150 years ago today…..
Tag: Angel Hotel
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.
After crossing the bridge over the Morlais Brook, keeping to the left we pass a public house, some cottages, the glazier’s shop, which had been built by and was occupied by Mr Lewis, the road crossed the tramroad, but alongside the tramroad there were some houses built (they were not there in 1834), one of which, if I remember aright, a flannel factory, but a Mr Greener and a Mr Trump lived in houses there for certain. Mr Job James had a garden there too, and it was connected with his residence by a private wooden bridge.
Immediately adjoining was a lot of masonry, never carried out to its first intention, which was the erection of a forge or mill for use in the manufacture of iron, to be driven by water power, the Morlais Brook being diverted for that purpose. Mr Job James, however, obtained an injunction restraining the Penydarren Company from doing this in consequence of his intending to put up a grist mill on his own premises, and this he subsequently did. Mr Greener was a rail inspector and Mr Trump the veterinary surgeon of the Dowlais Works, whose family soon after removed to Rhymney, and have ever since resided there.
Just at the junction of the two roads, some 80 or 100 yards further on, at the corner, the Rev Mr Jones, the curate in charge of Merthyr Parish, resided, and had a select school. From what was heard at the time the living was vested in a Mr Mayberry, who had not visited the parish for many years. I cannot recall whether Mr Jones died or left, but his house was afterwards occupied by a Mr George Price, flour merchant, who afterwards kept the Angel Hotel.
Just opposite this a few houses were built, their backs being towards the Tramroad, which is, or was then, in a cutting apparently, but was doubtless on sidelong ground at the time of making, for the bridge over it was evidently built for the tipping of the blast furnace cinders from the Penydarren Works.
From a short way on the tip a path led down to the Morlais Brook, stepping stones gave pedestrians the means of crossing it, and slight clamber up would bring anyone to the end of the Glebeland. In after years a wooden bridge was erected for foot passengers, and remained there until the Local Board removed it to build the road over the present culvert.
To be continued at a later date……
Merthyr Memories: St Mary’s Roman Catholic School and Court Street
by Barrie Jones
The blog article of the 27th November 2019 (http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=3016) on the aerial view of Court Street in 1965 brought back memories of my school days in St Mary’s Catholic School and my recollection of Court Street during that time. I attended the school in the four ‘school years’ from September 1956 to July 1960, so I recall features of the street that had already disappeared by 1965.
Living in Twynyrodyn my usual route to school was down Twyn Hill so the first landmark on the street I would pass by was the Glove and Shears situated on the left hand side and corner of where the Tramroad crossed the Twynyrodyn Road.
Opposite on the right hand side of the road the last house of Twynyrodyn Road was a corner shop. I can’t recall ever going into the shop but I did spend many a time looking in the shop window. There on display were a variety of items in what must have been ‘dummy’ packets; dusty boxes of popular products of their day, even chocolate bars presumably made of wood or cardboard wrapped in foil etc. The shop’s display never seemed to change so the shelves and their goods were liberally sprinkled with dead flies and wasps.
Further down the street on the right hand side between Gospel Hall formally Twynyrodyn Unitarian Chapel and the railway bridge were a row of properties, some of which were shops. The one shop I remember in detail was an electrical goods shop with a large window displaying a variety of modern electrical appliances. Just inside the doorway of the shop were stacked lead acid batteries, the battery acid was held in thick glass containers with carrying handles. The batteries were used to power radios in those properties where there was no mains electricity supply. You could hire the battery and once the ‘charge’ had expired you returned the battery to the shop to be recharged and collected a newly charged battery in exchange.
After passing under the railway bridge by means of an archway on the right hand side of the road, you then passed by Jerusalem Chapel on the corner of Gillar Street. In Gillar Street on the left hand side there was a small row of houses that backed onto our school yard. The houses had no back gardens, just small courts that were separated from our playground by a low thick stone wall capped with flag stones. Inevitably many a football or tennis ball landed in one of the courts much to the annoyance of their occupiers.
The school building was probably built in late 1870 or early 1871 for both infants and primary age children with a capacity for approximately 460 pupils. On the 30th April 1870 the Aberdare Times reported that “the splendid schools now in the course of erection on the Maerdy Estate are proof of the success that has attended the Rev. Gentleman’s administrations”, (Father Martin Bruton). The ‘schools’ were built on the site of Maerdy House a large building with a sizable garden at its rear, which was now the school yard.
In October 1869 the Local Board of Health gave approval for new school rooms and additions to the house which may explain why the first floor was accessed by an exterior staircase only. The first floor may have been an addition or enlargement above the existing house’s structure. At the rear of the building there were unusual features such as a small arched recess built into the building that seemed to have no function other than as den for us to climb into during playtime.
The School’s boundary wall on the northern side of the school yard separated the school from Conway’s Dairies. This was formally the site of the Boot Inn, 22 High Street, Conway’s had acquired the premises in 1910 and its offices and plant were accessed from the High Street.
From our yard could be seen towering above the high stone wall the cylindrical metal chimneys of the Dairy’s pasteurisation and bottling plants. The Dairy’s coal fired steam production must have taken its toll on the metal chimneys, as they were extremely rusty. When we turned up for school one morning we were greeted by the sight of one of the chimneys lying in our school yard. The chimney must have rusted through near its base and because of either the weight of metal or high wind it had collapsed during the night. At this time household milk was delivered by horse and cart and the Dairy kept the horses and carts in stables built in the arches of the railway bridge. The stables were accessed from the road leading off Court Street opposite the entrance to Gillar Street. Conway’s Dairies moved its main production to a new plant at the Willows on the other side of the River Taff in 1960/61, but retained use of its High Street plant for many years after but on a much reduced scale.
As well as the Dairies’ chimneys, the other prominent features on the skyline were the clock tower of St Tydfil’s Church and the four storey high Angel Hotel. The parish clock was a useful timepiece for us boys when playing in the streets and alleys near the school during the lunch hour. Punishment for lateness for afternoon lessons could be a canning on the hand. In 1957 the Angel hotel was demolished and during playtimes we had a grandstand view of its progress. The walls of the hotel were very thick with over 400 windows that were deeply recessed with bench seats and the workmen could be seen walking along the top of the wall knocking away the brickwork at their feet with sledge hammers. A working practice that would making any health and safety officer wince, and of course it was not surprising that two men fell from the third storey when part of the wall they were standing on collapsed. Sadly one died and the other was seriously injured.
Opposite the school was a row of terraced houses, formally Maerdy Row, in the front window of one of the houses I can recall seeing a display of boxing trophies, cups belts etc. I don’t know whether they were for professional or amateur boxing or how long they were on display. The occupier of the house must have had some pride in the achievement to display them in their front window. The properties in and around Court Street were near their full life and in February 1960 number 2 Court Street and numbers 22 and 23 Gillar Street were issued with demolition orders. In the following month the County Borough Council approved a compulsory purchase order (CPO) for Court Street. The street was demolished together with the properties between the railway line and the High Street known as the Ball Court. The aerial photograph shows that Jones Bros Garage occupied the site in 1965.
At the end of Court Street as it joins the High Street on the left hand corner and behind the Star Inn was a slaughter house. We boys could climb the waste ground at the side of the building to look down through a window to watch the slaughter men working below. The smell and sounds of the slaughter house is something I will never forget.
By 1960 plans were in place to relocate St Mary’s to an alternative site in Caedraw and today the school in Caedraw is scheduled for closure with a new school planned for the Bishop Hedley School site in Penydarren.
The Angel Hotel
Many Merthyr people of a ‘certain age’ will remember one of Merthyr’s most striking buildings – The Angel Hotel.
In 1873, a successful local businessman Mr Enoch Williams decided to build a grand hotel in Merthyr to serve rail passengers arriving at the Taff Vale Railway Station. Mr Williams decided to build the hotel at the lower end of the High Street, and he bought the old Angel Inn and adjoining buildings to erect the hotel, retaining the licence of the Angel Inn to enable him to sell alcohol at the new hotel.
Despite having no experience in the building trade, Enoch Williams decided not to use a contractor and he controlled and supervised the project himself, even ordering and checking the supplies. This he continued to do until his death in 1876. Although dying before seeing his hotel finished, Mr Williams made ample provision in his will to complete the building, and the construction was completed under the supervision of a group of trustees. One of the consequences of Williams’ inexperience in architecture, was the fact that there was no provision whatsoever for gas in the building, and this was added before completion at considerable extra expense.
The hotel was finally completed in 1879, and it became an immediate landmark in the town. Described as “a uniquely strange Gothic castellated building”, the Angel Hotel towered above most of the other buildings in the town, and with its castellated roofline (formed by the regular pattern of chimneys around the top of the building), and its enormous glass roof, it was indeed a striking and unique building.
When completed, the hotel had 60 bedrooms, 84 fireplaces, 400 windows, a bar, a billiard room, a meeting room that was 76 foot by 26 foot in size, several sitting rooms and offices, and a promenade on the roof “from which, high above the smoke and amidst the pure air, a most agreeable walk can be enjoyed”. The famous roof was glazed with nine tons of glass. The bar, which ran the whole depth of the building was 100 foot long and 24 foot wide, and was divided in to four compartments. The upper floors of the building and the roof promenade were reached by a huge straight flight staircase at the centre of the building flanked by huge ornamented balustrades. The hotel also had the finest sprung dancefloor in Wales.
Unfortunately, from the outset, the Angel Hotel proved to be a ‘white elephant’. During the time it took to complete the hotel, the Taff Vale Railway Station was superceded by the Central Railway Station as Merthyr’s main station (the Taff Vale Station would eventually become a goods depot), thus the hotel was in the wrong part of town to attract the intended clientele.
Over the coming years, the Angel was used to hold religious meetings and political rallies and other such functions, and during the roller skating craze in 1909, a skating rink was installed at the hotel.
The hotel finally closed in 1933, and the building was put to several uses until it was demolished in 1957. A tragedy occurred during the demolition when a 21 year old worker, Cyril Jones died, and another, Dennis Murphy was seriously injured when they fell from a fourth floor window and covered in debris.
The Olympia Rink
The next time you travel past the General Hospital heading towards Pontmorlais, you may very well see a street sign on the left for ‘The Rink’….but why ‘The Rink’?
In the first decade of the 20th Century, a new craze hit Britain – roller-skating. In Merthyr, skating rinks were opened at the Angel Hotel and also at the disused theatre of the Old Market Hall, but in 1909, a purpose built skating rink was begun in Pontmorlais. Commissioned by The South Wales Rinks Co. Ltd in partnership with Messrs Cross and Cross of Walsall, the rink was designed by Mr Longworth to accommodate 3,000 people. A prospectus was issued by the company, and 2,000 shares were sold in the first weekend alone. The building which was 208 ft long and 70 ft wide, had a hard rock maple floor, orchestral gallery, lounges, a refreshment buffet, and was lit by 30 electric pendant lights. The Rink opened on 19 March 1910.
When completed, it became one of Merthyr’s major venues (and certainly one of the largest), and as well as being used for roller skating (the Olympia Rink even had its own roller-hockey team), the building was used for balls, political meetings and other special events. Following the death of Keir Hardie, the former Merthyr MP, a Memorial meeting was held at the Olympia Rink.
Sadly, with the advent of the First World War and the inevitable wane in interest in roller-skating, the Olympia Rink began to lose money, and by the end of 1916, was put up for sale. Very little information is available about the building after this, and it sadly burned down in the 1920’s.
If you have any information about the Olympia Rink you would like to share, please leave a comment to the left or email me at: merthyr.history@gmail.com