From the Cardiff & Merthyr Guardian 180 years ago today….
Taff Vale Railway
Tag: Quakers Yard
Merthyr’s Bridges: A New Bridge at Quakers’ Yard
The article transcribed below appeared in the Merthyr Express 100 years go today…
QUAKERS’ YARD BRIDGE.
A GREAT AND MUCH NEEDED IMPROVEMENT.
MAYOR OF MERTHYR PERFORMS THE OPENING CEREMONY.
In the presence of about 5.000 people, the Mayor of Merthyr (Councillor F. A. Phillips) on Thursday afternoon opened the splendid bridge of reinforced concrete. built by the Corporation at Quakers’ Yard, by cutting a silken ribbon with a pair of silver scissors presented to him by the contractor. Major Rugg of Westminster. Afterwards the Mayor and his party of Aldermen Councillors and friends, drove across the bridge and declared the same open for traffic, after which the children of Woodland School passed across in procession carrying flags.
At a meeting subsequently held the Mayor said:-
Ladies and Gentlemen.—The history of the reinforced concrete bridge which I am privileged to open today dates back as far as 1909, at which time the Town Clerk received a letter from the Road Board stating that advances were available from the Development and Road Improvement Fund in respect of works to highways.
In December, 1910. Councillor Edward Edwards moved a resolution that the attention of the Corporation should he called to the state of the Quakers’ Yard Bridge, and the Borough Engineer, Mr. Harvey, was instructed to report upon a scheme for widening the old structure. In January, 1911, plans were submitted showing the widening of the bridge to 28 feet between the parapets at an estimated cost of £250, and the Council gave instructions for detailed drawings to be prepared, but the matter deferred owing to the difficulties experienced in negotiating with the land owners.
There was now a lapse of ten years before the question was revived, as in January, 1921, two schemes were submitted for the Corporation’s consideration. Scheme No. 1 was for a proposed widening of the old bridge on both sides, destroying the existing arch and constructing in lieu thereof a concrete decking over the river. This proposal was intended to lower the level of the roadway and thus improve the dangerous inclination towards Mill-street. The estimated cost of this work was £1,350.
Scheme No. 2 proposed to entirely divert the main road filling in the Friends Burial-ground and adjoining meadow, culverting the Taff Bargoed for the width of the roadway, together with the necessary masonry wing walls. This proposal was specially recommended to the Council, and sub-committee who visited the site unanimously adopted the same, and abandoned all former proposals as inadequate. The estimated cost of this work was £4,200, the intention being to carry out the necessary filling by tipping house refuse obtained from Treharris and Quakers’ Yard.
When the committee’s resolution was brought before the Council an amendment to the scheme was proposed anti carried on the grounds that the interference with the burial ground was objectionable.
The improvement was again deferred until July, 1922. when the Ministry of Transport intimated to the Corporation that they were prepared to consider schemes of road improvement which would find useful employment for the unemployed during the autumn and winter of 1922-1923. In the same month the Borough Engineer submitted plans and estimates for various road improvements and diversions. one of which was the subject of our meeting to-day.
In view of the trend of former discussions a new line of diversion was chosen and plans prepared showing the non-interference with the Friends Burial-ground, but which involved the removal of the dwelling known as Hawthorn Cottage. The scheme was approved by the Ministry of Transport, and tenders were invited for carrying out the work. The width of roadway was intended to be 30 feet, being 24 feet of carriage-way and one six feet footpath.
When considering the tenders the committee after careful deliberations came to the conclusion that a wider structure would be advantageous, and eventually a 39-feet unit carriage -way with two 5-feet paths, was definitely decided upon.
Messrs. Lewis Rugg and Co., whose tender for the narrower scheme had been provisionally accepted, were asked to quote for the widened structure, and after examples of their work had been seen and approved of they were entrusted with the contract.
The bridge, which has a length of 360 feet, is comprised of 10 spans, each of 30 feet. and one span over the Taff Bargoed of 45 feet, together with a skew span at the lower extremity. The height of the spans vary between 12 feet and 24 feet above the ground level, whilst the river span is 26 feet shove the normal flow of the water. The carriageway on the bridge has a gradient of 1 in 36, and the kerb level of the outer side of the curve is super elevated to the extent of 7½ inches.
The work was commenced in January of this year, so it will he observed that no time has been lost in getting ever many difficulties which have presented themselves. The structure was tested in presence of a Ministry of Transport Official yesterday, when the following trains were passed over the bridge at a speed of six mike per hour: No. 1. a train composed of two 13-ton steam rollers, two 11-ton steam rollers, and two 4-ton lorries; No. 2. two trains composed of two 13-ton rollers side by side, two 11-ton rollers side by side, two 4-ton lorries side by side: No. 3. trains as in test No. 2, passing in opposite directions. the 13-ton rollers passing each other at the centre of the bridge. The deflection as observed by instrument at three points – one at the centre of the 45-feet span and two at the centres of the 30 feet spans, was negligible, which is highly satisfactory.
The general scheme was designed and the specification and conditions of contract prepared by Mr. A. J. Marshall, Borough Engineer, whilst Messrs. Lewis Rugg and Co., Westminster. were responsible for the carrying out of the work. The cost of the bridge and appurtenant work is £8,650.
Merthyr Express 3 October 1925
Merthyr’s Lost Landmarks: High Street Railway Station
by Carolyn Jacob
At one time most immigrants to Merthyr Tydfil simply walked unless they got a lift on a farm cart, but the few roads were poor. The early Iron-master, Anthony Bacon, built the first direct road between Merthyr Tydfil and Cardiff. The transportation of bulky iron products to the sea ports led to the building of the Glamorganshire Canal. The locomotives and trains of no less than six railway companies ran into the Merthyr station which had the title of ‘High Street’ rather than the more common ‘Central’.
The Taff Vale Railway had been first to arrive in Merthyr with a line from Cardiff and Pontypridd to their Plymouth Street station in 1841, followed by the Vale of Neath in 1853, soon to be taken over by the Great Western. These were followed by the Brecon & Merthyr whose operations stretched down to Newport and the London & North Western with their line from Abergavenny. The final arrivals were the Rhymney Railway with access provided from Quakers Yard by their joint line with the GWR, while the Cambrian Railway had running powers through to Merthyr. In 1922 all were absorbed by the GWR.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was involved in railway projects here. ‘The railway sets you down in Merthyr at precisely the quaintest centre of the old town. There is an ancient atmosphere pervading‘, wrote Wirt Sikes, an American, in 1880. In 1856 Prince Louis Bonaparte arrived at the High Street station. On 1 April 1944, the King and Queen and Princess Elizabeth took the Royal train from the High Street station. Thousands of rails were manufactured here and the Dowlais Works sold rails to Russia, America and India. However, a hundred years ago the local Sunday trip or holiday was only to Pontsarn or the Brecon Beacons. During the Second World War many evacuees arrived by train. One evacuee wrote in a letter home; ‘we watch the trains arriving into Merthyr Tydfil railway station from the top of the slag heaps’.
In its heyday, the striking timbered roof, five operational platforms and more than 80 members of staff, ensured Merthyr High Street Station was in a class of its own. It had excellent facilities. There were refreshment rooms where first-class passengers could buy breakfast for 1s 6d. In 1945 the ticket boxes were open continuously except for 1.45pm to 2.45pm on Sundays and 12.30am to 4am on Mondays. There were toilets and brightly coloured advertisements for products such as Bovril and Venos’ Cough Cure. The waiting rooms were a pleasure to sit in, with large coal fires and plenty of seats. The station was kept litter-free and clean. High Street station cleaner Margaret Pritchard was so conscientious keeping the Merthyr Station spick and span that she accidentally polished over important finger prints after a robbery.
In the 1960s young fighters trained by former boxer Eddie Thomas would weigh on the scales in the goods depot at the station, the most accurate scales in town. The station a centre for local sporting life, filled with the sound of cooing racing pigeons and the raucous barking of whippet dogs. In 1953, after 98 years, the roof designed by Brunel was removed and in 1987 the fire-ravaged goods shed at the station was demolished.
In the 1960s Merthyr lost nearly all its passenger services except the Taff Vale route to Cardiff. In 1971 and new station building was erected but it was a shadow of its former self. The official opening of the present new Merthyr Railway Station was February 1996 by Councillor Ray Thomas. The new station which cost £500,000 to build was funded by the sale of the old station just 120 metres away.
A New Urban Area
From the Evening Express 110 years ago today….
Merthyr Tydfil in 1803 – part 1
From: The Scenery, Antiquities and Biography of South Wales, from material collected during two excursions in the year 1803. Volume 1, by Benjamin Heath Malkin (1807)
Pages 251-253:
After descending the mountain, my road lay to the left in the vale near Gelligaer, where the memorable battle was fought after Fitzhamon’s conquest which proved to the Normans, at their cost, how dearly the natives loved their Liberty and how deeply they resented its loss. The next deviation was up a steep ascent, winding round suddenly on a height that overlooks the Quakers Yard with all its romantic scenery. This is, on the whole, perhaps the most singular spot in the Vale of Taff. The Quakers Yard is now a burial ground belonging to that sect. It is a spot of ground enclosed by a wall, but without any kind of house or other shelter. This was for a long time the place where the original Catabaptists performed their worship; and even to this day, or till very lately, there are or have been, occasional meetings for divine service here among the Quakers. It is about 6 miles lower in the Vale and Merthyr Tydfil. Directly beyond it, on the curiously-contrived Turnpike road from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff, is a bridge over the Bargoed Taff River, just at its junction with the Taff; the banks of which have here acquired there woody character, while the valley on each side is choked up by mountains.
The road carried over a precipice, exhibits the eccentricities of nature in all their extent and variety. I have been informed that the direct journey from the Quakers Yard till within a mile or two of Merthyr Tydfil was over a continued range of mountainous and unrelieved barrenness. I determined therefore to take a circuitous route; and for that purpose, bent my steps, near the feeder to the canal, towards New Bridge, by which direction, at different times, I completely explored the richer part of this delicious vale. At the aqueduct, where the canal is carried over the river, an iron railroad for the present ends; and from the wharf at this place the canal is the only conveyance for heavy goods to Cardiff. The length of it, as far as it has already been completed, is about 10 miles but it was designed to have extended from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff; and it is said that one horse would have been able to draw 40 tons of iron the whole distance of 26 miles in one day. I understand, however, that it is not likely to be finished; and indeed it is much more necessary where it is now made, from the occasional want of water, than lower down, where the confluence of many and copious dreams affords and more certain supply to the canal.
The wonders of art in this neighbourhood almost rival those of nature. There are just here 18 locks on the canal in the space of one mile, 11 of which follow each other in such immediate succession, as to occupy only one quarter of that mile. After pursuing this interesting part of the road nearly as far as New Bridge, I returned over the aqueduct into the vale of Cynon or Aberdare.
To be continued……..
New Ration Books
From the Merthyr Express 80 years ago today…..
Never too old!!!
From the Merthyr Express 70 years ago today….
Merthyr in the Tudor Period
In 1540, an English traveller, John Leland, spent some time travelling through Wales. Luckily, he kept an account of his journey, the relevant part about the Merthyr area is transcribed below.
“Merthyr Tydfil is in the commote of Senghenydd Uwch Caiach which is in the cantref of Eweinlwg. To go from east to west in the highest part of Glamorganshire towards the roots of the Black Mountains, is a sixteen mile of wild ground almost all.
Uwch Caiach stretcheth up to Taf by the east bank from Caiach to Morlays Castelle (sic), and two miles upward by north-north-east to Cae Drain, where the boundary is between Upper Monmouthshire, Breconshire and the Uwch Caiach part of Senghenydd.
Morlays Castelle standeth in a good valley of corn and grass and is on the right bank of the Morlays Brook*. This castle is a ruin and belongs to the King. Morlays Brook……comes out of the Breconshire hills, near Upper Monmouthshire and to Morlays Castelle, and about a mile lower in the parish called Merthyr it goeth into the east bank of the Taf.
There is a hill called Cefn Glas**, and stands between Cynon and Taf. This is the boundary between Miscin (sic) and Senghenydd. The ground between Cynon and Pennar is hilly and woody.
The water of the Taf cometh so down from woody hills and often bringeth down such log and trees, that the country would not be able to rebuild the bridges if they were stone, for they are so often broken.”
* Actually the Taf Fechan River
** Part of the Aberdare Mountain which overlooks Quakers Yard
Merthyr’s Lost Landmarks: St Cynon’s Church, Quaker’s Yard
Today marks the 160th anniversary of the opening of St Cynon’s Church in Quaker’s Yard. Unfortunately, it is yet another Merthyr landmark that has disappeared into the ether.
With the growth of the iron industry in Merthyr, the population ‘down the valley’ also increased due to subsequent developments associated with the industry. Foremost amongst these was the development of the Glamorganshire Canal which passed near to Quakers’ Yard. The small church at Llanfabon soon became too small to accommodate the burgeoning congregation, so it was decided, with the backing of Thomas Shepherd Esq., the General Manager of the Glamorganshire Canal to build a new church.
The site for the new church, on a commanding position overlooking the River Taff (now Fiddler’s Elbow), was given by Baroness Windsor, the landowner, and the foundation stones were laid on 18 July 1861. The new building, which measured 73ft by 22ft, was designed by Messrs Pritchard and Suddon, architects, of Llandaff, and the contractor assigned to carry out the work was Mr Richard Mathias. The Gothic style church was built of local Blue Pennant sandstone from the Park and Pandy Quarry in Trelewis, with Bath stone dressing, and comprised of a chancel, nave, south porch and belfry. There was also a small vestry at the north side of the east end. The church could seat 200 people, and in total cost £4,820, which included stained glass windows and an American organ. It was officially opened on 10 July 1862, and was consecrated the following year.
Above the main entrance to the church was a sculpture depicting Jesus as the Good Shepherd, with the inscription ‘I give unto them eternal life’ (right). Local legend says that the sculpture was the work of a tramp who was passing through the area.
In 1876, enough funds had been raised to build a school. It was used as both a Sunday School and as a National School to educate the children of the area. The school continued to operate until 1949, and at the time of its closure was the last Church School in the Borough.
In its heyday, St Cynon’s boasted its own brass band and football club, but as the congregation dwindled, the church was forced to close on 9 March 1986. Over the next few years the church fell into disrepair and was vandalised on several occasion, and in late 1989 the Church authorities decided to demolish the building. When the church was demolished, the sculpture of ‘Good Shepherd’ was saved and is now in the porch at St Matthias Church in Treharris.
Quakers’ Yard – A Potted History
In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson’s Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Quakers’ Yard like this:
“QUAKERS-YARD, a village in the E of Glamorgan; on the river Taff at the influx of the Bargoed, adjacent to the Taff Vale Extension railway, at the junction of the branch to Hirwain, 7½ miles S S E of Merthyr-Tydvil. It took its name from an old burying-place of Quakers; stands in a fine curve of the valley, engirt all round by hills; and has a station with telegraph at the railway junction.”
The village of Quakers’ Yard was originally known as ‘Rhyd y Grug’ or ‘The Ford of the Rustling Waters’, grew up at the confluence of the Taff Bargoed River and the River Taff, and the name was derived from the fact that the Taff was quite shallow here and there had been a ford crossing the river at this point. The village later became known by its more usual name because of the Quaker burial ground that was erected in the village (see previous article – http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=5069).
Quaker’s Yard was, until the second half of the 19th century, a quiet rural spot. There was a corn mill, Melin Caiach and a small woollen mill on the banks of the Taff Bargoed, as well as a small scattering of houses. With the building of a bridge across the Taff to replace the ford, the village could even boast two inns – the Quakers’ Yard Inn and the Glantaff Inn.
The Industrial Revolution, of course, changed all that. Soon the coal trade totally revolutionized the nature of the environment, creating booming and burgeoning communities like nearby Treharris and Trelewis. The link to Quakerism remained strong. Treharris was named after William Harris, a Quaker businessman whose family owned a fleet of steam ships, while streets in the new towns were named after famous Quakers such as William Penn and George Fox.
Religion in the village wasn’t confined to Quakerism. In 1831, members of Groeswen Chapel in Caerphilly broke away from their chapel and built and Welsh Independent Chapel called Soar in the village, The Welsh Independents also built Libanus in 1833 and the Welsh Baptists built Berthlwyd in 1841. There was also a Welsh Wesleyan chapel – Horeb, and a Primitive Methodist chapel – Ebenezer. Finally, in 1862, the Anglicans opened St Cynon’s Church at Fiddler’s Elbow.
In 1858 the Quaker’s Yard High Level station was opened. Together with the village’s Low Level station this created a lively and bustling railway junction where passengers could embark for places like Merthyr and Aberdare and coal could be dispatched down the valley to the docks at Cardiff. In 1840 the engineer – and guiding force behind the Great Western Railway – Isambard Kingdom Brunel began work on a six-arched viaduct across the River Taff. While the High Level station closed in 1964, the viaduct is still there, carrying traffic from Merthyr to Cardiff.
As the village grew so schools were built here or in the surrounding area. In 1894, the borough’s infamous Truant School was built in Quakers’ Yard, and in 1906, the Woodlands Junior School was built along the river Taff; 70 years later the building was used for a Welsh Medium Junior School, Ysgol Cymraeg Rhyd y Grug. After the First World War, Merthyr Tydfil acquired some prefab buildings for a new secondary school and on the 2 May 1922 Quakers’ Yard Grammar School officially opened by Mayor David Davies, although this wasn’t actually situated in the village, but in Edwardsville.
Perhaps the most famous man to emerge from Quaker’s Yard was the world flyweight boxing champion Jimmy Wilde (right) who was born in the village in 1892. Known as ‘the ghost with a hammer in his hand’, Wilde fought an amazing 864 bouts, losing only four of them, and reigned as champion between 1916 and 1921 (see previous article – http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=150).