Tag: Drill Hall

The Growth of Football in Merthyr Tydfil – part 6

Transcribed by Phil Sweet

These articles which appeared in three consecutive editions of the Merthyr Express in March 1921 are Harvey Boots’ own reminiscences of the development of three football codes in the town up to that date.  

ARTICLE 3 MERTHYR EXPRESS 19TH MARCH 1921 (continued)

THE GROWTH OF FOOTBALL IN MERTHYR

(By Harvey Boots)

We had some really good men with us now and to mention a few here would be in keeping with the rest of the story. I don’t think they played in the same season, but about those doughty days to which I have just referred. To recall a few, I can remember now the first two backs who played for the club. I had forgotten for a moment, but I was reminded of these names by the genial Vicar of Cyfarthfa (whom we all regard as Paterfamilias apart from things pertaining to football). They were Carrier and W. Davies, the latter of whom hailed from Bristol; Jack White, a good back; little Holmes, also a back; Sam Wightman who went from us to Middlesborough (at what I think was a record fee as transfer to date), Fisher, Gates, Churchill, Whittaker, F. Taylor, Spriggs, Costello etc., etc.

As I have brought this little history nearly up-to-date, I must obviously refrain from comments. I can only say in passing that some of these served the Club really well. Just here came the parting of the ways as far as the Merthyr Athletic Club was concerned. Although the game had undoubtedly come to stay, it was not by any means a paying proposition, and we felt that if the public wanted Association Football, they should help to support it, and so the Merthyr Association Football Club, Ltd., came into being. A limited liability company was formed, and we of the old Athletic Club retired gracefully in favour of the new company formed to carry on. The only one of the old pioneers remaining was Mr. W. T. Jones, who still acted in the capacity of secretary. A strong directorate was elected, embodying the various interests of the district, and everything seemed on a sound basis, but alas! Football, like life, is very uncertain, and the new regime had to encounter the same vicissitudes as formerly. But I think the culmination arrived when that great holocaust of world war smote us all. Football was out of the question, and for five years the game was not seen or even spoken of. The Park was still there, but owing to these unforeseen circumstances it was becoming sadly dilapidated. However, as soon as things became normal, and the menace that had been threatening us as a nation had been laid by the heels the old Club was once again resuscitated. The chairman of directors (Dr Duncan), who has held that office since the formation of the Club into a limited company, called a public meeting in the Drill Hall, presided over by the esteemed president, Mr. Seymour Berry. I was at that memorable gathering, and I shall recall how the enthusiasm of the President gripped the meeting. Money was wanted and he got it! I think the sum promised that evening was over £2,000. I am not going to relate how many or who subscribed but it was a goodly sum, and just depicted how willing the public were to foster the game that had now become so popular. But I believe a great portion of this went to put the ground in proper repair again. After an interval of five years things had sadly got out of repair, and although £2,000 seems a great del of money, by the time the necessary repairs, etc., were done, it was not a great deal for a fresh “dip” into the uncertain waters of Association Football. However, Dr Duncan, with that spirit of the “dour” Scot, with the aid of his loyal board, has now at last seen the fruits of his labours.

In conclusion, I trust, too, that the Merthyr Club will make history in the football world and that our genial President, who has for so long been in loco parentis, will in the near future have the pleasure of seeing that insignificant, elusive, but highly interesting trophy, “The Cup” gracing his sideboard.

Soup Kitchens in Merthyr, 1878

by Jill Morgan

Walter J. Lewis (left), born in Salt Lake City, Utah, of Welsh parents, was a missionary in South Wales for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from 1877 to 1879. He kept a detailed journal of his missionary activities, including meetings attended, church members visited, and letters written and received. But he also includes reference to community and social events and conditions. This is an entry from February 1878, when he was temporarily in Merthyr. The spelling has not been changed from the original.

Merthyr, Tydfil, Feb, 5, 1878.

At two O’Clock Bro. Parry & I visited the soup kitchen in Drill Hall where two thousand children are fed once a day with soup. This is the result of a late investigation by Griffith Richards M. P. from Merthyr and other leading Gentlemen of the Town, of the circumstances of the poor and distressed of the place. They found hundreds in a very destitute and almost perishing condition owing to the extreme dullness of the times.

 Releif Societies have been organized throughout the coal and Iron Districts who are solicisiting aid from every quarter for the purpose of distributing clothing and food to the most distressed of the place. Between 12 and 3 O’Clock the streets are thronged with half starved scantly clad children of both sexes from infants up to fifteen years old, with their bowls and spoons under their arms, making there way to the soup kitchen where many probably get the first meal in the day.

Then very prosaically, he returns to recording missionary activity:

We held meeting in the evenng in Bro. Owens house Pentrebach, after which we walked over the Mountain to Cwmbach, reaching it about midnight.

The Growth of Football in Merthyr Tydfil – part 3

Transcribed by Phil Sweet

These articles which appeared in three consecutive editions of the Merthyr Express in March 1921 are Harvey Boots’ own reminiscences of the development of three football codes in the town up to that date.  

ARTICLE 2 MERTHYR EXPRESS 12TH MARCH 1921

THE GROWTH OF FOOTBALL IN MERTHYR

(By Harvey Boots)

My feeble efforts to trace the history of the game of football in Merthyr has been the occasion of a good deal of friendly criticism from my intimate friends. I have endured a goodly portion of leg-pulling with hints on how to write for the Press, De facto how kindly strictures have proved very beneficial to this article, as several persons of renown in the history of the game locally ought to have come under greater review, and I am constrained to mention a few here and apologise for their omission the previous week. Through the courtesy of Mr. W. R. Lewis, decorator, etc., Pontmorlais, I am able to give the name of the very first team who played for Merthyr. As it was formed previous to the year of my nativity. I obviously can make no comment on their achievements, but a few of them I remember in later years. The Merthyr Football Team in 1877 consisted of T. Bryant (captain), J. Forrester (secretary), Bob James, Geo Gunson (brother of Mr. Robert Gunson), A. P. James, David and John Thomas (older brothers of Mr. Gomer Thomas), Lewis Brothers, three of whom were in the team and a fourth a member, Johnson, Jenkins, Ross Beynon (Abercanaid), Chris Bedlington, G. F. Matthews, W. Morgan (Dowlais), Ben Rogers, Tom Flooks (hairdresser, High Street), T. Williams, Tyrrell, Sam Thomas, Jack Richards, Tom Gameson Harris (Lloyds Bank), Albert Harris (solicitor) and Ireland (Cyfarthfa). Who in later days doesn’t remember Gus Jenkins (Dowlais), D. W. Evans (brother of J. B.), Harry Davies (an excellent half-back), Alf Hansard (he of the mighty punts to touch), D. J. Gould, (coal merchant, who played for both Cefn and Merthyr, and, who I believe, captained Merthyr for two or three seasons), Willie Harris (Aberdare), and W. L. Harris (Abercanaid), the latter of whom is now the agent for the Marquis of Bute). During the friendly discussion referred to above, the merits of various players  were discussed and after various pros and cons the consensus of opinion seems to point to John Ben and W. L. Harris (Abercanaid) as being the best pair of half-backs that have ever represented Merthyr.

I concluded my article last week at the point where the Merthyr Athletic Club had just come into being. At that time the Football Club was very healthy financially. As a matter of fact, we had a fairly substantial balance at the bank. We had fixtures at home with Newport, Swansea and Cardiff (each of whom appeared on Penydarren Park), Llanelly, Penarth – home and away. We had the satisfaction of defeating Llanelly at Llanelly by three points to nil – a difficult feat at any time, but especially at that period, when they were one of the strongest teams in Wales. I attribute a good deal of the success now attending the team to my brother George, who, at this time was Captain of the Newport XV, and at the height of his career as a Welsh forward. (He represented Wales on 19 occasions.) He very kindly came up from Newport one evening in each week of the football season and gave the members of the team some training in “packing” and other phases of the game. For this purpose, we hired the Drill Hall, and I have no doubt we received many valuable hints from this source.

In this case, as in so many others,  our success was really our undoing. The Northern Union game, which had been established in England for a number of years, was beginning to find adherents in South Wales. Mutterings and rumours of what it might accomplish in Merthyr were in the air, and then the blow fell, swiftly but none the less surely, for  it was proposed at our next annual meeting of members that we go over to the Northern Union game and so become a professional club. This, happily, after a very stormy meeting, was defeated on a vote, but so small was the majority that it made us, who had been fighting for the old Rugby Club, sit up and gasp. Had we been defeated on the poll it meant the assets of the club, the ground (which had now been improved to practically what it is to-day) and the balance at the bankers going over to the new formation. Thus, it came about that two camps were found in the town: one for the Northern Union, and the one to keep the old guard going.

Here, Mr. Editor, I am going to transgress for a moment and trust that if any of my friends, in reading this, should think I am indulging in recriminations, please banish the thought. In giving this short history, it is necessary to refer briefly to those times of strenuous combat between the rival factions and the bitter enmity it engendered. Happily, this feeling has quite passed away, and now is all harmony and peace.

With commendable energy, the Northern Union section, headed by Messrs. J. B. Evans, the late Bill Harris (schoolmaster), Sam Adams, J. R. Jones (baker) and others got to work to secure a ground, and succeeded in obtaining from the Bolgoed Estate through the Agent (Mr. J. T. Vaughan) the portion then known as the College Field (within a stone’s throw of Penydarren Park). It has ceased to have any attraction for winter sport, but in the summer is a veritable hive of “industry.” It is now the home of that very successful bowling club – the Merthyr West End.

Well, the playing pitch was improved; fixtures were arranged with the leading Northern Clubs, and those were names to conjure with in those days – Halifax, Oldham, Leeds, Huddersfield, Wigan etc., and the few South Wales clubs which went over at the same time. I don’t think they were many, and if my memory is not at fault, I can find them in Aberdare, Barry, Ebbw Vale and Mid Rhondda. These, I believe, comprised the whole. The game took on in Merthyr to a surprising degree, and was, no doubt, a very open and fast game which appealed to all spectators.

To be continued…..