Today marks the 200th anniversary of the death of one Merthyr’s greatest pioneers – Watkin George.
Watkin George is not a name that most people think of when talking about Merthyr’s great men of the past, but his contribution to the town’s history and his legacy is incalculable.
Born in about 1759 in Trevethin, Pontypool, very little is known about his early life, other than he trained as a carpenter, but by his early thirties, he had had married Anne Jenkins (of also of Trevethin), and had moved to Merthyr to work at the Cyfarthfa Ironworks as an engineer, as his expertise in designing and building metal structures had become well known.
He soon became the foundry manager at the Cyfarthfa Works, and in 1792, Richard Crawshay appointed him as a partner in the business. One of his first projects as partner was designing the Pont-y-Cafnau (Bridge of Troughs), a combined tramroad and enclosed aqueduct built to supply the works with limestone and water.
This was closely followed by the incredible and innovative design for a mechanism to pump air into the blast furnaces – a huge timber aqueduct spanning the River Taff and providing water to power a 15m diameter waterwheel, used to work an air pump for blowing the iron smelting furnaces. The Gwynne Aqueduct and ‘Aeolus Waterwheel’ soon became famous throughout the country, and visitors would come to Merthyr just to see them. Indeed Some contemporary accounts actually referred to the Aeolus Wheel as ‘the Eighth Wonder of the World’.
‘Cyfarthfa Works and Waterwheel’ by William Pamplin. The Aeolus Waterwheel can clearly be seen at the centre of the illustration. Photo courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery
In 1799, George designed what would become his most iconic structure – the Old Iron Bridge, and two years later he designed the Ynysfach Ironworks.
In about 1805, having helped Cyfarthfa Ironworks expand, George left the partnership. Reports vary on the amount of money he amassed for his 13 years of service, either £40,000 or £100,000 — “equal to one share”. He joined Pontypool Ironworks as partner to its owners Capel Hanbury Leigh (1776-1861) and Robert Smith, restructuring the works and making great improvements to balling and refinery operations.
In 1811 he prepared a design for Chepstow Bridge – a series of cast iron spans on the existing piers. His design was not adopted, and the new bridge was eventually designed by John Urpeth Rastrick. George’s designs for the Chepstow bridge are his last known work.
Watkin George died on 10 August 1822 and was buried at St Cadoc’s Church in Trevethin.
Today, of his works, the Ynysfach Ironworks Engine House still stands, and his Pont-y-Cafnau is the oldest surviving example of a cast iron railway (tramway) bridge and aqueduct, and is probably the second oldest surviving iron bridge in the British Isles (after Ironbridge in Shropshire), so he is certainly someone who should be remembered amongst the great men of Merthyr.
Miracle number four occurred throughout the following year as Terry continued to do research for our family and discovered many more links in the family chain but culminated with a discovery of John Thomas, a direct descendant of Margaret Rowland and Morgan Thomas. John currently lives on Penrhiw farm which has been in the family since 1724 and he and his wife Celia were willing to meet with us. He sent us a lineage chart of all the siblings of Job who remained in Wales adding much needed information to connect our family to those who had died.
This discovery came about through another miracle, (number five), that of Terry meeting Father Powell at St. Catwg’s Episcopal Church.While looking for Edward Rowland and Ann Miles he mentioned John as a possible Thomas still living on the farm.
Miracle number six: cheap tickets to Wales even though it was at the time of the royal wedding. The window for these tickets was short and directly after we booked them the price doubled.
Miracle number seven again involved Terry Jones who had looked for one year for the marriage of Edward Rowland and Ann Miles (Job and Margaret’s grandparents). Three weeks before we arrived, he found them. When we arrived in Merthyr in 2018, the scene had already been set by those who had been directing our lives for the past year. It felt as though we were in a giant genealogical chess game over which we had no control. Terry was beginning to feel the same forces in action as well. Every morning he would present us with a list of places we would visit that day. One day he showed us his list which had two sides. He said that he created one list the night before and then this morning, for some unknown reason, he changed it and added a new place: Gadford Elm Chapel – the first Mormon church ever built. He said he didn’t know why he added it but thought it would be interesting for us to see. Of course, we acquiesced.
Miracle number eight: As we got to the church building we discovered the reason. The first ownership of the chapel was given to Wilford Woodruff by the United Brotherhood but it rested on or near a Brother Benbow’s farm. Most of the early members were baptized in Benbow’s pond. Benbow was Terry’s wife’s maiden name. Terry was stunned. He kept saying he had no idea why he had changed the itinery for the day but we all knew why.
The next day we visited St. Catwg’s church and we were met by Father Powell and his lay reader Carolynn Corbin who showed us around this very impressive 2000-year-old building. While chatting Richard discovered miracle number nine: that Carolynn was a Parry and quite likely a very close cousin of ours. We exchanged emails and discovered that we did indeed have a common ancestor. This led to a wonderful afternoon tea and the uniting of another branch of Welsh and American lines. After just a few minutes with this family we knew we had met before.
Miracle number ten. We discovered the fact that we were not in charge in other ways as we went to Terry’s home for juice and to collect a book of remembrance that he had found when cleaning out the Engine House which had been recently closed. He showed Sharon a photo of a family reunion taken in 2004 (he had been doing research for the person who sent it to him) and she recognized someone. She immediately texted that person and as a result the connection was made between that photo and the book of remembrance that Terry had asked them to take back to Logan to find its owner.
Are you searching for your ancestors?
1. Check the local opening times of council offices.
2. Bring as much information as possible…full names, dates, addresses.
It does pay also if you can have a person who knows the area.
This article will hopefully help you to show that you can have a successful visit.
The following article, contributed by Maryellen West, is a fine example of the excellent job done by local Family History experts.
In 2017 my goal for visiting Wales was to discover Margaret Rowland, the sister of Job Rowland, my great-great grandfather who immigrated to the United States in 1849. I had records that indicated that her husband, Morgan Thomas, had been buried in Pant Cemetery in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales but nothing about her and I was determined to suss out her information.
In March of 2017, my friend Sandra, my two brothers and their wives and I set out for a journey that would take us across the south of England, thru Scotland and straight into our family’s history in Wales.
The day we arrived in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, we went to the Glamorgan history center, and spent a couple of confusing hours trying to determine how to begin our search. At a loss, we decided to pick up a few pamphlets and to go to the Pant cemetery where we were sure we could find the grave of Morgan Thomas, the husband of Margaret Rowland, or at least find someone who could guide us to the grave.
When we arrived, we were stunned having been used to our western American cemeteries of limited size. Pant was huge! Hill upon hill of ancient gravestones in every conceivable condition of disrepair. We all stood in disbelief as we stared at the task before us. We ultimately decided just to walk around a bit as we prayed to be guided in the right direction. After about 30 minutes of wandering we met and determined that this would be a hopeless endeavor and somewhat discouraged we left for dinner.
The next morning, we went to the Ynysfach Engine House (a genealogical repository and information center) in Merthyr to begin our research. It is there where the miracles began as we entered the Engine House and met miracle number one: Terry Jones.
Richard, Joe, Eileen, and I were downstairs learning about the history of the iron industry in town when Sharon and Sandy went upstairs to wander and look for restrooms. There they encountered a gentleman working on a computer and began a conversation with him about our quest. When they mentioned trying to find one grave amongst the 10,000 in Pant Cemetery he realized that we really did need some help. He arranged for us to meet him at the cemetery office across the street where he introduced us to Deb, the keeper of records. Here we not only found Margaret’s grave site number but others who were related and resided next to her. We were able to arrange with her husband, the caretaker of the cemetery, to meet later that day to see the graves.
Miracle number two occurred when we returned to the cemetery and realized that all six of us had previously stood very near the actual site of the graves at some point as we wandered the cemetery. The reason we didn’t see the graves was they were covered entirely by a huge tree that had completely swallowed them. We had photographed the tree because it was so immense and imposing but for no other reason. We returned later to cut away some of the lower branches so that Sharon could crawl inside and read the writing on the headstones and we discovered that we had many more relatives buried in this plot than we realized.
Miracle number three came with a visit to the Colly Ishaf farm upon which Margaret and Morgan Thomas farmed. It is no longer in the Thomas family, but the current owners allowed us to visit and photograph the place where our family lived. We discovered the name of the farm listed on the back of a photograph found Aunt Mary Miller’s material.
40 years ago today Merthyr was shocked by the news that a culvert had burst in a mountain stream and the deluge had inundated Rhyd-y-car Cottages, killing two people and leaving countless others homeless.
December 1979 had been very wet and in the week after Christmas there was serious flooding in many parts of the Borough of Merthyr Tydfil. By Thursday 27th most of the usual areas had been affected, with some properties suffering severe damage. Initially, it was the southern end of the valley which seemed to bear the brunt of the flooding but to the north and near to the town at Rhyd-y-car however, a story of flooding was unfolding which was not only responsible for irreparable damage to property but would also cause the deaths of two people and bring an end to a small but long established community. Here, a breached culvert caused water to cascade from the hillside into a confined area of land occupied by two rows of cottages. The torrent, loaded with silt, stones and other debris surged into cottages, outhouses and along the gwlis and yards between, devastating the properties in its path. To compound the misfortune suffered here and despite heroic efforts by family and friends, recently widowed Mrs. Gladys Jones and lodger Mr. Danny Jones were to lose their lives in the tragedy. Other inhabitants who had been in imminent danger were fortunate to escape serious injury or worse.
The cottages at Rhyd-y-car had been built on the banks of Nant Cwm Glo in the first years of the nineteenth century to house ironstone miners and their families who were needed to work at one of the newly opened mines belonging to the Cyfarthfa Ironworks. Twenty-nine cottages were built in two rows, with each unit consisting of a living room/kitchen and a single bedroom. At the back, on the ground floor in an outshot covered by a catslide roof was an extra bedroom and larder. Water would have been carried from the stream and there was no sanitation. Despite these obvious limitations and representing what we would view as a very basic form of habitation they would generally have been superior to the living conditions experienced by those arriving in Merthyr Tydfil from the Welsh countryside.
A section of the 1851 Ordnance Survey Map showing Rhyd-y-car Cottages
Although we have only scant information on the people who lived in the cottages in the first four decades of their existence, there is some evidence that they came mainly from the counties of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. The majority would have been Welsh speaking and brought few material possessions to furnish their new homes. By 1841 Rhyd-y-car was already a well established community with 90 per cent of the working population engaged in producing ironstone and coal from the nearby pit. Ten years later the cottages reached their peak in terms of population with a total of 169 inhabitants, averaging almost 6 per cottage. For almost a further one hundred and thirty years of Merthyr Tydfil’s fluctuating industrial fortunes the cottages housed families who formed part of a close knit and caring community.
By the 1970’s, notwithstanding the many changes that had taken place in the immediate locality, most of the inhabitants remained loyal to Rhyd-y-car , treasured and tried to improve their homes and this in itself is a tribute to the strong and steadfast community that existed there. Following the events of December 27th 1979 however, and despite the fact that some residents continued to express the wish to remain, it became inevitable that the cottages would have to be abandoned.
Movements for the preservation of significant aspects of Merthyr’s heritage were very much in their infancy at this time but there had been some notable successes. Dowlais Stables, parts of which had been in a state of collapse, the spectacular engine house at Ynysfach and the birthplace of Joseph Parry at Chapel Row had all been saved. Many people locally however, continued to emphasise lost opportunities and mourn the demolition of significant areas of industrial housing.
The decision to demolish and remove some of the Rhyd-y-car cottages, all be it in a piecemeal fashion,was seen as of little consolation and another loss to Merthyr Tydfil. Their survival at the museum in St. Fagan’s, with the potential for a part of Merthyr’s heritage to be seen by hundreds on a daily basis was hardly recognised and not given proper significance.
Rhyd-y-car Cottages in 1982
Nevertheless, negotiations were undertaken between the National Museum and the Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council and necessary plans laid to undertake the removal of six of the twenty-nine cottages to St. Fagan’s. Before demolition of course, the cottages were measured and recorded in great detail but because of the nature of the cottages’ construction individual stones or timbers were not numbered and repositioned on rebuilding. Within a relatively short period of time, Rhyd-y-car Cottages were erected on a carefully selected site and began their new and very different existence.
On Monday, 27 July 1987 The South Wales Echo announced that on the previous Saturday a special event had been held at the Welsh Folk Museum, St. Fagan’s to celebrate the official opening of Rhyd-y-car Cottages. Curator Dr. Geraint Jenkins who introduced the proceedings said, “Up until this time the museum’s efforts had been aimed at saving buildings from rural Wales but today we have been breaking new ground with the opening of a row of terraced cottages from an industrial town”and added,” the project was unique in Europe, if not the world by reconstructing the interiors and fabric of the buildings in different periods”.
One of Merthyr Tydfil’s famous boxing sons was present at the event and contributed by releasing a number of racing pigeons. Although not born at Rhyd-y-car, Mr. Eddie Thomas’ grandfather had lived at No. 26 with many aunts and cousins living in other cottages. Dr. Jenkins concluded by saying that, “The day belonged to Merthyr in celebration of the town’s contribution to Welsh Heritage”.
Many tragically lost their lives while working in the Ynysfach Blast Furnaces, but a greater number died sheltering in the old Ironworks here.
In February 1866 the Merthyr Express had the following story entitled:- Two More Men Suffocated At Cyfarthfa – describing the blackened and shrivelled corpses of two men found in the Ynysfach Works. The men were probably drunk when they crept into a warm place near the boilers. They suffocated by inhaling the carbonic acid gas and then when steam was got up they were literally roasted.
Again on 23 July 1870 the headline was:- Shocking Death of Two Miners. On Monday morning when the engineer at the Ynysfach Works was going his rounds to examine the boilers, he saw two men lying in one of the gas-holes. They were perfectly roasted, and probably did not survive long after entering the place of their doom. They came from Aberdare on Saturday night, no doubt for the purpose of a spree, ‘as they were seen in China’ late on Sunday night, and having spent all their money, were glad to get a lay down anywhere. The mystery is how they got into the works, as they are surrounded by a wall several feet high. In June 1874 there was a shocking accident which resulted in the immediate death of two men and the burning of two others so severely that they were not expected to live.
At the beginning of the Twentieth century the homeless, destitute and generally disreputable elements of the town of Merthyr Tydfil made their home in the Ynysfach Coke Ovens. This was their refuge but many died here too. After the Ynysfach Works closed in 1879 this area became infamous as a ‘den of debauchery’ where the ‘wild-ones’ of Merthyr Tydfil slept rough. The police steered well clear of the place and the first Chief Constable in 1908 suggested that dynamiting this whole area would help in the ‘cleaning up’ of the town. In 1900 it was reported that as many as 50 persons were to be found living around the Coke Ovens, and fatalities were common.
Ynysfach was also the main stomping ground of Redmond Coleman, the Merthyr Tydfil legend, who would fight anyone, anywhere, anytime. It was here that Redmond had his legendary fight with Tommy Lyons one Saturday night. The ‘battle’ was reputed to have lasted over three hours. If there was a grudge to be settled then the Ynysfach Coke Ovens were the place to fight it out. There are many stories, such as the time he and Danny Hegarty punched themselves into a state of exhaustion until they lay side by side on the Coke Ovens gasping curses at each other. Redmond Coleman is reputed to have said that he would never leave Merthyr but always haunt the Coke Ovens.
However, the White Lady of Ynysfach is the best known of all the various ghosts of Ynysfach. The Merthyr Historian Volume Eight contains the story of the Ynysfach Murder by Eira Smith, and establishes the notoriety of the area around the Iron Bridge and Ynysfach. The police regarded the area as being a den of thieves, robbers and prostitutes. Such an ‘unfortunate’ was Mary Ann Rees, who was murdered by her younger lover. In 1908 after plying her trade in the town, Mary then returned to her friends by the Coke Ovens with food and drink. However, after eating his fill, her younger boyfriend, William Foy, decided to go into town by himself and, suspecting that he was chasing after a younger woman, Mary ran after him. She was later found down a disused furnace with her neck broken.
Mary Ann Rees
Did her boyfriend deliberately push her down the disused furnace or did she just accidently fall with or without a quick push? The local police claimed that when they came across Foy he was in a distressed state and told them that he had committed a murder and killed Mary Ann.
In May 1909 William Foy was hung in Swansea gaol for her murder. He wrote a moving letter from prison begging for forgiveness. It is still said today that Mary Ann Rees is the White Lady of Ynysfach who haunts the area around Merthyr College. There have been a number of sightings of the White Lady and there are some who strongly believe in her existence. She is imagined as a sad lady in a long white dress, but there are no stories of her causing any harm to any human being.
In the late 1980s the caretaker of Merthyr College looked back at the building from the car park after locking up and saw a distressed lady looking out of the window. He rushed back thinking she must be very anxious after being locked in an empty building and re-entered the building. However, although he searched and searched this white faced, worried looking lady was never found and did not seem to have existed. The volunteers of the Engine House have come across a number of strange incidents, especially in the basement area, where a vague female figure has been seen or someone pushing past them has been sensed or felt. Paranormal investigator Colin Hyde claims to have questioned her and discovered that she thinks that her death had accidental causes. Mary Ann Rees is therefore a sad figure, who has no thought of exacting any form of revenge.
Many thanks to Carolyn Jacob for the above article.
