Tag: Merthyr Express

Merthyr Gliding School

by Laura Bray

During the Second World War an initiative was introduced in the form of Gliding Schools.  The schools came out of the Air Training Corps, itself a successor to the Air Defence Cadet Corps, which had been founded in 1938 with the aim of training boys aged between 14 and 18 in “all matters connected with aviation”.

The ADCC was a huge success – it organised itself into squadrons of 100 boys subdivided into 4 “flights” and within 5 months of its foundation, 41 squadrons had been formed. During 1939 more than 16,000 boys and 700 officers were members of the ADCC.

Indeed, by 1940, ADCC was making such a contribution to the recruitment for the RAF that it was decided by the War Cabinet to establish an organisation to provide pre-entry training for candidates for aircrew and technical duties for both the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm. Thus the Air Training Corps was born. It became one of the most important pre-service training organisations, providing the RAF with recruits who were “air-minded” when they enlisted.

Merthyr, it will not surprise you to learn, had an ATC, founded in the summer of 1941, and on 5th August 1944, a gliding school was opened, by Air Marshall Sir Robert Brook-Popham. The Gliding School was situated at the top of the Swansea Rd, and the opening was attended by the usual civic dignitaries. Before the presentation ceremony, the officers of the various squadrons in the area, the cadets and members of the Women’s Junior Air Corps were inspected by the Air Marshall. It was noted that Merthyr had sent several hundred boys into the RAF from the ATC and that they had benefited hugely from the training they had received there, training which would now include gliding. Indeed, so committed were the ATC to this that the boys had worked all winter to build a hanger for their glider, without any help from the Air Ministry or Council and squadrons from Aberdare, Treharris and the surrounding area would be using the base as part of their training.

It is clear from the Merthyr Express report of 5 August 1944 which covered the opening, that the ATC sent boys into the army as well as the RAF, as Air Marshall Brook-Popham was keen to stress that the skills learnt in the glider school were just as valuable to that branch of the armed services.

The Gliding School was disbanded in 1945 and is now largely forgotten – unless perhaps you were there…..

The Dark Side of Convict Life – part 14

by Barrie Jones

Chapter XI. Henry recounts examples of good and bad prison warders in Portland Prison.

The Dark Side of Convict Life (Being the Account of the Career of Harry Williams, a Merthyr Man). Merthyr Express, 9th April 1910, page 11.

Chapter XI

During the whole time I was at Portland, I never kept myself four months clear of a report, although I had a clean sheet on my arrival there. I can well remember a certain officer at Portland, who was truly a good man and quite different from all the rest. He had been over twenty-five years in the service and was well up to all the games practised by lags, and it would take a good man to take him down. I can remember saying something to him in the year 1900 in the separate cells, when he was engaged at the time giving me a special searching according to orders. He said something in answer to one thing I told him, and I said, “Now speak the truth.” “Speak the truth,” says he, “I never speak the truth in all my life, and I am not going to start now.” Of course, I know that was merely a joke of his, for I have reason to believe that he was one of the most truthful officers in the whole prison.

He did me a kindness, although small in its way, and I thought a great deal of it. I happened to be undergoing a course of bread and water punishment, and it was at Christmas. When he handed me my eight-ounce punishment loaf he remarked, “Look here, Williams, my boy,” says he, “you have a long sentence, and I am heartily sorry to see you on a day like this on bread and water, but hang it,” says he, “I will break the rules for once in my life.” Whereupon he immediately went to the cookhouse, which was situated 50 yards away, and brought me another loaf, although it was strictly contrary to rules, and I do believe he would have gladly given me a plum pudding if he dared. Many a time I had good advice from that man, for a man he was in the best sense of the word, but where there is to be found one good officer you will find many the reverse.

I remember one who used to take charge of parties when the regular officer would be doing night duty, and he would lose no time in reporting half the gang before the proper officer came back. This, of course, is done chiefly to show the other officer up, for even officers sometimes cut each other’s throats; that is to say, they do their best to get each other the sack, in order to make a name, so to speak. The man I am speaking of was always on the lookout for trouble. Properly speaking, he carried trouble in his pocket. I remember on one occasion a poor old warder, and one of the good sort, to give him his due, one day forgot accidentally to put the double lock on one of the cell doors, and the assistant warder happened to be on patrol shortly after, and while going around trying the doors, discovered a cell door on a single lock. Thinking to make his name quickly, he lost no time in giving information to the Senior Principal, with the result that the poor old warder was fined three half-crowns, what is called amongst officials half a sheet. This same officer was once in charge of a gang of convicts known as the special party, and they were employed in an enclosure where there were situated twelve separate boxes, and in the centre of each is a block of granite stone, fast to which is an iron hammer and ring, attached to a chain.

Each convict is employed breaking flint into dust, and as this is a dangerous form of employment they are supplied with wire goggles to protect the eyes. A convict was one day hammering away at a piece of this flint when suddenly it flew up and struck him in the eye, cutting right through the goggles, seriously injuring sight, and he had to go under an operation, but without success. When the Medical Officer made inquiries as to how the accident happened it was reported that the man did it purposely, with the intention of getting into the infirmary, but it was nothing of the kind. No man in his proper state of mind would injure his eyesight merely for the sake of a few days on hospital diet.

A few years later I met the same man at Parkhurst Prison, Isle-of-Wight; he had come back for a fresh term of penal servitude, and I could not help feeling sympathy towards him, for, sad to say, he was stone blind, the injured eye having affected the other one, and now the world is dark to him for ever. As to the truth of all this, the man can corroborate.

To be continued……

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 Dowlais House there was, I think, a house, but it was enlarged for Mr George Martin, who lived there some years after. Then came the surgery, and the entrance to the furnace yard beyond. The railroad for bringing the limestone from the quarries crossed the turnpike here, and cottages continued for some distance on the road to Rhymney.

The road to the Ivor Works runs alongside the old limestone road, and just on the corner is the residence of Mr E. P. Martin, his brother, Mr H. W. Martin, occupying the smaller one adjoining.

An extract from the 1851 Ordnance Survey Map showing the two houses in question.

The first was built for Mr John Evans, and occupied for some years by him, but Mr Joseph Lamphier, who occupied the smaller, moved to Cwmavon, and both he and his sister (for he was a bachelor) rest in a grave there. My first visit to Mr John Evans’ house was when he resided at Gwernllwyn Isaf. His brother, Thomas, lived near, and also the rector, Rev Thomas Jenkins. There was also a school there – small, very small in comparison with the present, but there it was.

A short way further, and the Ivor Works are come to, but a road crosses leading up to the houses behind the works. These were built just after the starting of the works in ’33 or ’39, and several of them were the quarters of the military stationed there after the Chartist Riot at Newport. The captain had been abroad, and brought a coloured nursemaid back. This girl was was an object of curiosity to the tip girls, and, they being so much so, took an opportunity of inspecting if that was actually the colour of her skin beneath her clothes.

Instead of turning to the right, if we turned left we should be on the continuation of the road which is mentioned as turning up the side of the Dowlais Inn. Proceeding along this, we come to the stables on one side and the Market House on the other. The church is a short distance further on the same side as the stables.

An extract from an the 1851 Ordnance Survey Map showing the area in question

With the introduction of the railways, no doubt there has been some improvement, but the impression yet existing is that there is more squalor – perhaps less care for appearances. That some feeling of this kind did exist is shown by what was done when a great personage was there.

There was a large order for rails in the market, and the high position of the firm stood them in good stead. To understand my meaning, it is proper to state the town residence of Sir John Guest (8 Spring Gardens) was celebrated; it was here the episode of the balance-sheet took place as described in Roebuck’s “History of the Whigs”. The order was secured, and a Russian prince was coming to see the works. Between the entrance to the works, opposite the Bush and Dowlais House, on the left side of the road going up, were a lot of cottages. They were somewhat above the average at that time, but the gardens in front were not tidy, so Mawdesley, the engineer of the Ivor Works, was called on to design and erect an iron railing which was done.

To be continued at a later date…….

Merthyr’s Chapels: Moriah Chapel, Cefn Coed

Moriah Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapel, Cefn Coed

At the end of the 18th century a Mr Rowland Pugh came to Cefn Coed from North Wales. He became a member of Pennsylvania (Pontmorlais) Chapel, and in time became a deacon there.

Within a few years he started a Methodist Society in his own house at Cefn Isaf, Cefn Coed and as the cause grew it became apparent that a more suitable place of worship was required and the first Moriah Chapel was built in 1807. The congregation increased and a new chapel was built in 1830, and two branches were established that became Bethlehem Chapel, Caepantywyll and Carmel Chapel, Clwydyfagwyr.

By the 1880’s it became obvious that a new chapel was needed, so the chapel was again rebuilt and was opened on 21 March 1886. A small notice of the chapel’s reopening appeared in the Merthyr Express on 3 April 1886 which is transcribed below:

“MORIAH CALVINISTIC METHODIST CHAPEL

The Opening services of this chapel were held on the 21st and 22nd ult. when the Revs J Lewis, Cilgerran; T Davies, Treorchy and T C Phillips, Abercarn preached eloquent sermons to large congregations. Collections were made in each service towards the building fund which amounted to over £200. The church at Moriah now posess undoubtedly the neatest and prettiest place of worship in the place.”

In 1908 a controversy occurred. The minister at Moriah at the time, Rev D Watts-Lewis, officiated at the memorial service for Rev Dr Thomas Rees, former minister at Pontmorlais Chapel and a very eminent man in the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church. However, shortly after this he announced his intention to resign as minister of the chapel and the Calvinistic Methodist Church and join the Church of England. He was accepted into the Church of England in June 1908 and immediately became a curate at Skewen.

The membership at Moriah declined steadily after the Second World War, and by the mid 1960’s the chapel closed. The building was demolished in 1972.

The Dark Side of Convict Life – part 13

by Barrie Jones

Chapter X. Henry describes the searching system and discipline in Portland Prison.

The Dark Side of Convict Life (Being the Account of the Career of Harry Williams, a Merthyr Man). Merthyr Express, 26th March 1910, page 11.

Chapter X

In this chapter I wish to deal with the searching system. A great deal has been said concerning this, but the practice is still carried on. What is more degrading than for a man to be forced against his will to undress, as naked, as he was born, and then submit to be examined. I can well remember a case some years ago. When we marched to the bathroom to go through the form a search. One man absolutely refused to take anything off beyond his over-clothing and boots, and when ordered to take his shirt off by one of the officers, he replied. “No, I have too much respect for myself to expose myself in that manner.” “Take them off,” said the officer, “or I will take them off for you.” Still he refused, whereupon other officers were summoned and they took him by force, and tore them clean from off his back. They then dragged him to the cells. The following day he was brought before the Governor, and sent to be tried before the Director on a charge of incitement to mutiny; and finally, he was awarded fifteen day’s bread and water, together with a forfeiture of ten week’s remission. It matters not whether it is a shovel, chisel, wheelbarrow, or a ladder that is missing, this system of searching is carried out, and in full view of officers and prisoners. The same thing goes on once a fortnight, in the convicts’ cells, where everything is overhauled from a piece of soap to a single sheet of paper. Should a convict happen to have more than one piece of soap, or more than his quantity of paper, or even a small loaf of bread over his day’s rations, he is at once reported and punished with bread and water, and other forfeitures. For instance, a needle; found in a convict’s cell or possession, is at once reported and the man punished. Sometimes convicts are obliged to place a button on one of their garments, and the way they do it is by making two small holes with  a slate pencil, then tying the button with a piece of string. Even, this is considered a punishable offence, yet they are denied a needle to sew buttons on with.

I was once reported for having a small piece of soap in my pocket, when searched on parade, and for this I forfeited three days of my ticket of leave. Another convict was awarded three days’ bread and water, merely for feeding the sparrows through the ventilator of his cell window. For having a single spot of dirt or dust on any of his utensils, or to disarrange them or his bedclothes, or to neglect polishing up his shoes to perfection, a man is punished. An offence which is considered rather serious in convict prisons, but which, in the majority of cases, cannot always be avoided, is to be caught sleeping with the head covered up. Of course, it is considered unhealthy, but this is not the reason why this habit is prohibited. The night watchman has to look through each observation glass into the cell once every fifteen minutes during the whole of the night-watch, in order to see that the convict is safely within the cell. I can well remember one night a convict escaped through his cell window, and he so artfully arranged his mattress and pillow that when the officer looked into his cell the dummy appeared for all the world like the head of the convict, and he got clear away, in spite of the civil guards who were patrolling to and fro outside the prison walls. I remember being in the next cell to an old man who was nicknamed “Snorer” owing to the noise he made during sleep. One night he was watched by an officer, and when he was seen to have his head covered, the officer kicked his door and ordered him to remove his bedclothes from his head, remarking that if he caught him again he would report him to the Governor. He got three day’s bread and water. The man tried to defend himself by saying that he never knew that he was breaking the rules, neither was he aware that he had covered his head; but all the Governor said was, “A man of your age ought to know better.” The Director visits convict prisons once a month, for the purpose of listening to complaints, and to try convicts for serious offences. In recent years, instead of a Directors, a Visiting Committee have done this.

During my sentence of nine years, I have known over thirty officers who have been dismissed from the service for sleeping during night duty, and they often report a man every time they are on night duty, in order to throw off suspicion from themselves. One officer used to give tobacco to a convict for watching for him while he stretched himself on a mattress outside the convict’s cell door. When the convict heard the senior night officer coming through the doors he would just put his hand underneath the door, and give the officer a good shake to wake him. He would then quickly jump to his feet, when, like a flash of lightening, the mattress would disappear into the cell, and when the senior officer put his head into the hall doorway the officer would be ready with a salute and “All correct, sir.”

To be continued…

Potatoes

By Laura Bray

Following on from an earlier post, which discussed the scarcity of fish in 1943 (https://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=7863), the Merthyr Express of the same month (February 1943) printed a “potato plan”.

Potatoes were not rationed, as from 1939 farmers had been encouraged to increase potato production, and potatoes had also been a key message in the Dig for Victory campaign, with the caveat that they should be planted as part of the official cropping plan and not at the expense of other vegetables.

It is not surprising then that there was a lot of information available about innovative and interesting ways to cook potatoes.

The Express’s “Potato Plan” came up with five ways of using them:

  • Serving potatoes for breakfast on three days a week
  • Making your main dish a potato dish once a week
  • Refusing second helpings of other foods, rather filling up on potatoes
  • Serving potatoes in other ways than plain boiled
  • Using potatoes to save flour by using one third potato, two thirds flour, a combination which could be used when making pastries, puddings and cakes.  Potatoes were boiled or baked then mashed with a fork till they looked like flour and you were encouraged to cook them the day before or throw in a few extra when you were using the oven.

It seems that this advice was used by the Express from that provided by the Ministry of Food as the same photo and plan crops up in other papers from elsewhere in the country.

The message was clear: “Bread costs ships. Eat home grown potatoes instead” and it would appear that the Merthyr public did just that.

200 years of history at Gwaunfarren – part 2

by Brian Jones

The next family to take up residence in the large house was Richard Harrap and his wife Mary with 5 children and just 3 servants. Richard was born in Yorkshire and prior to taking up residence in Gwaunfarren he lived on the Brecon Road. He was a brewer, and in 1871 he went into partnership with another brewer to form the growing company “Giles and Harrap’s”. They owned the “Merthyr Brewery” and marketed “Merthyr Ales” from their brewery on the Brecon Road, and grew the company to own 62 public houses.

Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

Eventually they were bought out by William Hancock and Co. in 1936 and brewing ceased on the Brecon Road. In 2010 the brewery was demolished however the company name lives on etched in the glass windows of “Y Olde Royal Oak” public house in Ystrad Mynach (built 1914.). Richard died in 1895 with his wife remaining at Gwaunfarren House and she decided to give the house a personal name “Glenthorne”. She passed away in 1916 whilst her son James Thresher Harrap, resided there until 1921 when he moved to the Grove.

There is a gap in the historical record after the Harrap family vacated the house sometime in the early 1920s so I was unable to ascertain the use of the property until 1937. It is likely that the downturn in the economy of Merthyr and the dearth of very large wealthy families made the occupancy of this large house uneconomic.

The house, although apparently empty, seemed to have continued in a reasonable state and not vandalised in the inter-war years. There are numerous references to the future of the house considered by various committees of the Merthyr Borough Council during the years between 1921 and 1937. The house remained in the ownership of the freeholder with the Council making enquiries about its purchase for a variety of uses. For example, in 1934 the Education Committee thought it could be used as a training centre for unemployed boys and girls. They sought the approval of the Ministry of Labour for funding to purchase the property for £6,100 but were unsuccessful.

There was a suggestion that the house be used to accommodate children with Learning Difficulties but again nothing came of these proposals until the freehold, house, garden and lodge were acquired in 1937 by The Merthyr Tydfil Community Trust. This began life as the Merthyr Tydfil Educational Settlement and was formally opened in July 1938 by Earl Baldwin and Countess Baldwin. At that time there were many such Settlements providing education and welfare services to people during the Depression of the 1930s. The Settlement continued for four years at Gwaunfarren until the building was requisitioned by the government for use by the Emergency Medical Services in 1941. There were two possible wartime uses, either for the care of injured World War II servicemen and women or for expectant mothers.

Merthyr Express – 4 October 1941

Dr. Joseph Gross wrote an essay in Volume Two of the Merthyr Historian in 1978 on “Hospitals in Merthyr Tydfil”. He stated that injured service personnel were treated at Merthyr General Hospital, St. Mary’s Catholic Hall and the Kirkhouse Hall. Instead, the house was to provide 25 beds for pre- and post-natal maternity services when the Welsh Board of Health took responsibility for the house then renamed as “Gwaunfarren Nursing Home”. Babies continued to be born there for the next 30 years.

The ownership of the building was transferred to the Ministry of Health when the NHS was formed in 1948 and it was agreed to use the proceeds of the sale for charitable purposes. However, it took until 1954 to agree a price for the building. In 1948 Gwaunfarren Nursing Home became Gwaunfarren Maternity Hospital managed by the Merthyr and Aberdare Hospital Management Committee (HMC) The beds were increased to 30 beds with similar units at Aberdare General and St. Tydfil’s Hospital. Many adults alive today were born at Gwaunfarren often staying with their mother for a considerable number of days unlike current maternity practice of short hospital stays. The unit continued for some years until there were further improvements to the maternity unit at St. Tydfil’s Hospital, including a small Special Care Baby Unit. Gradually the number of births at Gwaunfarren decreased and confinements ceased at the end of the 1960s. Some post-natal transfers were continued for a short period of time until the hospital closed in the early 1970s.

Gwaunfarren  Hospital then remained empty for some years although it was put to occasional and varied use to include a location for television filming. The land, together with the house and lodge was sold, the house demolished, and plots allocated to accommodate the present makeup of Gwaunfarren Grove. Gwaunfarren Lodge still remains today at the entrance to the original position of the drive.

Today the vast majority of the general public look at the way land is used very much in the here and now without giving much thought to its history over the ages. A review of the use of the land at post code CF47 9BJ allows us to peel away the pages of history. Now passers- by at the entrance to Gwaunfarren Grove will not know that the access road once served as the driveway to a substantial Victorian family home, educational centre, maternity hospital and that prior to all of those uses it had been a farmstead known as “The Dairy”, part of a farm of considerable antiquity.

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.

A little way down was the Owain Glyndwr Inn, of which a Mr Thomas Williams was host. He was a brother to the David Williams, Angel. He had a son whom some of your readers may remember as a druggist; his name was John Teague Williams.

There were several roads and streets leading off from this, the High Street, to the road from the Dowlais Inn up to the church; one was called Horse Street from the fact that horses always went up that way; the one on the upper side of the Bush was Church or Chapel Street, I forget which, and would have been a nearer way, but it was exceedingly steep. One of the six shops mentioned was used as a reading room.

An 1851 map showing some of the areas mentioned.

The caretaker or librarian was Mr Henry Murton, a remarkably clever man. To illustrate the character of the man let me give some anecdotes. He was engaged in the Works to carry the patterns to and from the moulders. He had a failing, and was told he had been appointed to a better position on condition that he give up the cup. Expressing his gratitude, of course, the promise to do so was made, but alas broken before the day passed. He was clever too. In Basil Hall’s voyages, reference is made to the earthquakes in South America. Murton designed and made a model of a house that would not be affected by them – this I well remember.

Merthyr Guardian – 2 February 1833

If I may interpolate a personal matter I would say it was in this reading room in the Athaneum the first account of sun pictures was read. It was Fox Talbot’s paper read on the subject before the British Association at the sitting just concluded.

Necessarily Murton’s occupation brought him into connection with master moulder, who, although a man of substance, peculiarly was not a man well informed, and interrogating Murton as to how vessels went across the Atlantic, obtained information as to the mariner’s compass. “Well” said the moulder, “I thought a big ship took boats, and then somehow the boat would guide the ship that way again”.

Passing the entrance to the Dowlais Works there were no cottages on the right hand. The small building with their back to the road were used for store houses for the necessaries of the works. The Police Station was not built, but there was a dwelling inside contiguous to the office. A David Phillips lived there, and two or three generally had lodgings there. George Cope Pearce was one, Edward Davies (we called him Ned) another; he was a brother of R P Davies, an old Dowlais man, but whose name can be seen on the base of the clock in the Circle at Tredegar. R P Davies was for a while the London agent of Messrs Guest, Lewis & Co.

Poor Ned! The last time I ever saw him was a chance meeting near the Tower of London. He had been down to one of the docks to see the ship in which he was going to California. There was no lack of substance in him for he was desirous of making a bet that he would go to any three persons that I pointed out, and persuade them he was known to them. Finding the cause for this, its necessity was avoided, and I parted from him as he went into the City Club to see his brother.

Two others sailed with him, one, Cox by name, and assistant doctor from Dowlais, and another, I think it was a Bramwell, from Penydarren, but they never reached their destination, the ship was wrecked.

To be continued at a later date…….

The Dark Side of Convict Life – part 12

by Barrie Jones

Chapter IX. Henry describes his experience of hard labour in Portland prison, and also examples of incidents between convicts and prison warders in the quarries.

The Dark Side of Convict Life (Being the Account of the Career of Harry Williams, a Merthyr Man). Merthyr Express, 19th March 1910, page 11.

Chapter IX

On a Monday morning in the month of May 1899, I was told off on parade to join No. 27 party, and after going through the usual search drill, I was marched out to the stone cutters’ yard, situated near the free men’s quarry at Portland. The distance from the prison to the quarry is not very great, and as the last gang passed through the gates, a company of soldiers, armed with rifles and fixed bayonets, closed in and followed the convicts straight to the quarries, where they break off into sentries. There were civil guards there also. At the stone yard, I was supplied with a set of mason’s tools, and instructed in the art of masonry, which I took great interest in. I continued this work for nearly four years, and finally I was pronounced a first-class mason. I helped to build the new stone prison at Portland, and also made the circular stones for the air shafts of the same. I had several changes of labour during that time, for I got transferred to the quarry party; I was employed also in No. 7 party under a warder, who was a good old fatherly sort of man, and who did not believe in taking a poor convict’s dinner from him (reporting him) for the most trivial of offences.

In the year 1901, a young convict employed in No. 54 party, in the quarry at Portland, a very quiet chap, who had very little to say, to anyone, one Saturday morning, after sweating and nearly killing himself with hard work, forfeited his two days food by simply asking one comrade to give him a lift with a stone which was beyond his strength. The officer in charge of the gang reported him to the Governor, and he was awarded the dietary punishment mentioned. This was not the first time the that the officer had taken liberties with him, but the convict had made up his mind, after being driven to desperation, to have his revenge.  On the following Monday morning, after suffering his punishment, he came out to the quarry as usual, and said not a single word to anyone, and just as they were taking the tools out of the box, the officer happened to turn his head aside, when with a dash and quite unexpected by anyone, the convict caught up an iron drill and brought it with terrific force down on the head of the officer until he was streaming with blood. The whistles were blowing all over the place, and several guards left their posts, and rushed with fixed bayonets to the rescue, but the convict caught up another drill, and broke several of their bayonets. At last, he was overpowered, and taken back to the prison. He was tried before the committee and sentenced to two dozen with the “cat.” As for the officer he received compensation and was dismissed from service. A similar assault was committed upon an assistant warder by a young “lifer.” This officer used his cutlass when he was not supposed to have used it; he also was reduced and was not allowed to wear side arms for twelve months.

Convicts sometimes met with serious accidents in the quarry. I can recollect a serious affair which happened in 1901, when one of the great stone-lifting cranes (or jibs) fell to the ground and caused serious internal injuries to two poor chaps. Stretchers were brought and they were conveyed to the prison infirmary, and their groans were pitiful in the extreme. Another case was that of a man who broke his leg, and the only compensation he received was six weeks deducted from his sentence of ten years. Sometimes convicts make terrible assaults upon their fellow convicts. I can well remember a case of a convict who was being called a one-eyed _____, took up a stone pick, and struck it right underneath the heart of a man. The former convict was taken out, and tried by civil power, and received the sentence of eighteen months. The leniency of his sentence was owing to the great provocation he had received. The chap whom he had assaulted was given up by two doctors for dead, but he got round after all, so that was an instance of small faith in medical aid. Sometimes mutinies are threatened among convicts, and a mutiny nearly happened in 1901, when about eighty convicts absolutely refused to go out to the quarries owing to receiving for their breakfast sour bread. The mutiny was checked by each man receiving a ten-ounce white loaf apiece.

To be continued…….