In Association with the Merthyr Tydfil & District Historical Society
Here are a couple of photographs from the 1930’s* and 1950’s at the Castle School. It is almost impossible to imagine scenes such as these in a secondary school these days.
*Many thanks to Joe England for confirming that the first photograph is actually from the 1930’s, not the 1940’s as originally stated.
Have times changed for the better? What do you think?
Photos courtesy of the Alan George archive.
Today marks the 135th anniversary of the birth of one of Merthyr’s brightest musical stars – Florence Smithson.
Although born in Leicester, Florence spent most of her childhood and formative years in Merthyr. She was the daughter of Will Smithson, a well-known provincial theatre manager, who had settled in Merthyr to take over the running of the Theatre Royal. She made her stage debut at the age of three in pantomime. After leaving school she studied at the London College of Music. Various singing engagements followed, and while she was touring with a small opera company in Donizetti’s opera La Fille du Régiment, she was spotted by the impresario Robert Courtneidge. Under his management she toured in 1904–05 as Nanoya in The Cingalee and Chandra Nil in The Blue Moon.
In August 1905 she made her first appearance in the West End repeating her role in The Blue Moon and making an immediate success. From then until the First World War she made occasional variety appearances and played in a series of musical comedies, and created the role of Sombra in The Arcadians.
In July 1914, she sailed for Australia, but the outbreak of war curtailed her tour. Returning to England in 1915 she toured in variety theatres and played pantomime seasons in London. Australian and South African tours followed in the 1920s, and she returned to England in 1927.
Throughout this period, she never forgot her roots in Wales, and performed frequently throughout the country, and made regular appearances in Merthyr. One of her last engagements was in a national tour of The Gipsy Princess.
Florence Smithson died on 11 February 1951 in a nursing home in Cardiff after undergoing a serious operation.
She had a singing voice of great purity, and audiences waited expectantly for her trademark pianissimo high notes. The operatic star Adelina Patti dubbed her “the Nightingale of Wales”, and Dame Nellie Melba was quoted as saying of her “They say the birds taught her to sing; I think she taught the birds”.
by Carl Llewellyn
With scant records regarding the Jewish migration to Merthyr Tydfil, I decided to research the beginnings of the Jewish community in the town. It has been reported that there has been a Jewish presence in Merthyr Tydfil since the 1820s. One example is Polish born Solomon and Leah Bloom, whose eldest daughter Ann was born in Poland in 1826, with their eldest son Abraham being born in Abercanaid in 1828. Subsequently all of Solomon and Leah Bloom’s other children were born in Merthyr Tydfil. Therefore Solomon and Leah Bloom came to Merthyr Tydfil around 1827.
With the rapid expansion in the iron industry in Merthyr, in the 1830’s another Jew named Joseph Barnett came to the town from Swansea. Joseph and his wife Sarah were born in Poland, all of their children were born in Swansea. Joseph Barnett opened a shop on Merthyr High Street – on the 1841 census it describes Joseph Barnett as a shopkeeper but in reality he was Pawnbroker. The 1841 census indicates there were at least 21 Jews living in Merthyr Tydfil.
With four iron works dominating the Merthyr Tydfil locality, more Jews escaping the persecution in the Russian controlled countries became attracted to Merthyr Tydfil, with business prospects either as Pawnbrokers, Hawkers or Glaziers.
By the late 1840’s the number of Jews trebled. Up until now the Jewish religious services may have been held either at Solomon Bloom’s or Joseph Barnett’s houses, it was rumoured a synagogue was located in the area of Bethesda Street and Brecon Road, but there is no evidence of this whatsoever. However a synagogue did exist at the rear of No 28 Victoria Street – Joseph Barnett’s pawnshop. Below is an extract from an 1851 map of Merthyr showing this synagogue.
The usual date given for the establishment of the Merthyr Hebrew Congregation was 1848, but statistics for Merthyr Tydfil dated 1846 clearly states that a Jewish place of worship existed with 30 seats and 25 in attendance at services. As the statistics were published in 1846 it could be determined the figures were probably collated in 1845. Yet in T. E. Clarke’s guide to Merthyr Tydfil dated 1848 it does not mention the existence of a synagogue in Merthyr Tydfil.
At that time there was a Rabbi by the name of Barnett Asher Simmons. According to Ben Hamilton’s article “The Hebrew Community” he visited Merthyr Tydfil and officiated at services for the Merthyr Tydfil Hebrew congregation before the arrival of Rabbi Harris Isaacs from Ipswich, in 1850.
Harris Isaacs, a widower, had served the Jewish community at Ipswich for 27 years before coming to Merthyr, and living at 53 Glebeland St. His calling as a Rabbi did not provide him with living wage so he opened a Pawnshop to supplement his income.
By 1852 the number of Jewish families in Merthyr Tydfil had grown considerably, and congregants were in want of a larger place of worship. An appeal was sent to the Jewish Chronicle for assistance with funding for a new synagogue, Adverts appeared in the Jewish Chronicle dated 27 February 1852, 12 March 1852 and 9 April 1852. Below is the notice which appeared in each edition giving a list of donations, which included 18 members of the Merthyr Hebrew congregation.
When sufficient money had been collected, the Jewish elders of Merthyr Tydfil began making preparations for acquiring a site and requesting quotations from builders to build a new synagogue. The laying of the foundation stone for the new synagogue, which was situated behind the Temperance Hall, took place on 28 May 1852, and it took another eight months for the new synagogue to be completed. The Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian Glamorgan Monmouth and Brecon Gazette dated 19 February 1853 mentioned the inaugural ceremony took place 22 February 1853, when the Chief Rabbi A. L. Green of the Great Synagogue, London officiated on the occasion. Sadly there are no newspaper reports giving a detailed account of the opening of the Synagogue, but it was reported that there was accommodation for 93 persons, with 60 seats reserved for Jewish gentlemen, and 33 seats for Jewish ladies. Seat rentals ranged from £5.4s to £1.6s per annum.
In the latest post in our ongoing series we have a couple of photographs of the area just outside the gates of St Tydfil’s Church.
In the first photograph, taken in the early 1900’s we can clearly see the famous Star Inn, where Admiral Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton stayed when they visited Cyfarthfa Works in 1800.
The second photograph, taken in 2012, shows the area completely changed.
That’s progress for you – an important part of Merthyr’s history replaced by an advertising hoarding.
by Clive Thomas
It was different when it was planted I suppose, whenever that was. Now it stands near a modern, regulated cross roads dedicated to ensuring the smooth running of traffic from one side of the town to the other. You see only a few pedestrians here and vehicle owners drive past, or sometimes frustrated, are required to halt and give their attention to the traffic lights. It does have some other green company now though from more recently Council-planted shrubs and small trees, but for many years it would have stood somewhat incongruously alone, alongside a very busy roadway. Its age is difficult to guess but it must certainly have been witness to many changes in the surrounding area. It stands sentinel with a strangely oriented boxer’s statue and the small but colourful memorial to a demolished chapel which only hint at the area’s rich heritage.
This thoroughfare was originally called Jackson’s Street, after the contractor who was commissioned in 1793 by the Dowlais Ironworks to build the stone arched bridge which still straddles the River Taff nearby. Although giving the rapidly increasing population of Georgetown and Heolgerrig, an alternative means of crossing the river from the more famous Iron Bridge, this bridge’s main purpose was to carry the tram road from the Dowlais Works to the canal warehouse and wharf on the Glamorganshire Canal. The tramroad would remain a vital link for the Dowlais Company for many years, and thousands of tons of iron would have been carried this way by teams of horse drawn wagons. As the town developed and more cottages built, junctions were created here, with Quarry Row leading into the riverside community of Caepantywyll and the Vulcan Road climbing the slope to Brewery Street and Sunnybank. Towards Pontmorlais, Bethesda Chapel had been built in 1811 and its name would eventually replace that of Mr. Jackson. Over a period of years, the area became overlooked by the tip of furnace waste from the Penydarren Ironworks, which continued to grow towards the river for most of the first half of the nineteenth century. It was between this British Tip, Jackson’s Bridge and the Taff that the notorious area of slum dwellings called ‘China’ would grow up.
Bethesda Street in 1967. The Holm Oak is clearly visible. Photo courtesy of the Alan George archive.
In the 1970’s however, great changes were taking place hereabouts. The re-configuration of the road system and the construction of a new Taff bridge required the demolition of many adjacent houses. Lawn Terrace, Garden Street, Paynters Terrace, along with The Old Tanyard Inn and Bethesda Chapel all disappeared. The removal of a substantial portion of the British Tip meant that whole area underwent considerable change. Surprisingly and against all odds, the tree survived and remained healthy. As a result of representations from the Merthyr and District Naturalists’ Society, whose members became concerned about its survival, it was made the subject of a Tree Preservation Order under the 1974 Wildlife and Countryside Act.
Quercus ilex, the Holm Oak belongs in Mediterranean climes and unlike our more familiar Sessile (Qercuspetraea) and Pedunculate (Quercusrobur) species, it is evergreen. Holm is the ancient English name for holly bush and it is indeed so like a holly that it is often mistaken for one. Its sombre evergreen foliage casts a very dense shade that nothing can grow beneath it and reflects the climatic conditions found in its native lands. There, the winter is rainy but fairly warm, while summers are dry and hot so thick waxy foliage is required to check undue loss of moisture. The tree is also unusual amongst the oaks in that its acorns take two years to mature. The species was first introduced into Britain in the sixteenth century at Mamhead Park, Devon and a large population is to be found on the Isle of Wight. It has naturalised in a number of areas of southern Britain.
One can only speculate at how it might have arrived in Merthyr Tydfil. The fairly close proximity of Cyfarthfa Park might offer one explanation. Several exotic species were imported by the Crawshay Family to enhance the landscaped parkland which surrounded their newly built gothic home. There are numerous Turkey Oaks (Quercuscerrris) on the banks of the Taf-Fechan near Cefn Coed which might have had their origins within the confines of the park. It is possible that this tree might have arrived as part of a consignment of saplings or perhaps even grown from a single acorn. Ironically now however, the species is thought to damage aspects of biodiversity in this country and is listed as an alien invader. Despite our own specimen’s somewhat anomalous existence, I hope it remains in situ for many more years.
Here is how St David’s Day was celebrated in Merthyr 110 years ago….
In 1859, the Penydarren Ironworks closed. 160 years ago today (26 February 1859), the remarkable article transcribed below, written in anticipation of the closure appeared in the Merthyr Telegraph. It makes fascinating reading as the language used is so striking and almost poetic…a far cry from today’s brand of journalism.
Over the thresholds of a thousand houses stream the long and darkening shadows which forerun events of a stern and saddening character. In a few months that fierce light which so long has glared around Penydarren will be invisible, and the incessant clang of iron and harsh vibrations of monster machinery will no longer be heard. Penydarren works will belong to the past.
For several weeks the inhabitants of this town and neighbourhood heard of the rumoured sale of Penydarren works with incredulity. They could not believe that so great an establishment would be broken up, the works fall into decay, and the men scattered to the four winds of heaven. Yet, at last, the dread truth has forced itself upon our convictions, and we now doubt not that the end of Penydarren is at hand.
The Dowlais Iron Co., holding large works on the extreme edge of the mineral basin, have been for some time progressing with less than its usual vigour in consequence of a deficient supply of mine and coal. It is true new pits have been sunk at Cwmbargoed, but it will be two or three years before they will begin to yield, the enormous depth forbidding any earlier success, though the men are incessantly employed. Thus it became a serious consideration with the Trustees, where, and by what means, the requisite supply should be obtained from to meet the demand. The adjoining mine and coal field of the Penydarren Co. and the known desire of Mr. W. Forman to part with it, offered a solution of the difficulty, and hence, after a consultation and discussion by the principals of each place, one has been merged into the other, and Dowlais has become worthier even than before of being styled the largest iron-works in the world.
We may anticipate that on the opening of the new mill – a mill unequalled in the locality, a large number of additional workmen will be employed; the miners and colliers also may be expected to continue working as usual; but, we apprehend, there will still be many unemployed, and the change will tend to deteriorate the value of house property considerably in Penydarren, and the upper part of Merthyr, from Pontmorlais to Tydfil’s Well. There can be no doubt but that there will be much suffering in one way or another. Young men, full of vigour, may try their fortunes elsewhere broad shoulders and muscular arms will never fail to obtain their owners bread and cheese, but the old men, the semi-pensioners, the half used up veterans, cannot be expected to seek a subsistence in other districts, cannot be expected but to crawl, feeble worn-out beings, into the last resort of humble life – the Workhouse.
In addition to this, the first step towards a decline, we see evidences around us of a gloomy character. The lease of the Dowlais works is said to last only during the minority of the Marquis of Bute. When he comes of age a new lease, under new and perhaps impossible conditions, may be required.
It is also rumoured, on what authority we know not, that the Plymouth iron-works are for sale, and no one, acquainted with Mr. Hill, will hear this without fearing that the change of ownership, by whomsoever made, cannot be for the benefit of the workmen. No matter how good the next employer may be, new brooms have a tendency to sweep clean, and brush away old and good usages, pensions, perquisites and benefits to an alarming extent.
Again, at the Cyfarthfa works things wear an alarming aspect. The lease is yet unsettled. Mr. Crawshay has stated the sum he will give, and we all know that he will abide by his word, and blow out the whole of the furnaces rather than yield. And let us add that were Mr. Crawshay, unfortunately for us all, to be succeeded by another, we might find the system of iron-making on the hills introduced into Cyfarthfa, with its attendant Truck shops, which, God forbid for the sake of poor humanity! To this Truck the Crawshays have ever been firm opponents, much to their honour and the welfare of the town.
All these shadows warn us to be prepared for coming evils – to be on the alert towards lessening the trials of disastrous times – to prepare our several homes against the menacing storm.
Merthyr is a town called into existence by the discovery of the minerals underneath. With their exhaustion it fades as rapidly as it rose.
In these facts we trace the presages of decline. The tree which resists the skill of the gardener may exist for a time, unimproving, unprogressive, but when the storm comes the resistance is but weak, and beneath the tempest it falls!
Today marks the anniversary of the birth, at Glyn Taff House, Troedyrhiw, of yet another medical giant from Merthyr – Sir Pendrill Varrier-Jones. To mark the occasion, and to learn some more about this great man, below is a transcription of his obituary which is reproduced with the kind permission of the Royal College of Physicians.
Pendrill Charles (Sir) Varrier-Jones
b.24 February 1883 d.30 January 1941
Kt(1931) BA Cantab(1905) MA Cantab(1909) MRCS LRCP(1910) MRCP(1929) FRCP(1934)
Pendrill Charles Varrier-Jones was born at Troedyrhiw, Glamorgan. As the son of Dr Charles Morgan Jones, a general practitioner in a mining district, and of Margaret Jenkins whose family were in big business in the coal industry, he seems to have inherited characteristics exactly suited to that rare combination of an interest in medicine and a flair for dealing with unusual industrial problems, and so to his life’s work in the foundation and development of Papworth Village Settlement.
From Epsom College he went to Wycliffe College, Stonehouse, which still has the Margaret Varrier scholarship which he founded in memory of his mother. At nineteen he entered St. John’s College, Cambridge, as a foundation scholar, graduating with first class honours in the natural sciences tripos in 1905. His medical school was St. Bartholomew’s. After a junior house appointment there he held what his friends considered but a dead-end post as temporary assistant to Professor Sir German Sims-Woodhead at Cambridge, working on research into bovine tuberculosis. As he was unfit for military service he followed this with the stop-gap post of temporary tuberculosis officer to the Cambridgeshire Council’s Dispensary.
But Varrier-Jones had found the basis for his career. He was quick to see that treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis in those days, when sixty-six per cent of patients admitted with disease beyond the early stage were dead within five years of discharge, was but a half-way house to death, and that advice on after-care was useless unless applied in sheltered conditions of home and work. With his characteristic enthusiasm he persuaded people of public spirit in Cambridge to support a Tuberculosis Colony at the village of Bourn, where his motto for his twelve patients was: ‘Work produces hope and hope produces vitality’.
Varrier-Jones saw that tuberculosis was then much more an individual social and economic problem than a medical one; security and pride in self-support from productive work were essential to the future welfare of every treated sufferer. He shocked his fellow-workers by saying that the positive-sputum patient could live with his family without infecting them if he was allowed to apply the lessons of sanatorium hygiene in a sheltered home. His critics were confounded; no child born in Papworth developed tuberculosis. Unfortunately he did not live to see that none of its sons returned from the Second World War with tuberculosis, although most of them suffered the horrors of the Death Railway in Siam.
His village settlement became the Mecca of tuberculosis workers from all over the world. Its success brought him requests to organise copies at Preston Hall for the British Legion, Enham Village Centre in Hampshire, and the Peamount Settlement in Dublin. In 1932 the International Union against Tuberculosis made him president of its sub-committee for occupational therapy and after-care. He received in 1931 the thoroughly deserved honour of a knighthood. He was Weber-Parkes prizeman in 1939 and Mitchell lecturer to the College in 1927.
No one who saw him only once in his beloved village could ever forget his massive figure, his dark eyes, his flowing black hair, his dynamic personality and his air of benevolent autocracy. There he was the fortunate personality who could leave a mass of detail to devoted workers whom he loved and who loved and admired him in return. His sudden death in 1941 was a loss not only to them but to multitudes of disciples. ‘V-J’, or ‘Pendragon’, as he was affectionately known to them all, wrote several papers on the administrative and economic problems of tuberculosis, on the value of Dreyer’s diaplyte vaccine, on clinical thermometry, and on the cellular content of milk. He did not marry.
Reproduced from Munk’s Roll ©Royal College of Physicians. To view the original, please use the following link –
http://munksroll.rcplondon.ac.uk/Biography/Details/4542
From ‘The Pioneer’ 105 years ago today (21 February 1914).
If anyone has anything they would like to contribute to this blog about Merthyr’s great boxing tradition, please get in touch.