Month: July 2018

Merthyr’s Bridges: Rhydycar Canal Bridge

One of Merthyr’s most distinctive, yet overlooked bridges is the Rhydycar Canal Bridge.

Rhydycar Canal Bridge in the early 1900’s. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

The Rhydycar Canal Bridge, or more precisely, the Vale of Neath Railway Bridge, was built in approximately 1850 to carry the Vale of Neath Railway over the Glamorganshire Canal. The Canal was the prime artery of trade linking the ironworks of Merthyr Tydfil with their markets via the port of Cardiff throughout the heyday of the iron industry, from the late 18th Century to the mid 19th Century. Construction of the Canal began at Merthyr in 1790, and it was opened in 1794. It was financed primarily by iron industry interests, among whom the Crawshay family of Cyfarthfa Ironworks were the leading shareholders.

With the growth of the railway industry, the importance of the canal began to wane as several companies brought lines into Merthyr. The Vale of Neath Railway Company built a line from Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare to Neath, chiefly to transport the products of the Merthyr iron industries to the port at Swansea. The line opened in 1851, and at Rhydycar, the two transport hubs intersected with the railway bridge over the canal.

The bridge, which was built on the site of an earlier bridge, is built of coursed rubble sandstone and brick. It is built on the skew, and comprises three arches. The central arch, which spanned the canal, is elliptical with a 5.5 metre span, and a height of 6.7 metres at its apex. This arch is flanked by two smaller arches which accommodated the towpath of the canal. There are also three access arches in each pier of the main arch, leading to the towpaths.

Following the closure of the railway, the bridge gradually fell in to disrepair. In 2009, it was announced that by Merthyr Council that the bridge would be repaired and renovated. The work was intended stabilise a large vertical crack and stonework. They also intended to return it to its historic setting in the canal basin by excavating an area to reveal the buried canal profile and repairing and reinstating the canal walls. However, these plans never came to fruition.

The bridge is now scheduled as a GradeII listed building as a now rare example of one of the early bridges on the important Glamorganshire Canal.

The bridge in the 1970’s

Maggie Davies – Eos Fach

Today marks the 93rd anniversary of the death of one of Merthyr’s greatest musical talents – Maggie Davies. Nowadays, however, she is almost totally forgotten.

Maggie Davies

Maggie Davies was born in Broad Street, Dowlais in November 1865. Her father, Evan, was a puddler at the Dowlais Works, and both he and his wife, Mary, were staunch members of Bethania Chapel, where Evan was a deacon. It was at Bethania Chapel that the young Maggie got her first rudimentary musical training, and was soon considered to be a prodigy, and her musical talents were often called upon around Dowlais.

After performing for two years with Brogden’s Swiss Choir, a famous touring group, Maggie returned to Merthyr for formal musical training with Edward Lawrence, the organist at St David’s Church. Under Lawrence’s tutelage, Maggie won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music in London. Before, her departure, the people of Dowlais organised a grand concert held at the Oddfellows Hall in her honour to raise money to help with her expenses.

At the Royal College of Music, she studied with Sir Hubert Parry and Sir Walter Parratt, and she also spent a season in Paris, studying with the world-renowned soprano Pauline Viardot. Such was Maggie’s talent and promise that the scholarship, which had been for a period of three years, was extended for a further three years, an unprecedented occurrence in that period.

Although she appeared for a season with the Carl Rosa Opera Company, it was as a concert singer that she made her name. She appeared regularly all over Britain, and sang annually at the National Eisteddfod, and it was here that she was christened ‘Eos Fach’ – Little Nightingale.

In 1896, the prominent composer Sir Charles Villiers Stanford asked Maggie to sing the lead role in the premiere of his new opera ‘Shamus O’Brien’, a role he had written specifically for her. At first she was reluctant to accept the offer, as she did not want to return to the operatic stage, much preferring her career as a concert and oratorio singer. She was finally persuaded to perform the role by the composer, and she received excellent reviews in most of the newspapers and periodicals of the time.

Although she occasionally performed in opera productions, notably in Joseph Parry’s operas ‘Blodwen’ and ‘Arianwen’ in Cardiff, she continued to confine her career mostly to the concert platform, and took part in concert tours to America and South Africa.

In 1903, she married George W Hutcheson, a Scottish solicitor residing in London, and retired from the concert stage.

By the 1920’s, ill-health had begun to take its toll on Maggie, and in 1925 she embarked on a voyage to the West Indies with a view to improving her health. Upon her return, however, her condition had worsened and she was admitted to a nursing home, where she died on 1 July 1925. In her funeral, the Rev H Elvet Lewis, in his prayer, referred to “the use the Creator had made of the gifts of her great art, which had brought joy to so many during her time”.