Tag: R C Wallhead

My Street – part 3

by Barrie Jones

Chapter Two

Keir Hardie Estate

Keir Hardie Estate is unique for being Merthyr Tydfil’s largest concentration of post war prefabricated buildings. At the time of its construction in 1947/48, the estate was the largest council housing site within the Borough with a total of two-hundred and seventy-six houses. Unique not only for being named after arguably the most well-known British socialist, James Keir Hardie, but also all its streets are named after prominent socialist politicians, thus highlighting the then County Borough’s strong socialist tradition.

It was intended that the new housing estate would have ten shops, a community centre and nursery school. Although the estate was under construction from the winter of 1946/47 it was not until January 1948, that the Housing Committee decided on its name and the names of its first five roads. The record of the committee debate gave no reason for the choice of names, but it clearly indicates the Committee’s pride in the Labour Party and the role of prominent socialists in the provision of social housing. Alderman T. Edmund Rees stated: “There are good names among those chosen, but I would like to see one road called Winston Churchill in recognition of the great war-time leader“. The Mayor, (Claude Stanfield) said “they only become great when they pass on“.

Keir Hardie Estate – James Keir Hardie MP, 1856-1915. Member of Parliament for Merthyr Tydfil, 1900-1915.

Aneurin Crescent – Aneurin Bevan MP 1897-1960. Minister of Health, 1945-1951.

Glasier Road – John Bruce Glasier, 1859-1920. One of the founder members of the Independent Labour Party (ILP).

Jowett Avenue – The Housing Committee agreed to an alternative spelling of the road as Jowitt Avenue. William Allen Jowitt, later Baron Jowitt of Stevenage, 1885-1957. Lord Chancellor, 1945-1951. It is likely that the road was named after him and not Jowett; however, the road name continues to be spelled with an `e’ not an `i’. Frederick William Jowett MP, 1864-1944,

Wallhead Road – Richard Collingham Wallhead MP, 1869-1934. Member of Parliament for Merthyr Tydfil, 1922-1932.

Wheatley Place – John Wheatley MP, 1869-1930. A prominent member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) he was Health Minister in 1924 and was responsible for what was known as the Wheatley Housing Act 1924. The act provided government subsidies to build public housing, created employment in a depressed construction industry and provided homes at affordable rents for low-income families.  By 1933 over half a million council houses had been built in the UK.

The planned shops and community centre never materialised, a new nursery and infants’ school was built near the Incline on the opposite side of Gilfach Cynon on the field known as Gwaun Y Mardy, part of the Mardy farm.  Only one shop was built on the estate, on Glasier Road opposite the entrance to the estate from Twynyrodyn, this was later converted into a Laundromat, and finally into a residential property. In the 1960s further housing was provided on the remaining `greens and the political emphasis on road names continued with these later developments.

Dalton Close – Hugh Dalton, (Baron Dalton P.C) 1887-1962. Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1945-1947.

Greenwood Close – Arthur Greenwood MP, 1880-1954. Minister of Health, 1921-1931.

Aerial view of Keir Hardie estate under construction in the summer of 1947. The ‘green’ between the then unbuilt Jowett Avenue and Wheatley Place can be seen in the centre of the estate.To serve this substantial number of houses a small maintenance depot was built on the spare piece of land near the ‘Twynyrodyn’ entrance to the estate. A small number of Council tradesmen kept the estate in good repair, being so close to their work they were at the almost constant beck and call of tenants. After the construction of the housing estate part of the field structure could still be seen. The open space between Jowett Avenue and Wheatley Place displayed the remnants of hedgerows and fence lines enclosing a small oak wood or copse, the remnant of Cae Pant. This `green’ was dominated by a very large oak tree situated halfway along and near to Jowett Avenue. Two other large oaks were on either end of the `green’. Except for the one oak tree opposite number 12 Jowett Avenue, and another on the further end near the junction of Jowett Avenue and Aneurin Crescent all the trees were cut down when Greenwood Close, the Council’s first Old Aged Pensioners (OAP) sheltered scheme, was constructed on this open site.

The contractor, Gee, Walker, and Slater Ltd. built a total of two hundred and seventy-six properties for this first phase of the estate, ninety-six concrete houses, called Wimpy No Fines, and one hundred and eighty British Iron and Steel Federation houses, (B.I.S.F.), prefabricated steel houses. With later additions to the estate the total number of dwellings increased to three hundred and nineteen, summarised as follows:

Street Number of Houses      
  BISF No. Fines OAP Flats Other Total
Glasier Road 24 61 0 0 1 86
Aneurin Crescent 98 1 0 0 1 100
Wheatley Place 19 3 0 0 0 22
Jowett Avenue 19 0 0 0 0 19
Wallhead Road 20 31 0 0 0 51
Greenwood Close 0 0 27 1 0 28
Dalton Close 0 0 0 10 3 13
Total
 180 96 27 11 5 319

Stanley Beynon J.P. 1893 – 1979

by Malcolm Llywelyn

The distinction of Freedom of the Borough being presented to Stanley Beynon

The distinction of the Freedom of the Borough of Merthyr Tydfil dates from 1907 when David Alfred Thomas, member of parliament for the town was the first recipient of the honour. It is a distinction conferred on those have rendered a valuable service to the Borough of Merthyr Tydfil.  A viscount, a baronet, prime ministers, politicians, sportsmen and businessmen have been among those who have been awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Merthyr Tydfil.

In 1974, Stanley Beynon J.P. was honoured with the Freedom of the Borough of his home town. He lived in a council house in Penydarren and he worked as a miner and  then a school caretaker until his retirement. He was an active member of Nantwen Pit Lodge and the chairman on two occasions during his employment in the mining industry. Stanley Beynon was general secretary of the Merthyr Tydfil Trades Council and the Labour Party in 1930 until his retirement from office in 1968. In 1932, he was parliamentary agent to Mr. R.C. Wallhead  M.P. and held the same position for his close friend Mr. S.O. Davies M.P. for over 30 years. He also fulfilled the role of Justice of the Peace from 1934. In 1953, Stanley Beynon was awarded the Trades Union Congress Silver Medal of Merit for his long and dedicated service to the Trade Union Movement.

“Man of the people,”  Stanley Beynon was a counsellor, an advocate and facilitator for those in need in his community.

The admission of Mr. Stanley Beynon J.P. as an Honorary Freeman of the County Borough of Merthyr Tydfil on 22nd March 1974 was conferred on him with the following words:

“In Mr. Stanley Beynon the Council recognise a person who has made a notable contribution to the trade union and political life of the County Borough of Merthyr Tydfil over a period of almost forty years.”    

 

R. C. Wallhead, M.P.

Following on from the last post, we’ll have a look at S O Davies’ predecessor as Merthyr’s Member of Parliament – R C Wallhead.

Richard Christopher Wallhead (he later changed his middle name to Collingham) was born in London on 28 December 1869. He was educated at St Edward’s Elementary School at Romford before beginning his career as a clerk with the Great Eastern Railway. He then re-trained as a decorator and designer.

Remembering some of the privations of his youth, he became increasing drawn towards socialism, and he joined the Independent Labour Party, under the leadership of Keir Hardie, becoming an active member, and was noted as a successful orator on behalf of the party. In 1906 he was appointed manager of the ‘Labour Leader’, the official publication of the party. With the headquarters of the publication housed in Manchester, Wallhead moved to the city, eventually becoming a member of Manchester City Council in 1919, this despite the fact that, as a committed opponent of World War I, he was detained in 1917 under the Defence of the Realm Act, following an anti-war speech he delivered in South Wales.

Wallhead unsuccessfully contested Coventry in the 1918 general election for the Labour Party, to which the I.L.P. was affiliated, but was elected as chairman of the Party in 1920. In 1921 he resigned his seat on the Manchester City Council to devote his time to his own political career, and to the administrative affairs of the Party.

In 1920 he represented the I.L.P. on the British Labour delegation to Russia to investigate conditions there, where he met Lenin. He would subsequently visit Russia again in 1925.

British Labour delegation to Russia. Wallhead is in the centre.

In 1922, he contested his former mentor, Keir Hardie’s seat at Merthyr. The previous incumbent Edgar Rees Jones, the Liberal candidate, chose not to stand for re-election, and Wallhead, standing as a Labour candidate beat his only rival in the election, the Independent candidate, Richard Mathias, with 53% of the vote. He was subsequently one of only five I.L.P. M.P.s to retain their seats in the 1931 general election, after Labour withdrew their support, and he initially supported the party’s disaffiliation from Labour.

In 1933, however, Wallhead, having become increasing disillusioned with the I.L.P.’s gravitation towards the Soviet policies of violence since its cessation from the Labour Party the previous year, resigned from the I.L.P and joined the Labour Party.

By this time however, concern had been growing for a few years about Wallhead’s health, and he died at his home in Welwyn Garden City on 27 April 1934. Following his death, Clement Attlee, the then acting head of the Labour Party said:

“Dick Wallhead will be mourned by many thousands in the Labour Movement, for he was a man who sacrificed himself to the cause of Socialism….There was no more popular and effective exponent of Socialism than Wallhead in the days when the foundations of the Labour Party were being laid.”