Tag: Lord Wimborne

Merthyr’s Ironmasters: G T Clark – part 1

This article is a transcription from a publication now in the public domain:  Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1901

George Thomas was born in London on 26 May 1809, the eldest son of George Clark (1777–1848), chaplain to the royal military asylum, Chelsea, and Clara, only surviving daughter of Thomas Dicey of Claybrook Hall, Leicestershire, and he was educated at the Charterhouse. Adopting engineering as a profession, he was entrusted by Brunel with the construction of two divisions of the Great Western Railway; the Paddington terminus and the bridges at Basildon and Moulsford being his principal works While thus engaged he compiled ‘A Guide-book to the Great Western Railway, containing some Account of the Construction of the Line, with Notices of the Objects best worth Attention upon its Course’ (London, 1839). This, the first guide to the line, was published officially without his name, and dedicated to Brunel. A more detailed account, which he subsequently wrote, of the geology and archæology of the country traversed by the railway, was published, with numerous illustrations, as ‘The History and Description of the Great Western Railway’ (London, 1846); but the only name attached to it was that of the artist, John C. Bourne.

In about 1843 Clark went to India, where he was employed by the government to report on the sewerage of the native town at Bombay, and afterwards upon the extension of the salt works of the district. Here he advocated the construction of the first railway in India, that from Bombay to Tannah, afterwards merged in the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, for the promoters of which he also reported on the feasibility of an extension through one of the mountain passes of the Sahyadri or Western Ghauts. On account of the climate he declined an offer of the chief engineership of the new line and returned to England. In consequence of an article on sanitary reform which he contributed to the ‘Westminster Review,’ he was appointed a superintending inspector under the Public Health Act, 1848, and reported on the sanitary condition of a large number of towns and districts, in many of which local boards were formed through his efforts. His success as an inspector was recognised by his promotion to be one of the three commissioners which then constituted the general board of health.

Towards the close of 1852 Clark, however, became trustee of the Dowlais Estate and Ironworks, under the will of Sir Josiah John Guest. For some time previously the works had been carried on at a loss; but having procured the necessary capital and induced Henry Austin Bruce (afterwards Lord Aberdare) to share with him the responsibility of the trusteeship, Clark took up his residence at Dowlais and devoted all his energies to the development of the works and the redemption of the estate. As Bruce devoted himself to politics, the whole responsibility of management devolved on Clark alone, whose rare capacity for administration was displayed no less by his rapid mastery of a complicated situation than by his wise selection of heads of departments, chief among whom was his manager, William Menelaus.

© William Menelaus (1818-1882); Hagarty, Parker; Cardiff University; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/william-menelaus-18181882-159291

To Clark and Menelaus belongs the credit of being the first ironmasters to assist (Sir) Henry Bessemer to perfect his process for making malleable iron direct from the ore. The inventor was invited to Dowlais to conduct experiments, with the result that the first rail ever rolled without the intervention of the puddling process was produced at Dowlais. The prompt adoption of Mushet’s further invention enabled Dowlais to be first in the field in the production of steel rails, and to enjoy for some time the monopoly of that trade in Wales. The consequent expansion of the industry, and the difficulty of procuring an adequate supply of suitable ores at home, led Clark, in conjunction with the Consett Iron Company and Messrs. Krupp of Essen, to acquire an extensive tract of iron-ore deposits near Bilbao in Spain.

A Bessemer Converter

To render the works independent of the vicissitudes of the coal trade he also purchased large coal areas, undeveloped for the most part, in Glamorganshire. To save the inland transport he finally procured the establishment, in 1888-91, of furnaces and mills in connection with Dowlais, on the seaboard at Cardiff. He was induced by Lord Wimborne (Ivor Guest, eldest son of Josiah John) to continue his administration of the Dowlais undertakings down to the end of March 1897, though his trusteeship had expired more than twenty years previously. Under his regime Dowlais became in effect a great training school which supplied to similar undertakings elsewhere a much larger number of managers and leading men than any other iron or steel works in the country.

To be continued…….

The Church of St. John the Baptist, Dowlais 

by Carolyn Jacob

The Church of St. John the Baptist, Dowlais was built in 1827, and it is likely that the Dowlais Church was named after its founder and benefactor, Josiah John Guest, iron-master of Dowlais and known as Sir John Guest.

Although brought up a strict Wesleyan Methodist he decided that the religious welfare of the workmen called for a church in Dowlais and that the industrial success of Dowlais called for the establishment of Dowlais as a Parish in its own right. Guest paid £3,000 towards the cost of the building and it was consecrated and opened on 27 November 1827 by Dr Sumner, Bishop of Winchester and former Bishop of Llandaff.

The original St John’s Church. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

Lady Charlotte Guest presented the Church with its Communion vessels and Sir John Guest contributed generously to the maintenance of the clergy at Dowlais; he also supported many chapels in the area. Sir John died in Dowlais on the November, 1852 and a plain Italian marble slab at the top of the Chancel steps still marks where he is buried in St John’s Church. A massive marble columned tablet is inscribed with his epitaph. St. John’s Church thrived and held two services each Sunday, two services in English and also two in Welsh and so it catered for both languages.

Josiah John Guest’s memorial. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

The original Church was a plain, simple, square building with tall windows and a square tower. Gradually the Church has been extended, rebuilt and enlarged.

During the 1890s the main Nave was rebuilt with additions to the aisles to allow room for the growing congregation and enable 800 sittings.The Church was restored at a cost of £4,500 under the direction of the architect E.A. Johnson, who later designed the Merthyr Tydfil Town Hall. Most of the expense was paid by Lord Wimborne, eldest son of the founder Sir John Guest; although a great bazaar in Dowlais raised £1,000 which was a huge amount in those days. The new extended aisle was the gift of Edward Pritchard Martin, General Manager of the Dowlais Iron Company in memory of his father George Martin.

Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

This family also financed the splendid decorative ‘Miner’s Window’ in the Church which show two coal miners digging at a coal face with the caption underneath, ‘The Thing that is hid Bringeth he forth light’. Such an industrial motif in stained glass is quite unusual to be found in a Church.  The bare headed miners, with their picks, candles, and their clothing and boots, present an accurate image of a coal miner (see right).

The interior of St John’s is imposing because of its sheer size. The tall fine oak roof of the Nave is a hammer beam type, supported by 6 larger and 5 smaller corbel tables on each Nave wall. The interior walls are double thick yellow brick. The five plain Early English styled columns with rounded bases can still be seen inset to the new west Nave wall.

Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

The Martin family had charge of the Collieries for the Dowlais Works and the American singer, Donny Osmond, claims descent from this famous Dowlais family, whose Brass plaques and monuments are still in the Church. The enlarged and redesigned Church was opened officially in October 1894 with a special service.

The present Church is a fine structure of Llancaiach blue pennant stone, after the Gothic style of the 13th and 14th centuries.  This wonderful Gothic church has long been a central land mark in Dowlais and has changed little since the late nineteenth century, although the former vestry has been demolished.  St John’s Church is 112 feet in length, with a maximum width of 84 feet and about 60 feet high. The whole construction is of masoned Pennant stone, but the doors and windows are surrounded with lighter coloured ashlar blocks of Forest and Bathstone trimmed with dripstone and moulds. This magnificent church was always perhaps too large for its congregation in this most non-conformist of towns.

The ‘new’ St John’s Church. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

Far less than 10% of the population here attended an Anglican Church. In our more secular times in proved to be too large for its Dowlais Congregation and it closed in 1997. The church is currently undergoing conversion to residential flats which will retain its original fine structure.