A hundred years ago women of very masculine (and muscular) proportions were often summoned for assaulting other women, fighting with men and even attacking the police. Mostly the regular fights took place in a public house and in 1912 the Merthyr Tydfil Police paid 10,386 visits to public houses in 3 months to either deal with serving out of hours or to referee and sort out fights taking place there. There were certain women whose names came up frequently in the Police Courts. Such a one was Margaret Hagerty.
In April 1903 the boxer Redmond Coleman was charged before the Merthyr Tydfil Police Court with living on the prostitution of women, especially Margaret Hagerty, a dipsomaniac whose favourite drink was gin. He may have been the toughest man in the tough town of Merthyr Tydfil, but on more than one occasion it was Margaret who fought to protect him from the law.
One local legend concerning her was that she stood on the Iron Bridge stripped to the waist and challenged all comers to a fight. Maggie Hagerty is mentioned frequently in the Merthyr Police Reports for drunkenness, robbery and insulting language. After she was convicted of drunk and riotous behaviour in Riverside on a Saturday night in November 1910, Margaret Hagerty, when asked if she had anything to say she said “There’s not much good saying anything. I’ve done a lot of prison.” This was her 73rd appearance in the Police Court.
In 1911 she tried her utmost to prevent the police taking Redmond to the station by stabbing an officer with her hat pin. She was taken in herself and managed to break nine windows in the Merthyr Police Station. Although in 1916, on her 98th court appearance, she claimed to have ‘given up fighting’, Margaret continued to be mentioned in the Merthyr Express and in November 1921 she was reported thus:-
“Margaret Hagerty a middle aged woman was arrested for insulting language at Riverside. She produced carpenter’s tools which she claimed Julie Murphy had used against her. The girl had called her a robber. Case was dismissed. The Chief Constable said she was the worst woman he had to deal with in Merthyr.”
Following on from yesterday’s Commercial Break blog, here is an interesting newspaper article about the opening of Merthyr’s first cinema – The Electric. Not only was the Electric Merthyr’s first cinema, it was also the first purpose built cinema in South Wales.
Merthyr Express – 22 October 1910
Lots more about Merthyr’s many old cinemas in the coming weeks.
Many tragically lost their lives while working in the Ynysfach Blast Furnaces, but a greater number died sheltering in the old Ironworks here.
In February 1866 the Merthyr Express had the following story entitled:- Two More Men Suffocated At Cyfarthfa – describing the blackened and shrivelled corpses of two men found in the Ynysfach Works. The men were probably drunk when they crept into a warm place near the boilers. They suffocated by inhaling the carbonic acid gas and then when steam was got up they were literally roasted.
Again on 23 July 1870 the headline was:- Shocking Death of Two Miners. On Monday morning when the engineer at the Ynysfach Works was going his rounds to examine the boilers, he saw two men lying in one of the gas-holes. They were perfectly roasted, and probably did not survive long after entering the place of their doom. They came from Aberdare on Saturday night, no doubt for the purpose of a spree, ‘as they were seen in China’ late on Sunday night, and having spent all their money, were glad to get a lay down anywhere. The mystery is how they got into the works, as they are surrounded by a wall several feet high. In June 1874 there was a shocking accident which resulted in the immediate death of two men and the burning of two others so severely that they were not expected to live.
At the beginning of the Twentieth century the homeless, destitute and generally disreputable elements of the town of Merthyr Tydfil made their home in the Ynysfach Coke Ovens. This was their refuge but many died here too. After the Ynysfach Works closed in 1879 this area became infamous as a ‘den of debauchery’ where the ‘wild-ones’ of Merthyr Tydfil slept rough. The police steered well clear of the place and the first Chief Constable in 1908 suggested that dynamiting this whole area would help in the ‘cleaning up’ of the town. In 1900 it was reported that as many as 50 persons were to be found living around the Coke Ovens, and fatalities were common.
Ynysfach was also the main stomping ground of Redmond Coleman, the Merthyr Tydfil legend, who would fight anyone, anywhere, anytime. It was here that Redmond had his legendary fight with Tommy Lyons one Saturday night. The ‘battle’ was reputed to have lasted over three hours. If there was a grudge to be settled then the Ynysfach Coke Ovens were the place to fight it out. There are many stories, such as the time he and Danny Hegarty punched themselves into a state of exhaustion until they lay side by side on the Coke Ovens gasping curses at each other. Redmond Coleman is reputed to have said that he would never leave Merthyr but always haunt the Coke Ovens.
However, the White Lady of Ynysfach is the best known of all the various ghosts of Ynysfach. The Merthyr Historian Volume Eight contains the story of the Ynysfach Murder by Eira Smith, and establishes the notoriety of the area around the Iron Bridge and Ynysfach. The police regarded the area as being a den of thieves, robbers and prostitutes. Such an ‘unfortunate’ was Mary Ann Rees, who was murdered by her younger lover. In 1908 after plying her trade in the town, Mary then returned to her friends by the Coke Ovens with food and drink. However, after eating his fill, her younger boyfriend, William Foy, decided to go into town by himself and, suspecting that he was chasing after a younger woman, Mary ran after him. She was later found down a disused furnace with her neck broken.
Mary Ann Rees
Did her boyfriend deliberately push her down the disused furnace or did she just accidently fall with or without a quick push? The local police claimed that when they came across Foy he was in a distressed state and told them that he had committed a murder and killed Mary Ann.
In May 1909 William Foy was hung in Swansea gaol for her murder. He wrote a moving letter from prison begging for forgiveness. It is still said today that Mary Ann Rees is the White Lady of Ynysfach who haunts the area around Merthyr College. There have been a number of sightings of the White Lady and there are some who strongly believe in her existence. She is imagined as a sad lady in a long white dress, but there are no stories of her causing any harm to any human being.
In the late 1980s the caretaker of Merthyr College looked back at the building from the car park after locking up and saw a distressed lady looking out of the window. He rushed back thinking she must be very anxious after being locked in an empty building and re-entered the building. However, although he searched and searched this white faced, worried looking lady was never found and did not seem to have existed. The volunteers of the Engine House have come across a number of strange incidents, especially in the basement area, where a vague female figure has been seen or someone pushing past them has been sensed or felt. Paranormal investigator Colin Hyde claims to have questioned her and discovered that she thinks that her death had accidental causes. Mary Ann Rees is therefore a sad figure, who has no thought of exacting any form of revenge.
Many thanks to Carolyn Jacob for the above article.
Following on from yesterday’s blog about HMS Beverley, here is a newspaper cutting from the Merthyr Express of 31 October 1942 referring to yet another bit of fund raising by the people of Merthyr during the Second World War:
The Merthyr Tydfil Spitfire. If you look closely you can see the name of the town just below the cockpit
As we are currently commemorating the centenary of the First World War, I thought I’d share a very interesting story that I came across in the Merthyr Express from 1914 – it is transcribed below.
SPY PERIL AT MERTHYR – Merthyr Express, 24 October 1914
A great sensation was caused in Merthyr on Tuesday when it became known that an alleged German spy would be taken before the magistrates and charged under the Official Secrets Acts, 1911, with attempting to convey to the enemy important plans etc. Consequently the police court was crowded. The defendant, who gave the name Carl Fick, a German, is a finely built man of middle age. He has for several months followed the occupation of a steeplejack. He used to travel about in a motor car. Fick was not only charged on Tuesday with attempting to convey plans to the enemy, but with attempting to persuade another to commit a similar offence. Only formal evidence was given, and the defendant, who didn’t have a word to say, was formally remanded in custody for a week.
Chief Constable Wilson said the defendant was of German nationality and was registered as an alien in August last. Since that time he had been kept under strict observation by the police. Certain information came to his (Mr Wilson’s) knowledge in September that the accused had approached a certain gentleman in the town with a view to getting his assistance in communicating to the German Ambassador certain plans indicating important landmarks for the purpose of dropping bombs. He (Mr Wilson) took particular precautions, and placed Detective-Sergt. Dove and Detective O’Neill in a place of observation, where they were able to hear and see the defendant. They listened to certain conversation to the effect that the townsman he had named should go to America, he (defendant) would pay the fare, and hand to the German Ambassador certain plans. The plans, the defendant said, were of a most destructive character, if carried out, and would practically annihilate the British Army. Defendant had prepared certain plans and notes, the latter written in German, which had been translated. One letter, written on October 16th, which the defendant intended for the German Ambassador in America read as follows:-
If these plans should be of any use to the German Government, please make any payments to myself only. I am unable to come to give any help myself.
That, said the Chief Constable, was written on the printed billhead of the defendant, who has for four or five months carried on the business of steeplejack, He asked that the defendant be remanded in custody in order that he might communicate with the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Detective-Sergt. Dove was then called and questioned by the Chief Constable. “Do you remember visiting certain premises at Merthyr on the 15th September? – I do. Did you see the defendant? – I did. Did you hear him making certain statements? – I did. Did he ask a certain person to go to America to see the German Ambassador? – Yes. With what object? – For the purpose of handing plans over which he said would destroy the whole of the enemies of Germany.”
The Chief Constable: “Upon that evidence I ask for remand for a week. – Granted.”
If anyone has any interesting Merthyr-related stories about the First World War, please send them to me and I will post them on this blog.
