In Association with the Merthyr Tydfil & District Historical Society
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by Laura Bray (née Bevan)
Do you remember the Cyfarthfa Park swings? Not those that are there now, which are but a pale shadow of their former incarnation, but those of the 1970s?
There were two sets of swings in the Park. The Bottom Swings, down by the Lake – more or less where the miniature railway now runs – contained a wooden, boxed-in roundabout; the most amazing helter-skelter slide which was about half the size, at least to my childhood eyes, of those found in a fairground; and the “baby swings”, for small children. There was also the paddling pool, usually empty of water, but I recall some hot summers where it was filled and crowded by children in varying states of undress, splashing, both themselves and those on the bank, watching. My main use for the paddling pool, however, was to cycle round the edge, where there was a band of differently coloured paving slabs and where we could see how fast you could go without going over the edge and into the painted blue depths of the dry abyss!
But for me, the main attraction was the Top Swings. These were just off the road between the Chalet where you could buy ice-cream, and the Quar Gate. They contained a six-seater iron rocking horse, which you could push until it banged against its metal supports; a spider’s web roundabout where, depending on how dizzy you wanted to get, you could push from the inside or the outside, then jump on the bars with your legs outstretched and spin till you couldn’t stand up; and a slide, not too high, but which people did seem to routinely fall off. And we ran up the steps to slide down the slide, or raced up the slide itself, turning round at the top to come back down again. In the hot summer of ’76, the metal on that slide burned the backs of your legs, and yet we came back for more.
There were swings there too – a set of cradle swings for small children and a set of normal swings where we raced to see who could swing the highest. Sometimes we would jump off mid-swing to land with a thud on the floor, and there was a kudos in letting go when the swing was high. Then we would run to the parallel bars and the staggered bars, where we could hang upside-down from our knees and see if we could touch the concrete beneath. Not for our generation the soft surfaces enjoyed by children today.
However, the star of the Top Swings was the Swinging Log. These have all but disappeared now but essentially this was a plank, suspended from an A-frame, on which there was space for four children seated. Two more stood, one at either end, and they were responsible for swinging it back and forth. Some of the boys could swing it so hard that the plank reached heights parallel with the top of the frame, 15 or so feet from the ground, moving at speed. How there were no injuries, I never know, either from falling off or from the risk of being knocked out if you stood too close to the swinging end. There were several near misses, but that was part of the fun.
We would take our bikes and bump across the grass between the two sets of swings and then head home – hot and tired, with our hands smelling of rust and our trousers stained by grass. Those were the days indeed.
If anyone has any photographs of either of the playgrounds in Cyfarthfa Park, please let us know.
From the Evening Express 107 years ago today…..
The article transcribed below appeared in the Merthyr Telegraph 138 years ago today.
THE TOMBSTONE OF THE LATE MR. CRAWSHAY
A stone, weighing nine tons, and being 11ft 2in long, 7ft 2in wide, and 1ft 2in thick, has been placed upon the grave of the late Mr R. T. Crawshay, in Vaynor Churchyard. The stone, which is a conglomerate, was selected by Mr R. T. Crawshay from the Rhadyr Quarry, near Llandaff. Around the sides are formed a kind of rockery, but the surface of the stone is quite plain, although beautifully polished. The laying of the stone has been carried out by Messrs Malliphant and Morgan. An inscription will be placed upon the stone.
This blog has been going for almost a year now, and it looks like quite a success. I have had quite some positive feedback, and I hope it does help to highlight some of the important, not to mention quirky parts of Merthyr’s rich history.
I hope to continue doing this blog for as long as I can……if people want me to.
To help achieve this, if anyone would like to make a donation to help keep the blog going, any contribution, no matter how small would be greatly appreciated, and every penny will go towards the cost of running the blog.
If you would like to contribute something, please see the Paypal application in the side-bar to the right.
Please don’t feel that you have to donate – you certainly don’t, I just want people to enjoy reading this blog as much as I enjoy compiling it, but if you would like to contribute – thank you very much.
Here’s another part of Town that has changed dramatically – Market Square.
The first photograph, from the early 1900’s, shows the old Market Hall at the centre, R.T. Jones department store to the right, and at the left you can just see Bentley’s Hotel (the lamps and the porch).
In the second photograph from 2012 – the only building that is still there is the former R.T. Jones building. Everything else has been ‘redeveloped’.
If anyone has any ideas or photos they would like to contribute for the ‘Then and Now’ posts, please get in touch.
78 years ago today saw the last tram journey run in Merthyr. To mark the occasion, local historian Keith Lewis-Jones has provided the following fascinating article.
The first thoughts of a tram system in the Merthyr area were in 1878, when a scheme was proposed by Messrs. Taylor, Forester and Sutherland, to construct a horse or steam tramway between Merthyr and Dowlais. In 1879, a public meeting was held at the Bush Hotel in Dowlais for the three promoters to explain their plans and to canvass support for the proposed system. The tramway failed to materialise for a variety of reasons, both financial and fear that the toll on the horses hauling trams up gradients, as steep as one in eleven, would make the tramway unprofitable to work.
By 1890, the population of Merthyr was 60,000, and the service of horse cars and brakes was wholly inadequate for the transport needs of such a large population. By this time a large section of the working population was employed at the Dowlais Works, with many living along the Brecon Road corridor and in Cefn Coed
It was therefore proposed to lease out, to a private company, the right to construct Light Railways between Cefn Coed and Dowlais, with a branch running to the centre of Merthyr at Graham Street. As is always the case with such progressive ideas, a great deal of vigorous and influential opposition was forthcoming from vested interests. It was decided to set up a commission to hear evidence and propose a way forward.
In May 1898 the Merthyr Tydfil Electric Traction and Lighting Co. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of British Electric Traction (BET), made an application for a Light Railway Order under the Light Railways Act of 1896, and the order was granted on 16 May 1899.
The Light Railway Order authorised the construction of three railways.
Railway no. 1 was to be 3 miles 1 furlong 2.8 chains long and was to run from opposite the Morning Sun public house in Cefn High Street via Cefn Bridge, Brecon Road, Pontmorlais Road West, Penydarren Road, High Street Penydarren, New Road & High Street Dowlais to a terminus opposite the Bush Inn.
The section from the Morning Sun to the Merthyr side of Cefn Bridge was not to be constructed until Cefn Bridge had been re-constructed or replaced.
Railway no. 2, 3 furlongs 3.5 chains in length, was to run from the north side of the Owain Glyndwr on Pontmorlais Road West to Graham Street via High Street, terminating at the west end of Graham Street.
Railway no. 3 was 1.7 chains in length and formed the third side of the triangle at Pontmorlais, joining railway no. 1 with railway no. 2 on the east side of the Owain Glyndwr.
The Tram Depot, known as the Traction Yard, was constructed on the site of Penydarren Ironworks and was reached by way of a branch line which left the Dowlais route at the Trevethick (sic.) Street Junction. As well as providing facilities for tram maintenance, the site also housed the generating station for 550 volts direct current. As can be seen in the Company’s name, not only was it set up to operate trams but also to provide lighting within the area.
For the opening of the system, thirteen single deck and three double deck trams were obtained. The single-deckers, nos. 1-13, were built by the Midland Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. Ltd., of Shrewsbury. They seated twenty-six passengers.
The open top, double deck trams came from the Electric Railway & Tramway Carriage Works Ltd. (ERTCW), of Preston – part of Dick, Kerr & Co. Ltd. They were numbered 14-16 and seated forty-eight passengers.
The first passengers were carried 6 April, 1901 with Dowlais route trams displaying a triangle and Cefn route vehicles a square on the front. The trams ran between 5.15 a.m. and 10.15 p.m. Passengers fares were one penny per mile or part thereof. Some examples being – Merthyr to Dowlais 2d and Cyfarthfa to Merthyr 1d. The fare for a journey from the Morning Sun in Cefn to the Bush Hotel in Dowlais would be 4d.
1903 saw the only serious accident to affect the tramway. On 22 January car number 10 left the rails while descending New Road, Dowlais causing no serious injuries, but the tram was badly damaged.
Passenger numbers had declined to 2,086,684 by 1936. The 1930’s had seen a decline in the number of passengers carried, partially due to the high rate of unemployment in the Borough – 41.7% in 1936.
The Corporation had been prevented from competing with the trams under the provisions of the Merthyr Tydfil Corporation Act of 1920 and so the tramway was eventually purchased by the Corporation for £13,500 in 1939, and abandoned on 23 August, leaving the Company to continue electricity generation until 1948.
During its life, the tramway carried an estimated 85 million passengers and the tramcars covered a distance of around 8 million miles. Apart from the system in Cardiff, Merthyr’s tramway was the longest lasting in South Wales.
A fuller account of Merthyr’s Tram system by Keith Lewis-Jones can be found in Merthyr Historian volume 20.
All photos courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm
In our continuing section on Merthyr’s Chapels, we look at one of the many chapels that once stood in Dowlais but have disappeared in to the ether in the name of re-development – Bryn Sion Welsh Independent Chapel.
Following a disagreement at Bethania Welsh Independent Chapel in South Street, Rev Thomas G Jones and several members of the congregation left the chapel to start their own group, and began worshipping at the old Bethel Chapel at the bottom of Dowlais.
There were, already at Bethel, a group of Baptists who had left Caersalem Chapel, but the two groups worshipped separately (see previous article – http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=575).
In 1833, Rev Joshua Thomas of Adulam Chapel in Merthyr had been given oversight of the growing congregation, and it became obvious that Bethel Chapel was no longer adequate for either group of worshippers there.
A new chapel called Bryn Sion was built and both congregations moved there in 1834. The Baptist congregation applied to join the Baptist Association, but were refused, so they decided to join the Independent congregation at the new chapel. Some staunch Baptists were unhappy with this and returned to Caersalem, but the majority stayed and the new church began to prosper.
Rev Joshua Thomas continued to have oversight at the chapel until 1836 when Mr Daniel Roberts, a member of Zoar Chapel in Merthyr, but a resident of Dowlais was asked to be Bryn Sion’s first minister.
As the congregation grew it was decided to build a new chapel. The chapel was designed by Rev Benjamin Owen, the minister of Zoar Chapel, Merthyr, and was completed in 1844 at a cost of £1,281.16s.11d. The chapel, as designed was built back from the street and incorporated four houses built in front of the chapel, which was approached by a paved area.
In 1876 a large schoolroom was built at a cost of £320, and a pipe organ was installed in 1894 at a cost of £280. Major renovations were carried out to the chapel during 1901-02. It was at this time the classical porch was built over the paved entrance way. The total cost of these renovations was £953.3s.7½d.
When Dowlais was redeveloped in the 1960’s, Bryn Sion Chapel was not amongst the many buildings listed to be demolished, and was not included in the Compulsory Purchase Orders. By 1968 however, all the streets around the chapel had been demolished and the congregation had to walk through mud and debris to reach the chapel, and also the chapel was being badly vandalised, so the congregation reluctantly decided that they couldn’t carry on worshipping at the chapel, and they sold it to Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council.
The chapel was demolished in 1969.
Here are the Railway Time Tables for Merthyr from 162 years ago today…..
