The Heritage and Culture of Merthyr Tydfil
The Merthyr Tydfil & District Historical Society is pleased to announce its forthcoming World War I themed History Day at the Labour Club on Saturday 22 April 2023
All are welcome.
Booking is essential – if you would like to come along, please contact me at the e-mail address below or at merthyr-history@gmail.com.
Below is a marvellous aerial photograph of the Court Street area taken in 1965. Whilst a lot of the buildings shown remain, quite a number have gone. Some of the more important buildings have been labelled (many thanks to Christine & Kenneth Brewer, Keith Lewis-Jones, Carl Llewellyn & Joan Newman for clarifying a number of details).
How many of these buildings do you remember?
How many of you have either visited, or driven past Merthyr Labour Club and not realised that it is actually the old Court House – one of the oldest buildings in Merthyr?
The main building that stands today was built in 1717, but there is evidence that there was a building on the site as far back as the 12th Century. During renovations at the house in the 1700’s, an old carved oak bedstead was found in a room in the cellar with the letters MCL carved into it – the Roman numerals for 1150.
Some sources say that the ancient house was the site of the 12th Century Court of the Welsh Prince, Ifor Bach, and it is said that it was actually from the Court House that Llewelyn Bren, great-grandson of Ifor Bach, set out in 1316 with 10,000 armed men to face Payne de Turberville of Coity, who had cheated him out of the position granted him by the Earl of Gloucester. The house passed down through the descendents of Llewelyn’s brother Gruffydd.
The house subsequently passed through the hands of several families. Records show the house was occupied by the Ifor family in Elizabethan times, and a Mr Edward Lewis owned the house until he left in 1717 to build a manor house near Caerphilly. The house was then bought by the Rees family of Llanelli and rebuilt in 1717.
The new house was built of local stone, enlarged and had new windows built, and a description of the building in 1787 described it as looking like a large farmhouse, surrounded as it was at the time by green fields. In 1827, the house (and the attached 172 acre estate) was bought by Dr William Thomas, the prominent local magistrate. The estate would go on to be developed and named Thomastown in his honour.*
The house, after again passing through a number of families, was rented by Dr William Edwards in the late 1800’s and converted into a private school for young ladies run by the Misses Edwards.
In 1908 the building was leased to a syndicate “…for the purpose of providing accommodation for artisans and other working men” (Cardiff Times – 14 March 1908). The accommodation was to house 100 single men in cubicles in the 12 bedrooms, and a bathroom containing six baths was installed.
The building was eventually converted into the Merthyr Labour Club, and although it has been modernised, some of the old features still remain, including the old front door and several fireplaces on the upper floors.
*If anyone would like to find out more about Dr William Thomas, I would urge you to read the excellent book ‘Doctor Thomas of the Court’ by prominent local historian Wilf Owen.
If you would like a copy of the book, please get in touch and I will pass all enquiries on to Wilf Owen.