James Gomer Berry – The Melting Pot

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.

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 93^rd (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.

Merthyr’s Chapels: Market Square Chapel

Market Square English Congregational Chapel

By the 1830’s the population of Merthyr was expanding rapidly, so there was need of a place of worship for the English speaking members of the Independent chapels. A group of Scotsmen began meeting in a small room in the Old Foundry in Lower High Street.

On 30 December 1838 a public meeting was held and it was decided to establish an English Independent Church. The foundation stone was laid on 11 June 1840 and the chapel was completed and opened for worship on 4 May 1841. Market Square’s first minister was Rev Edward Griffiths. Rev Griffiths son, Samuel went on to become Prime Minister of Queensland.

Over the years many improvements were made to the chapel including the installation of an impressive organ costing £120 in 1850, and the building of a schoolroom and new vestries in 1877 costing £400.

In 1893, the Christian Endeavour Society which was very active at Market Square Chapel started to hold open air meetings at Caedraw on Sundays, and later Caedraw Board School was obtained for services.At the beginning of Rev S R Jenkins’ pastorate in 1898, the chapel engaged an evangelist, Miss Ward, for a period of twelve months, and promised to build a Mission Hall. For various reasons the building of the Mission Hall was delayed, but it was finally completed and opened on 3 November 1904. The Caedraw Mission became a great success, and a full time missioner was installed there at a fixed salary. It remained an integral part of Market Square until it was demolished in 1961 to make way for the new road being built.

Caedraw Mission Hall in the background of this photo. Courtesy of the Alan George Archive

In 1912, Alderman J M Berry, who was a leading deacon of the chapel was elected Mayor of the Borough of Merthyr Tydfil, and his three sons would go on to be prominent citizens and all three would be honoured with peerages.

Henry Seymour Berry (1877-1928) acquired substantial holdings in steel, coal, transport, printing, and shipping and was made a Freeman of the Borough in 1923 and became Baron Buckland of Bwlch in 1926. William Ewart Berry (1879-1953) and James Gomer Berry (1883-1968) together built a vast empire of magazines, regional and national newspapers, including the Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, and the Sunday Times. Gomer became Baron Kemsley in 1936 and Viscount Kemsley in 1944. He was made a Freeman of the Borough in 1955. William was made Baron Camrose in 1929 and a Viscount in 1941.

In 1938 Market Square Chapel celebrated its centenary; one of the appreciative gifts to the chapel was the installation of a new pipe organ. Lord Kemsley and Lord Camrose had shared their parent’s affection for the church of their boyhood days and made a gift of the organ in memory of their parents.

In 1961 it was announced that the chapel was to be demolished as part of the refurbishment of the town centre, and after many discussions, in 1966 it was decided to build a new chapel. The old chapel was finally demolished in 1969 and the foundations for the new chapel were laid the same year. The new chapel which is now situated in Salmon Street officially opened in 1971. The new chapel was designed specifically so that it could house the pipe organ donated by the Berry family, so the organ was put into storage until the new chapel was built and it could be installed.

In 1972, Market Square became a United Reformed Church, and in 1974 united with Hope Chapel and Trinity Chapel, Merthyr Vale. In 2008, it became apparent that the cost of running both Market Square and Hope Chapels was too high so that it was decided that one of the buildings should be closed. A vote was held amongst the members of the congregation, and it was decided that Market Square should be kept open, and it is one of the few chapels still holding services.

Merthyr’s Lost Landmarks: Garthnewydd

by Laura Bray

One of Merthyr’s forgotten houses is Garthnewydd, situated on the crossroads of Brecon Rd, Abermorlais Terrace and Bethesda St, opposite the Catholic Church and, for those of us old enough to remember it, The Glamorgan Arms. It was demolished in the 1970’s, when the area was redeveloped.

Garthnewydd House and Brecon Road in the early 1900s. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

There is scant history now about this dwelling. We know it was a well established landmark by 1891, as it was offered for sale by auction as the former residence of Mr Frank James, and was billed as a “dwelling house, with billiard room, two-stall stable and coach house”. In the same auction (7th July 1891), the two adjoining properties of 47 and 48 Bethesda Street, were also under the hammer.

I haven’t been able to find out who bought the house, but one occupant after this date was the Mayor, Mr C Biddle, and another was Dr Llewellyn Jones. After Dr Jones’ death in the late 1920s/early 1930s, the house came into the possession of our old friends, the Berry brothers – specifically William and Gomer – who gave £400 to complete the purchase of Garthnewydd, which was then gifted to the town for the use of unemployed workers. The Berry brothers also provided money to adapt the building, which became known as the Garthnewydd Unemployed Social Club, – at one point it had a membership of 400 men and boys, each paying 1d/week towards its upkeep.

Garthnewydd became a thriving community centre, offering activities to its members such as physical training; educational opportunities for example art, drama, shorthand and book-keeping classes; talks were given weekly and there were areas for wireless enthusiasts, for carpentry, boot repairing, chemistry and for the Ladies Sewing Circle. There was a games room (everything from billiards to dominos), a library which issued in excess of 150 books a week, and a soccer team, which played in the Merthyr and District League. During the Second World War, Garthnewydd was even a centre for Y.M.C.A. work amongst the armed forces.

Following the War it became the home of the Merthyr branch of the Y.W.C.A., opening in 1946, it continued to house the Y.W.C.A. until 1958.

Over time, Garthnewydd became a centre for more political activity, first pacifism and then Welsh Nationalism, through which both the Triskel Press and “Poetry Wales” were conceived and inaugurated. But gradually the usage of the building declined, and the fabric of it deteriorated, until the final organisations vacated it in the 1970s.

Garthnewydd in 1970. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

Freedom of the Borough – Viscount Kemsley

65 years ago today….

William Ewart Berry

by Laura Bray

In the series looking at the Berry Brothers, we conclude with a profile of William Ewart Berry, the second and middle son of John and Mary Anne Berry, who was born on 23 June 1870 at 11 Church Street, Merthyr.

The tale is told that William’s journalistic career began after he entered, and won, an essay competition, which so impressed the judge, W.W. Hadley – editor of the “Merthyr Times” – that he gave William a post as a reporter. William was just 14. William clearly had ambition – by the age of 19 he had left Merthyr and had a short term post as a reporter on the “Investor’s Guardian”, for which he was paid 35s a week. That, however, did not last long and William spent three months unemployed, walking the streets and trying freelance work before getting a job as a reporter for the Commercial Press Association. Then, in 1901, aged 22 and using £100 borrowed from his brother Seymour he launched a paper of his own, “Advertising World”. William wrote every word of that first addition. By the second edition he had been joined by his brother, Gomer, and the two were to forge a newspaper partnership that lasted for the next 35 years.

William and Gomer sold “Advertising World” in 1905 for a healthy profit and went onto found “Boxing” and other periodicals during the next few years, all of which they ran successfully. The brothers clearly had an eye for an opportunity – as can be seen in the fact that a seemingly insatiable seven-day demand for news from the western front after the outbreak of the First World War convinced them that the moment was right to acquire the “Sunday Times”, which they bought for £80,000. At the time, sales of the paper had slumped to about 20,000 a week – less than a tenth of “The Observer’s” circulation. By 1937 the “Sunday Times” was outselling its historic rival by nearly 70,000 copies a week.

The purchase in 1919 of the St Clement’s Press, and its City flagship the “Financial Times”, further raised the William’s profile. Not surprisingly, therefore, he and Gomer were assiduously courted by the circle surrounding the then prime minister, David Lloyd-George. One consequence was that in 1921 William Berry became a baronet.

William Ewart Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose. © National Portrait Gallery, London. Gratitude to them for allowing me to use the photograph.

Over the next few years William and Gomer established a vast and diverse media conglomerate; and yet it was not until 1927 that they finally acquired a major London-based daily newspaper. The “Daily Telegraph” and it was with this paper that William’s name was to become most firmly associated. The “Daily Telegraph” had been a great Victorian success story, setting high standards in its news reporting and attracting suburban middle-class readers.A commitment to solid Conservative values, plus a reputation for extensive coverage of both major sporting events and salacious court cases, ensured daily sales of nearly 300,000 by the early 1890s. By the late 1920s, however, sales had slipped to about 84,000, and the “Daily Telegraph” was in urgent need of modernization. Reluctant to invest, the paper’s chief proprietor, Lord Burnham, suggested a quick sale to Allied Newspapers, then owned by the Berry brothers.

Thus on 1 January 1928 William Berry at last assumed editorial responsibility for a ‘quality’ national newspaper with enormous potential. While retaining the “Telegraph”‘s unequivocal centre-right politics, William made key editorial and personnel changes, as well as updating the paper’s type and format. Sales slowly grew, and then doubled to 200,000 after the price was halved to 1d. on 1 December 1930. Within seven years circulation had reached 637,000, and on the eve of the Second World War it had increased to 750,000 by which time William had placed news items onto the front page – a radical, if not pioneering, step.

William was a supporter of Churchill during the late 30s and 40s and for a few weeks after the outbreak of war worked in the Ministry of Information as Chief Assistant to Lord MacMillan, then Minister and Controller of Press Relations. In 1941 Churchill made him Viscount Camrose, named for Camrose in Pembrokeshire where William’s father had been born. Such was the regard between Churchill and William that he was the only non-member of Churchill’s family to dine with him on V.E. Day in 1945. William was also instrumental in organising a “whip round” to buy Churchill his home, Chartwell, for £43,600 (well over a million today) and donated it to the National Trust with the provision that Churchill should live in it for the rest of his life.

In turn, it was Churchill who suggested that William should have a memorial in St Paul’s Cathedral and it was he who unveiled it in May 1956.

William died in 1954 in Royal South Hampshire Hospital, just short of his 75th birthday, from a heart attack. He left a widow, Mary Agnes, his wife of nearly 50 years, and 8 children.

William Berry’s Memorial Plaque at St Paul’s Cathedral

James Gomer Berry – part 2

by Laura Bray

James Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley. © National Portrait Gallery, London. Gratitude to them for allowing me to use the photograph.

It was about now that William and Gomer’s paths diverged. Possibly because it could not be assumed that the harmony the brothers had built would pass to William’s two, and Gomer’s six, sons, or possibly because Gomer, who was now in his 50s, no longer wanted to be the “junior partner”, the brothers and Iliffe divided up their newspaper empire.

Gomer retained the “Sunday Express,” the “Sunday Chronicle,” the “Sunday Graphic,” the “Empire News,” and “Daily Sketch” and all the provincial papers.

He therefore had the lion’s share with 18 newspapers (five of them national). He became chairman of Allied Newspapers (in 1943 he changed the name to Kemsley Press). He was now the largest newspaper owner in the UK and underlined this by inserting, under the title block of each publication, the words “A Kemsley Newspaper”.

The Headlines proclaiming V.E. Day from the Daily Sketch on Tuesday 8 May 1945

This was the 1930s however, war was coming, and politically Gomer was quite naive. He encouraged Chamberlain in his dealings with Hitler, and indeed in 1939, met Hitler in person, advising him that there was little appetite for Churchill in Britain, who should not be taken seriously. There was clearly a good deal of trust between Gomer and Chamberlain, and therefore it came as a shock in 1940 when Chamberlain was replaced by Churchill. It took some months for Gomer, and his newspapers, to absorb this cataclysmic change, but as time passed he became increasingly pro-Churchill and his loyalty was repaid in 1945 when Churchill made him Viscount Kemsley in his resignation honours list.

During the 1940s and 50s, Gomer’s flagship paper was the “Sunday Times”, the circulation of which he trebled, to over 800,000 by 1959. He does not appear to have William’s flair but he did make sound decisions, including the appointment of Ian Fleming as Foreign Editor and Harry Hobson as Theatre Critic, and was capable of bold action which made even his children blink, but by the end of the 50s, Gomer’s reign was ending – the lifting of wartime restrictions had left the newspaper industry facing a harsher, more competitive climate.

As the decade progressed, his stifling formality and relentlessly autocratic style of management appeared increasingly outmoded. The stiff manner and equally stiff collars, the bespoke suits and silk ties, the private lift to the top floor, the chauffeured limousine, and the white-gloved flunkeys all signalled a creaking, old-fashioned newspaper operation, encapsulated perhaps in the purchase of his Rolls Royce Silver Wraith Touring Limousine, specially designed so Gomer could wear his top hat inside the car.

Faced by dwindling profits, reduced reserves and an inability to move with the times – in 1955 he withdrew from the consortium awarded the first ITA franchise for weekend television in the Midlands and the North – Gomer sold up, and in 1959 Kemsleys newspapers passed to the ownership of Roy Thompson, the Canadian newspaper and television proprietor, for £5m. Gomer spent most of the 1960s living abroad and died in Monte Carlo on 6 February 1968. He was 84.

Gomer Berry with his second wife, Edith (née Merandon du Plessis) who he married in 1931, visiting Jamaica in his retirement.

So what of his legacy? To the publishing industry, Gomer is best remembered for the foundation, in 1947, of the Kemsley Editorial Plan, for the training of journalists; the Kemsley Empire Journalists scheme which was aimed at giving Commonwealth journalists experience of British affairs; and the “Kemsley Manual of Journalism” is still a standard text to this day. In Merthyr, he succeeded his eldest brother, Seymour, as president of Merthyr General Hospital 1928-49, and gave £3000 p.a. for 2 years so that his brother’s trust fund could start work immediately. In conjunction with Lady Buckland, William and Gomer presented to the town the Lord Buckland Memorial Extension to the General Hospital which cost £40,000, and provided it with an endowment fund of £20,000, and in 1936 William and Gomer presented a new clock tower to the parish church. Gomer received the freedom of the town in 1955, by which time both Seymour and William had died.

Gomer never forgot where he came from, and we end with a quote from him made when opening the 1947 Fete and Gala: “Never a week has passed in the 46 years that fate ordained that I should make my life elsewhere, without my scanning the pages of the Merthyr Express.”

Gomer Berry’s tomb at St Anne’s Churchyard, in Dropmore, Buckinghamshire

James Gomer Berry – part 1

by Laura Bray

Rarely can one family be said to have produced three illustrious members in one generation, but that is exactly what happened to John and Mary Ann Berry whose three sons – Seymour, William and Gomer – became respectively Lords Buckland, Camrose and Kemsley, making millions in the process.

Gomer was the youngest of the three, born 7 May 1883 in 11 Church Street, Merthyr. His upbringing was of a normal sort – educated firstly at Abermorlais School and then at the County School. He began his working life as a draper’s apprentice in Manchester House – where Wetherspoons in Penderyn Square now stands, yet within 10 years he had left Merthyr and was living in Pinner, with a wife and child, and is recorded on the 1911 census as “Newspaper Proprietor”. How did such a change come about?

The story really starts when Gomer was 18 and moved to London to join his brother William, who was running a magazine called “Advertising World”, which he had founded in 1901, with a £100 loan from his brother Seymour. Gomer was to assist with advertising, sales and finance, areas in which he showed great flair. From all accounts, the two brothers got on well, sharing a house, a bank account, and indeed for the next 36 years their careers were closely linked.

The brothers ran “Advertising World” with success, so much so that in 1909 they sold it for the huge sum of £11000, (roughly £1.2m in today’s money) from which they set up a small publishing company called Ewart, Seymour and Co Ltd. This ran a number of periodicals including the popular “Boxing” – a good example of how the brothers were able to spot and exploit an opportunity; they took its circulation from around 100,000 in 1909 to over 250,000 a week in 1914.

In 1915 they bought the struggling “Sunday Times” for £80,000, with William acting as Editor-in-Chief, followed three years later by the “Financial Times”. By 1921 they owned the “Daily Graphic,” the profitable “Kelly’s Directories,” and had interests in the “Western Mail”, the “Evening Express”, the “Cardiff Weekly,” the “Merthyr Express” and the “Pontypridd Observer”. Surely there can be few enterprises that grow with such dazzling speed.

Now firmly established in his position as Newspaper Proprietor, Gomer felt confident enough to apply for the Freedom of the City of London in the Company of Stationers, which was granted on 8 May 1923. He was just 30.

The next move for William and Gomer was the purchase of the Hulton group of Manchester newspapers, which became the foundation, in 1924, of Allied Newspapers, with their partner, Edward Iliffe. This was followed by the purchase of the Amalgamated Press in 1926, which included a large number of non-political periodicals, a book section, two printing works and the Imperial Paper Mills.

In 1927 they bought Edward Lloyd, Ltd., one of the largest paper mills in the world, and also acquired the “Daily Telegraph”, with William again as editor-in-chief. They now controlled 25 newspapers, and about 70 periodicals.

The Daily Telegraph Building in the 1930s

Competition was fierce in the 1930s but instead of trying to attract readers with gifts, as other newspapers did, they decided to change the format of the “Daily Telegraph”, to maintain the quality of their news coverage, and to halve the price from 2d. to a penny; the circulation doubled immediately to 200,000 and grew to well over a million copies by 1949.

Outside of the publishing world, Gomer was being noticed politically too. He was created a baronet in 1928 (sadly just one week before Mary, his wife of 21 years, died) and was appointed as an Officer of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem in 1931. Five years later he was raised to the peerage as Baron Kemsley, of Farnham Royal in Bucks.

To be continued…..

Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: The Berry Brothers

by Keith Lewis-Jones

This time we look at the plaques dedicated to three brothers born to Merthyr solicitor John Mathias Berry and his wife Mary Ann Rowe.

Henry Seymour Berry – Lord Buckland of Bwlch
Statue sited in front of Merthyr Tydfil Central Library

Henry Seymour Berry (1877-1928) acquired substantial holdings in steel, coal, transport, printing, and shipping.

He was made a Freeman of the Borough in 1923 and became Baron Buckland of Bwlch in 1926.

Statue & Plinth Grade II Listed

History
Erected 1931. Designed by W. Goscombe John RA.

Description
Standing, black-painted, bronze figure in full robes with cocked hat in crook of left arm; parchment grasped in right hand. Moulded pink granite plinth with 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”.

James Gomer Berry – Viscount Kemsley
Plaque sited on the plinth of the statue in front of Merthyr Tydfil Central Library

James Gomer Berry (1883-1968) and William Ewart Berry together built a vast empire of magazines, regional and national newspapers, including the Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times.

Gomer became Baron Kemsley in 1936 and Viscount Kemsley in 1944. He was made a Freeman of the Borough in 1955.

William Ewert Berry – Viscount Camrose
Plaque sited on the plinth of the statue in front of Merthyr Tydfil Central Library

William Ewert Berry (1879-1953) and James Gomer Berry together built a vast empire of magazines, regional and national newspapers, including the Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times.

William was made Baron Camrose in 1929 and a Viscount in 1941.

More on the Berry Brothers coming soon……

A Short History of Merthyr General Hospital – part 3

by Ann Lewis

During the First World War, Seymour Berry rendered valuable service to the country, by relieving Lord Rhondda of his business responsibilities, so releasing him for important work as a Cabinet Minister. After the war, he became director of over 80 public and other companies, including the great Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds, eventually becoming its chairman.

He was without doubt the most generous benefactor Merthyr has ever known. Indeed the family over the years gave a total of £100,000 to the people of Merthyr. He was awarded the title Lord Buckland of Bwlch in 1926.

His tragic death two years later in 1928 as a result of a riding accident was a great loss to the people of Merthyr. A fund was opened, and over 50,000 people contributed, but by far the largest portion was given by his wife, Lady Buckland and his brothers, Lord Camrose and Lord Kemsley.

The fund was used to build the Lord Buckland Memorial Hospital which was officially opened on 5 June 1931 and cost over £40,000 to complete. The new hospital was connected to the General Hospital by a corridor, where a lift and a stairway provided access to the upper floors.

The entrance, off Alexandra Road, was where the opening of the new part of the hospital took place, when Lord Camrose unlocked the door. This was followed by the unveiling of the Memorial Panel by Mr W. R. Lysaght, C.B.E. The inscription read:-

“This hospital was erected by Public subscription as a memorial to Henry Seymour Berry, first Baron Buckland of Bwlch. A native of this town. Knight of Grace of the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. 3rd Honorary Freeman of the County Borough of Merthyr Tydfil. Chairman of Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds.

In recognition of the high ideal of citizenship displayed in his generous gifts for the alleviation of suffering in the town and for increasing the happiness and prosperity of his fellowmen.”

The people of Merthyr gratefully appreciated the hospital and it remained a voluntary one until 1948, when all hospitals were transferred to the Ministry of Health. Our area came under the care of the Merthyr and Aberdare Hospital Management Committee.

Merthyr and Aberdare Hospital Management Committee

Many improvements have been made over the years; they include the new theatre, opened in 1960 when the area behind the Buckland Hospital was extended. By 1962 the right hand side of the first floor of the Buckland building was converted as an extension to the children’s ward, and was later used as the Special Care Baby Unit.

In the 1970’s Prince Charles Hospital was built, and the building of a new large, modern hospital had repercussions for all of the other hospitals in Merthyr. In 1978, when the first phase of Prince Charles Hospital opened, the General Hospital closed to be adapted to receive several departments from St Tydfil’s Hospital, while it was being refurbished.

In 1980, the Maternity and Special Baby Care units were transferred to the Buckland Hospital and the department for the Care of the Elderly was transferred to the main hospital.

In 1986, with the refurbishment of St Tydfil’s complete, the Care of the Elderly department was moved there, and the main building of the General Hospital closed. At this time the Sandbrook and Berry wards were demolished.

Sandbrook and Berry wards being demolished in 1986

The Buckland Hospital remained open until 1991 when phase 2 of Prince Charles Hospital was finished and the Maternity and Special Baby Care units were transferred, and the building was subsequently demolished.

The main hospital building still stands but is in a pitiful state. There is a proposal to turn the building into 23 new homes. Let’s hope that the refurbishment will be sympathetic to the history of a building that the local people gave so much of their time, energy and money to build for the people of Merthyr.

A fuller history of the General Hospital by Ann Lewis is available in Volume 4 of the Merthyr Historian.

Merthyr Memories: The Closure of Abermorlais School

Following on from the last post about the opening of Abermorlais School, Clive Thomas, former teacher at the school, has kindly shared his memories of the closure of the school.

The Closure of Abermorlais Junior School
by Clive Thomas

In September 1968 a new headteacher took charge of Abermorlais Junior School. Mr. O.P. Bevan (Ossie), recently a teaching head at Heolgerrig Primary came to a school with a century of history and a reputation for high standards. After all hadn’t it assisted in the education of three peers of the realm? As well as providing for the general education for many thousands of children, probably the most celebrated of the school’s pupils were the Berry boys, namely Henry Seymour Berry, Lord Buckland, William Ewert Berry, Viscount Camrose and Gomer Berry, Viscount Kemsley.

Funded by the British and Foreign Schools Society, Lady Charlotte Schreiber (previously Guest) had laid its foundation stone in 1867. It was built on what was later to be known as the British Tip, an accumulation of iron and coal waste from over a century of operations at the Penydarren Ironworks. In its elevated position, the school overlooked the town to the south, Ynysfach to the west and to the north Georgetown and the Brecon Road. It was from the streets, terraces and courtyards of these areas that children had come to Abermorlais for over a century, but with the redevelopment of many of these districts and family movement to the new Gurnos Estate, pupil numbers had declined massively and left a very large school building only twenty-five per cent occupied.

By the mid ‘Sixties’, the building had suffered from many years of neglect and the school was in almost terminal decline. Initially built to accommodate over six hundred pupils, by this time fewer than two hundred were taught in only six of the downstairs classrooms. Foot worn sandstone stairs with iron railings led to the upstairs classrooms, all of which had been vacated a number of years previously. Here were rooms where chairs, desks and other unwanted furniture and equipment were stored. A variety of old textbooks and teaching materials, some of great age had also been discarded here and in the imagination of many of the remaining pupils, these classrooms had to be haunted. Shelves and ledges were coated by inches of black dust from the open fires which heated the still occupied classrooms and hall.

This particular school year was a significant one in that it would be the last in which children from Abermorlais would sit the Eleven Plus Examination. Comprehensive education had already arrived in the lower part of the County Borough with the opening of Afon Taf High School the previous year. Mrs Wendy Williams was the teacher who shouldered the onerous responsibility of ensuring that every child in what was still called Standard Four gave of their best.

Mr. John Lloyd was the school musician. A talented pianist, he played for the Pendyrus Male Voice Choir, then under the baton of the famous Mr. Glyn Jones from Dowlais. Mrs. Eleanor Davies, wife of the former head was fulfilling her final year as deputy-headteacher, while Mrs. Morgan and Sylvia Lloyd assisted with the teaching of the younger juniors. Like Mr. Bevan, Clive Thomas was new to the school and in the first year of his teaching career.

The staff at Abermorlais School in the summer of 1969. Back row – Mrs M Williams, Mr Clive Thomas, Mr John Lloyd, Mrs Morgan. Front Row – Mrs Eleanor Davies, Mrs Annie-Mary Protheroe, Mr Ossie Bevan (headmaster), Mrs Sylvia Lloyd, Mrs Wendy Williams.

At Heolgerrig, Mr. Bevan had been involved with the Welsh School Council work on Environmental Studies. He was anxious to continue this approach and actively involve children in work which would help them gain a better understanding of how the school and town had evolved. To say that Abermorlais was poorly resourced to achieve these aims would be an understatement but his ingenuity, perseverance and jovial nature enabled significant progress to be made.

A new school had been planned to replace Abermorlais, but was to be built in a corner of Cyfarthfa Park and on the edge of what was the old school’s catchment area. This, it was rumoured was to be a semi-open plan school (whatever that meant) and represent the aspirations of a new age in education. Many of the staff, needless to say approached the move with a degree of trepidation.

Towards the end of the Autumn term in 1970 the staff were ready for the move and packed all that we wished to take with us. The Abermorlais foundation stone, which Ossie had planned to take to the new school proved to be something of a sham unfortunately. The inscription had not been cut skilfully by a late nineteenth century mason into solid stone but into a mortar coating. When the machine went to pick up the stone it fell into pieces and was lost in the rest of the debris. The historic building was left to the salvage and demolition crews.

Many thanks to Clive Thomas for this fascinating article, and for providing all of the photographs.