Union Street (Thomastown) – The Melting Pot

Family Firsts

by Barrie Jones

My paternal Grand-parents, Caradog and Margaret Jones, lived at number 12 Union Street, Thomastown, Merthyr Tydfil. Occasionally, in the early 1950’s when attending St Mary’s infant school in Morgantown, my grandmother would look after me in the late afternoon until my Mother or Father were able to call in and collect me for home. By then, my two older brothers were attending St Mary’s primary school in Court Street; presumably they were old enough to fend for themselves but not to look after me. So, instead of getting off the school bus to the stop at Penuel Chapel, Twynyrodyn, a short walk away from my house on the Keir Hardie Estate, I would get off at the stop by the Brunswick public house in Church Street, which was just around the corner from my grandparents house.

My Grandfather, (Dad), was born in Troedyrhiw and was a coal miner for all his working life. Firstly, for Hills Plymouth Collieries, and in the years close to his retirement in 1961 his last pit was Aberpergwm drift/slant mine, near Glyn-neath. In those later days, Dad was a haulier, guiding his pit pony that pulled the dram full of anthracite coal from the coal face to the pit surface. On one occasion when staying at Nan & Dad’s, I recall him being brought home by ambulance after having received a bump on the head from a minor roof fall at the mine. He was sitting in his chair by the kitchen fire with his head bandaged and with a vacant look on his face, which I now know to have been a severe case of concussion.

My Grandmother, (Nan), supplemented the family income by ‘taking in’ travelling salesmen and theatrical artists, (see ‘A Full House’ http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=3526 & http://www.merthyr-history.com/?p=3527), as well as helping to pay towards the purchase of the house, this extra income allowed my grandparents to buy some luxury goods. Nan held accounts in several shops in the town.

One, in particular, was Goodall’s Ltd., which was located on the corner of Masonic Street and High Street, on the opposite corner to the Eagle Inn. In the 1940’s Goodall sold general merchandise but over the following decades concentrated more and more on electrical goods and lighting. Nan’s account there, allowed her to buy items on extended purchase and a number of what may be called prestige electrical items were bought over the years.

Above and preceding photo – Goodall’s Ltd in 1947. Photos courtesy of the Alan George archive

The most memorable item Nan purchased was a television set, fitted in a fine wooden cabinet with a ten inch screen, which was placed pride of place in the front sitting room. Staying at Nan’s meant that I could watch the BBC’s Watch With Mother fifteen minute programme for children, before being collected for home. ‘Watch with Mother’ was initially broadcast from 3.45 pm and marked the start of BBC’s television’s broadcast for the day. If I stayed later I would watch the older children’s programmes that were broadcast up to 6.00 pm. Up until 1956 there was a programme free slot between 6.00 and 7.00 pm, known as the ‘Toddler’s Truce’, from that year onwards the ‘Television Ratings War’ with commercial television had well and truly begun. Television was such a novelty then that even the ‘interludes’ would be watched avidly no matter how many times they were broadcast. Memorable interludes were the ‘potter’s wheel’ and the ‘kitten’s playing with balls of wool’. The first television in our house came much later in the 1950s, courtesy of Rediffusion’s wired relay network that was installed throughout the Keir Hardie Estate. Similar to my Nan’s, the set had a ten inch screen in a wooden cabinet on which we could sample the delights of commercial television’s advertisements and their jingles, such as Murray Mints, the “too good to hurry mints”.

I recall that my Nan’s next big purchase was a radio-gram, again installed in the front room, this was a large cabinet with the radio on the right hand side, and, on the left was the gramophone with a drop system for the single 78s, large heavy records that made a crashing noise when they dropped on to the turntable. Between the radio and gramophone was a compartment for holding a small number of records. Among the records there were some by the tenor singer Malcolm Vaughan (1929-2010), formally James Malcolm Thomas. Although born in Abercynon, he moved to 63 Yew Street, Troedyrhiw, when a young boy. This was not my first introduction to gramophones, in our house we had a large ‘up-right’ gramophone with built-in speaker and storage cupboard below. However, Nan’s was the first powered by electricity and her records were far more up to date!

Another of Nan’s luxury purchases was a Goblin Teasmade, which was placed on the bedside table in my grandparent’s bedroom, presumably on my Nan’s side of the bed! Apparently, still manufactured today but now far more sophisticated than the machine of the 1950’s. The Teasmade was a combined clock, kettle and teapot, the clock’s alarm would start the heating element in the water filled kettle, once boiled, the hot water would be transferred into the teapot, ready for that early morning cuppa. Strange that such a modern contraption was kept alongside a bed that hid a chamber-pot underneath.

Having a television on the day of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (2nd June 1953) must have improved my Nan’s street cred. Then what family, friends and neighbours who could squeeze into the front sitting room, watched the televised ceremony. I was four at the time and probably I was more interested in the street party that followed and so I can’t recall watching the coronation itself. I can recall sitting with my mother, and my brothers and baby sister at the head of the long row of tables near to my grandparent’s house. All the children were given ‘Corona’ Red Indian headdresses and mine had fallen off my head just before the picture above was taken.

The street’s residents had decorated their front parlour windows with patriotic bunting and pictures, and the photograph to the right shows my mother standing by the decorated front window of number 13 Union Street, Mr & Mrs Bray’s house. I also recall that there were some street races for the children with small prizes given by one of Nan’s ‘regulars’ who was lodging at Nan’s house at the time.

It is more than likely that in the next decade another coronation will be held and I wonder if my grand-children will remember that ceremony in their later life.

Good Housekeeping – How to Manage your Coal Shed

by Barrie Jones

Coal is a ‘dirty’ fuel and its emissions are partly responsible for air pollution and global warming with their adverse impact upon our health and climate change. Strange that 50 years ago coal was the primary domestic fuel for our heating needs. Since the mid 1970s I have not lived in a house with a coal fire and my sons have no knowledge of how to light or manage one. As well as knowing how to clean a fire grate and light a fire, there was one other thing I learned when helping bring in my grandfather’s concessionary coal delivery; that was how to manage your coal shed efficiently.

At my parent’s house on the Keir Hardie Estate coal was delivered by the coalman by the sack full and was dropped unceremoniously into the coal bunker. Over the weeks as the coal pile diminished, scrabbling about for suitable sized lumps of coal amongst the ‘small’ coal became ever more difficult. It was so much easier in my grandfather’s coal shed with his system of coal storage.

The concessionary coal scheme was a perquisite for all employees of the National Coal Board (NCB) as part of their contract of employment. The concession had been in existence long before the nationalisation of the coal industry in January 1947, with individual mines, lodges or districts negotiating schemes as part of their wage bargaining. Attempts were made in the 1950s to standardise the various schemes within the industry but with little success as some districts faced a reduction to their existing arrangements. I am not sure how much coal my grandfather received each year or how many deliveries it needed. In 1951 it was estimated that some district schemes provided about 10 tons per year.

The concession still persists today as the Government’s National Concessionary Fuel Scheme (NCFS). The Government became legally required to implement the scheme in 1994 following the privatisation of the coal industry. The scheme provides free solid fuel or a cash allowance for fuel for ex employees of the NCB or British Coal Corporation (BCC). Widows or widowers of ex employees are eligible to receive free fuel or cash allowances. Fuel is delivered on average about every 4 to 5 weeks, while cash allowances are paid every three months. In 2010, nationally, there were about 15,400 recipients of free fuel and 68,700 recipients of cash allowances, an overall total of just 84,000 recipients! Then the average annual quantity of fuel was 4 tons at an average cost of £1,400. It is estimated that the scheme will eventually peter out by 2064 on the deaths of the final recipients. The demise of the coal industry accelerated over the 40 years after the Second World War. In 1921 in south Wales alone there were 270,000 miners, and at the onset of nationalisation in 1946 there were 116,000 miners in Wales.

Dad (Caradog Jones) retired in 1961 at the age of 65, and afterwards never enjoyed good health, suffering from a weak chest and heart, the result of ‘coal dust and woodbines’. Sometime in the mid 1960’s when in my mid-teens my father instructed me to “go down and help Dad bring in his coal”. My grandparents lived at no. 12 Union Street, Thomastown, and the coal was delivered by lorry and ‘dropped’ on the kerbside outside their terraced house. Fortunately, theirs was an end of terrace property with a side gate onto their garden; the coal shed was at the end of the garden, so no need to carry the coal with our dusty shoes through the passageway. Coal isn’t a particularly heavy stone and large blocks although bulky can be carried short distances with relative ease, a full bucket of coal is another matter altogether and takes more effort. Dad was stubborn and would insist on doing his share of the workload, so I just helped halve both the workload and the time taken to clear the road.

The coal had to be collected in precise stages: firstly the large blocks had to be carried in and only broken if too heavy to carry, these blocks were laid about a third of the way into the coal shed and laid on top of each other until a wall of blocks was constructed. Next, the smaller lumps carried in buckets were tipped behind the wall and piled up against the back of the shed wall until a mound of coal lumps was formed. Finally, all the ‘small’ coal and scrapings from the road was carried in and deposited in front of the wall of coal. A low wooden board across and inside the entrance of the shed door stopped the ‘small’ coal from spilling out.

Dad’s system of storage makes sense when you consider how the coal was collected from the shed when the coal bucket/scuttle needed filling for my grandparent’s many fires. Firstly suitable lumps of coal were collected from the mound at the back, if too large to be considered manageable for the grate then they would be broken into smaller lumps in front of the wall. As the mound of coal diminished then the larger blocks were taken from the wall and broken up and the lumps placed on the mound at the back of the shed. Over the weeks breaking the coal into manageable lumps raised up the layer of ‘small’ coal. ‘Small’ coal was never wasted, once sieved to retrieve the smaller pieces; the remaining finer coal was used to ‘bank’ the fires when a full blaze was not needed. Covering the fire with a blanket of small coal maintained the heat but slowed down the burn. To stop the small coal from falling through the coals, moistening the coal with water helped bind it. Emptying the teapot dregs on the fire at regular intervals was a good way to maintain binding. The only tools needed in the coal shed was the ‘coal’ hammer to break the large lumps, a short handled spade for scooping up the small coal, and a sieve/riddle, all conveniently hanging from nails on the shed wall.

I don’t know if my grandfather’s system was commonplace or how long this method had been used in my ‘family’, Dad was one of five brothers who worked underground and their father, grandfather and great-grandfather were coal miners before them. I presume that hardly anyone in this country stores their coal in this fashion today.

A Full House – part 2

by Barrie Jones

The ground floor of my Grandparent’s house comprised of the traditional front parlour, a back room with window looking onto the garden and a back extension of kitchen/scullery. All three rooms were heated by coal fires, the one in the kitchen having the traditional Victorian cooking range. All three rooms were connected by a wide hallway, from which the staircase leads up to the three bedrooms. The bathroom was in the extension over the kitchen/scullery comprising of a bath and wash hand basin, although, quite spacious there was no toilet. The WC was outside at the far end of the garden, a novelty for me as I lived in a Council house on the Keir Hardie Estate which had two toilets! As a small child staying overnight at my grandparent’s house, use of the chamber pot kept under the bed took some getting used to.

My father’s comment on not knowing where he would be resting his head each evening had some resonance with me when studying the 1939 Census. On the Census night of the 29 September there were a total of 11 people residing in number twelve:

Caradog JONES

Margaret JONES

Jack Bailey JONES (my father)

Betty Bailey JONES (my aunt), and

Stanley HENDON, Journeyman baker, aged 20 years

Albert WHITLEY, Music hall artist, aged 28 years

Thomas BONNY, Music hall artist, aged 36 years

Eric RYAN, Music hall artist, aged 28 years

George WILDER, Music hall artist, aged 32 years

Thomas KEITH, Music hall artist, aged 28 years

Charles SMYTHE, Travelling stage manager, aged 29 years.

One of my grandparent’s boarders that night, Albert (Eric) WHITLEY, was the lead singer with the Teddy Joyce Orchestra. WHITLEY performed under the name of Tony LOMBARDO and was born in Wrexham in 1910; he died in his ‘home’ town in 1991.

For all that week from Monday 25 September to Saturday 30 September the Joyce Jamboree was appearing at the Theatre Royal. The ‘Jamboree’ comprised the Teddy Joyce Orchestra and a number of variety acts. Teddy JOYCE, real name Edmund CUTHBERTSON was born in Toronto Canada and came to Britain in the 1930s after a short career in the USA. Part of the pre-war ‘Big Band’ era, Joyce was known as “Hollywood’s Dancing Bachelor” and the “Stick of Dynamite”. However, his career was cut short, dying in Glasgow, February 1941, aged 36 years.

One can only guess where all these men slept at night, both downstairs rooms must have been jam-packed and some must have slept on the floor. The census does give us some insight into the kind of life these young men spent, with late night performances, makeshift accommodation and constant travelling to contend with for weeks/months on end.

A Full House – part 1

by Barrie Jones

My paternal grandparents lived in 12 Union Street, Thomastown, Merthyr Tydfil. My grandfather Caradog JONES was born in Troedyrhiw in 1896 and was one of five brothers who were coal miners, as was their father, grandfather and great-grandfather before them. Crad’s great-grandfather John Evan JONES was born in Abergwili, Carmarthenshire, in 1814, moving to Duffryn, Pentrebach, sometime in the 1840s to work in the local Plymouth Work’s mines.

By contrast, my grandmother Margaret Ann nee BAILEY was born in Merthyr Tydfil in 1898, her great-grandfather Abraham BAILEY, was born in Bristol, Gloucestershire, in 1804, arriving in Merthyr town with his extended family sometime in the 1850s. Abraham was a street hawker of earthenware goods, and for a while in the late 1850s to 1860s, ran a china and earthenware shop in 6 Victoria Street, Merthyr Tydfil. For the most part, he and his sons Abraham and Thomas, and his son-in-laws were street traders. My grandmother must have inherited the Bailey entrepreneurial gene, as to augment the family income and help purchase number 12 Union Street; she took in boarders, mainly ‘travellers’ and ‘theatricals’. My father once commented that coming home from school each day he was never sure where in the house he would be sleeping.

12 Union Street is one of 23 terraced properties in the northern portion of the long street that runs at right angles to the top of Church Street. The southern portion of the street contains the imposing Courtland Terrace. The dual terraces of Union Street leads off Church Street up to the boundary wall of the now derelict St Tydfil’s Hospital, formally the Merthyr Tydfil Union building, the ‘Workhouse’. A terrace numbered 1 to 11 on the left hand side and a terrace numbered 12 to 23 on the right hand side. All the houses were three bedroomed apart from numbers 1 and 23 which had extended frontages on Church Street and were much bigger properties. Number 12 being an end of terrace property was flanked by the lane leading up to Thomastown Park and thence on to Queen’s Road.

Union Street is in the Thomastown Conservation Area, the first area to be designated in Merthyr Tydfil. Built from the 1850s onwards on a grid-iron pattern, Thomastown has the largest group of early Victorian buildings in Wales. Built for the middle classes, the professional and commercial people of the town, its best examples are Church Street, Thomas Street, Union Street (Courtland Terrace) and Newcastle Street. This area (Thomastown) striking toward the higher and open ground of the ‘Court Estate’ was the first exclusively residential area to be created by those in the top stratum of Merthyr’s population. Thomastown was the forerunner of what was to occur at the end of the 19^th century in the northern part of the town between the parklands of Cyfarthfa Castle and Penydarren House. These later developments contained even larger and more prestigious properties.

The two terraces of Union Street must have been one of the later developments. The 1876 Ordnance Survey Map shows only the single terrace of numbers 1 to 11. The 1881 census records both terraces but 7 of the 23 properties are shown as uninhabited, (numbers 3, 6, 7, 15, 16, 17 and 18), indicating that the development of the street was barely finished in 1881.

The census returns for number 12 clearly shows that the occupiers in the early years were part of Merthyr’s ‘middle’ class:

3^rd April 1881 – Margaret PRICE, retired publican

5^th April 1891 – James JONES, decorator

31^st March 1901 – Thomas GUNTER, boot and shoe dealer

2^nd April 1911 – Thomas GUNTER, boot and shoe dealer

(Thomas GUNTER was the manager of the Leeds Boot Warehouse, no. 33 Victoria Street and was a leading figure in both the Merthyr Chamber of Trade and St. David’s Parish Church.)

To be continued…..