In 1850, a group of worshippers at Wesley Chapel at Pontmorlais severed connections with the chapel and started to worship in the Temperance Hall, and started a new sect, calling themselves the Wesleyan Reformers.
Foremost amongst the new group was Mr Walter Watkins, and he along with Mr W John, Mr Rees Chandler, Mr George Williams and Mr Richard Harris were instrumental in getting the new cause established.
By 1856, with no sign of the rift with their mother church healing, the congregation decided to build their own chapel in Newcastle Street. Shortly after this a number of members left Zoar Chapel and joined the congregation at Salem, and Rev Thomas Jenkins of Aberaman was ordained as the first minister. The congregation were accepted into the Independent Union at a quarterly meeting of the East Glamorgan Association held at Bethesda Chapel. Rev Jenkins remained at the chapel until 1864 when he emigrated to America.
In 1907, the chapel acquired a house in Newcastle Street, and converted it, at a cost of £700, into a schoolroom.
In 1925 when storms severely damaged the old Morlais Chapel, the Salvation Army Corps met at Salem Chapel, and the elders of the chapel offered the building to the Salvation Army. They declined the offer however as the building was deemed too small for their purposes. By this time the congregation had severely dwindled and in 1930 the chapel closed and the remaining congregation returned to Zoar. The building was then sold to the Temperance Movement and renamed Salem Memorial Hall.
The building has since been used by the Jehovah’s Witness movement, but has now been converted to a house.
While in conversation with a fellow Dowlais choir chorister Richard Cole, we began to reminisce about our time together in the Merthyr Tydfil Brass Band. Next choir rehearsal Richard brought along a photograph of the band in the 60’s, between both of us we managed to piece together all but one of the band’s assemblages.
About 1965 members of the Georgetown and Gellifaelog School Brass Bands combined to form the Merthyr Tydfil Brass Band under the directorship of Mr Elwyn Farrell. Mr Farrell was a teacher of mathematics at Georgetown School and an accomplished cornet player, whose family had strong ties with the local Salvation Army corps.
The band membership increased quickly with other players who had originally joined the brass bands before their transfer to Quakers Yard Technical School in Treharris.
Despite the band’s formation Georgetown and Gellifaelog school bands still retained their own identity in assisting their school assemblies’ accompaniment of school hymns, with Mr Farrell taking up the baton for Georgetown School Band while Mr Richard Pendry conducting the Gellifaelog School Band.
To help young instrumentalists the band membership were grateful to older players who gave their time to help nurture young brass band musicians.
Most of the rehearsals were held at the old YMCA sports room located on the upper level of the YMCA. In the short history of the brass band, they appeared at local charity events including the Christmas tree ceremony outside the town hall. The Brass Band entered a number of competitions such as the Park and Dare Hall in Treorchy, and the Brangwyn Hall in Swansea.
I believe the Merthyr Tydfil Brass Band finished about 1968, when the older band members of school leaving age left their schools, with fewer school pupils pursuing an interest in their school Brass Bands and the Youth band, the numbers dwindled leaving no option but for the band conductor Mr Farrell to disband the musical organisation. After Mr Farrell’s retirement from the teaching profession, he moved to Libanus, Brecon then moved to Sweden where he died.
Back row (l-r): Ivor Roberts, Ernie Lanchesbury, Gareth Oates, Derek Williams, Joyce Rubery, Michael Rees, Martin Carey, Alvin Head, Cyril Williams, Richard Owens
Middle row (l-r): Richard Cole, Alan Evans, Carl Llewellyn, Maldwyn Williams, John Lenard, Peter Lozano, Michael Baldwin, Ieuan Harris
Front row (l-r): Anthony Williams, Gail Bartlett, Dayton Griffiths, Elva Thomas, Gwyn James, Elwyn Farrell (conductor), Raymond Hancock, Jane Thomas, Philip Kinsey, Allan Davies, Philip Fly
Chapter VI recounts Henry’s views on Prisoners’ Aid Societies and in particular the Salvation Army.
The Dark Side of Convict Life (Being the Account of the Career of Harry Williams, a Merthyr Man). Merthyr Express, 26th February 1910, page 11.
Chapter VI
On Prisoners’ Aid Societies.
I daresay that my readers have heard a great deal about these benevolent societies, and I should like to give my opinion concerning their pretended generosity. I have often thought that if I had been assisted I should never have gone through any further trouble, but as I was deceived after forming good resolutions, there was an excuse why I again trod the path of evil.
There has been a great deal said about the goodness of their work in helping and rescuing the criminal, and of the wonderful work they have done and are doing, but some of them are little better than money-making institutions.
There is one society that has really and truly done some good, and that is the Salvation Army. I say this because I have experienced this, but there are many people who do not like the Salvationists, simply because they are noisy in the streets; but they are only acting in accordance with the Bible, for it says “Thou shalt make a noise with timbrels and instruments of music, that my words shall be heard throughout all lands,” or something to that effect. The Salvationists have not only assisted and helped to make homes for the discharged criminals, but also for the distressed and poverty-stricken poor of many countries.
A chaplain of a certain prison in Wales once told me that the Salvationists were too fond of boasting of the good they have done, and that it was the working-class who chiefly contributed towards them, and that the wealthy as a rule passed them by. I was not long in telling him that there are to be found among the Salvationists people of independent means. And it is so; and I think they are in the right to boast since the Church of England does exactly the same thing. “Go out into the highways and hedges, and bring in hither the halt, the maimed and the blind.” The Church preaches this, but the Salvation Army practices it.
The Salvation Army has a farm colony, somewhere outside London, where they train criminals for emigration to Canada, but the Canadian Government has now put a stop to this, so that no criminal should be allowed out there who is assisted by public funds. As the Salvationists are people who never give in they will, I am quite sure, some day, even if General Booth does not live to do it – his son possesses exactly the same determination – from a scheme to obtain a substitute for the Canadian farming.
Speaking from experience I am justified in saying that the Salvation Army societies are the predominating societies of the world, and God knows what it will lead to yet. It is not the Salvationists who boast of the work they have done, for they do not praise themselves in their Christian calling, as a great many are too apt to believe, but it is the likes of myself more who praise their splendid work, which is a work of love. I cannot find words to praise them enough, for they have turned many a hardened criminal into a respectable citizen, and a loving husband and father. If there are any of my readers who have a tendency to oppose this, let them come to me and I will argue with them upon the subject until they are black in the face. Their flag is still flying, and it will fly when those who condemn it are in their graves.
In 1881, a disagreement occurred at Pontmorlais Chapel, and a number of the members left there and began their own cause, eventually building a small chapel next to the Morlais Brook at the bottom of the ‘British Tip’, calling it Abermorlais Chapel. By 1885 however, the dispute was resolved and the congregation at Abermorlais Chapel returned to Pontmorlais.
At this time, about 70 members of the congregation left High Street Chapel to form their own church. When the Methodists decided to return to Pontmorlais Chapel they sold the building to the Baptists for £1,060 who established Morlais Chapel on 27 September 1885. In June 1886, the church was accepted into the Glamorgan and Carmarthen English Baptist Association.
In 1899, Rev E Aubrey (right) was inducted as the new minister at the old Morlais Chapel. Under his ministry the congregation prospered, and it soon became apparent that the congregation at the old Morlais Chapel had grown to such an extent that a new chapel was required.
Land was acquired in The Walk and a chapel, designed by Messrs George Morgan & Sons of Carmarthen was built at a cost of £2750, with the organ, furniture and fittings costing an additional £1750. The work was carried out by Mr J Morgan of Blaenavon. £700 of this amount was raised from the sale of Morlais Chapel to the Salvation Army.
As the Salvation Army, having no permanent place of worship, were keen to move into Morlais Chapel it was decided that the school room at the rear of the chapel should be completed first so that services could be held there pending completion of the chapel.
The schoolroom was completed in January 1904, and on 17 November 1904, Park Chapel was officially opened by Mr D A Thomas, later to become Lord Rhondda. On the day of the opening, the members processed from Morlais Chapel to the new chapel.
The opening ceremony at Park Chapel
In August 1906, Rev Aubrey decided to leave the chapel, and the following year Rev J Lloyd Williams was inducted as minister in May 1907, having led two very successful services at the chapel following Rev Aubrey’s departure. During his 29 years as minister, the congregation continued to go from strength to strength, and during his ministry the entire debt on the chapel was paid off.
In 1950, Rev Iorwerth Budge came to Park Chapel to preach and he was inducted as the minister the following year. Rev Budge was destined to remain as the minister of Park Chapel for 45 years. Rev Budge immediately showed a great interest in the work of the Sunday School, and it was through his interest that Sunday Schools were set up in the new housing estates that were being built in Merthyr. The first was built in Galon Uchaf and was opened on 19 September 1959, and a second was built in the Gurnos Estate and was opened on 31 January 1976.
In 2004 it was discovered that three culverts that ran beneath the chapel had, over many years, washed away most of the foundations of the chapel. A meeting was held to decide whether to demolish the chapel or to undertake extensive renovation work to stabilise the chapel. It was decided to carry out the renovations. The culverts were diverted and the foundations strengthened.
The schoolroom at the rear of the chapel had to be demolished and a new room was constructed at the rear of the balcony. These renovations cost almost £500,000.
Park Chapel still has a thriving, and indeed growing congregation.
Christmas a hundred years ago would have been a more religions event than today.
Both chapels and churches would have special services and carol singing on Christmas Eve and the family would turn out for a service on Christmas Day itself. The timing of the Christmas dinner might depend on what was known about the preacher and how long his sermons usually took. Chapels would attract with wonderful singing and many other festive events. In 1922 the annual Bethania Eisteddfod took place on Christmas day with a splendid attendance and a keen competition. Penywern Chapel also held an Eisteddfod which was very popular. The Bryn Sion Eisteddfod was an enjoyable event on the afternoon and evening of Christmas Day and a good gramophone with excellent records were a modern addition. There was also an Eisteddfod in Bethesda Chapel on Boxing Day. The time-honoured practice of carol singing was an important tradition, especially in a town such as Merthyr Tydfil with its many choirs of all kinds. The carol singing was especially popular when it consisted of popular Welsh carols.
Following Christmas day Frank T. James delivered a talk in Cyfarthfa Castle on the Romans in Merthyr Tydfil.
Christmas is all about family gatherings. However, whereas today the celebrations are often centred around the presents and multimedia, in the 1922s Christmas was much more home-made entertainments and taking advantage of time not spent working. A hundred years ago there were an amazing number of social events for people to attend in the Merthyr Tydfil area on Christmas Day itself. Football games were played and for many it was a good opportunity to go to the cinema. All the many cinemas in Merthyr Tydfil put on a special Christmas programme. The Merthyr Electric Theatre changed its programme after Xmas to present a new programme on Boxing Day. The Palace had a continuous show on from 5.30 with a special matinee on Boxing Day at 2.30. The Penydarren Cosy opened Xmas Day at 2pm with ‘Moth and Rust’ starring Sybil Thorndike.
A fancy- dress masked carnival and fourth annual whist drive and carnival was held at the Drill Hall on the 30th of December in aid of the National Institute for the Blind
There were many differences between Christmas a hundred years ago and today. For instance, there was no Royal Speech as in 1922 the Royal Xmas Day Speech had not yet started. In fact, November 1922 was the date of the founding of the BBC. In Merthyr Tydfil weddings took place on Christmas morning. This might seem odd these days but a hundred years ago Christmas was seen as a good time to get married as it was a day when the family would be free from work and able to enjoy the celebrations.
D Jones Dickinson Factory in Dowlais. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive
Christmas, as always, was a time for children but in 1922 it was an occasion to make sure children were well fed and schools opened on Christmas day to assist with this. In 1922 500 children attended the 42nd annual Christmas breakfast at Abermorlais School. Children were given tea, bread and butter, currant and seed cake and so on. There was carol singing and a Father Christmas. On leaving each child was given 4 buns, 2 oranges, 2 apples and something to read. All this was paid for by businesses and individuals in the town. D. Jones Dickinson of Dowlais contributed 56 pounds of cake. On Christmas night, teachers, older pupils, and former scholars gathered together for tea and a long programme of singing and recitations. Winter sales, such as that of R.T. Jones, did not start until 5th January.
There were many friends of the poor in Merthyr Tydfil. Christmas would not be Christmas without remembering the Merthyr Workhouse and trying to give its inmates a good day to enjoy when their worries could all be forgotten. ‘Keeping Christmas’ was important, and the Merthyr Express editorial expressed the feeling that people in Merthyr will celebrate Christmas as in past years. However, ‘There will be, nevertheless, a number of people, many more than we like to contemplate, without the means at their command of keeping the anniversary as could be wished. There is ever a great warmth of generosity in our midst which never fails to respond at these times with the means for assisting the less fortunate fellow members of the innumerable human family to do honour to the day’.
Over the Christmas period in 1922 there were 278 men in the workhouse, 195 women and 59 children. It was regarded as important that these all be given a good day and everyone was expected to participate in the general festivities of the season. On the festive day breakfast was served in the Workhouse at 7.00. Mr Morgan attended as Father Christmas and played the organ in the dining hall before he also visited the wards for the old and infirm dressed as Santa Claus. The dinner provided by the Guardians was roast beef, pork, potatoes, vegetables, and plum pudding, served with sparkling water. Oranges and apples were handed out to all. John Morgan again ‘ kept the diners in roars of laughter with his jovial fun’. It was his 29th appearance at this annual treat. The Rev Pugh and many of the Guardians attended. The Salvation Army played selections of music in various parts of the Institution and the Infirmary Dining Hall, Infirm Wards and other areas were very nicely decorated by the staff.
A plan of the Merthyr Workhouse in the 1800s
In Dowlais the inmates of Pantyscallog House were all treated by Dr Stuart Cresswell to his usual gift of two geese for Christmas Dinner. Tea and special Xmas cake was served in the afternoon. Each male inmate received 1 oz of tobacco and a new pipe and females who used snuff were given some. A rocking horse and toys were donated for the children and so were cakes and pastry, chocolates, and sweets. Magazines for the inmates were also donated by the Guardians and local people in the town, such as Mr Howfield and Mr Rubenstein. On Boxing Day the two large trees donated by Mr Seymour Berry and heavily decorated with toys were stripped and children were given the various items. The wealthier citizens of the town were expected to ensure that poorer members of society enjoyed Christmas treats and in 1922 there was a real element of sharing and helping others.
I am sure many of you like me, have wandered around Cyfarthfa Museum, and glanced at the instruments on display – particularly the most intriguing “serpent” – and then moved on without a second thought. The Egyptian mummies were always so much more interesting. As a consequence, although I knew there had been a band, I knew nothing of it. Time to rectify that, my friends!
The Cyfarthfa Band was founded and sponsored by Robert Thompson Crawshay sometime in the 1840s, essentially as his private band. The band played when he had guests in Cyfarthfa, it accompanied him to trips to Aberystwyth and Tenby, where they played outside his hotel, probably to the bewilderment of the locals, and band members were expected to present in uniform at all times.
For much of its life, the band was conducted by the Livseys – father and son. The father, Ralph, was from Northumberland, and was a brilliant keyed bugle player, a skill probably acquired in a military band, as the keyed bugle was developed in this context. He became a soloist with Wombwell’s Travelling Circus and Menagerie, and would have been known to the Crawshays, as Merthyr was a regular venue on Wombwell’s circuit. Around 1846, Robert Crawshay made him an offer – come and lead my brass band – and Ralph accepted. His son, George, aged then 13 was also recruited as another keyed bugle player. Ralph took the band to new heights – while it remained a private band, Livsey persuaded Crawshay to equip it with expensive Viennese instruments (imported expressly through Crawshay’s London supplier), rather than the much cheaper British versions, and developed a repertoire of playing more orchestral music than was the traditional remit of the brass band.
As a private enterprise, the Cyfarthfa Band was not a competition band, and rarely entered such. However, one of the few competitions the band entered was the Crystal Palace national competition of 1860, in which it played Verdi’s “Nabucco”. The band came first on the second day’s contest, and Crawshay’s reputation as a man of culture and taste was cemented – through that, the band’s reputation grew. Its importance can be illustrated by the anecdote told of a time when Crawshay was laying off his workers as result of a downturn in demand. He had identified men working in the Boiler Shop who were to be dismissed. The foreman, Mr Jenkins looked at the list and told Crawshay, in no uncertain terms, that his selection would “take the guts from the band”. Nothing further was ever said.
Ralph Livsey’s grave in St Tydfil’s Churchyard
Ralph Livsey died in 1863 and was succeeded by his son, George, who remained band master for most of the next 50 years. The band’s reputation was maintained, if not enhanced, under George’s leadership – it played in the Cardiff Flower Show for 18 years, and was chosen to play when the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) opened the Prince of Wales dock in Swansea in 1881.
It was George who introduced the band to some of more unusual instruments – including the Serpent (which brings us back to that showcase in the Museum today), an ophicleide – an instrument with a cello tone; and a valve trombone – so common now that we think nothing of it – but a novelty in the 1860s.
An ophicleide from the Cyfarthfa Band
George conducted the band, trained its players, selected and arranged its repertoire and followed his father’s example of attracting some of the greatest brass instrumentalists of the day, such as the ophicleide player Sam Hughes, the greatest ever British virtuoso of the instrument. Indeed, the repertoire Livsey created survives, and because it is handwritten and bespoke it testifies to how, and not just to what, the band played. It was eclectic and included transcriptions of complete symphonies by Europe’s greatest composers and it was George’s boast that this was the only brass band to play all four movements of a Beethoven Symphony, a feat carried out in Cardiff to great acclaim. Such is testimony both to the remarkable virtuosity and skill of the band’s players and to the guidance and vision of a sophisticated musical director.
The last decade of the 19th century saw the band slowly decline. The Cyfarthfa works were losing orders as steel replaced iron, and by 1890 the works were being run by a skeleton staff. In addition there was more musical competition – Merthyr by this time could boast three military bands, seven brass bands and several orchestras – and the band quietly faded away, their instruments being put into storage.
But, my friends, this is not the end of the story, although it is the end of the glory days. Merthyr Council, who had acquired the Castle and grounds in 1908, decided that a band would be just the ticket, and so approached George Livsey to reform it as a municipal band. This duly happened in 1909 and the band was regularly heard playing in the Cyfarthfa and Thomastown bandstands over the next few years.
But George was now a man in his 70s, and so the band’s leadership fell first to a Mr Harvey and then to a Mr Laverock, who was its conductor during the dark days of 1914 -18. And so the band played on, until the Depression of 1926 finally sounded its death toll, as it did for most Merthyr bands, the exception being that of the Salvation Army Band which stands as witness to its heritage.
So next time you are in the Museum, stop at the case which houses the instruments and look up at the painting of George Livsey which hangs nearby – and remember the contribution made by the gentlemen of the Cyfarthfa Band, and wonder at the heights that were achieved by this band of ironworkers.
The portrait of George Livsey that hangs in Cyfarthfa Museum. Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery
One hundred and sixteen years ago today, the following story broke in the Evening Express, and went on to grip the town for several weeks.
Six days previously, on Monday 30 September 1901, a fifteen-year-old girl had been found working as a boy in one of the Plymouth Ironworks’ collieries.
When interviewed, the girl, Edith Gertrude Phillips, said that she lived with her father, a pitman, her mother and five siblings at the Glynderis Engine House in Abercanaid, but was beaten and forced to do all the housework by her mother when her father was at work. On the previous Friday, her mother had ‘knocked her about the head, shoulders and back with her fists’ for not finishing the washing, so Edith decided to leave home. She dressed in some clothes belonging to her older brother, cut her hair, threw her own clothes into the Glamorganshire Canal, and walked to Dowlais Ironworks to look for a job.
Unable to secure employment in Dowlais, Edith then went to the South Pit of the Plymouth Colliery, and got a job with a collier named Matthew Thomas as his ‘boy’. She found lodgings at a house in Nightingale Street in Abercanaid, and it was there on Monday 30 September that she was discovered by P.C. Dove. The alarm had been raised about Edith’s disappearance by her father on the Friday evening, and following searches throughout the weekend, someone recognised the disguised Edith at her lodgings in Nightingale Street. Edith refused to go back to her parents, and in the ensuing arguments, collapsed from nervous exhaustion and was taken to Merthyr Infirmary.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children immediately started investigating the case, and Edith’s parents were questioned thoroughly. In the meantime, as news of the case leaked out, there was an outpouring of support for Edith, and dozens of people came forward with offers of support for her, some from as far afield as Surrey and Sussex. A committee was formed to start a fund to help Edith, and the met at the Richards Arms in Abercanaid, just a week after the news broke, and a public appeal was made for money to help her.
Evening Express – 17 October 1901
Despite the ongoing investigation by the N.S.P.C.C. and the countless offers from people to provide a good home to Edith, the Merthyr Board of Guardians, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the girl should be sent home to her parents upon her release from the Infirmary. Edith was indeed released and sent home to her parents on 31 October, but within hours, she was removed from the house by the N.S.P.C.C. and taken to the Salvation Army Home in Cardiff.
No more is mentioned in the newspapers about Edith until 8 February 1904, when the Evening Express reported that she had been living in Cardiff, but as the money raised to help her had run out, she had to leave her home. As she was in very poor health, she was unable to find work, so she had appealed to the Merthyr Board of Guardians to allow her to come back to Merthyr, and to enter the Workhouse. A doctor told the Board that Edith didn’t have long to live, so they agreed to allow her to return.
This is the last report about Edith in any of the newspapers, but thanks to the sterling work of Mike Donovan of the Merthyr Branch of the Glamorgan Family History Society, I have been able to discover that Edith didn’t actually die at the workhouse, she recovered and went on to work, in service, at a house in Penydarren, and died in 1963 at the age of 77.
In 1899, Rev E Aubrey (right) was inducted as the new minister at the old Morlais Chapel. Under his ministry the congregation prospered, and it soon became apparent that the congregation at the old Morlais Chapel had grown to such an extent that a new chapel was required.
In 2004 it was discovered that three culverts that ran beneath the chapel had, over many years, washed away most of the foundations of the chapel. A meeting was held to decide whether to demolish the chapel or to undertake extensive renovation work to stabilise the chapel. It was decided to carry out the renovations. The culverts were diverted and the foundations strengthened.
