From the Merthyr Express 80 years ago today…..
New Pit-Head Canteen
Tag: Merthyr Vale Colliery
Aberfan’s First Tragedy
by Brian Jones
Visitors to the cemetery in Aberfan can be forgiven for not recognising a military monument dedicated to the memory of seven young local men who perished a few years after the construction of the Merthyr Vale Colliery which opened in 1876. They were volunteers, part of the Volunteer Army, originally a citizen army of part time soldiers created as a popular movement in 1859. This army was later integrated with the British Army after the Childers Reform of 1881, and then became the Territorial Army in 1908. Volunteer soldiers were required to train for up to four weeks each year and this included two weeks at “Summer Camp”.
The Martini-Henry single shot became the standard issue rifle for the army in 1871 and thereafter all full and part time soldiers trained with this issue. These military and equipment changes coincided locally with the rapid increase of population as Welsh and English workers and their families moved into the South Wales valleys. Deep coal mines were opened and work began to divert the River Taff and sink No.1 shaft at the Taff Vale Colliery in 1869. The first coal was brought to the surface more than six years later and in time the mine was renamed as the Merthyr Vale Colliery. The terraced communities of Mount Pleasant, Aberfan and Merthyr Vale were constructed and the first places of worship opened in 1876 with Bethania Welsh Independent and Aberfan Calvinistic Methodist chapels. In that same year the eight acre cemetery at Bryntaf (Aberfan) was opened.
The steep hilltop cemetery is now dominated by the graves and monument to the 144 souls who perished in the Aberfan Disaster of October 1966. However visitors to the cemetery can easily fail to notice a 10ft monument near the main cemetery entrance. This is topped by three bronze Martini-Henry rifles on a varied stone base weighing 25 tons. The monument was designed by Lieutenant C.B.Fowler of Llandaff and constructed by Messrs Corfield and Morgan of Cardiff. A bronze Cypress wreath marks this as a tribute to seven young soldiers of “E Company” of the Welch (Welsh) Regiment’s Third Volunteer Brigade who drowned in the Bristol Channel, between Lavernock and Penarth, on 1 August 1888.
The ceremony to dedicate the monument over the graves was held on Sunday 30 March 1890, attended by dignitaries and officers and men numbering 1,118 of the 3rd Volunteer Brigade (Welch Regiment) accompanied by the Cardiff Band and Dowlais Band to the Regimental tune of “The March of the Men of Harlech”. An inscribed shield of marble bears the names of the deceased:
Henry Brown 18 years
John Walter Webber 17 years
Willie Colston 20 years
Fred J. James 17 years
James Simons 18 years
Pryce James Potter 18 years
Thomas Hughes 18 years
Three of the deceased were colliers, one a fitter, three building tradesmen and two of the seven were from the neighbouring area of Treharris. These two were thought to be from the Nelson Company of the Volunteer Brigade. All seven were likely friends at the Summer Camp going out to celebrate not knowing of theirpending fate.
Michael Statham has provided a detailed account of the tragedy (on the website www.historypoints.org), based on records from the inquest as follows:
“Seven volunteers drowned off the coast here (Lavernock) in a boating accident in 1888. The Merthyr Vale detachment of the Welch Regiment’s Third Volunteer Brigade was on a summer camp in Lavernock. On the evening of Wednesday 1 August, 10 soldiers hired the boat MAGGIE to take them to Penarth. The boat was operated by Joseph Hall, aged 31.
It was almost high tide when the boat passed Ranny pool, where several fishing poles were located and a reef caused a strong current. Joseph tried to pull clear of a fishing pole which was submerged by the tide, but the heavily-laden boat struck it. Reacting to the collision, the passengers became agitated, stood up and moved about. Their movements caused the boat to ship water and eventually capsize.
Four soldiers tried to swim to shore but were drowned. The rest managed to right the craft, but it capsized again as they scrambled to get back into it. This happened a number of times. At one point Joseph was lucky to extricate himself from beneath the upturned boat.
By the time help arrived, three more soldiers had drowned. Joseph was saved along with three of his passengers: Albert Williams, William Dowdeswell and Watkin Moss. The drowned men’s bodies were recovered the following week: two on Monday, two on Tuesday and the remaining three on Wednesday. Most were recovered close to the accident scene but the last to be found, James Potter was picked up off Barry, c.6 miles away.
At the inquest it was noted that the MAGGIE was licensed to carry eight passengers. Joseph said that he had taken the 10 men because they had told him that he must take them all or none of them would go. He was found guilty of Gross Neglect. He was severely reprimanded by the Coroner but exonerated from guilt of a criminal offence”
The hamlet of Lavernock (Larnog) is seven miles from Cardiff and as this tragedy fades into history it is also overshadowed by the experiment conducted by Marconi on 13 May 1897. He transmitted the first radio message (morse code) over water from Lavernock Point to the small offshore island of Flat Holm.
John Nixon
John Nixon was born at Barlow in Durham on 10 May 1815, the only son of a tenant farmer of that village. He was educated at the village school and at Dr. Bruce’s academy at Newcastle-on-Tyne, famous as the training-place of many great engineers.
Leaving school at the age of fourteen, Nixon was set to farmwork for a time, and shortly after was apprenticed to Joseph Gray of Garesfield, the Marquis of Bute’s chief mining engineer.
On the expiry of his indentures he became for two years overman at the Garesfield colliery. At the end of this time, in 1839, he undertook a survey of the underground workings of the Dowlais Company in South Wales. Some years later he accepted the appointment of mining engineer to an English company, working a coal and iron field at Languin near Nantes. He perceived, however, that the enterprise was destined to fail, and did not hesitate to inform his employers of his opinion. After labouring for some time to carry on a hopeless concern he returned to England.
During his first visit to Wales Nixon had been impressed by the natural advantages of Welsh coal for use in furnaces. On his return from France he found that it was beginning to be used by the Thames steamers. He perceived that there was a great opening for it on the Loire, where coal was already imported by sea. At the time, however, he was unable to obtain a supply with which to commence a trade. Mrs. Thomas of the Graig Colliery at Merthyr, who supplied the Thames steamers, was disinclined to extend her operations, and Nixon was compelled to return to the north of England. But business again taking him to South Wales, he chartered a small vessel, took a cargo of coal to Nantes, and distributed it gratuitously among the sugar refineries. He succeeded also in inducing the French government to make a trial of it. Its merits were at once perceived; the French government definitely adopted it, and a demand was created among the manufactories and on the Loire.
Returning to Wales he made arrangements for sinking a mine at Werfa to secure an adequate supply. After being on the point of failure from lack of capital he obtained assistance and achieved success. Continuing his operations in association with other enterprising men of the neighbourhood, he acquired and made many collieries in South Wales. In 1869 he began sinking the Merthyr Vale No 1 Colliery, and the first coal was mined in 1875.
In 1897 the output of the Nixon group was 1,250,000 tons a year. Nixon succeeded, after a long struggle, in inducing the railway companies of Great Britain to adopt Welsh coal for consumption in their locomotives. He had great difficulty also in persuading the Great Western Railway Company to patronise the coal traffic, which now forms so large a part of their goods business.
Much of Nixon’s success was due to his improvements in the art of mining. He introduced the ‘long wall’ system of working in place of the wasteful ‘pillar and stall’ system, and invented the machine known as ‘Billy Fairplay’ for measuring accurately the proportion between large coal and small, which is now in universal use. He also made improvements in ventilating and in winding machinery. He was one of the original movers in establishing the sliding-scale system, and one of the founders of the Monmouthshire and South Wales Coalowners’ Association. He was for fifteen years chairman of the earlier South Wales Coal Association, and for many years represented Wales in the Mining Association of Great Britain. Nixon materially contributed to the growth of Cardiff by inducing leading persons in South Wales to petition the trustees of the Marquis of Bute in 1853 for increased dock accommodation, and by persuading the trustees, in spite of the objections of their engineer, Sir John Rennie, to increase the depth of the East Dock.
He died in London, on 3 June 1899 at 117 Westbourne Terrace, Hyde Park, and was buried on 8 June in the Mountain Ash cemetery, Aberdare valley.
This article is a transcription from a publication now in the public domain: Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1901.
The Building of St Mary’s, Merthyr Vale
In the last post, a newspaper cutting appeared announcing the opening of St Mary’s Church in Merthyr Vale. The story of the building of the church is a fascinating one, as the church was built at a time of austerity, actually coinciding with the General Strike of 1926.
A number of people from Merthyr Vale and Aberfan worshipped in the Anglican faith, and indeed they had their own vicar – Rev P Evans. The one thing they didn’t have was their own church. Encouraged by Rev Evans, they decided that they would build a church themselves, and despite the deprivations of the time, and having very little money, plans were drawn up by Rev Evans; Mr Walter March, the engineer of Merthyr Vale Colliery; and Mrs Lewis James.
One of the first problems facing them was where to get the materials needed to build the church. Fortunately the owners of the Glamorganshire Canal told them that they could have the dressed stone from the old, disused pump house near the Pontyrhun Bridge in Troedyrhiw, but they would have to dismantle the building and transport the stones themselves. Mr Ernie Williams, a coal delivery driver from Troedyrhiw offered them the use of his delivery lorry, and every day, people from Merthyr Vale, led by Rev Evans went to Troedyrhiw and pulled down the pump house, stone by stone, and Ernie Williams delivered the stones to Merthyr Vale. After many months of back-breaking work, the building was finally completed, but the generosity didn’t stop there.
Money being very scarce, the group had very little to spare for fixtures and fittings for the new church, however, a church in Aberdare offered the people of Merthyr Vale a pulpit. Once again, the services of Ernie Williams were called upon, and with the aid of a steam wagon borrowed from Merthyr Vale Colliery, not to mention many willing helpers, the pulpit was loaded on to the wagon for the journey to Merthyr Vale. Hearing of the endeavours of the Merthyr Vale group, the firm of Williams and Williams, colliery lamp makers, gave those who had journeyed to Aberdare a free meal.
The journey from Aberdare to Merthyr Vale was not an easy one. The steam wagon travelled at a speed of five miles per hour, and was so heavy that several bridges en route had to be strengthened to take its weight. Despite this, the pulpit arrived in one piece and was installed in the church. The church was consecrated on 12 December 1926.
Sadly, due to subsidence caused by the mine workings at Merthyr Vale Colliery, St Mary’s Church was demolished in 1967, after just over 40 years serving the community. A new church was built on the same site in 1974.
Photos courtesy of Old Merthyr Tydfil (http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm)