Tag: Muriel Terrace (Dowlais)

Gilbert Evans – 10 October 1907- 17 January 1986

by Sian Herron

Gilbert Evans – aged 8

A century ago today, on 30th June 1922, my Great-Uncle Gilbert Evans from Dowlais was sent to Ontario, Canada to work. He was a “British Home Child”, who along with around 100,000 other British children, from the 1860’s until the 1930’s, was sent to be used as cheap farm labour.

The Evans family lived in Muriel Terrace in August 1909, when William Arthur Evans was killed in a pit accident in Fochriw, leaving his wife Mary with 9 children and my Grampa, Arthur Evans, on the way.

William Arthur Evans (1873 – 1909)
Merthyr Express 7 August 1909

In March 1915 Mary Evans was admitted to The Workhouse and her youngest 5 boys were admitted to The Cottage Homes in Llwydcoed – both run by The Merthyr Board of Guardians.

The Cottage Homes, Llwydcoed, 1915. Gilbert Evans left of Master, Brynmor Evans back right (with knee lifted), Arthur Evans centre front (sitting slightly side on).
The Cottage Homes, Llwydcoed, 1915. Gilbert Evans beneath pen mark left back, Brynmor Evans beneath pen mark on the right, and Arthur Evans between Master and Mistress in dark shirt.

In October 1915 Mary’s son, Brynmor Cornwallis Evans, aged 9, died of tubercular meningitis whilst being cared for by The Homes. By December 1915 the other children were removed to the care of their mother, however her youngest two, Gilbert and my Grampa, Arthur soon returned to spend their childhood there.

Brynmor Evans’ death in October 1915 aged 9

In 1922 Gilbert was emigrated, via The Liverpool Sheltering Home, on behalf of The Llwydcoed Children’s Home & Industrial School.

SS Montrose to Quebec in 1922

He spent 5 years slaving on a remote farm in Forest Falls, Ontario, from dawn until dusk, living in an out-building & washing in a water trough, alongside another boy of a similar age. In 5 years, he never entered the main house, and his report card states, “Boy well pleased with the situation – happy”.

So happy that 5 years later, in 1927, Gilbert, then aged 19, transported himself back to Dowlais!

SS Andania – Gilbert’s return to Liverpool in 1927

If you want to find out more about these children, I can recommend the book pictured, entitled “The Little Immigrants”, although I can guarantee it will make you cry.

The hardships endured at such a tender age made the Government award each British Home Child £20,000 in an attempt to compensate them for what was done.

Gilbert never received his compensation, since he died in 1986, long before the compensation was offered.

People have asked me what happened to Gilbert following his return to Dowlais. He stayed with his elder brother Johnny, wife Leticia and their three children at Castle Row in Pengarnddu.

Gilbert Evans following his return from Canada – centre back

Gilbert returned home shortly before The Great Depression and work was scarce. He joined The Army, served in India, and improved his education by doing his exams. He later worked for The MOD in Bath. I’ve been told he had a small bag of Roman coins that he’d found in the tunnels under the city of Bath, when he was a ‘runner’ carrying messages through these tunnels.

Gilbert married Agnes Buckle and remained in Bath until his death. They had a council flat in a block just behind Royal Crescent, where I visited them as a child. They didn’t have children.

Gilbert regularly stayed in Merthyr with my Grampa, Arthur. Together they took me for a college interview in Carmarthen when I was seventeen. I just wish I’d asked more questions when I had the chance!

Many thanks to Sian for sharing this remarkable and incredibly well-researched story with us.

If anyone has any interesting family stories (Merthyr-related obviously) they would like to share please get in touch.

The District Nurse Always Got There

by Mansell Richards

Prior to the 1960s and the arrival of the mass-produced, affordable motor car, district nurses visited their patients on foot or by bus. These hard- working ladies often walked miles in extremely bad weather,- rain,  hail, snow and gale force winds.

One such lady was Nurse Frances Evans of Muriel Terrace, Caeharris, Dowlais. The mother of two children – David and Dwynwen; she had, sadly, lost an eight year old son, Elwyn to diphtheria in 1938, a child-killing disease of the time.

For several years during the 1950s her once-a-week journey was sometimes unusual to say the least.

Normally, she travelled every Tuesday on the 1.15PM train from Caeharris Railway Station  (located behind the Antelope Hotel on upper Dowlais High Street) to the  isolated, windswept former coal-mining community  of Cwmbargoed some 4 miles away,  the home of her elderly patient, former miner, Mr Horace Morgan. He was a surgical case who needed skilled attention every week. Back in those days the isolated village of Cwmbargoed was situated on the main line from Dowlais to Bedlinog.

THE COLLIERS’ TRAIN

Nurse Evans always referred to this train as ‘The Colliers’ Train’, recalling vivid  memories of her younger days when hundreds of colliers disembarked every afternoon at Caeharris Station from ‘The Cwbs’, (these were old, basic carriages with wooden benches for seats). These colliers were returning to their homes having completed their early morning shifts in the pits at Cwmbargoed, Fochriw and Bedlinog etc. With so many pit closures between the wars however, far fewer colliers by the 1950s were travelling on this route.

Meanwhile after puchasing a ticket at the ticket office (priced 6d each way), Nurse Evans would begin her journey to Cwmbargoed. But with other patients to visit, she would sometimes miss the 1.15pm train, the next train leaving some three hours later. On these occasions she would be given a lift by other means. But no ordinary train this. It consisted of a single steam-driven locomotive and a guard’s van. She would be offered the only seat and would sit uncomfortably, behind the kindly driver and his sweating, grime-faced, coal-shovelling fireman.

Dowlais colliers returning home c. 1930 by Dewi Bowen

JOURNEY’S END

On arrival at Cwmbargoed Nurse Evans would have a ten minute walk to the home of old Mr Morgan. On one occasion she fell into a snow drift and was rescued by a passing workman who heard her cries for help.

All district nurses had large areas to cover and they walked miles every day. In some parts of the country, some may well have adopted the means of transport favoured by a nurse in the modern, 1950s-based television series ‘Call The Midwife’, by making use of a bicycle. However, there is no evidence of local nurses relying on this method of transport.

Needless to say Nurse Evans, who retired in 1962 enjoyed her occasionally unusual  journey inside a hot and noisy  steam  locomotive, across the lonely, windswept moorland above the town of Merthyr Tydfil.

Older folk may recall Nurse Evans, a kind and gentle lady, who was held in great affection by her patients during the 1950s and early 60s.

(This story was taken from an article in the Merthyr Express on 8 March 1958. Meanwhile, I thank Sian Anthony, Dowlais Library Service, Terry Jones, John Richards and the family of the late Dewi Bowen for their valuable assistance).