Mountain Hare Inn – The Melting Pot

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.

Still further on yet, and on the left, were other cottages and a public house called ‘The Ship in Distress’. These cottages and ‘The Ship in Distress’ have long since ceased to be tenantable, but about which I will tell something.

Mr David Morris, the grandfather of the late Mr Thomas Jenkins of Pant, kept the public house, and owing to his not voting in accordance with the wish of his landlord at an election, had notice to quit. Mr Morris then built the ‘Mountain Hare’ and removed there. So much for political pique, but another hardship soon after arose. Upon the cottages etc. becoming untenantable, the owner (who had become so by the marriage of a widow) was John Jenkins, keeping the ‘Cross Keys’ near the lock-up. He applied unsuccessfully, both to the Dowlais and Penydarren Companies, for compensation. All he got was the part of shuttlecock, the battledores being the companies. In vain did he endeavour to invoke the aid of any solicitor to take up his case until a person (long dead), who shall be nameless, rendered assistance to him. Amongst the excuses urged by the companies was a direct negative that either had worked beneath the property, so that it became necessary to sink a pit upon that small plot and show the minerals had been abstracted. Upon so doing he was able to obtain compensation.

This, or about there for certain, was called Pwllywhead (sic) (Duck’s Pool). Beyond this there were a few cottages, which the inexorable demand for tip room has obliterated. The residence of the old mineral agent of the Dowlais Works, Mr William Kirkhouse, was on the way, and the road ran out to join that from Merthyr to Rhymney Bridge via Dowlais, above or about Cae Harris.

All this is vividly recalled by the sudden death of the late Chairman of the Board of Guardians. Mrs Jenkins, mother of the deceased gentleman, was the eldest daughter of David Morris of ‘The Ship in Distress’. There was also a son who was in the fitting shop at the Dowlais Works, and a younger sister, who married and went to reside somewhere. Do not for a moment conclude that in the turnpike gate times this road was always quite open and free to travel. Ever and anon – particularly on Wain (sic) Fair days – there was a chain stretched across and a collector stationed who required payment before removal of the obstruction.

No doubt many of your readers have heard of a horse and rider going over the bridge and into the gorge at Pontsarn. Let me assure them that it arose from the anxiety to save the payment of toll, and in due time it shall be made clear, for I had the words of the person some few years ago.

To be continued at a later date…..

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.

Assuming ourselves at the junction of the Mardy and High Street, we will try to go (as many did during the turnpike gate days) around to Dowlais. The Star is on the right hand, a small house and shop on the left, the Mardy House being close, in fact the front garden touched the wall of Shop House, and Mardy House itself faced out to the High Street. This was the new front; a portion of the older part adjoined and had a thatched roof. It was occupied by a Mrs David Meyrick, I believe (Mr David Meyrick Having died there). Adjoining the Mardy was the residence of Mr Edmund Harman.

An extract from the 1851 Ordnance Survey Map showing the area in question

Gillar Street comes in, and on the opposite corner was a shop where (if not mistaken) Mr William Harris first opened on his own account; then the residence of Mr William Rowland, the parish clerk. At the making of the Vale of Neath Railway it was necessary to take part of his garden, and the navvies were annoyed at his troubling so much about some fruit trees. Naturally they would move them in the early hours of the day to avoid interference, but on one occasion he went out while they were doing so, and heard one of the navvies say to the other “Look out Jim; here’s the b_____ old Amen coming”. His wrath was not modified by the hearing of this, but that he did hear it is well known.

An opening into the Cae Gwyn followed, and the Fountain public house was upon the corner of the Tramroad. Upon the right side behind the Star were some five or six cottages, and after an opening was passed that came from Pendwranfach, the Court premises and Garden followed. The house itself has been improved since then, but it was always the parent house of the town. The Glove and Shears adjoined, and abutting on its gable was the Tramroad. Just here will be spoken of again in reference to the Tramroad. Now however, we will cross it and ascend the hill – Twynyrodyn.

Some not over good cottages lined a part of the way; there was a better residence on the right before coming to Zion, the Welsh Baptist Chapel, and opposite the chapel was the residence of the Rev Enoch Williams. Facing down the road just above was the White Horse public house, with a row of cottages with gardens in front. There were but few cottages beyond Zion Chapel on that side.

The White Horse Inn. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

At the end of the White Horse, and behind the row of cottages, is the original ground used for burial of those who died from the cholera epidemic in the very early thirties (those who died at the subsequent visitation being buried in Thomastown, near the Union Workhouse).

The road had few if any cottages. In a dell, which may be called the end of Cwm Rhyd-y-bedd, there was one, and some a little further on to the left. The ‘Mountain Hare’ was the name of the public house built there adjoining the railroad leading from the Winch Fawr to the Penydarren Works.

To be continued at a later date…..

Mountain Hare – an Early History

by Carolyn Jacob

MOUNTAIN HARE is the name of an old inn above Pen yr Heol Ferthyr which gave the district its more modern name – the 1851 Census Returns recorded Pen yr Heol Ferthyr (see below).

It is not certain when the inn was built, but it would seem to have ideally positioned for the time before industrialization and the road links and pre-1750 conditions, but the name suggests a post-1750 inn. It is an English name. The other public house in the area, the Farmer’s Arms, has the interesting nickname of ‘the Spite’, and there may be truth in the local legend that it was intended to ruin the trade of the other inn. However the name might be derived from the Welsh for a water spout because there was one there. There is another public house with this name in Carmarthenshire, and many of the residents of Mountain Hare came from there. This is very curious but the truth behind the name is hard to be certain of.

Mountain Hare in 1949. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

The Mountain Hare Ironstone Mine in mentioned by Clive Thomas in Merthyr Tydfil – A Valley Community, page 305, this pre-1860 ironstone mine was at Mountain Hare, just southwest of Dowlais No 2 Pit. In 1841 ironstone mining, coal mining and associated employment such as haulier are practically the only two occupations in the district, however, by 1851 there are different occupations in the area. Gradually the ironstone mining dies out and gives way to coal.

The 1851 census returns, which records place of birth, give clear evidence that the population of Mountain Hare (Pen yr Heol Ferthyr) came from various Welsh counties. We can find people born in Montgomgeryhire, Denbighshire, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire. There are only a few Englishmen here later but no Irish or Scots.

On 31 May 1856 the Merthyr Express reported the conversion of a small cottage to a Sunday School because of ‘the large number of children running about the whole of Sunday at Pwllyhwyaid. The school was connected to Zoar Welsh Independent Chapel.

Also, according to All Change by Josh Powell, page 63, a garden at Pen yr Heol Ferthyr was sold by David Robert Davies to Zion Welsh Baptist Chapel in 1861 for £20. A Sunday School called ‘The Bryn’ was then built on this site.

PEN YR HEOL FERTHYR: The ‘top of the road or ancient byway from or to Merthyr Tudful’, a place generally located below the old ‘Mountain Hare’ Inn, immediately east of the former Dowlais Inclined Plane, just above the former bridge which (in the 1940s) took the road called Heol Ferthyr alias Twyn yr Odyn Road across the Dowlais Inclined Plane. Sometime the name is on documents without the ‘yr’. The Dowlais Inclined Plane went right through this locality, mostly as a deep cutting, requiring a bridge to take Heol Ferthyr over the railway and another bridge lower down taking a lane over the railway to Tir Ysgubor Newydd homestead.

By 1885, the six-inch Ordnance Survey Map showed nearby Mountain Hare Inn, Maerdy, some houses to the rear and a row of houses alongside the road. This apart, there is very little if anything known of the history and occupants of this ‘farm’ or small-holding which lay alongside one of the main access roads to the village of Merthyr Tydfil. However, evidence taken from the census returns 1841- 1911 reveal quite a large number of persons residing in this district.

Mountain Hare was pictured in the Illustrated News of 1875 because this popular London based magazine did a feature about Merthyr Tydfil during the 1875 Strike, the longest strike to date. The men met at Mountain Hare for huge outdoor political rallies, but the area had long been a general outdoor meeting place gathering crowds of working men for sports and activities such as dog fighting (actually illegal from 1835) and bare knuckle fighting. Its main claim to fame is that the greatest politician of all time, Keir Hardie, spoke here to a gathering of working people in 1898.