Memories of Cyfarthfa School

Did you go to Cyfarthfa School? Did you teach at Cyfarthfa School?

Next year Cyfarthfa Castle celebrates its 200th anniversary. To mark the event, Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery in association with the Merthyr Tydfil & District Historical Society are planning to produce a book and exhibition recording people’s memories of Cyfarthfa School.

Castle School Geography Class 1914. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

If anyone would like to share their memories, big or small, in writing or orally, please contact one of the people below and we can let you know what sort of thing we are looking for:-

Laura Bray – jasonbray@aol.com

Steve Brewer – stevebrewer68@hotmail.co.uk

Carole-Anne Johnson – c.harris51@yahoo.co.uk

Let’s try for a good book with as many memories as possible.

Castle School orchestra 1950s. Courtesy of the Alan George Archive

Merthyr Central Library

by Carolyn Jacob

A ‘flourishing’ library existed in the Merthyr Tydfil Parish from 1846, although it consisted of only two dozen volumes collected by Thomas Stephens and Charles Wilkins. The books were originally for their ‘conversational club’ and believed to have been in the Temperance Room behind the Merthyr Market. Gradually a number of libraries developed in Merthyr Tydfil, Abercanaid, Aberfan, Dowlais, Penydarren, Thomastown, Treharris, Troedyrhiw and, outside the Parish, Cefn Coed. The ‘central’ library was located in the Town Hall from 1901 but transferred to two vacant shops in the Arcade by 1907. By 1918 The Arcade Library had a reference section and a sizeable number of books. In 1930 the Corporation had to find new premises for the Library and moved to 136 Lower High Street at an annual rental of £100. The Library was known as the Town Reading Room and both this library and the Thomastown Library closed in 1935 when the new Central Library opened.

Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

The Central Library, in a fine renaissance rectangular style, is a protected grade II historic building, it was purpose built and has always been a library. It was placed on vacant ground, given by the Council, which was once the site of the former St David’s School. The foundation stones were laid in 1935 and the building completed using money from the American Steel millionaire, Andrew Carnegie. The Carnegie Trust donated £4500 on condition there was an adequate book fund and that a properly trained and competent Librarian be appointed.

The Library was designed by Councillor T. Edmund Rees (of Messrs Johnson, Richards & Rees, architects of Merthyr) and built by Messrs Enoch Williams and Sons, contractors of Dowlais at a cost of £8,500. The exterior is in an Arts and Crafts Modern style with Portland stone, hipped Cumbrian slate roof swept to wide eaves. An attractive feature is the large central doorway and Tudor arch in moulded surround to entrance. The interior has a panelled wooden entrance-hall, although sadly the original oak wood, which is a wonderful feature of this building, was painted during refurbishment in 2011. The stained glass as you enter the building commemorates the Urdd National Eisteddfod which was held in Merthyr Tydfil in 1987. The building was opened in 1936 by the Mayor, Lewis Jones who became the first borrower of a book from Merthyr’s new Library.

The first librarian, Mr E. R. Luke received a salary of £330 a year and not only spoke Welsh fluently but he also had a working knowledge of French, German and Latin.  Merthyr Libraries have always provided a free library service for residents and visitors. The new library was a great success and the number of registered borrowers rose from 1400 in March 1936 to 10,765 by February 1940. As a child the historian Gwyn Alf Williams made ‘daring raids into alien territory in Merthyr Library’.

In 1946 Merthyr Tydfil became the first Authority in Wales to appoint a woman as Borough Librarian and an English woman at that – Margaret Stewart Taylor. She also became curator of the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and was a remarkable local historian. Miss Taylor wrote 23 books on a wide variety of topics, a classic work on library cataloguing and classification, biography, local history such as ‘The Crawshays of Cyfarthfa’, travel writings based on her own experiences and romantic fiction set in a fictional town which was a thinly disguised Merthyr Tydfil. She compiled and edited ‘Fifty Years a Borough, 1905-1955’ to commemorate the incorporation of the Borough of Merthyr Tydfil. She set up a school library service and established local history as important in both the Library and the Museum. Margaret Stewart Taylor demanded high standards from her staff and would personally inspect the library shelves to make sure the books were all in strict order. A book incorrectly shelved would be left in the middle of the floor.

Margaret Stewart Taylor

The Plaque on the exterior of Merthyr Tydfil Library by the doorway is dedicated to Richard Lewis, (Dic Penderyn). At the time of the 1831 Merthyr Rising he was a miner in Merthyr Tydfil. He was charged with feloniously wounding Donald Black of the 93rd (Highland) Regiment. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. Despite a petition of 11,000 names for his reprieve, he was hanged at Cardiff on 13 August 1831. His last words on the scaffold were reported to be ‘O Arglwydd, dyma gamwedd’ – ‘O Lord, what injustice’. He is buried in Aberavon. Later in the century another man confessed to the crime for which Lewis had been hanged.

There is also a plaque on the front of the Central Library dedicated to Ursula Masson, who was born Ursula O’Connor in Dowlais, and became a leading Welsh academic and writer who worked closely with Jane Aaron and Honno Press/Gwasg Honno, the Welsh Women’s Press, on the imprint Welsh Women’s Classics – to bring back into print the works of forgotten Welsh women writers of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Outside the Library, the Statue and Plinth to Henry Seymour Berry are Grade II Listed monuments. The statue stands at the centre of a semicircular forecourt in front of the Library, and it was designed by W. Goscombe John RA and erected in 1931. It consists of a bronze figure in full robes with a cocked hat in the crook of his left arm and a parchment grasped in left hand.  The inscription:

Henry Seymour Berry, Baron Buckland of Bwlch, Hon. Freeman of the Co. Borough of Merthyr Tydfil.
Born 1877 – Died 1928.
Erected by public subscription.

There are recent plaques attached to the statue to mark the achievements of his two younger brothers. James Gomer Berry, Viscount Kemsley and William Ewert Berry, Viscount Camrose.

Keeping up with the Joneses: A Family of Merthyr Artists – part 2

by Christopher Parry

Predictably, with the immediate family gone from the town many of the younger children ended up with distant relatives outside of Merthyr Tydfil.

Leonardo ended up as a Grocers Assistant at Holywell, in his father’s native Flintshire. He would then marry and become a Grocer in Birkenhead.

Francis Lawrence Jones all but disappears from the records. A letter held at Cyfarthfa Castle hints that he left for London and painted ‘for the great theatres in London.’ There is a correction on the letter however, indicating that an earlier sentence, referring to Angelo, was actually referring to Francis instead. This sentence states that Angelo went ‘to an uncle in Australia who was an engineer’. This narrative does not match up with other information on Angelo, so it is possible the author of the letter was referring to Francis. A 16-year-old Francis Lawrence Jones, from Merthyr Tydfil, did become part of the Royal Navy and sailed to Australia, eventually settling in New Zealand. While it is not certain, it is possible Francis left for naval service and never returned around 1880. Little is concrete with this family member though. Little is concrete about Rosa and Ernest too, as they all but disappear from records. Which leave the two eldest, Angelo and Raphael.

Raphael followed his father, and became an artist. He displayed work in shop windows throughout the town and became a well-regarded artist in his own right, creating and displaying work frequently around Merthyr Tydfil. An oil painting on display in a High Street shop window gained high praise in 1895, with newspapers stating it ‘reflects great credit on the young and talented artist.’ By 1900, Raphael would go for broke of sorts; he would leave Merthyr Tydfil and head to London to become a painter. He would spend the rest of his life in the Hackney are of London, creating illustrations for various magazines until his death in 1938. The museum at Cyfarthfa Castle holds a fantastic watercolour by Raphael called ‘Mountains and Lake’, painted in 1929. After suffering from ill health Isaac Wilkinson, a former curator at Cyfarthfa Castle, based at the National Museum of Wales, sold some paintings by Raphael to raise funds on his behalf. Cyfarthfa Castle purchased two watercolours in March 1937, one of them being ‘Mountains and Lake.’

William Angelo Jones clearly took a keen interest in his father’s work also. At the Merthyr Drill Hall Eisteddfod in 1875, he won first prize for free hand drawing. He attended the ‘Penydarren Art Classes, Merthyr Tydfil, from their inception, and studied under Mr J Bush, then under Mr G F Harris, artist and portrait painter, and assisted G F Harris for three winters.’ William Angelo would eventually leave Merthyr Tydfil to study art formally in Birmingham where he would also take up an art teacher position. It is unclear exactly when he left Merthyr Tydfil for Birmingham, as he possibly studied there from 1893, but was certainly living between there and Merthyr until at least the early 1900s, as several pieces of art were created by him of the area and in the town in that period. He would donate 12 pen and ink sketches to Cyfarthfa Castle in December 1937, the same year his brother’s artwork was purchased by the museum. These were all sketches intended to be printed as Christmas Cards. The images are full of floral patterns, art deco deigns, Santa Claus, trumpeting angels, turkeys and Christmas puddings, everything associated with the festive period.

Christmas Card – c 1896-97, William Jones, Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery
Christmas Card – c 1903 William Jones, Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery.
Christmas Card – c. unknown, William Jones, Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery

More amazing is how he worked local landscapes into the cards, giving us stunning images of Heolgerrig and other localities around Merthyr Tydfil. These images were created ‘under most difficult adverse circumstances…’ No doubt William Angelo was struggling financially and like many artists before special occasions were an opportunity to raise funds.

On the Graig, Merthyr – c 1901 William Jones, Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery.
Moody’s Pond, Merthyr – c 1901 William Jones, Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery.

When the artist Penry Williams was struggling, he would regularly rely on Valentine’s Day to make ends meet, when he would create cards for sale. Struggling circumstances were what possibly pushed William Angelo to move on from Merthyr Tydfil fully and it is likely he died in Birmingham in 1938.

We often focus on the large-scale industrialists when looking into Merthyr’s past and overlook the many trades and professions the iron industry attracted to the town. Several painters opened studios in the town over the years, without whom, in an era where photography was in its infancy, we would have no visual record of the people and places that make up Merthyr Tydfil.

Keeping up with the Joneses: A Family of Merthyr Artists – part 1

by Christopher Parry

William Edward Jones made himself unique among the portrait painters that have settled in Merthyr Tydfil, because not only was he exceptionally talented, but he also was father to six children, several of which were named after famous renaissance artists, who became artists themselves.

William Edward Jones was born in Newmarket, Flintshire, in 1825. He was the son of James Jones, an Ironmonger, but it is unclear the path William took to become an artist instead of an Ironmonger. What is clear is he was ‘a “born” painter, gifted with an intuitive apprehension of the principles of his art, as well as great capacity for applying them…’ Though it is unknown if he had any formal training as an artist, by the age of 24, he had moved to Wrexham and was working as a portrait artist. He then went to Liverpool and eventually to London. While in London he displayed artwork at the Royal Academy and became a well-regarded portrait painter, but competition there was fierce. A chance meeting with two men that were bound for Merthyr Tydfil made William realise that maybe he could go to this iron metropolis and make a name for himself.

In 1853, he arrived in Merthyr Tydfil and it was not long before he established a portrait painting business on Glebeland Street, Merthyr Tydfil. 18, Glebeland Street would be his residence and studio for the rest of his life.

One of his first notable commissions seems to be of Lord Aberdare, Henry Austin Bruce, in 1853, and from there steady commissions would continue.

Henry Austin Bruce, c 1853, William Jones, Peoples Collection Wales, LLGC

By 1856, William had accepted what would be his most impressive portrait yet, a portrait of John Evans, the Dowlais Works Manager. Evans was retiring and those who admired him at Dowlais decided to commission a portrait. The portrait was unveiled at a Temperance Choir concert in the Dowlais Schools in May 1856. The portrait of Evans is one of only two known portraits painted by William that are still in Merthyr Tydfil. It hangs on the walls of Cyfarthfa Castle and is a huge canvas with astounding details, such as a painting of Dowlais Works on the wall in the background, along with engineering documents strewn across the table in front of John Evans. The portrait is one of two created by William in 1856, the other is a portrait of John Evans brother, Thomas Evans.

John Evans, c 1856, William Jones, Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery

The portrait of Thomas, who was an agent and manager at Dowlais also, was commissioned by those in Dowlais who were saddened by his passing in 1846. This was a problematic commission for William, as he had never seen Thomas and no reference to what he looked like existed. Those who knew Thomas gave William descriptions and the rest was down to the artist’s skill to create a perfect likeness. When the painting was complete ‘no one having formerly known Mr. Evans, can mistake who the painting is intended to represent’. The painting was unveiled in August 1856, and was transferred to the possession of the local council by the early 1900s. The portrait of John fell into the ownership of the council too, eventually being one of two paintings that hung in the council chambers until 1910, the other being a portrait of Henry Richard by William Gillies Gair. The portrait of Thomas Evans is heavily damaged but remains in Merthyr Tydfil.

William would go on to create a painting titled ‘The Last Bard’, which won him awards at the National Eisteddfod in 1859. In 1863, he was commissioned to paint the Mayor of Neath, Evan Evans, which was praised for its ‘fineness of execution and accurate delineation of feature…’ William would even produce pencil drawings, most notably he would capture the chaos of the moment disaster struck in 1874, when runaway carriages collided with a train and destroyed part of Merthyr’s Central Station.

Scene of the terrible accident at the Vale of Neath Station – c 1874, William Jones, Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery.

William was a Freemason and was commissioned frequently to paint other members, which meant he was solidly painting throughout the late 1850s, right until the late 1870s. There is currently no overall known number of how many portraits William created when he was living in Merthyr Tydfil. Many portraits had been commissioned for people outside of the town, for widowers of Freemasons, industrialists that moved on from the town and so on. In the aftermath of William’s death in 1877, there was an auction of work from his studio and one advertisement stated that there were over one hundred pieces for sale.

Merthyr Telegraph – 2 November 1877

The paintings have undoubtedly gone everywhere across Britain and further afield, so they are now incredibly difficult to trace. Dr Fred Holly, in an article appearing in Merthyr Historian: Volume 6 has made the best attempt to collect information on the artwork that survives, but even that list is miniscule compared to the actual art William created in his heyday.

On July 2, 1858, William married Elizabeth Wilkins, daughter of William Wilkins, who lived on Morlais Street, in the Glebeland. William Wilkins was a Hotel Keeper, who managed the Temperance Hotel, which was also in the Glebeland at Merthyr Tydfil. William and Elizabeth would have six children in all. The eldest, William Angelo, named after the famous renaissance artist. Then James Raphael, named after another Italian artist. Francis Lawrence followed, named after Thomas Lawrence, the English portrait painter. The only daughter then followed, Rosa, named after the French artist Rosa Bonheur. Then Leonardo Devinci (spelt with an E not A) Jones; another nod to beloved Italian artists. Finally, Ernest probably named after the French artist Ernest Meissonier.

The 1870s, when many of them were coming of age, must have been a devastating time for the children as Elizabeth died in 1870. Her father William Wilkins moved into 18, Glebeland Street to help William, but he then passed away in 1873. William then, while putting the finishing touches on a portrait, died in 1877.

To be continued……

Exhibition and Book Launch

The Merthyr Tydfil and District Historical Society is please to announce a brand new exhibition to mark its 50th Anniversary – please see details below.

The exhibition will be officially opened at 2.00pm on Tuesday when the Society will also be launching the latest edition of the Merthyr Historian – Volume 32.

Everyone is welcome to come along and join the Merthyr Tydfil and District Historical Society as we celebrate our 50 years of promoting and recording Merthyr’s glorious past.

The Pant War Memorial

by J Ann Lewis

Ninety-five years ago today, on 4 July 1926, General Marden unveiled the Pant War Memorial, with about 1,300 people in attendance and with loud speakers and microphones were in place for the event. Pant was the second village in the area to erect a memorial to the men killed in the First World War.

The Memorial Committee was inaugurated in 1920; house-to-house collections were organised and many promises of weekly contributions were made, but due to the coal strike of 1921, and the trade depression that followed, the final cost of £800 was not quite met. The local inhabitants had paid the bulk of the money, and the school-children contributed largely through the many concerts organised by the staff. Also mentioned for their donations were: Merthyr Football Club, the directors of the Victoria Cinema and the Oddfellows Hall (where the concerts were held).

Mr F. J. Bateson released the ground he had rented from Messrs Guest, Keen and Nettlefold, enabling them to give the ground, previously owned by Daniel Thomas, stonemason, for the memorial. Before the memorial could be erected, the urinal built in 1906 had to be moved to the other side of Caeracca Bridge.

The Memorial is built mainly of Portland stone, with the side wing walls and steps leading to the cenotaph of local limestone. The bronze plate centrepiece reveals the names of local men who were killed during the conflict.

Designed by Mr C. H. C. Holder, a curator at Cyfarthfa Museum, the sculpture is a monument to the skill of Councillor F. J. Bateson from Pant and his assistants. The Mayor, Alderman D. Davies J. P., another Pant resident, accepted the deed as a gift from Mr S. J. Lloyd, Secretary of the Memorial Committee. The mayor had actually lost his son in the War, and his name is commemorated on the plaque.

General Marden, in his response, thanked the Dowlais Male Voice Party for “the most wonderful singing he had ever heard”. The march to Pant was led by the Municipal Band and the G.K.N. Dowlais Silver Band.

A second plaque was added to the memorial to honour the men of the village who died during the Second World War.

Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

To the left hand side of the main memorial is another plaque honouring the men who had been employed at the I.C.I. Factory at Dowlais who died in the Second World War. These were:

  • Simon Davies
  • William Evans
  • Thomas John Davies
  • Norman Ernest Freshwater
  • Cameron Meredith
  • Glyndwr Price
  • Frank Wills

A Lament for Sam Hughes – The Last Great Ophicleidist

By Professor Trevor Herbert

On 1st April 1898, Sam Hughes died in a small terraced house at Three Mile Cross on the outskirts of Reading. His widow, in grief and poverty, petitioned the Royal Society of Musicians for a small grant to pay for his funeral. The Society, which had treated him kindly in the closing years of his life, responded benevolently once more, for it was known that his passing marked the end of a significant, if brief, era. Sam Hughes was the last great ophicleide player. He was perhaps the only really great British ophicleide player. Many great romantic composers including Mendelssohn, Wagner and Berlioz wrote for the instrument, which was invented by a man called Halary in Paris in 1821 – three years before Sam Hughes was born. For the next half century it was widely used but few played it well. George Bernard Shaw regularly referred to it as the “chromatic bullock” but even he, whose caustic indignation was often vented on London’s brass players, had been moved by a rendering of O Ruddier than the Cherry by Mr Hughes.

The fate of the ophicleide (right) and the story of Sam Hughes provide a neat illustration of the pace and character of musical change in Britain in the Victorian period. One product of this change was the brass band “movement” – a movement which, if the untested claims of most authors on the subject are to be believed, had its origins in Wales. Despite Shaw’s claims that the ophicleide had been “born obsolete”, it died because it was consumed by the irresistible forces of technological invention and commercial exploitation. In particular, it was overtaken by the euphonium.

The euphonium was invented in the 1830s. It became popular some time later, but from the start it was easier to play and simpler and cheaper to manufacture. The makers ensured that the euphonium usurped the ophicleide’s position as the bass-baritone instrument in brass bands by contriving one of the neatest tricks of the 19th century. At brass band contests it was common to single out the best individual player of the day (irrespective of what instrument he performed on) and award him an elaborate prize – a sort of “man of the match” award. From the mid-century the winners of these awards were, with uncanny frequency, ophicleide players. Their prize was always a brand new euphonium. By about 1870 just about every good ophicleide player had “won” a euphonium.

The exception was Sam Hughes, who by that time had left the world of brass bands and was swanning around London with his ophicleide. He became professor of ophicleide at the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall and at the Guildhall School of Music. He was destined for stardom with Jullien’s orchestra and to beguile George Bernard Shaw with O Ruddier than the Cherry at Covent Garden. In the mid-1850s Hughes was playing for the Cyfarthfa Brass Band in Merthyr Tydfil. Robert Thompson Crawshay, who had set up the band in 1838, had procured his services and arranged for him to have a job as a railway agent in Merthyr. He had apparently left by 1860, the year that the Cyfarthfa band came first at the great national contest at Crystal Palace. Their solo ophicleide player on that day was a man called Walker – he won a euphonium. The best brass band players in Wales were better than most of the professional brass players. The technical and artistic demands of the band repertoire were vastly greater than those of the orchestral repertoire. The likes of Sam Hughes demonstrated a touch that, by all accounts, drew gasps of admiration. The reasons why the players became so good and the consequences of that competence are worth thinking about.

The Cyfarthfa Band in the 1800s. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

Brass instruments were cheap and relatively easy to play. These two vital factors were pressed home by publishers, instrument manufacturers and everyone else who was astute enough to notice that an entire new market for music was opening. Musical literacy is easier to obtain than word literacy; to an extent, and unlike words, music looks like it sounds. It is possible, even probable, that many of the best 19th century brass band players (people who could play an Italian opera overture at sight) were otherwise illiterate.

Men like Sam Hughes were exemplars for those who followed. Their playing was heard by thousands at open-air contests and concerts. The brilliance of their playing was immediately evident and left little to doubt. Everyone could measure it. Musical skill is notorious for its lack of ambiguity; it is impossible to bluff your way through an ophicleide solo. The other issue of importance concerns the repertoire. While hymns and arrangements of Welsh folk songs are found in the surviving collections of music, the main body of the repertoire is classical or “art” music. Italian opera dominated the repertoire but Mozart, Haydn, Handel, Beethoven and Bach were also popular. (The adoption of Haydn and Handel as Christian names for boys came from this period). More modern music was also played. The Cyfarthfa repertoire included works by Wagner and a precociously talented local boy called Joseph Parry. Bands were the means by which instrumental art music became widely disseminated. The mass of the people had unequivocal access to this form of “high art”. They didn’t have to be able to read, and because most performances were in the open air, they didn’t even need the price of admission to hear the very best “modern music”.

The hand-written music from which players such as Sam Hughes played still survives. It provides unquestionable testimony as to how well the instruments were being played. Those who heard this playing did not just hear technical competence. They also heard musical virtuosity. Amidst the smoke and grime of Merthyr in the mid-19th century there sounded, on occasions, the lyricism of men like Sam Hughes. It was not just declamatory fanfares and scintillating chromatic runs that they played but gently turned phrases breathed softly above blocks of deep, sonorous harmony. Most brass band players lived and died where they were born. Sam Hughes died in poverty and a long way from home. The ophicleide died with him. There is a bitter irony in this story. Had he stayed in Merthyr he would have become Welsh. He would have died in comfort and security among people who admired him as one of their champions. Had he accepted the inevitable progress of technology and learned to play the euphonium he might even have died a rich man in London. He did neither.

Today Sam Hughes’s ophicleide rests in a glass case in Cyfarthfa Castle Museum. It is known throughout the world as one of the best surviving examples of its type. In the quest for authenticity, musicians are now learning to play the ophicleide again and clapped-out specimens are being lovingly restored. Hughes’ instrument plays as beautifully today as if the master had put it down just an hour ago.

Sam Hughes’ ophicleide (left) at Cyfarthfa Museum

The above is a much shortened version of an article which appeared in edition No.87 of Planet, The Welsh Internationalist.

Merthyr’s Ironmasters: William Crawshay II

William Crawshay II. Photo courtesy of Cyfarthfa Museum and Art Gallery

William Crawshay II was the third generation of the Crawshay dynasty of Cyfarthfa Ironworks. Born on 27 March 1788, he was the second son of William Crawshay I, only son of Richard Crawshay, who took over ownership of the works from Anthony Bacon.

When Richard Crawshay died in 1810, owing to arguments between him and his son, William (senior), the latter only acquired a three-eighths share of the Cyfarthfa Ironworks, despite being the only son and heir. Over the next decade, William Crawshay senior set about acquiring the remaining shares in the Works to make himself undisputed master of Cyfarthfa. He, preferred however to live away from Merthyr, overseeing the Crawshays’ London base at the wharves in George’s Yard, Upper Thames Street, so he appointed his son William (II) to manage the operation at Cyfarthfa.

When William Crawshay II assumed business responsibilities, Welsh iron was in its heyday and Cyfarthfa prospered under his charge: in 1810 the four blast furnaces producing approximately 11,000 tons of pig iron annually.

These early years were marked by a perennial battle with his father over the extent of his authority at the works. The elder Crawshay was determined to keep Cyfarthfa subordinate to the family’s merchant house at George Yard. This his son could not endure; he was intent on selling Cyfarthfa iron as he saw fit, without reference to his father and brothers in London. Yet despite the repeated tendering (and hasty withdrawals) of his resignation young William was unable to overcome his father. ‘My Dear Will, don’t play the fool,’ his father told him after one threatened resignation in 1820, ‘You are now Vice-Roy of Cyfarthfa and will be Sovereign early enough if you will be content to allow his present Majesty some shadow of Royalty’.

By 1823 the Cyfarthfa Ironworks was the largest in Britain, producing 24,200 tons of pig iron from eight blast furnaces, and William, who was at this time living at Gwaelodygarth House, decided that it was time to erect a new home befitting his status as Merthyr’s ‘Iron King’. He employed architect and engineer Robert Lugar, the same engineer who built many bridges and viaducts for the local railways, to design a huge neo-gothic ‘mock’ castle, complete with towers and turrets, standing in 158 acres of landscaped parkland, overlooking the Ironworks. Cyfarthfa Castle was completed in 1824, at a cost of £30,000.

William Crawshay I died in 1834, and William II became sole proprietor of the Cyfarthfa Works, and also inheriting a share in the London property. By the time Crawshay entered into his inheritance, however, the pre-eminence of Cyfarthfa was slipping. He could not prevent his works being overhauled by neighbouring Dowlais, where the Guests were more sensitively attuned to the crucial market for rails in the 1830s and 1840s. Indeed, the aloofness of the Crawshay dynasty was fast becoming an impediment to continued success: little notice was taken, for example, of the new steelmaking technology of the 1850s. In William Crawshay’s last years it was clear that the great days had passed.

As a young man Crawshay inclined to radicalism in politics. He was also a firm supporter of anti-truck legislation, sensing an opportunity to embarrass the Guests, who operated a truck system (the system of paying wages in goods instead of money) at Dowlais. During the Reform crisis he actively promoted the cause of parliamentary reform – while simultaneously introducing a programme of sudden wage cuts at depression-hit Cyfarthfa. This was a volatile course of action, and one to which contemporaries attributed the insurrectionary riots which swept Merthyr in June 1831, obliging Crawshay to write a hasty defence of his role in local affairs, “The Late Riots at Merthyr Tydfil” (1831).

During the later 1830s he swung abruptly into the Tory camp, although this was a plainly opportunistic manoeuvre to unseat Sir Josiah John Guest, who had been returned for the newly enfranchised borough of Merthyr in 1832 on a radical ticket.

William was married three times, each time to a bride with connections in the iron trade. He married first, in 1808, Elizabeth, the daughter of Francis Homfray (1725–1798) of Stourbridge, a member of the midland iron-making dynasty, and later proprietor of the Penydarren Ironworks. They had three sons, and Elizabeth died in 1813 giving birth to a daughter. Crawshay married second, in 1815, Isabel, the daughter of James Thompson of Grayrigg, Westmorland. Her uncle William Thompson (1793–1854), MP, lord mayor of London in 1828, was a partner in the Penydarren Ironworks, and her uncle Robert Thompson was the proprietor of the Tintern Abbey Ironworks in Monmouthshire. Isabel died in 1827, having given birth to two sons and seven daughters. Crawshay married third, in 1828, Isabella (d. 1885), the sister of Thomas Johnson, a partner in the Bute Ironworks in the Rhymney Valley, and they had a daughter.

William began spending an increasing amount of time at his estate at Caversham in Oxfordshire, which he bought in 1848, having previously leased it for many years, and it was at Caversham that he died on 4 August 1867. In his will, the Cyfarthfa Ironworks were passed on to his elder son from his second marriage – Robert Thompson Crawshay.

Caversham Park

The Cyfarthfa Band

by Laura Bray

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.

The Cyfarthfa Band on the steps of Cyfarthfa Castle in the 1800s. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

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.

The Cyfarthfa Band at the Cyfarthfa Bandstand. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

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