Tag: Quakers Yard Technical School

John Alistair Owen: The Last Manager of the Dowlais Works

by Carolyn Jacob

John Alistair Owen, was a local man who was born in Tramroadside North, Merthyr Tydfil in 1936. There are pictures of him as a child taking part in a concert to raise money for the Merthyr Express ‘Spitfire Fund’.

The Tramroadside North children raising money for the Spitfire fund. John Owen is second from left in front row.

He attended the Quaker’s Yard Technical School and went on to an engineering apprenticeship in Walsall. Following a short period in England, he returned home and joined the former GKN Works (Ivor Works) in Dowlais as a design draughtsman in 1958 and remained there through the BSC years until closure in 1988. Although his high powered job took him to India, the USA and other countries, he was always anxious to return to his family and to Dowlais. He was devoted to his career and to the Dowlais Works. He fought hard to keep the Dowlais Works open but finally had to negotiate its closure; although he was proud of the fact that Dowlais always successfully made a profit throughout its long history.

From his school days, he developed a keen interest in old photographs. In the Dowlais drawing office surrounded by the records of the Dowlais Works, he came to develop a keen interest in its history. When his book ‘A Short History of the Dowlais Iron Works’ was first printed in 1973 Dowlais was still exporting iron all over the world. John Owen was co-founder of the Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society and active supporters of the Heritage Trust and the Dowlais Male Voice Choir. He became the authority on the history of the Dowlais Works and the community which grew up around it.

John Owen in 1974. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive.

He built up a large personal collection of photographs on Dowlais; gathering together pictures loaned by local people and also the private collection of the Works and engineering institutes. He produced a number of picture books, these included ‘Dowlais Works and Town’, and four popular books of local pictures published by the Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society. A number of exhibitions in Dowlais Library, containing around 300 photographs each, were financed from his own pocket and these pictures are now all held by the library. He felt that the Dowlais Works had been good to him and so he wanted to give something back to the people of Dowlais, showing them how their ancestors lived and how the environment had changed over the centuries.

When he started giving illustrated slide lectures in Dowlais Library, organised by the librarian David Watkins, there was always a full capacity audience with hardly ever even standing room at the back. Due to their popularity, these talks were extended to numerous locations and continued throughout his life. History and local photographs were his main interests but John still found the time to apply his business acumen in assisting the Merthyr Tydfil Institute for the Blind on a voluntary basis and, after joining the Board in 1991, he became its vice-chairman.

He was a good friend to Merthyr Tydfil Libraries, providing support and advice. John A. Owen, the last works manager of BSC Dowlais, was a keen rugby fan and he sadly died in 1998; only ten minutes into the International between Wales and Ireland in Dublin. He has been greatly missed but he left a large legacy of Dowlais photographs behind him which the late Alan George, with the blessing of John’s widow, Mair, made digital copies of future generations to enjoy and study.

Merthyr Memories: Merthyr’s Railways

by Kenneth Brewer

The railway has played an important part in Merthyr’s history, but also in my own personal history.

My earliest memory of the railway stems from the beginning of the Second World War when the evacuees arrived in Merthyr. Quite a number of them came to live in Abercanaid, and I remember them arriving at the old Abercanaid Station. I don’t remember any details however, as I was only a small child myself at the time.

Abercanaid Station. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

I have many more memories of Abercanaid Station – it is where we would start out on our annual holiday to stay with my father’s auntie at Castlemorton near Malvern. This wasn’t a straightforward journey – we started out in Abercanaid, changed at Quakers Yard, and again at Pontypool before catching the train to Malvern, and then a bus journey to Castlemorton. The great excitement of the journey was going over Crumlin Viaduct – it was so high and so rickety-looking there was always a sense of trepidation mixed in with the excitement.

My other childhood memory of Abercanaid Station was having to catch the train from there to Quakers Yard to go to school at Quakers Yard Technical School. After a while I came to realise that from where I lived in Pond Row, I could watch the train passing Rhydycar Junction, and if I ran like the clappers I could make it to Abercanaid Station in time to catch my train. Little did I realise in those days that I would end up working on the railway.

I started my career working on the railway in November 1952, and ended up working there for almost 50 years. I first started working at Merthyr Railway Station as a carriage oiler and greaser.

Merthyr Railway Station. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

The old Merthyr Station bears no resemblance to the small station we have today. Originally designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, by the 1950’s, Merthyr Station had five platforms and was covered by a huge glass roof. There were two waiting rooms (ladies and general), and also a refreshment room. There were many staff there, including the stationmaster and his clerk, four booking office clerks, two inspectors, seven or eight porters, Mrs Watley who announced the trains, and many others. I particularly remember Mrs Pritchard who was a cleaner – she lived to the grand old age of 106.

A plan of the old Merthyr Station

I left Merthyr Station to do my National Service, and having completed it, I went to work at Dowlais Caeharris Station. I trained as an examiner (or a wheel-tapper as it was called), and my job was to examine passenger rolling stock at Caeharris and Dowlais Central Stations, as well as freight rolling stock at the Ivor Works and the ICI Factory. Although much smaller than Merthyr, Caeharris was a very busy station, and in the time I worked there, there were four people in my department (Carriage & Wagon) as well as a stationmaster, booking clerk, two porters and four carriage cleaners.

Dowlais Caeharris Station. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

Whilst I was at Caeharris Station, Dr Richard Beeching, chairman of the British Railways Board, produced his report to streamline Britain’s railway system. This resulted in the closure of dozens of railway lines and hundreds of stations. Caeharris Station was one of the casualties, and Merthyr’s railway network was decimated. I returned to work at Merthyr Station, and one of my lasting memories of that time was catching the last goods train from Brecon to Merthyr – a very poignant occasion. Merthyr Station eventually closed to be replaced by a smaller building, and my job moved at that time from Merthyr to Pontypridd.

Looking back on the way the railways played such a pivotal role in Merthyr’s history, and thinking of the different lines and stations there were in the borough, it is sad to see what we have lost – all in the name of progress.