From the Merthyr Guardian 170 years ago today….
A New Chapel
Tag: Merthyr Guardian
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.
A little way down was the Owain Glyndwr Inn, of which a Mr Thomas Williams was host. He was a brother to the David Williams, Angel. He had a son whom some of your readers may remember as a druggist; his name was John Teague Williams.
There were several roads and streets leading off from this, the High Street, to the road from the Dowlais Inn up to the church; one was called Horse Street from the fact that horses always went up that way; the one on the upper side of the Bush was Church or Chapel Street, I forget which, and would have been a nearer way, but it was exceedingly steep. One of the six shops mentioned was used as a reading room.
The caretaker or librarian was Mr Henry Murton, a remarkably clever man. To illustrate the character of the man let me give some anecdotes. He was engaged in the Works to carry the patterns to and from the moulders. He had a failing, and was told he had been appointed to a better position on condition that he give up the cup. Expressing his gratitude, of course, the promise to do so was made, but alas broken before the day passed. He was clever too. In Basil Hall’s voyages, reference is made to the earthquakes in South America. Murton designed and made a model of a house that would not be affected by them – this I well remember.
If I may interpolate a personal matter I would say it was in this reading room in the Athaneum the first account of sun pictures was read. It was Fox Talbot’s paper read on the subject before the British Association at the sitting just concluded.
Necessarily Murton’s occupation brought him into connection with master moulder, who, although a man of substance, peculiarly was not a man well informed, and interrogating Murton as to how vessels went across the Atlantic, obtained information as to the mariner’s compass. “Well” said the moulder, “I thought a big ship took boats, and then somehow the boat would guide the ship that way again”.
Passing the entrance to the Dowlais Works there were no cottages on the right hand. The small building with their back to the road were used for store houses for the necessaries of the works. The Police Station was not built, but there was a dwelling inside contiguous to the office. A David Phillips lived there, and two or three generally had lodgings there. George Cope Pearce was one, Edward Davies (we called him Ned) another; he was a brother of R P Davies, an old Dowlais man, but whose name can be seen on the base of the clock in the Circle at Tredegar. R P Davies was for a while the London agent of Messrs Guest, Lewis & Co.
Poor Ned! The last time I ever saw him was a chance meeting near the Tower of London. He had been down to one of the docks to see the ship in which he was going to California. There was no lack of substance in him for he was desirous of making a bet that he would go to any three persons that I pointed out, and persuade them he was known to them. Finding the cause for this, its necessity was avoided, and I parted from him as he went into the City Club to see his brother.
Two others sailed with him, one, Cox by name, and assistant doctor from Dowlais, and another, I think it was a Bramwell, from Penydarren, but they never reached their destination, the ship was wrecked.
To be continued at a later date…….
Women’s Suffrage in Merthyr Tydfil
Transcribed below is a report which appeared in the Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian 150 years ago today – 18 October 1873.
A meeting was held at the Zoar Chapel, Merthyr, on Tuesday evening, for the purpose of hearing addresses on the Female Suffrage Question. Mrs. Crawshay, of Cyfarthfa Castle, presided, and was supported by Mrs. Fawcett, wife of Professor Fawcett, Miss Lilias S. Ashworth, of Bath, etc.
Mrs. CRAWSHAY, who was received with acclamation, said: “I share with all present their anxiety to hear the two gifted ladies who are my guests tonight; but it has been intimated to me that a few words on my own part would be acceptable to some among the audience; and as I have always found my Merthyr friends most kind and indulgent in listening to me – notwithstanding all my wicked notions – I propose making a remark on the assertion that ‘women don’t want the suffrage.’ (Applause). Mr. Henry James said at Taunton, last week, that if he were sure even half the women of England desired the franchise he would vote for it, and he seemed to fancy that he was acting in accordance with the wishes of the majority of women in England in declining to vote for it. This may to some extent be true – the black slaves did not care to be set free – there must be some little experience of freedom before it is valued. But why should the women of England, who don’t want to vote, be so afraid of the suffrage being given to those women who do? They will no more be obliged to vote than men are. There are many women who do not use this privilege – do not fulfil their duty – but it would be a strong plea to bring forward, that we must not allow any men duly qualified to vote, because some do not care to vote. (Hear, hear, and cheers).
Who is he who knows what proportion of women are anxious to have a voice in making the laws by which they, no less than men, are bound? No one – for the tyranny exercised by some men is so great that they prevent their wives and grown-up daughters hearing any discussion on the subject when anxious to do so. (Hear, hear.) To my knowledge there would have been some here tonight who are kept at home as if they were either children or idiots. Is it likely this state of things will continue? No. Because at some of these meetings the absence of Mrs. or Miss So-and-so will be deplored, and the true reason for her absence given; and those men who act thus tyrannically by their wives and daughters are the very ones who would most shrink from having such conduct traced home to them. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) It is only the most noble and the most generous of husbands and fathers who at the present time allow their women-kind the exercise of intellect; but the others will have to do so, and then Mr. Henry James will find himself obliged to vote for the enfranchisement of women, if he will either gain or retain a seat in the House. (Hear, hear, and cheers.)
I feel sure that one reason why narrow-minded men are so averse to greater independence of thought on the part of women is that they fear it might raise the standard of intelligence throughout the country. This is a strange fear, while there are physiologists who assure us that the mind of woman is in itself an inferior article to man’s mind. Perhaps they will have to modify this idea some day. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) In the year 1801, M. Sylvain Marechal wrote a book in which he discussed the question, ‘Ought women to learn the alphabet?’ This is ironical, but really it is the point where the men went wrong. (Hear, and cheers) They should have resolutely answered ‘No.’ But, only think, had they done so, what a far backward position Europe would hold now, for it is clearly a decree of Providence that one class cannot rise without the rest, any more than one individual can do so. What is the meaning of all the martyrdoms of all the ages? Only that the martyr was in advance of his time; and that is a crime so resented now, no less than in ages past, that though it is no longer punished by physical tortures, mental torture is still in vogue. (Loud cheers.)”
Mr. CHARLES JAMES, after some appropriate remarks, moved the following resolution:- “That the exclusion of women, otherwise legally qualified, from voting in the election of members of Parliament, is injurious to those excluded, contrary to the principle of just representation, and to the laws in force regulating the principles of municipal, parochial, and all other representative governments.”
Mrs. FAWCETT, supported the resolution in an able speech, saying in conclusion that it was a flagrant injustice to exclude such a woman as Lady Burdett Coutts for instance, from the suffrage. They were determined to go on in their endeavours, and they would not be debarred from their purpose by any cry of unnatural alliance between themselves and the Tories. She hoped the time was not far distant when such meetings as the present would become no longer a necessity for the attainment of their object.
Mr. W. JONES, of Cyfarthfa, moved the following resolution, “That a petition to the House of Commons be adopted and signed by the chairman on behalf of this meeting, and that a memorial be forwarded to Mr. Richard and Mr. Fothergill, members for the borough, requesting them to support Mr. Jacob Bright’s Bill to remove the electoral disabilities of women.
Miss ASHWORTH, who on rising to second the motion, was loudly cheered, said that doubtless many present were convinced of the justice of the claim of women to representation, but she believed more cordial support would be given were they convinced that women were sufferers from the want of representation. Referring to the borough and county members Miss Ashworth observed:- “I have lately been looking through the division list of the House of Commons, and I find that the measure to which I have alluded has not been supported by one particular party, but by Liberals and Tories. Mr. Gladstone has given his adhesion to the principle, and Mr. Disraeli has voted for the Bill over and over again. Indeed, many of the foremost statesmen in the House of Commons have voted for it, and I am pleased to find Mr. Henry Richard (loud cheers) – each year records his vote in favour of the Women’s Disabilities Bill and one of your members for the county – Mr. Talbot – has voted every time for it; but Mr. Vivian has voted against it, and Mr. Fothergill has voted against it. Mr. Vivian’s, I think, is a most hopeless case, because he has voted against it both times lately. (Laughter.)
Now, Mr. Fothergill has missed for two whole years, and I really think if you bring some pressure to bear upon him he will be very likely converted. I unhesitatingly state that it is no credit to any Liberal member in the House of Commons that he should vote against the Women’s Disabilities Bill and as a general election is not perhaps so far off, I say to you, working men, many of whom I believe I see before me, that a man who does justice to women is a man most likely to do justice to himself. When a general election comes round, I ask you, whatever candidates come forward, that they should all be questioned upon this subject, and it should be clearly elicited from them how they intend to vote when they go to the House of Commons. And another thing I should like to ask you to do is to send a largely signed petition to your members. I don’t think Mr. Richard needs one, because he seems always right. Mr. Vivian’s, I repeat, is a hopeless case, but I am sure Mr. Fothergill would appreciate one if it were very widely signed” (laughter, and much cheering) – during which Miss Ashworth resumed her seat. The resolution was seconded and carried amid applause.
The RECTOR of MERTHYR, in supporting a vote of thanks to Mrs. Crawshay, Mrs. Fawcett, and Miss Ashworth, concluded as follows:- “I was at Bath the other day, and was informed that there were thirty thousand women there, and in the height of the season, in excess of men. Why is this? Why, simply for the reason because the young men of the present day don’t do their duty in the way they ought. (Applause.) They ought to set about marrying at once. With this view, then, I hope the measure under discussion will succeed, and I hope the women who do this will get an Act of Parliament passed that a poll-tax be put on every man that is not married. (Laughter and cheering ). The assembly then broke up.
Merthyr Total Abstinence Society
From the Merthyr Guardian 180 years ago today…..
I’m surprised that this society hasn’t lasted!!!!
To Let
From the Merthyr Guardian 170 years ago today……
Merthyr’s Ironmasters: G T Clark – part 2
This article is a transcription from a publication now in the public domain: Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1901
On the formation of the British Iron Trade Association in 1876, Clark was elected its first president, and his ‘Inaugural Address’ (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) attracted much attention, provoking considerable controversy in the United States by reason of its trenchant exposure of protection. Few employers of labour have ever studied the social well-being of their workers so earnestly as Clark. At his own expense he provided a hospital for the Dowlais workmen, while the Dowlais schools, the largest in the kingdom, owed their success almost entirely to his direction. He was an early supporter of the volunteer movement, and himself raised a battalion in the Dowlais district. He was chairman of every local authority in the place, and his manifold services in the work of local government are commemorated by a marble bust, the work of Joseph Edwards, placed in the board-room of the Merthyr poor-law guardians. He was sheriff of Glamorganshire in 1868.
Clark’s reputation, however, mainly rests on his archaeological work, and, to a lesser extent, on his historical research, though these were but the relaxations of an otherwise busy life. For half a century he was recognised as the highest authority on all mediæval fortifications, and was the first to give a clear insight into the military and historical importance of the earthworks of this country, and especially to show the use made of the mound – ‘the hill of the burh’ – in Norman times. Before going to India he took a prominent part in the movement which brought about the foundation in 1843 of the Archæological Association (now the Royal Archæological Institute), and, after his return, was constantly associated with its work for the rest of his life contributing papers to its journal, attending its annual meetings, and acquiring a unique reputation as a field-lecturer, inasmuch as the castles visited were ‘called up to their first life by his massive vigour’.
He was also one of three trustees of the Cambrian Archæological Association. Commencing with an account of Caerphilly Castle as early as 1834, he contributed to the ‘Transactions’ of various societies, and to the ‘Builder,’ a large number of articles dealing with his favourite subject. In 1884 these were collected in his ‘Mediæval Military Architecture in England ‘ (London, 2 vols) a work which is not likely to be superseded, though its information may be supplemented with minor additions of detail.
Next to his purely archaeological attainments should probably be ranked his knowledge of heraldry and genealogy. He wrote the article on heraldry for the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ while his privately printed pedigree of the Babington family has been described as ‘perhaps unsurpassed for its dimensions and grandeur of type.’
His other works were for the most part elaborate contributions towards the history of his adopted county of Glamorgan, the following being the more important among them:
‘Thirteen Views of the Castle of St. Donat’s, with a Notice of the Stradling Family,’ Shrewsbury, 1871.
‘Some Account of Robert Mansel and of Admiral Sir Thomas Button,’ Dowlais, 1883.
‘The Land of Morgan, being a Contribution towards the History of the Lordship of Glamorgan,’ London, 1883, 8vo.
‘Limbus Patrum Morganiae et Glamorganiæ. Being the Genealogies of the Older Families of the Lordships of Morgan and Glamorgan,’ London, 1886, 8vo. Most of these pedigrees had been published ‘nearly a quarter of a century’ previously in the ‘Merthyr Guardian.’
‘Cartæ et Alia Munimenta quæ ad Dominium de Glamorgan pertinent.’ Sumptuously printed, for private circulation only, this great collection of Glamorgan charters extends to 2,300 quarto pages, making four volumes, of which the first was issued in 1885 from a private press at Dowlais, and the other three (in 1890-1-3) from Cardiff.
Clark also edited some devotional works by his father and his ancestor, Samuel Clarke (1599-1682), and wrote numerous articles on the history and antiquities of Glamorgan.
Clark died on 31 Jan. 1898 at Tal-y-garn, near Llantrisant, where he had resided during his later years, and was buried there at St. Ann’s Church, which he had built to the memory of his wife, Ann Price, second daughter of Henry Lewis of Greenmeadow, near Cardiff, and coheiress of Wyndham Lewis. She was married to Clark on 3 April 1850, and died on 6 April 1885, leaving a son (Godfrey Lewis Clark) and a daughter.
The Pant Fever Hospital – part 1
by J Ann Lewis
In 1868 an epidemic of Typhoid and Typhus Fever started in Dowlais in 1868, and spread to Merthyr by April 1869.
The living conditions were poor; many houses were small and overcrowded, with no proper ventilation, having windows that could not be opened. One Dowlais family consisting of a mother and four children suffering from Typhus Fever were nursed in a bedroom that measured eleven- by seven-foot. Many were without proper toilet facilities, and others sharing facilities with three or four other families. The practice of throwing waste matter onto the road was still undertaken, thus polluting the vicinity, and many were fined for continuing to do so.
Fifty-three people died by the end of March; the reported cases of the diseases reached 360, during this epidemic, three of the four nurses employed and a doctor died after contracting the disease.
The Local Board of Health, under Section 37 of the Sanitary Act 1866, had the power to provide hospitals or temporary places for the reception of the sick, but not places for the admittance of people not affected by the disease. It was hoped that once they had provided a place for the sick to be nursed, the people that had been in contact with them could remain in their homes, if a policy was adopted of cleaning, whitewashing and disinfecting the houses from which the sick were removed.
The Board of Health decided that they had to open a hospital to stem the spread of the disease and try to relieve the appalling suffering of the local people. At first it was decided that a large tent would be ideal for the purpose, a committee member pointing out that tents had been well used by troops for years, but another member added that he knew where a building, or part of one, could be obtained for £1,000.
It was decided to go ahead with the purchase, and appoint carpenters for the erection of the buildings on the chosen site at Pantyscallog. Chris James, the farmer who owned the land, had a reduction of 10s per year on his land for releasing it through the Dowlais Iron Company for the hospital.
It was clear that the cases of Typhoid and Typhus fever should not be mixed – it was necessary to have separate hospitals for these diseases, and these again were sub-divided into male and female wards. Suitable rooms were erected as a kitchen and wash-house, and placed between the two hospitals to be used by both. To prevent trespassing on the adjoining grassland, fencing of post and rail was erected.
After the foundation was finished, the building took just four weeks to complete, being a wooden structure with a felt roof. During the building of the hospital, the death-toll had risen to 77, with the number of cases reaching 426. By the end of July, the furnishing of the hospital was complete, but by that time the epidemic had subsided, and it remained unused until the next epidemic.
The hospital was first named the Caeracca Fever Hospital, but was also referred to as the Pant or Dowlais Fever Hospital. It was able to accommodate 32 patients, and was only occupied when epidemics of the infectious diseases occurred – Typhoid, Typhus, Scarlet Fever, Smallpox and Measles.
Mrs Clark of Dowlais House obtained permission from the Board of Health for the private use of part of the hospital. Sixteen beds were allocated for eight male and eight female patients. There would be compulsory admissions – patients would only be admitted with their permission. This was a wise decision as the changes of recovery would be poor; if the patients were terrified of being admitted – believing they had been taken there to die instead of to recover. This fear was somehow connected with Mrs Clark’s hospital in Dowlais, and largely due to the ignorance of the people as to the type of nursing required.
There was great concern among the committee as to whose responsibility it was to pay for the patients’ food. They wrote several times to the Home Office, and the Chairman of the Committee wrote privately to the Home Secretary dealing solely with the question of feeding. As no satisfactory answer was obtained, the Board of Health decided they would bear the expense themselves. When the question was asked “Who would pay for the beef tea?” the Clerk replied “Can’t you make the beef tea medicine?”. “We must”, came the reply, “and take the consequences”.
To be continued………
Thomas Stephens – part 2
by Dr Marion Löffler
During the 1850s Stephens became one of the two main instigators of a Welsh orthography reform, a subject debated since the misguided efforts of William Owen Pughe. Following a meeting at the 1858 Llangollen Eisteddfod Stephens and Robert John Pryse (Gweirydd ap Rhys) circulated questionnaires that led to the publication of Orgraph yr Iaith Gymraeg in 1859, a valuable forerunner of articles on the same subject published by Sir John Morris-Jones in Y Geninen in the 1890s. These efforts ultimately led to the standard work on Welsh orthographic principles published in 1929.
Competing at eisteddfodau was a major incentive and stage for the learning and creativity of many amateur scholars in Victorian Wales and Stephens was no exception. At most eisteddfodau in which he competed between 1840 and 1858 he won, sometimes up to three prizes. His first success was in the Liverpool Eisteddfod of 1840, where he won a prize for his essay on the ‘History of the life and times of Iestyn ab Gwrgant, the last native lord of Glamorgan’. He made his name with a winning essay on ‘The Literature of Wales during the twelfth and succeeding centuries’ at the Abergavenny Cymreigyddion Society Eisteddfod of 1848, which appeared a year later as The Literature of the Kymry. This first study of medieval Welsh literature conducted on the basis of modern scholarly principles was extremely well-received by international scholars, such as Matthew Arnold, Theodore Hersart de La Villemarqué, Henri Martin, Max Müller and Albert Schulz, and an acclaimed German translation appeared in 1864.
Nevertheless, and although he continued to produce scholarly essays for eisteddfodau, The Literature of the Kymry remained the only book-length study of his to be published during his life time. His five-hundred page essay on a ‘Summary of the History of Wales from the earliest period to the present time’ gained first prize at the Rhuddlan Eisteddfod, but remained unpublished due to a lack of patronage. His winning essay at the last Cymreigyddion y Fenni eisteddfod of 1853, on the ‘Remains of the Welsh Poets from the sixth century to the twelfth’, which was to be part one of ‘a complete history of Welsh literature’, remained unpublished for the same reason.
His ‘English prose translation of the “Gododdin” with explanatory notes’, also submitted in 1853, was published in 1888 as The Gododdin of Aneurin Gwawdrydd: An English Translation with Copious Explanatory Notes; A Life of Aneurin; and Several Lengthy Dissertations Illustrative of the ‘Gododdin’, and the Battle of Cattraeth, edited by Thomas Powel (1845-1922). Stephens’s last major work, ‘Madoc: an essay on the discovery of America by Madoc ap Owen Gwynedd in the twelfth century’, failed to win the competition at the 1858 Grand Eisteddfod of Llangollen, because it disproved the tale that Madoc and his followers had discovered America. The result made Stephens a martyr to truth, and the main judge and druid John Williams (ab Ithel) even more notorious than he had been. This essay was published in 1893, edited by Stephens’s neighbour and pupil Llywarch Reynolds.
Stephens turned to the periodical press as a medium of critically reviewing Welsh history in order to replace Welsh romanticism with a more scientific approach. Among his major series of critical essays are those on the romantic forger Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg) in Yr Ymofynnydd (1852-1853), on the fictional ‘Dyfnwal Moelmud’ and early Welsh law in the Cambrian Journal and Archaeologia Cambrensis (from 1854), on ‘The Book of Aberpergwm’ in Archaeologia Cambrensis (1858), and on ‘The Bardic Alphabet called “Coelbren y Beirdd”’ in Archaeologia Cambrensis (1872). Numerous shorter contributions by him appeared in newspapers like The Cambrian , The Merthyr Guardian, The Monmouthshire Merlin , The Silurian and in periodicals, such as Seren Gomer , Yr Ymofynnydd , Y Traethodydd and Y Beirniad .
Weakened by a succession of strokes, Thomas Stephens died on 4 January 1875 and was buried in the Nonconformist part of Cefn-coed-y-cymer cemetery. The funeral sermon held in his honour at Twynyrodyn Unitarian Chapel, Merthyr Tydfil, was published by request of the members, along with a list of the over 180 books in a number of languages he had bequeathed to Merthyr Tydfil Library.
His archive was donated to the National Library of Wales by his widow’s family in 1916 and is to be found at NLW MSS 904-66 .
Transcripts of the main collection of his letters were made available to the public in 2017 and may be viewed at: https://archives.library.wales/index.php/letters-534 and https://archives.library.wales/index.php/letters-889 .
To view the original article, please follow:
https://biography.wales/article/s11-STEP-THO-1821
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.
Taking the Nantygwenith Road first, with the exception of one occupied by David Evans, the master carpenter at Cyfarthfa (father of the Thomas Evans whose brewery has been mentioned), there was not another right away up to the gatehouse of the Turnpike on the right hand side, but there were dwellings on the other (the left) side all the way, and persons who resided there who should be mentioned.
Before doing so, however, it may be proper to state what kind of scientific society met at the Dynevor Arms, and what was then called philosophical instruments, made by W. and S. Jones, of High Holborn, kept there in the meeting room. Amongst other things attempted was the formation of a duck, which it was reputed they nearly accomplished, but extravagancies aside I can from recollection say there were very good instruments there, one being a telescope of about five inches in diameter.
Notwithstanding much that was desirable for sanitary conditions, there was a good deal of intellectual activity, and if any exceeding strong temperance advocates, deride the statement he can be told of a somewhat analogous one held near Birmingham that was frequented by persons whose names are world known, to wit, James Watt, Priestley and the time of meeting as near as may be to others whose forethought went so far as to have the time of meeting as near as may be to full moon, and were called in consequence the Lunar Society. There are few of any offices that that do not today benefit from one or two of their meetings.
On the left, the corner house of the Aberdare and Nantygwenith Roads, a grocer’s shop was opened by Mr Beddoe, next was a “gin shop”, so called, subsequently kept by Mr Lewis Lewis, superintendent of the Dowlais Stables previously, and afterwards of Pontyrhun; a few cottages followed and then a road. It was up this, and on the first opening to the left the Rev David John, the Unitarian Minister, taught his pupils. He was, I think, a good Welsh scholar, but I am certain of him being a good mathematician. He Had three sons and one daughter, the eldest Mathew, some years after carrying on the iron foundry business in Bryant’s old brewery premises.
The upper corner of this road was the grocery establishment of a Mr Edward Roach. He was a fine powerful man, and they used to say that seeing a woman, with a child in her arms, pursued by a bull, he rushed out and boldly attacked it.
Next above was the Patriot Inn, kept by Mr William Howells. He had two daughters, the youngest of whom was wooed by Mr William Spiller, then travelling around the hills selling flour on behalf of himself and a Mr Browne. The flour was called “Spiller and Browne”. The latter name seems to have passed, but the former has developed into a ‘household word’ in the quality of their product, and extension of business at Cardiff. The firm Spiller and Browne was then at Bridgwater.
To be continued at a later date……
A Gruesome Discovery
From the Merthyr Guardian 150 years ago today…
