Author: merthyr.history@gmail.com
The Growth of Football in Merthyr Tydfil – part 2
Transcribed by Phil Sweet
These articles which appeared in three consecutive editions of the Merthyr Express in March 1921 are Harvey Boots’ own reminiscences of the development of three football codes in the town up to that date.
ARTICLE 1 – MERTHYR EXPRESS 5TH MARCH 1921 (Continued)
THE GROWTH OF FOOTBALL IN MERTHYR
(By Harvey Boots)
About this time most of the veterans had dropped out of the game, and the club were in somewhat low water; Indeed, if my memory serves me well, a new club had arisen Sphinx-like from the ashes of the old one. Merthyr Alexanders, or Alexs, was the name of the new combination, and compatible with the greatly-improved play now general in Wales they possessed one of the finest back divisions that ever played for Merthyr, or, indeed I might add, any club. The following names would be conjured up by the old Rugger fraternity recalling memories of great deeds:- Bill Henry Jones, Bert Jenkins, Phil Thomas, Llew. Treharne, and last, but by no means least, J.C. (Chris) Williams, a youth, who, in the heyday of his play, could make the most strenuous opposition look small. He had the honour of being selected first reserve for Wales with the great Dicky Owen, and although the half selected to play for Wales on this occasion was unable to turn out owing to injuries, the Union Selection Committee with that great distain which no “fellar” can understand picked another player in place of our local boy, who was thus robbed – and I think that is the only word – of this Welsh Cap.
The following little incident with regard to the above-mentioned young man is quite worth repeating. We were touring the West of England one Easter, playing Lydney, Bream and Stroud. I was in charge of the team, and although Chris had retired from active participation in the game (owing to the unfortunate loss of an eye whilst playing football) we pressed him into service to play on the wing while on tour. He ran in with two or three beautiful tries against Stroud on the Easter Monday, which caused the Chairman of the Stroud Club to inquire of me who the prodigy was. On my replying that “he had practically given up football as he only had one eye”, he exclaimed “Good God! I wonder how many he would have scored if he had two!” From the sporting standpoint, and for the utmost fun to be had out of a game of football, the old Merthyr Thursdays were no doubt it. I have many happy memories of days while playing for the old Thursdays. I have a photograph now hanging in my waiting-room taken over twenty-five years ago, and it would be very interesting to recall some of the group. Among others who figure there are Ernest Biddle (now deputy Town Clerk and a director of the Merthyr Association Club), the late Tom Davies (Temple), Major D.C. Harris, Major J. E. C. Partridge (popularly known as “Birdie” who afterwards played for Newport and Blackheath) D. J. Thomas (Hetts), the Brothers Thomas (then known as Thomas the Tea Shop), Percy Ward, the late Gwill and Howell Thomas (the latter of whom it may be truly said, was one of the best sports that ever kicked a Rugby football. He was captain of the Thursday team for more years than I care to remember, and his whole-hearted enthusiasm for the game was wonderful. He was a man who never knew when he was beaten, and a grafter to the very last. Under his leadership we had a very successful leadership, and at that time the team was considered the best mid-week team in Wales.
Our great fixture in those days to which we all made a special effort to get to was with Brecon College. The departure on Thursday morning in Thorney’s four-horse brake – there were no motor charabancs in those days – was sight to behold, and the return (triumphant or otherwise) was an even more wonderful picture. At that time Brecon College team contained boys who were destined to make history in Welsh football. Who hasn’t heard of Teddy Morgan, W.M. Llewellyn and A. F. Harding? Llew Thomas, a Welsh International, was a master there at this time, and always turned out with the boys.
Coming down to more recent history, and the real reason for this article, a new Merthyr Saturday Team had now been created. The Alexs were defunct; many of them had been lured over to the Northern Union game, and so had left the district to play for these Northern Clubs, but the old game was not allowed to flag. A new power had arisen to control the destines of the game. I refer to the late W. T. Jones, known to all and sundry as “Jones of Wales”. A man who worked early and late, in and out of season for the love of the game. I often wonder what “Poor old Bill” would say if it were possible for him to see the fruits of his early labours by taking a peek at Penydarren Park some Saturday afternoon as we see it to-day? But alas! He left us just as the old ship that he steered for so long was just about to make harbour.
We had at this time the best club that probably ever represented the old town. Penydarren Park had been secured permanently for sport, football etc., by a representative body of gentleman comprising, I believe, the late Mr. J. Plews, Mr. H. W. Southey, Mr. Aneurin Jones, Mr. A. J. Howfield, Mr. Gomer Thomas, Mr. D. C. Harris, Dr. Biddle, Mr. W. W. Meredith and others whose names, for the moment, escape me. The club was flourishing as never before, and we were on the high road to obtain fixtures with the leading clubs of the country.
Another body of gentlemen had now sub-let the Park from the afore-mentioned for the purpose of making a ground second to none – Dr Llewellyn Jones, Mr. W. B. Harris, the late Joe Jones (Manchester House), the late Howell Thomas, D. C. Davies, Mr. Sam Dix, of the Tiger Hotel,(which at that time was the headquarters of the football club), the late W. T. Jones (who acted as secretary) and myself (as chairman).
To be continued…..
Clifton Suspension Bridge and Dowlais Iron Company
by Victoria Owens
The following article is transcribed here with the permission of the Clifton Suspension Bridge & Museum official blog.
Since the Dowlais Iron Company made the iron that was used to forge the original chains, their importance to the Clifton Suspension Bridge was significant. The village of Dowlais itself is located on the fringes of Merthyr Tydfil and the Iron Company was established in 1759, when a group of nine gentlemen signed Articles of co-partnership in what they termed ‘Merthir Furnace’. By the 1840s, under the management of John – later Sir John – Guest, it was supplying iron rail to railway companies across the world. In time, Dowlais eclipsed the other Merthyr ironworks – Penydarren, Cyfarthfa and Plymouth – to become a vast concern; by 1853, when Guest’s widow Lady Charlotte headed the company, it had no few than eighteen furnaces in blast. The association with Clifton began a decade earlier in 1840 when Dowlais contracted to supply iron to the Copperhouse Foundry in the Cornish town of Hayle to be forged into eye-bar chains, that is, chains made up of bars with eye-plates at either end. A number of letters from John Poole on behalf of the Copperhouse Company, also known as Sandys, Carne and Vivian, to the Dowlais Iron Company – it also traded as Guest, Lewis & Co – survive which give some idea of the problems to which the contract gave rise.
On 15 August 1839, Poole wrote in confidence to Guest’s onsite manager, Thomas Evans. He wished to ascertain the prices ‘for Iron of the best quality’ that Dowlais could supply, and how soon Dowlais could provide it. Evidently Poole found the figures which Evans quoted acceptable, and fifteen months later, on 14 November 1840, he wrote again to Guest, Lewis & Co, demanding to know when they could make ’80 to 100 Tons of the Bars for the Clifton Bridge’ available at the Cardiff docks for shipping to Hayle. In bar form, the iron was not only convenient for transportation, but also ready to be worked into the finished product – in this instance, suspension chains.
At some point in the winter of 1840-41, Dowlais duly despatched a consignment of bar iron to Hayle where Brunel, always the perfectionist, sent one of his staff – a man named Charles Gainsford – to assess its quality. Having tested the iron, not only did Gainsford think it unfit for purpose, but also suspected Dowlais of having double-crossed Copperhouse. ‘We regret,’ John Pool informed the Dowlais management on 13 February 1841 ‘that [Gainsford] will allow us to use no part of the iron invoiced the 8th December last, which he says is not of best cable quality, & which he requested should not be forwarded to us when he visited the Dowlais Works. It is a great disappointment to us,’ he continues, that the Iron has not been made agreeably to the Order, and we fear the delay may subject us to a heavy loss. We hope the present shipment will be of the proper quality.’
It is a shocking indictment of procedures at Dowlais yet, surprising as it may seem, Poole’s aggrieved tone failed to bring about any improvement. Crucially, the iron bars from which the sections of chain were to be made up necessarily had to be straight. On 15 March 1841, Poole vented his growing impatience with Dowlais’s apparent failure to grasp this requirement in another letter of complaint. ‘Even a large portion of the Bars for the Clifton Bridge already received,’ he wrote, ‘must be heated all over to be made perfectly straight.’ He ordered them to send no more bars, other ‘than what may be inspected & approved by Mr Brunel’s representative at the works.’
By the end of March 1841, Poole’s forbearance was exhausted. Another consignment of faulty iron bars had reached him and, in considerable annoyance, he wrote at once to Thomas Evans. ‘We are exceedingly sorry,’ he protested, ‘that a large portion of the bars for the Clifton Bridge […] are so crooked as to entail upon us more labour to straighten them than ever upon welding on the eyes. […] Will you be good enough to inform us whether you are likely to have a further lot of bars shortly fit for use? It seems likely that, having received this missive, Evans read the Riot Act to the Dowlais workforce with the result that the quality of iron which they supplied to Copperhouse improved. Before long, Hayle was able to supply Clifton with satisfactory elements of the chains for the bridge ready for onsite assembly.
But by 1842, the Suspension Bridge trustees had run acutely short of money. Already £2,885 12s 1d was owing to Copperhouse and even by 1845 they had not been paid. Three years later, in 1848, so desperate for payment were the Hayle company that they were willing to accept £2780 12s 7d in return for quick settlement of their account. In the event, they were not paid until 1849, and only then after the despairing bridge trustees had taken out a loan for the purpose. In the town of Hayle, people evidently regarded this long-overdue settlement of the Clifton account as a significant landmark. The name of ‘Riviere Terrace’ which was a street of imposing houses built in 1840 changed to ‘Clifton Terrace’ by way of marking completion of the Cornish Copper Company’s contract. As for the chains themselves, when lack of funds halted work on the suspension bridge, the Cornwall Railway purchased them for incorporation within the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash.
Yet although the lack of money brought work on the suspension bridge to a temporary halt before Hawkshaw and Barlow completed its construction to a much-revised version of Brunel’s design, the association with Dowlais did not entirely evaporate. The Dowlais Iron Company had provided the original iron used in the old Hungerford Bridge whose chains Hawkshaw and Barlow adopted for their bridge, supplemented by a large volume of new links purchased from the Lord Ward Round Oak works in Dudley. If the association between the Dowlais Iron Company, the Copperhouse Foundry of Hayle and the Trustees of the Clifton Suspension Bridge was less than harmonious, it is nevertheless intriguing to witness the frustrations and stalling that could bedevil even the most celebrated of Victorian construction projects.
Please follow the link below to see the original article. https://cliftonbridge.org.uk/clifton-suspension-bridge-and-dowlais-iron-company/
History Class
Do you like history?
Is there anything that you want to learn more about?
Why not join the Merthyr Tydfil Branch of Adult Learning Wales for their weekly history class?
This friendly class meets every Tuesday morning at 10.30 during term time at Canolfan Soar, and several regular lecturers offer informative talks on a variety of different subjects – local, British and world history, stretching from ancient times to modern. There is something to cater to everyone’s tastes.
Classes cost £5 per lecture to cover expenses.
Why not go along and join the class – you will be guaranteed a very warm welcome.
A New Station at Dowlais
140 years ago today, Dowlais High Street Station was officially opened…..
***Thank you Dai Davies for pointing out the error in the original post – my fault entirely. I has now been corrected.
V.E. Day Celebrations
To mark the 80th anniversary of V.E. Day, here are some photographs of events that were held in 1945 to celebrate.
V.E. Day Commemoration
30 years ago today….
Jubilee Concert
90 years ago today….
My Street – part 2
by Barrie Jones
Chapter One
Tir Ysgubornewydd (New Barn Farm)
Ysgubornewydd farm was part of the Morlangau Estate; a prominent estate which extended south and east of the village of Merthyr Tydfil. In earlier times its owners were a younger branch of the family of Edward Lewis of the Van. Morlangau covered 172 acres of land already split between two farms: the Mardy and Ysgubornewydd. The earliest reference to an occupier of Tir Ysgubornewydd is the 1715 Rental which shows two occupiers of Tir Morlangau, Nicholas David and John David, possibly brothers and probably John David occupied Tir Ysgubornewydd. The Davids’ were related to Nicholas the brother of Gwenllian David wife to Lewis William of Tir Castell Morlais, and it is possible that a succession of Nicholas Davids occupied Tir Morlangau from 1666 to 1718.
In 1719 the lease of Morlangau was granted to Thomas Richard, who subsequently purchased the freehold from the Lewis of the Van family in 1727, the sale was precipitated by the hefty fine imposed on the Lewis family following their support of the failed Jacobite rebellion. At this time, 1719, probably his son, Lewis, occupied Tir Ysgubornewydd. Thomas’s other son David had ownership of Morlangau from 1749 to his death in 1780, after which ownership passed to his son William (ap David, afterwards known as Davies). Prior to his death in 1820 William may have been living at Tir Ysgubornewydd.
The Mardy farm was twice the size of Ysgubornewydd but being nearer to Merthyr village, the main road and the emerging Plymouth works by 1850 it had already lost a significant portion of its land to housing and industrial waste and had ceased to function as a single farm, its remaining fields being leased to numerous individuals. It is probable that the Mardy farmstead was located near to the main road and perhaps close to the Court and their adjoining boundary, hence its exact location yet not being known.
Prior to 1844 the Morlangau estate was held ‘under trust’ by Jane, wife of William Thomas of the Court, during that time it consisted of Ysgubornewydd Farm and eight other meadows let out to different people. The importance of the farm was already diminished by so much of it being fragmented by separate tenancies. In 1841 this is further evidenced by the farmstead being occupied by a merchant and mine workers while the farmer, Aaron Lloyd, was living off site in nearby Plymouth Street. The leasing of land for housing and industrial waste demonstrates that the estate’s owners and trustees were determined to maximise rental returns from the land rather than holding any preference for agricultural use.
By 1850 the farm estate covered an area of fifty-four acres of meadow, pasture, wood, and waste. However, only 39 acres of the farm was tenanted by Aaron Lloyd. Already the owners had allowed the incursion of waste tipping along its boundary with the Nant Blacs and the tramroad that ran from Pen Heol Ferthyr to the Plymouth Iron Works.
Ysgubornewydd Farm:
| Map Ref. | Description | Cultivation | Acres | Roods | Perches |
| 1389 | Cae Jenkin Hopkin | Meadow | 3 | 1 | 24 |
| 1390 | Cae Lewis Thomas | Meadow | 1 | 3 | 16 |
| 1391 | Cae Pen Twyn | Meadow | 3 | – | 18 |
| 1392 | Waste | – | – | 2 | – |
| 1393 | Rubbish and Waste | – | 3 | 3 | 8 |
| 1394 | Y Waun | Pasture | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 1395 | Cae Main | Pasture | 2 | 2 | 23 |
| 1396 | Cae Pwdwr | Meadow | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 1397 | Road and Waste | – | 2 | 1 | 12 |
| 1400 | Cae Sgubor | Meadow | 2 | 2 | 20 |
| 1401 | Cae Dan y Ty | Meadow | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| 1402 | Homestead | – | – | 1 | 8 |
| 1403 | Coed Sgubor Newydd | Pasture & Wood | 1 | 2 | – |
| 1404 | Part of Coed Sgubor Newydd | Pasture & Wood | 2 | – | – |
| 1404a | Cae Pant | Meadow | 4 | 3 | 18 |
| 1405 | Cae Ishaf Y Cwm | Pasture | 3 | 3 | 22 |
| 1406 | Part of Cae Ishaf Y Cwm | Pasture | 5 | – | 24 |
| 1398 | Cae Thomas Rosser | Meadow | 6 | 3 | 10 |
| 1399 | Cae Cant Llaeth | Meadow | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Total Measurement | 54 | 0 | 22 | ||
| Source: 1850 Tithe Schedule (see tithe map below, area edged red) | |||||
In 1851 the farm was further reduced in size by the construction of the Dowlais Railway through the fields Cae Lewis Thomas, Cae Jenkin Hopkin, Cae Main, Cae Sgubor, and Cae Cant Llaeth. Thus, the Dowlais Railway (“Incline”) cut off a sizeable portion of the original farm estate from the farmhouse, an estimated area of over twenty-four acres, making the later development of the Twynyrodyn side of the incline more practicable. By the time Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council purchased the remaining farm in 1947 the area between the Incline and Gilfach Cynon was already a fully established community of houses, shops, chapel, and school.
Despite this significant loss of acreage, the records show that up to its sale in 1947 the farm’s tenants farmed an area of between 40 and 50 acres. It is likely that a portion of the already fragmented Mardy Farm estate also ‘cut off’ by the ‘Incline’ was incorporated into the Ysgubornewydd farm. This area comprised four fields to the southwest of the Coed Sgubor Newydd and Cae Ishaf y Cwm fields:
| Map Ref. | Description | Cultivation | Acres | Roods | Perches |
| 1407 | Coed y Banner | Pasture & Wood | 6 | 1 | 38 |
| 1408 | Caia Wolridge | Pasture & Meadow | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 1409 | Caia Wolridge | Pasture & Meadow | 2 | 3 | 36 |
| 1410 | Cae Daniel Stephens | Meadow | 2 | 0 | 8 |
| Total Measurement | 14 | 2 | 2 | ||
| Source: 1850 Tithe Schedule (see tithe map above, area edged blue) | |||||
In 1906, 4½ acres was purchased for the construction of the Mardy Hospital further reducing the amount of farmland. The hospital largely occupied the fields Caia Wolridge (1409) and Cae Daniel Stephens (1410). At no time since 1820 does there appear to be a period of settled tenancy of the farm with change nearly every decade or so. There is no family continuation usually associated with farms and generally the new tenants were not local to the area as highlighted in the following list of occupants:
| Year | Tenant | Occupation | Place of Birth |
| 1841 | Aaron Lloyd (living off site) | Farmer | Merthyr Tydfil |
| 1851 | Aaron Lloyd | Farmer (39 acres) | |
| 1861 | David Morgan | Farmer (50 acres) | Llanbedr, Brecon |
| 1871 | David Morgan | Farmer | |
| 1881 | Edmund Gibbs | Farmer (40 acres) | Framton, Glos. |
| 1891 | James Bolton | Horse slaughterer | Tewkesbury, Glos. |
| 1901 | James Bolton | Horse slaughterer | |
| 1911 | John Jones | Farmer | Rhymney, Mons. |
| 1919 | John Jones | Farmer | |
| 1929 | W Price | Farmer (42 acres) | |
| 1947 | W Price | Farmer (44 acres) |
Sources: Merthyr Tydfil Census Returns, 1941-43 MAF Farm Survey, and MTBC Council minutes.
The tithe map of 1850 shows that field use on the farm was largely a mix of pasture and meadow (88%), so the farm was almost exclusively engaged in rearing livestock, although whether this included sheep is not known. Close to the farm’s demise in 1947 it was run as a dairy farm with thirteen cows and probably the milk was sold for local consumption which in those days was from a pony and trap. Since 1850 there has been little change in the total area of land cultivated for pasture and meadow. The Ministry of Agriculture (MAF) survey in 1943 records a small amount of land (two acres) was farmed for root crops, such as turnips, swedes, and mangolds, mainly for fodder, and over seventy fowls were reared.
Despite the gradual erosion of its acreage from the early 1800’s through the activities of both the Plymouth and Dowlais iron works, the expansion of the community of Twynyrodyn and improvements in health care, the farm was able to maintain an optimum size to ensure an agricultural livelihood. However, with the requirement that milk should be pasteurised or bottled under approved conditions under new regulations introduced in the 1950’s, it is very unlikely that a farm so small, although “well run”, could have modernised its dairy production and hence would have ceased to continue as a dairy farm. In 1947 the farm’s uncertain future may already have been anticipated. After over 150 years of industrial and urban pressure the final phase in the farm’s history was completed when through the increasing need for more and better housing the County Borough Council acquired the remaining 43.9 acres of freehold land at a cost of £3,100 plus fees.
To be continued…..
Cyfarthfa Castle and Park 1925-2005 – A People’s History
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Cyfarthfa Castle, the Merthyr Tydfil & District Historical Society has produced a lavish book celebrating the Castle, Park and the people who lived, worked and visited there.
The book will retail at £15 for softback and £25 for hardback, and will be available from 18 May 2025.
Please contact merthyr.history@gmail.com for further details.