A gentleman contacted me recently to tell me that he had found a Merthyr tram ticket whilst renovating his home……..IN ABERDEEN!!!!
Even though his daughter, Poppy, wanted to keep the ticket, he decided, with Poppy’s agreement, to send it to me. I will pass it on to the museum of course, but I have taken the opportunity to scan it and share it with everyone first.
Here is a photo of a tramcar at Cyfarthfa Park gates in the 1930s, on the route of the above journey.
I wonder how it found its way to Aberdeen!!!
Many thanks to Phil Thompson, and especially to his daughter Poppy Reith-Thompson, for sending this to me and allowing me to share it with everyone.
Fascinating! I may be mis-remembering, but I seem to recall there was a Scottish lady called Mrs Thompson who was a member of Market Square when I was young – perhaps a relative? If only my Grandparents were here to tell me.
This is quite interesting, as we (The current Owners) found out that around 1910 (?) There were two people living here, called “Reith” & “Thompson”…. which is spooky, as my last name is Thompson, and my wife’s is Reith….
There are some shreds of newspaper behind the wooden window shutters dated Oct 14th 1882…
Andrew Simpson
Seriously rare! During my recent researches into the trams published in the Merthyr Historian I could only find mention of one other such ticket a 1d, at the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum at Towyn and five – including 1d, 1d workman’s, 2d And 3d values- held by the Tramway Museum at Crich. Good to know one at least is back in Merthyr to join the engraved presentation tram bell and scale model at the Museum 🙂
These are just about the only physical relics of the entire tramway system other than the original depot building, latterly a gym, and turbine house , unless hopefully anyone can add to the list?
Amazing!
So glad we bothered to have a quick look online to see if Merthyr had a Transport museum !
This is what I love about the internet, reminds me of when I first got on it in 1997, connected & spoke to people around the world about interesting things!
The National Tramway Museum is at Crich, Derbyshire; no transport museum in Merthyr itself- there is the Cynfartha Castle Museum which covers social history and art with just the model, bell, and a photo or two as tramway relics..