlinog, Cwmbargoed, to Caeharris (Dowlais) Station where the King and Queen were scheduled to visit the Dowlais Works.

Dowlais Works decorated for the Royal Visit

To mark the occasion, craftsmen at the Dowlais Works had specially constructed two monumental archways for the Royal Couple to pass through – one made of coal and one made of steel.

The Coal Arch (left) and the Steel Arch (right)

They entered the works on foot, through the ‘Coal Arch’, and were greeted by a rousing rendition of ‘God Save the King’ by the Penywern Choir, who had been invited to entertain the Royal party. A message was later sent by the King and Queen to the conductor of the choir – Mr Evan Thomas, complimenting them on their singing, saying that the Penywern Choir “were the best choir of voices they had heard on their tour of South Wales”. The Royal Couple then entered Dowlais House where they met several invited distinguished guests and were served a sumptuous lunch. The Penywern Choir entertained the visitors during the lunch from a marquee that had been specially erected in front of the dining room.

Following lunch, the King and Queen were given a tour of the Works by Sir W T Lewis and Mr Arthur Keen, the owner of the works (he had purchased to Dowlais Iron Company from Ivor Bertie Guest in 1899, and the Works were now operating under the management of Guest, Keen & Nettlefolds). Having visited the Blast Furnaces, the Bessemer Plant, Goat Mill, Sleeper Mill, Sole Plate Mill, Fishplate Mill and the Siemens Plant, the Royal Couple exited the Works via the ‘Steel Arch’, and proceeded to Merthyr in their own Daimler car, to arrive at the Town Hall steps at 4.00pm where Sir W T Lewis presented them to the Mayor and Mayoress, Mr & Mrs J M Berry.

The King and Queen at Dowlais Works
Crowds outside the Town Hall in a specially erected stand

The Dowlais Works have since closed, the Steel Arch was dismantled in the 1920’s and the Coal Arch was dismantled in 1960.

Photographs courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

Joseph Edwards – Merthyr’s Great Sculptor

Joseph Edwards was born on 5 March 1814 at Ynysgau, Merthyr Tydfil. His father, John was a stonecutter, and Joseph grew up helping his father, showing exceptional ability from an early age. He had a limited education at local charity schools, but at the age of seventeen, Joseph sought to widen his horizons by walking through South and West Wales, spending nearly two years in Swansea where he was employed as a mason.

In 1835, he went to London carrying an introduction to the sculptor William Behnes who, after some hesitation, employed him. He stayed with Behnes until 1838, during which time he attended the Royal Academy Schools, winning the silver medal for best model from the antique, and exhibiting for the first time. He entered the studio of Patrick MacDowell while continuing his studies at the Royal Academy, where he won a second silver medal in 1839. By this time he was gaining commissions for portrait busts and memorials in his own right, especially from patrons connected with South Wales. He carved the monument to Henry Charles Somerset, Sixth Duke of Beaufort, and in 1840 he made a bust of Ivor Bertie Guest, the first of several commissions from Merthyr industrialists.

Joseph Edwards

In 1843 Edwards carved The Last Dream at North Otterington Church in Yorkshire, now regarded as his early masterpiece. Welsh intellectuals became increasingly aware of his career, and Edwards was perceived to demonstrate the potential for national progress in Wales, having risen by his own efforts from humble origins to find a place in the English art world. Like Gibson, he was frequently cited in the mid-nineteenth century as an example for the young to follow. In 1855, at the Royal London Eisteddfod, he became the first Welsh artist to have a solo exhibition of his works.

Edwards was patronized by notable establishment figures. His marble relief Religion Consoling Justice (1853; Dingestow, Monmouthshire) formed part of the memorial to Justice Sir John Bernard Bosanquet, and in 1854 and 1856 he was again commissioned by the Beaufort family. In 1859 he met George Virtue, whose magazine, the Art Journal, promoted his work, publishing engravings on several occasions. Virtue also made use of a work by Edwards for the headpiece of his Girls Own Paper. In 1870 the sculptor was commissioned to execute the memorial to the publisher at Walton-on-Thames cemetery.

His sculpture ‘Religion’, exhibited as a plaster at the International Exhibition of 1862, became his only large-scale public sculpture in his native country, erected in marble at Cefn Cemetery ten years later (a second version is at Highgate Cemetery, London).

‘Religion’ at Highgate Cemetery

His seriousness and dedication to his art came at the expense of business considerations, and he was frequently financially embarrassed. Probably for this reason, in 1846 Edwards began to work for Matthew Noble in a role which, it is clear, far exceeded that of the normal assistant. Among Edwards’s papers is a list of some forty major pieces attributed to the English sculptor, on which Edwards worked at every stage from conception to completion, including the famous Wellington memorial of 1856 in Manchester. He became known in the art world as Noble’s ‘ghost’, entering his studio at the end of the day to work overnight, and on Sundays. On Noble’s death in 1876, Edwards completed his outstanding works, for which he received minimal recompense. In 1881 Thomas Woolner, who took a dim view of Noble’s practice, made application on Edwards’s behalf for a Turner bequest. The Welsh sculptor was able to benefit from only one payment, since he died on 9 January 1882 at his home in London. He is buried in Highgate Cemetery.

Joseph Edwards’ tomb

Photos courtesy of www.victorianweb.org.

To read more about Joseph Edwards take a look at the link below:
http://www.victorianweb.org/sculpture/edwards/index.html

Sir Josiah John Guest

Today marks the 164th anniversary of the death of one of the most famous figures in Merthyr’s history – Sir Josiah John Guest.

981108i
Sir Josiah John Guest

Josiah John Guest was born in Dowlais on 2 February 1785, the eldest child of Thomas Guest, manager and part owner of the Dowlais Ironworks, and Jemima Revel Phillips. His grandfather John Guest had moved from Shropshire to South Wales, where he helped to start a furnace at Merthyr Tydfil in the 1760s; he then became manager at Dowlais, which was transformed over successive decades by the Napoleonic wars and the international development of the railway, from a modest venture into the largest ironworks in the world. In turn Guest followed his father into management of the Dowlais Iron Company in 1807, having gained a valuable informal apprenticeship in the works after attending Bridgnorth grammar school.

From the mid-1830s to the late 1840s the Dowlais Works were in their heyday. By 1845 they boasted 18 blast furnaces (the average number for ironworks was three), each producing over 100 tons weekly. The site covered 40 acres and the workforce numbered more than 7,000. A second works, the Ifor works (the Welsh spelling of Guest’s eldest son’s name), had been erected in 1839 at a cost of £47,000. As the railway network expanded at home and abroad, so the Dowlais Iron Company seized opportunities for new contracts both within Britain and further afield, notably in Germany, Russia, and America. In 1844, for example, an order was placed for an unprecedented 50,000 tons of rails for Russia.

Guest was forward thinking, engaging with key figures in scientific and technological development. He was elected a fellow of the Geological Society in 1818 and of the Royal Society in 1830. In 1834 he became an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers. His business interests included coal mines in the Forest of Dean and he was the first chairman of the Taff Vale Railway Company.

Guest’s first wife, Maria Elizabeth (née Ranken), whom he married on 11 March 1817, was Irish, the third daughter of William Ranken. She died in January 1818, less than a year after their marriage, aged only twenty-three. There were no children. On 29 July 1833 Guest married into the English aristocracy: Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Bertie (1812–1895) was the eldest child of the late Ninth Earl of Lindsey; she was twenty-one and remarkably gifted. They went on to produce ten children.

The Guests lived in Dowlais House in the 1830s and 1840s; in 1846 they also purchased Canford Manor near Wimborne in Dorset for over £350,000. With the help of the architect Sir Charles Barry they turned Canford into their main home (although Dowlais House was retained). Guest was made a baronet on 14 August 1838 but his eldest son, Sir Ivor Bertie Guest, was elevated to the peerage, becoming the first Baron Wimborne in 1880; and a viscount in 1918.

Dowlais House. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

Guest was also a politician. Between 1826 and 1831 he represented Honiton, Devon, initially supporting the Canningite Tories, but then becoming increasingly independent and in favour of parliamentary reform. During the reform crisis he lost his seat but he was returned in the new reformed parliament of 1832 as a Whig, the first Member of Parliament for Merthyr. He retained his seat until his death twenty years later. He won some support from the non-voters as well as from the small electorate, adopting a fairly progressive stance on a number of issues. He had helped to mediate during the Merthyr Rising of 1831.

The Dowlais Iron Company did not, however, own the land on which the Dowlais Works stood. In the 1840s its proprietor, the Tory Marquess of Bute, prevaricated over the renewal of the lease, endangering the livelihoods of about 12,000 families now dependent on the Dowlais Works. Annual profits were consistently high from the mid-1830s until 1848—in 1847 they exceeded £170,000—but fears over whether the lease would be renewed in 1848 resulted in the deliberate running down of operations. By the end of the decade profits had plummeted, and for 1849 amounted to less than £16,000. When the dispute was settled in 1848, the Guests were greeted in Dowlais like triumphal feudal lords returning from battle.

In his last years, severe kidney problems forced Sir John to rely increasingly on his wife’s business skills, and on the management structure he had evolved. When he died on 26 November 1852 an estimated 20,000 gathered for the funeral in Dowlais and The Times attributed to his foresight much of the wealth and prosperity of mid-nineteenth century Britain.

Sir Josiah John Guest’s Tomb at St John’s Church, Dowlais. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm