Here is an introduction to local Grangetown history. We hope to add more features and would welcome any stories, articles, memories or photographs. Please email
Go to PART TWO for 1930s and Second World War
Go to PART THREE for post-war 1950s and schools memories
We're also developing a PART FOUR - an index of streets, hopefully
with reference and census page numbers for those interested in family history.
It's a work in progress at the moment but the outline is there. Thanks for those
far and wide who make inquiries, we try to assist when time allows.
PART ONE:
Here is Grangetown history from the early days to the area's growth in the Victorian
age to the first few decades of the 20th century. We hope to add more features
and would welcome any stories, articles, memories or photographs. Please email
us.
Thanks to Peter Ranson and the Grangetown Local History Society for their help, especially with photographs and also to those members and others at home and abroad who have added memories and stories. If there are any copyright issues we are unaware of, please let us know and we will gladly give a credit/amend etc. As this section has been growing rapidly and there are more articles to publish, we've divided it up into two sections to make it a little easier to read.
| GRANGETOWN LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY: The society also publishes popular calendars of historical scenes every
Christmas. They normally retail at £2.50, and are available annually from
Grangetown library and other local shops.
As well as collecting photographs (it is happy to do copies), tbe society
is also recording audio memories from people in Grangetown in an audio
history project. It recently received funding from Voluntary Action Cardiff
towards purchasing a computer and recording equipment for this purpose.
The society is also involved in activities, such as a recent visit to
the stacks unit at Cardiff Library and appearing at local history fairs
in the area.
Grangetown History Society committee 2009/2010: Zena Mabbs, chair - 01446 421674 or email; Ian
Clarke, secretary, Peter Ranson/Ken Lloyd, treasurer; Rita Spinola, vice
chair.
There are also two published illustrated books in the Images Of Wales
series by Tempus publishing, Grangetown (compiled by Barbara Jones)
and Grangetown The Second Collection (compiled by Ian Clarke).
Copies can be found in the local library, bookshops and you should be
able to find copies on eBay or order via Amazon. There is also a Tales
Of Old Grangetown DVD, by Ian Malcolm, which is reviewed below.
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Grangetown's oldest surviving building - Grange Farm - is a reminder that
both the building and the area which took its name can be traced back 800 years
to medieval times.
The Cistercian monks of Margam Abbey (near modern day Port Talbot) established
a grange to farm the land in the early 13th century, off what is modern day
Clive Street. It was an outpost, and legend has it that they were sent there
as penance for drinking and gambling! Moor Grange was reputedly built at some
time between 1193 and 1218 and ran to 100 acres. The monks had been granted
land at Margam in the mid 12th century, with the abbey founded with the help
of Robert, son of King Henry I and by the end of the century Henry Bishop of
Llandaff had granted to the abbey all land nearby "in more de Kardif," in return
for an annual rent.
According to a short history of Grange Farm, put together from local records
in the 1940s by J Cleary Martin, details of the land emerge again in 1329 in
the reign of Edward III. Noblemen sitting at a court at Cardiff Castle heard
a land dispute involving the Abbot of Margam and the recently departed Lord
of Cardiff, Gilbert de Clare, killed at Bannockburn. The abbot had a dispute
with Clare over land at Kenfig (near modern day Bridgend) but the judgement
in the monks' favour also mentions "the grange on the moor near Kardif."
The Grange of Luquyth (Leckwith) by the end of the 15th century had 400 sheep
and 100 cattle and the abbey leased out the farm through Jasper Tudor (Henry
VII's brother) to Griffith ap Meuric. The records also showed 7s 1d was paid
for taking "17 loads of hay from the abbot's Grange" to the lord in
Cardiff.
Lewis ap Richard was the last farmer to lease from the abbey. His agreement
from the monks stated - "know ye that we have delivered to Lewis ap Richard,
esquire, our grange near the town of Kaerdiff, commonly called More Grange,
with the end term of 90 years. " £6 13s and 4d was payable on the feast
of the Anunciation, along with 4s a year to the Bishop of Llandaff and two acres
of hay to the abbot. Lewis was also responsible "to suitably repair and
maintain" the grange, house, sea walls, weirs, ditches and fences.
But with the dissolution of the monastries by Henry VIII, Abbot John of Margam
was pensioned off and the farm passed to the Lewis family (of Van, Caerphilly)
in 1537. In 1547, Edward Llewelyns was farmer with the same rent Lewis ap Richard
had paid. By 1595, rent had dropped to 44 shillings a year, showing the farm
had declined somewhat - "messuage (house and outbuildings), one barn,
one parcel of land, meadow and pasture called the Graing de Moore."
By 1638, "the manor land they called the Grange Marshes," was 300
acres, each with a yearly value of 4d. It was "bounded by the higher lands
of Penarth in the west, the Severne shore on the south, and the River Tave on
the east, and the common lands of Leckwith in the north."
By 1881, we find the 120-acre dairy farm being run by the Morgan's third daughter
Ann and husband Samuel Burford. The Grange Dairy provided milk locally, while
the farm also kept animals and a coal business. Not long before her death, Doris
Burford, who still lived at the farm in 1987 recalled her 78 years born and
bred there. As a girl, she got up at 4am to start the milk round, first in a
horse and cart, eventually in a van. "It used to be dark getting the horse out
of the stable - I was a bit frightened," she recalled to the Echo. "We
used to sell the milk straight from the shed - now a garage - until the rules
came in that it had to be pasteurised."
"Everyone would come to the house - it was the only one for miles. It
used to be the life and soul of the place," said Doris. The farm was taken
over by her nephew Peter Farr, who in 1996 made a deal with relatives to make
sure the property would stay in the family and its importance to local heritage
be preserved. Despite the terraced streets built on its old land, the farm building
still survives today, with some original features inside. It is Grade II listed.
The Victorian library building, set to be preserved as converted flats in 2008,
is a pleasant neighbour.
Full steam ahead for king coal and Cardiff
Cardiff was a fairly insignificant market town until the 19th century. Its
population was barely 1,900 - and at the start of the industrial revolution,
it was still dwarfed by the iron town of Merthyr Tydfil and copper town Swansea.
Under successive Marquesses of Bute, who inherited estates and land, Cardiff's
importance grew as its docks and railways were built and it became the world's
pre-eminent port for coal for steam ships. The population rapidly grew to 165,000
by 1901, with 20,000 new homes built in the last two decades of the Victorian
age.
Rapid growth
The David and Sloper tannery opposte
the site of the present Sevenoaks Park (pictured right), a brick yard (Durham-born Samuel Stubbs,
the brickyard engineer, lived in the house there with his family in 1861), and
a rope works. There was also the gasworks - the Cardiff Gas Light and Coke Co,
which was built in 1863. The company, formed in 1837, expanded from its works
off Bute Terrace as the town grew rapidly and it supplied gas lighting as far
afield as Penarth, Radyr and Roath.
Much more short-lived was Grangetown Iron Works, which when it was put up
for sale in 1873 had a price of £10,000. It had 12 pudding furnaces, four steam
boilers, six coke ovens, set in six acres of land, with its own railway sidings.
It could produce between 300 to 400 tonnes of finished iron a week. There were
no bids at the 1873 auction. It always struggled and had closed down for good
by 1881 after numerous changes of ownership.
The railway was a predecessor of today's suburb and along with the river Taff
defines its boundary. Some say this enclosure helps modern Grangetown retain
something of its old "village" atmosphere. The village of Lower Grangetown was first to grow (with Clive Street, Holmesdale
Street, Kent Street, Worcester St, Amherst, Bromsgrove, Knole, Sevenoaks and
Hewell Streets) and was well established between the 1860s and 1880s. The Grange
National School opened in 1864.
Auctioneer Thomas Clarke said he first knew Grangetown in 1859 "when it was
a dismal swamp and morass, given even the village missionary, the water wagtail
and the postman who passed it on his way to the ferry." The scene, however,
by 1873 offered a great contrast and he argued it was "capable of great
development in the future."
An Estate Act of 1857 had allowed Lady Windsor to mortgage farmland to raise
money for new roads and what was regarded as the city's best drainage and sewage
system. Long leases on land were sold to a patchwork of builders and speculators
to develop new housing for workers. There was originally hope of developing
Grangetown as an industrial area, with workers living close by, but this never
really took off and it became a commuter area for the Docks. M J Daunton's study
of the Windsor records between 1857 and 1875 found that Grangetown's progress
was hit by a city-wide housing slump at one point, with the developments taking
a long time to break even, with suitable returns for the builders and landlords.
He said it was piecemeal progress involving "many hands over many years." Between
1873-74, he lists 10 different builders in Holmesdale Street and Amherst Street
alone.
Upper Grangetown - known for years too as Saltmead - was slower to develop.
A few streets, chiefly North Street and Thomas Street off Penarth Road, were
built by the start of the 1860s and home to many Irish immigrants. The majority
of streets, off Cornwall Street and North Clive Street and close to the railway,
were constructed for the thousands of migrant workers in the late 1880s and
1890s, as Cardiff expanded. There was pockets of poverty too, already by the
mid to late 1860s. In 1867 in the town's poor relief books, Bridget Foley, 32,
with two children, was described as "destitute" and received four shillings
and five pence a week, as well as food and milk; Thomas Allen, 40, was widower
and father-of-four who was too ill to work - as well as seven shillings a week
in relief, he received food, meat and 14 shillings to meet funeral expenses;
Mary Collins, 34, had been deserted with five children and was given five shillings
a week.
These two distinct areas of Grangetown were linked by Clive Street and crossed
by Penarth Road. The old Moors Road (later Clare and Corporation Roads), ran
parallel to the Taff although not all the way to Butetown in the mid 1880s.
'Our grange near the town
of Kaerdiff'
Forward
a couple of centuries and the land passes onto the Earl of Plymouth and a long
association with one family. The Morgans started running the farm for the Plymouth
estate in about 1835. In 1851, the tenant farmer was Thomas Morgan, then 39,
who had been born at St Fagan's. He lived there with his wife Mary 44, and their
four daughters Eleanor, Jane, Ann and Mary and two sons the eldest William,
14, and one-year-old Thomas. They also had a teenage girl servant and 15-year-old
agricultural worker living at the farm.
In the first few decades of the 19th century, Grangetown would have been a few
houses but it also had pockets of industry.
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1871-1878: Disease and distress To give us an idea of some of the conditions is this report from September
1873. Eleven householders were summonsed to court for continual overcrowding
in their properties. Magistrates were told that the area was thickly populated
and typhoid was spreading, with seven cases reported recently. The Western
Mail report doesn't name the streets, only giving the area as Upper
Grangetown. The censuses puts the families in the Thomas Street, Havelock
Street and Rosemary Street areas. Thomas Donahue was found to have 18
people living in his three-bedroomed house, which was deemed fit for six.
Cornelius Driscoll had 11 in his similar-sized property. Michael Mahony,
his wife and five children shared their house with another seven people
- with the home only fit for half that number. The Western Mail reports
that the inspector when he visited Patrick Morris' house found three families,
of 18 people, with every room used as a bedroom. "The place was so foul
I could hardly enter it." Jeremiah Regan had a household of 14, including
his wife and eight children.
In November of that year, the Cardiff Sanitary Committee looked at Upper
Grangetown, where 59 cases of typhoid were reported, three of them fatal.
"This serious outbreak of a dreadful malady is attributed to the filthy
state of the habitation of the streets," reported the Mail, and it was
decided to apply to the Local Government Board to obtain powers of an
urban sanitary authority to make improvements. Grangetown was lying outside
Cardiff, and bringing it in as an official suburb would at least improve
conditions in terms of sewerage and drainage.
In 1878, with economic problems in the south Wales valleys acute - many
mines shut or on short time - and even Cardiff "suffering the pinch
of poverty after three years depression", charitable collections,
poor relief and soup kitchens were springing up for struggling working
families. The Western Mail noted however:
"It's somewhat remarkable, however, that no public movement
has been set on foot for the relief of the people of Grangetown. Here, the
inhabitants seem to be in greater want than in other parts of the borough.
The iron works having been closed, many out of work as a natural consequence,
and poverty is compelling a number of people to adopt all sorts of measures
for obtaining some kind of livelihood."
Later in the year, the paper found several people from Grangetown using
the soup kitchen set up on the corner of St Mary Street and Penarth Road..."their
wants being of an extreme character. A few casual inquiries in that neighbourhood
led the manager (of the soup kitchen, Theophilus Jones) to believe that
a vast amount of distress exists there."
I came across quite an interesting account of the end of the 19th century
in a St Patrick's parish magazine, dated from 1948. In it, C Sexton recalls
seeing in the new century at a special midnight mass. "We were all glad
to see the old century go. Times had been hard, there had been strikes
and unemployment and in the fall of 1899, we had started the South African
war that was to drag on for the next three years.
"In those days we had no electricity, very few houses had gas, the good
oil lamps, many of them with beautiful shades were in most use. I saw
the first electric car driven from the Clare Road sheds in 1901. In those
days, Solly Andrews' horse-driven tram cars and buses were the means of
transport...very few houses had baths and hot water."
The article also recalls as well as theatre and music hall in town, locally there were two concerts a year at St Patrick's school rooms - including an Irish concert on St Patrick's Day. Father Brady would also give a lantern lecture on his trips to Rome.
The writer also said it was still a few years before Grangetown library opened, and children relied on teacher Mrs Butler's own small collection of books, including favourites like Jules Verne.
Possibly proving that things come around, writing in 1948 - just after
the war years - it was noted: "One thing you do not see in these days,
but were seen frequently then were the number of drunken folk about at
closing time, Saturday nights and when a big football match was on." Shops
were also open until about 8pm every day, and Fridays and Saturdays untl
9, 10 or 11. Pubs were open at 6 or 7 in the morning, until 11pm at night
- midnight on Saturdays.
The old Thomas Street was demolished in the 1970s and new housing replaced
it. Madras Street disappeared to make way for St Patrick's School.
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The biggest spurt in building came in the 1880s and 1890s and by 1901, the
suburb had a population of 17,000 - effectively the same as it is today.
The city's most prominent and grandest builders of the period were Grangetown-based,
E Turner and Sons in Havelock Place. As well as homes, schools and churches
across Cardiff, they were responsible for City Hall and Civic Centre. The company
remained there until 1993, when they moved to Cathedral Road and the offices
and cottages were demolished for new housing.
In 1875, Grangetown became a Cardiff suburb,
although there were still fields separating it from the town centre. The two
parts of Grange were still distinct - Saltmead in the north, named after the
salty marshland; and lower Grange to the south.
| 1878: A fire and a firearm
The Cardiff to Penarth railway officially
opened this year. And it caused something of a problem one July night in
Grangetown, when hot cinders from a passing train were blamed for starting
a fire which burnt down half of the rope works, backing onto the track.
Messrs Elliott and Sons, which was owned by Alderman J Elliott, made rope
out of hemp - just off Penarth Road. At 3am on the night of the 17th July,
a watchman at Grangetown gas works opposite spotted the fire. It had taken
hold of the wooden buildings which housed the machinery and store of hemp.
The manager, Sunderland-born Samuel Waugh, 37, who lived on site with his
wife and three children, was roused and sent his teenage son Robert - later
the assistant manager - for the constable. The steam-driven fire engine
with nine of the fire brigade had arrived within 20 minutes. The best they
could do was save the engine house, new rope shed and the manager's own
house. "Whenever the flames burst through, the smell from the burning hemp
was so strong that anyone approaching was driven back by the choking sensation
coming from the inhalation of smoke," reported the South Wales Daily News. The rope
yard, machines and hemp waiting for tarring were destroyed, with just "ironwork
bent and broken left" and damage estimated at £1,500. Luckily, they were
insured. Cinders had started grass fires on the embankment earlier in the
summer. "It is supposed that a hot coal from one of the engines on the Penarth
railway had fallen on the roof of the wooden shed and set it on fire." An
incident in September, which attracted local concern, was the tragic death
of 15-year-old Irish-born Patrick Shea, the eldest of five children of a
Cork labourer who lived in Havelock Place (then Street) in upper Grangetown.
He had been playing with two friends when they came across another youth,
who had been left looking after a double-barrelled shotgun for a man and
his companion. They had left him to pick up a boat so they could reach starlings
on the other side of the banks of the River Taff. It seems the boys made
dart for the gun, not thinking it was loaded, and it led to Patrick's friend,
a boy known as Desmond, shooting him in the head, as they played with it.
"The case attracted considerable interest and the police station was surrounded
by a large number of inhabitants" for the inquest in Grangetown, reported
the Daily News.
Desmond ran for Sgt Abram Murley, and told the police officer "I fired
it..it hit another boy in the neck, he is bleeding very much." When Sgt
Murley reached the river, the boy was already dead. Desmond had been a
neighbour and play-mate of Patrick's for years. The inquest jury returned
a verdict of misadventure, but criticised the older man who left the gun
with the boy. They also raised the issue of gun licence laws."If a little
effort was made, many cases of evading the law would be discovered and
many persons would be found using guns for which they had not possession
of a licence."
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The Square in Holmesdale Street, with the
rather ornate public convenience in the centre - and how the area looks today.
Move your mouse over the old photo for a colour contemporary image
| 1881: Holmesdale Street - a snapshot
Holmesdale Street to many is the heart
of Grangetown, stretching from Grange Gardens to Ferry Road, with a network
of terraces off it, with shops and local schools. Back in 1881, who lived
there? The census in that year shows a Londoner, Edward Smith ran the Plymouth
Hotel at one end of the road with his wife and five children living there,
with three servants and a nurse employed. Living nearby were migrant workers
from Somerset, Gloucester and other parts - builders, two blacksmiths next
door to each other - one who had a game-keeper as the lodger, one Robert
Iles, 50. An iron moudler father and son, Thomas Gillard, one of two nearby
grocers (and another native of Somerset) - his neighbours, Fred Denham a
railway clerk and cab driver Alfred Gough were also from the west country.
There were also two green grocers, including Eleanor Wilkie, 60, a widow
and mother of two, whose teenage son John was a seaman. At No 48, there
was another grocer, Owen Jones, 70, a native of Aberaeron, while at No 78,
is the appropriately named William Hook, the butcher, 54, and yet another
from Somerset. George Blake ran the Lord Windsor pub at No 47 - which shut
a few years ago and is currently facing demolition. There are plenty of
dock labourers and coal trimmers (loading coal onto ships) of course. Showing
the distances people had travelled, is mariner David King, a native of Sydney,
Australia, who had moved from Cornwall with his wife and son, while having
a young daughter after their move to Cardiff.
An auction in 1883 saw houses in the street being sold for around £150. You
can find more on the 1881 Census under District 28b, Llandaff.
FEBRUARY 1886 - BURNING EFFIGIES OF POLICEMAN AND
HIS LADY |
THEN - AND NOW
A few old photos of Grangetown, with how those scenes look today. Moved your mouse over the old photos to see the change.
Clare Road, from Penarth Road and then (below),
Penarth Road near the Clare Road junction. The old Penarth Road methodist church
on the corner has been replaced by a supermarket after first closing and then
being badly damaged by fire in the 1970s.
Corporation Road was a main thoroughfare,
although the Butetown end of the road (behind this image) was only developed
comparatively late. Today, there are more cars of course and no tramlines.
Another shot of Corporation Road, near the
Stockland Street junction.
Clive Street, with the distinctive Clive Buildings (built c1891) on the left. The tramlines have gone of course.
The old Co-Op at No 158 Clare Road dates from
around 1904. It is hard to recognise the building now, as the front and roof
look very different and it's a snooker club/bar. The Co-Op also eventually extended
into No 160 nexr door. Clare Road is still quite a busy shopping street but
at the time the Co-Op first appeared, it was bustling with around 70 shops and
tradesmen. On either side in 1905 was Philip Tyndall, a cabinet maker - he was
a Gloucestershire man, who lived at No 160 with his wife Mary Ann - and Eastman's
butchers. At No 59-61, was Harding's brewers and mineral water manufacturers,
while the Salvation Army barracks was at No 104.
Penarth Road junction with Paget Street -
today it looks pretty much the same, apart from the traffic of course!
| JULY 25-26 1886: A bridge too far
Two nights of disturbances in Grangetown made the
national news, as workers held a mass demonstration against tolls being introduced on the road linking the suburb with their workplaces in the docks.
It centered on a swing bridge at the Old Sea Lock over the Taff in Penarth
Road, linking Grangetown with the docks. It was a private road leased
by the Taff Vale Railway Co and which had cost £60,000 to build
in 1861.
Suddenly the company wanted to enforce its rights. Working men were
to be charged a penny for walking over the bridge, and the toll rose for
those with animals or in carriages. The Western Mail reported that
almost every resident of Lower Grangetown was against the toll, which
would lead to hardship and inconvenience in many cases. By the first day,
around 100 householders had already decided to give notice to move, because
they could no longer afford to live in the area - and the paper mooted
that if this continued, the area would soon become "a deserted village".
By 5.15pm on the toll's first day, feelings were running high and crowds
of men, women and children headed towards the toll-gate, as workmen started
heading for home from the Docks. When workers returned
again that evening, a crowd of about 1,000 gathered again and a group
of ship's carpenters took the gate off its hinges and threw it into the
river.The Times reported that 1,000
men took part in the protests each day against the railway company. There
had been "upmost good humour" for the most part, as 200 police stood by,
but then there was direct action. "They rushed at the newly-erected toll
gate and tore it from its hinges, throwing the structure in the river."
The first gate was replaced the following
day, as well as a sentry box for the toll-keeper. The toll house
was also damaged. The paper later publishes court reports
of three men who were arrested for causing the damage, costing £5
- Cornelius Dacey, William Smith and William Webb, all under 23. Police
were also after another man called William Drew, who was heard to shout
"Go it boys, that's right, pull it off!" The court was told of "200
armed navvies with iron bars up their sleeves." The three were found
guilty and the judge expressed sorrrow at having to sentence them to a
month's hard labour.
There were attempts to resolve the issue, before and after the direct
action. The matter was raised at a public meeting on July 20th at Clive
Hall, chaired by Mr Alderman Jones, in which it was agreed to send a deputation
to the company. But the bureaucracy and resistance by the company prevailed.
By the time the toll was brought in the following week, some of the 600
men who daily used the bridge decided to take the long route via Penarth
Road and Bute Street or catch a tram, rather than pay the toll. They even
tried to start a ferry service, costing a halfpenny. After the mini-riot,
negotiations continued between borough and company, which eventually led
to a commuting of the toll for foot passengers, as the company were unwilling
to sell the bridge and road to the corporation. Problems continued and
the head at St Patrick's School noted in August a fall in pupil numbers
- "many families are leaving the neighbourhood owing to the enforcement
of the toll in Lower Grange." The same in November, with the situation
having "made a great difference to the attendance of the school, many
families having removed in consequence."
But the men won an eventual victory. It led to the corporation building
the Clarence Road and James Street swing bridges, and the railway company's
bridge was dismantled within 10 years.
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Joshua Bann (standing right) and his butcher's
shop in Kent Street/Holmesdale Street, about 1902. He opened the shop in 1896
and his son Harry, pictured next to him carried on until 1951. His daughter
Lal later married another butcher, Jack Harris of Corporation Road. It's now
a private residence.
1895: Grange Gardens
We owe much of today's parks to the Victorians
and patronage. Grange Gardens was a gift to Cardiff in 1894 by Lords Bute and
Windsor, who owned the land on which it stands. Just over 9,000 square yards belonged
to Bute and 5,764 square yards came from the Windsor estate. The bandstand cost
£2,374 and was constructed at the same time as one in Victoria Park. However,
it was complicated by the fact the wrong foundations were laid for the bandstand
in Grangetown. "Grangetown Gardens" were opened on June 19th 1895 by
councillor Joseph Ramsdale, the chairman of the parks committee. "A very
large number of the inhabitants of Grangetown" gathered for the ceremony
and the mayor proposed a toast to Lord Bute and Lord Windsor. Mr D A Burn's Roath
brass band entertained with a selection of tunes. There was also a celebratory
dinner later.
Above is an Edwardian photo of Grange Gardens with the original bandstand.
See the little boy tying his shoelaces before joining his friends in the background.
The war memorial was added in 1921 at a cost of £1,000. Was this lad in
the photo one of the ones who returned safely? Interestingly, a plaque was added
in 2000 in memory of Private W Langstone, whose body was only found nine years
after the end of the war and who was missing from the memorial. Surviving members
of his family attended the ceremony, along with representatives of many service
organisations. A further plaque to later Grangetown war dead has been added.
Colin Gundersen writes: "The bandstand was removed during the
war when the park also lost its ornate railings. During the war, events arranged
around the 'Holiday at Home' campain running at that period, made large use
of the park to include open-air dancing around the base of the old bandstand,
the base itself being used for announcements by the "master of ceremonies"
if that is not too grand a title, together with moral-boosting speeches by local
councillors concerning such matters as the amount collected for the Spitfire
Fund.
"Cecil Guy, Gwyneth Lewis and there team used to give demonstrations
in Grange Gardens. I am sure Cecil's son will be happy to confirm that after
moving home from Clive Street, the family settled in St Fagans Street opposite
Grange Council School. The fountain sited midway along the eastern path to Corporation
Road, remained until long after the war alongside which at that time was a large
resevoir excavated and lined with shuttered concrete for emergency fire fighting
use. It was bounded by wood-lath wired fencing which was to be seen all over
the city, and in fact all over the UK in those days. It was cheap and quick
to erect."
There is now the bowling club building on the right and a children's playground
on the left, while the trees are more mature. The gardens celebrated its centenary
with new trees, fences, a relaid path and improved children's equipment. The
bandstand is a replica of the original, which had been dismantled. The new one
cost £324,000 and it was finally opened with a ceremony - and plenty of music
- in 2000. A replacement to the drinking fountain, taken away during the war,
also returned to the park at the same time.
| 1891-1901: Saltmead grows up, a little forgotten
You have to look hard these days to find
evidence that Saltmead as a place, ever existed. Which is a shame, as a
case has been made for an area which developed semi-independently from Grangetown.
The salt marsh "Saltmede" is mentioned in the Valor Ecclesiasticus (1535). Saltmead Baptist Hall was built in 1901, on the corner of Hereford Srreet
and Avoca Place - there is now a modern replacement building. We still have
a Saltmead surgery in Clare Road. But the name seems to have dropped out
of use and fashion. Local historian Colin Weston made the argument in his
short history of Saltmead, which appeared in Grange News in 1981.
For him, Saltmead was a "forgotten district of Cardiff". It became known
as Upper Grangetown sometime in the 1930s, as Saltmead was swallowed up.
"Unlike Tiger Bay, Saltmead was a real place, yet in many ways it was
very similar to the Bay. Many different races settled in Saltmead, men
gambled on street corners, police walked around the area in pairs. Here
and there some households had donkeys in their back kitchens and pigs
in the passage. The roads were very empty in the early days, except for the horse and carts of the milkman, coalman and the local builders." Saltmead is quite evocatively described in a memories column from an
old Cardiff newspaper in 1940, looking back to when the houses were built
on former farmland behind Clare Road for £120 each - a bigger yield from
the rents of the growing migrant workforce than brought off farming the
land. Rents were charged of six shillings a week - nearly a third of the
working man's not always regular income. It admits that they could suffer
wage loss due to rain or frost and looked elsewhere.
"Old Salt" writes: "In days gone by, owing to the influx of new workers,
promised employment in the town and unable to find it, the practice arose
of these workers hawking coal with donkey carts. The cart was parked in
the roadway at night but the donkey was led through the passage and stabled
for the night in the kitchen."
It is not hard to imagine those builders' carts, when you look at how
Saltmead quickly developed from the end of the 1880s. It was not without
its problems - builders' strikes, short-term housing slump and problems
with drainage from building on marshy land.
In July 1890, Stephenson and Alexander
(agents still in existence today) held an auction at the Royal
Hotel. It included 70 lots of building land for development. These included
part of Allerton Street and what is now called Sussex Street (then Staughton
Street), and a large tract of land between Somerset Street, Compton Street
and Hereford Street, off Court Road, which was offered as either land
for industrial development or "small houses...which would easily secure
tenancy." The roads and sewers had already been put in place; all was
needed was the houses. There were also 35 houses offering rents totalling
£189 5s 7d. One house in Dorset Street, commanded a rent of £1 6s and
8d, while a bakehouse on the corner of Staughton Street and Court Road
was worth £6, 8s. However, an earlier sale in 1887 had attracted "meagre"
interest according to the Western Mail, and proceedings were called
to a halt after low prices for some building land in Court Road.
Court Road, as an example, with its late Victorian terraced homes is
a fascinating snapshot of this piecemeal development, as well as how people
moved to Cardiff.
The road started to be built in the 1880s. At first glance, it's just
another terraced street but you quickly notice the different styles to
the houses along it, reflecting the numbers of builders involved and the
time it took to complete. You can still see the date 1887 over the doorway
of Number 8 and this end of the road was mostly developed from this time,
but it was slow progress. Building continued off and on over the next
eight years. Houses had sculleries and kitchens, and the plans show outside
toilets and coalhouses. Some of the corner shops had stables for up to
four horses and coach-houses. Typically of the area, a number of different
builders were involved: Llewellyn Thomas built more than a dozen homes
and shops in Court Road between 1887-88, but others like W T Ellery, David
Davies, Alfred Dando and Llewellyn Preece built smaller numbers. The Court
Road School also stood where the newer homes off Rutland Street and Courtmead
Gardens stand today, opening in 1893.
In 1893, there was a bit of a "stink" over refuse being buried in Grangetown's
open spaces, which were the new building sites. There was a difference
of opinion between Cardiff's public health official and surveyor. The
former believed it was "very undesirable" to make use of "offensive refuse"
from elsewhere in the town, but the latter argued "a man might as well
object to the use of manure in his garden." He believed that a similar
burial of "carefully selected" waste at Ely Common had not been a health
hazard. There was nothing wrong with vegetable matter, offal and filth
finding its way under the new houses. But it certainly aroused enough
controversy to need a public meeting. The "Man About Town" column in the
Echo poured scorn on the "pathetic touch" of "indignation of the
good people of Grangetown having their new homes built on refuse."
Interestingly, by the early 1890s, local councillor SA Brain had been
complaining about the "swamp" in Saltmead, so much so, that
he believed he was regarded as a nuisance at the authority. These problems
with the new housing by 1898 became known as"Saltmead swamp" scandal.
Cardiff's medical officer found drainage and health problems due to some
homes being built on clay, with stagnant water under the floors. Dry rot
had affected the woodwork, with damp in the walls. The Western Mail
criticised the situation, questioning the planning process and builders,
saying the "poor were being choked out of existence in the Saltmead swamp."
"The fool who built his house upon the sand was a wise man by comparison
with the builders of certain streets in Saltmead." Homes were slowly
rotting away, "built on filth" - on pools of stagnant water and ditches.
A cattle market would be cleaner, "and a prison brighter, healthier
and purer", said the Mail. The reporter found 30 empty houses,
boarded up in Stoughton Street, some tenants moving upstairs to live.
There were another 14 empty houses in Hereford Street, 16 in Saltmead
and Court roads and six in Allerton Street. One town engineer had tried
to blame the rough neighbourhood and tenants "knocking about" their homes.
But the reporter could see why some would have looked for distractions
in the pub and elsewhere due to the "noxiousness" of the place they call
'home.'
The borough inspectors visited houses in Compton Street, Somerset Street
and Saltmead Road. As well as finding a list of building and drainage
defects, they saw tenants with symptoms of rheumatism. But they also found
that not all homes were affected and there was evidence of maltreatment
of houses by "careless and indifferent" tenants. Councillors
visiting the area found workmen on roofs and in backyards in Court Road
and Compton Street, where bricks were simply crumbling away in some houses.
One resident complained of rats and how his wife could not keep their
children's feet dry indoors in wet weather. Feet sank in the backyard
at another home in the street "several inches into the sodden, ill-smelling
soil." A floorboard was taken up underneath a house in Court Road
and 3ft beneath was a mass of foul-smelling slush. The issue was enough to create concerns for the housing planned for the roads laid out between the Taff and Clare Road - now Taff Mead, which had been used to bury refuse and where children used to swim and skate on ponds.
The censuses of 1891 and 1901 are wonderful tools for giving a snapshot
of what Grangetown was like more than a century ago. The area today is
profoundly multi-cultural, not just with Asian and African communities,
but with eastern European migrants and a population which changes by around
a fifth every five years. At the end of the 19th century, the growth of
Cardiff as a city was driven not just by the general population rise,
but by the migrant workers who moved from rural parts of Wales and England,
other towns and cities and Ireland. Saltmead, provided housing for a time
when the town's population grew rapidly. The 1891 census shows Court Road
partly developed with around 50 homes - many of those living there are
workers who had moved from Somerset, Gloucester, Bristol and other rural
areas. The Clare Road-side of the terrace seems to include a number of
railway workers, but there are trades ranging from blacksmith, butcher,
groom to tailor and sawyer. A few homes also took in lodgers and boarders.
William Causey, a Devon-born carpenter lived with his wife and four children,
all under four - but also took in two boarders from his home town, who
were plumbers!
By 1901, the pattern of workers settling in the boom town continues,
although by now the whole road has been constructed. Into one of the last
block of homes to be built were Devon-born James Youlden, 48, who was
a boildermaker's helper (later ship rivetter). He lived with his wife
Elizabeth, 42, born in Gloucestershire, and their three sons, aged 13
to 16, all born in Cardiff. The family had moved from nearby Devon Street,
where the two youngest were born. The eldest Robert worked as a waiter
in the railway rooms. Another Sam later became an engine driver, according
to local records, then an electrician/labourer, while son Charles became
a teacher and the family moved to Severn Road in Canton. Next door one
side lived Charles Davies, 51, a stonemason, and wife Mary, 56, both originally
from Ross-on-Wye. Their four children included the eldest, Mary, 21, a
"domestic" and son John a butcher's assistant. The other side of the Youldens
was tailor Richard Giles and his wife Emily, both 38, orginally from Monmouth
and their two children. Other neighbours of the Davies family were John
Reed, 40, who was a more recent migrants. He was born in Hong Kong, while
his wife Annie, 40, was a Londoner. They had brought their eldest daughter
from London, but youngest Olive, six, was born in Cardiff. Living next-door
to them is water clerk Godwin Palmer, 33, wife Cicily, 29 and three young
children. They were another couple from Monmouth.
Court Road has only one shop today, but at the end of the 19th century
- before cars - it was a busy mix of shops and terraced homes. In 1899,
according to the Western Mail's Cardiff directory of the time we
find five grocers, three butchers, two green grocers, a newsagent, other
unnamed shops. Edward Ribton's fried fish shop is now a mid-terrace house
a block away from the surviving corner shop.
By 1890, the first few homes had been built on Cornwall Street, Court
Road, Allerton Street and Hereford Street, but other streets would follow
within a few years. Given the origins of so many of the population, it's
not a surprise then that street names like Cornwall, Hereford, Somerset,
Monmouth and Devon appeared in this part of upper Grangetown. Other names
were eventually changed - Staughton Street became Jubilee Street and Sussex
Street, Saltmead Road became Stafford Road.
Some of the street names in other parts of Grangetown owe their connections
with the Plymouth estate. As well as St Fagans and Rhydlafar streets,
there is also Penhevad, Pentrebane, while Stockland Street is named after
a farm north of St Fagans upon where Royalist and Cromwellian troops fought
a little-mentioned bloody battle in the Civil War.
|
Foulkes' shoe shop in Holmesdale Street in
1914. Nowadays you can only get sole - it's the Holmesdale Street Fish Bar!
Before that in the 1880s, sign-writer Edwin Johns lived there. Pictured right
is an advert for the barber's in Clare Road - now a private house.
Two photographs of the Clare Road Laundry
at the end of the 19th century. It was next door to Syl Evans' newsagent, at
No 56. It has since been converted to a private house. There was still a newsagents
next door until recent years, when it became a jewellers. Move your mouse on
the right hand photo for how it looks now.
| MAY 1893: "That business, pure and simple,
appeared to be consuming as much beer as they possibly could"
It was seen as remarkable at the time,
and it looks pretty odd even today - but hundreds of Grangetown men got
around the Sunday drinking laws in 1893 by founding an open-air "gentlemen's
club."
Pits were dug 8ft deep in the clay ground of The Marl to form the walls,
carpet was laid out and up to 400 men sat around, as beer was poured freely
from casks from 7am until 9pm at night. No alcohol could be officially
sold, but members made "donations," with sixpences and pennies
collected in old copies of the South Wales Echo. By all accounts,
this arrangement was fairly observed and the men were impeccably behaved.
As one of the organisers said, likening the activity to the champagne
drunk in the private members County Club in Westgate Street: "Them pays
as likes and we all drink square."
Police intervened when it started but when the organisers appeared in
court, they proved to magistrates they were not breaking the law. This ensured an even bigger crowd for the following Sunday.
The Echo's correspondent joined the group for refreshment at the "Hotel
de Marl" on May 7. The reporter found 70 men, seated in a cresent
shape in two rows, with the chairman of the gathering, known as "Jeremy."
The report says: "He occupied an elevated position on a 4.5 gallon cask
of double X beer (empty)...a man called 'Bill', humourous, red-whiskered
and as it transpired, strictly law-abiding character, acted as drawer".
He filled the men's decanters while they, from time to time, put money
into a "tattered" copy of Saturday's Echo. Fresh supplies were
brought from a licenced drink wholesalers in nearby Clive Street.
It was estimated a 4.5 gallon cask was consumed every 20 minutes. The reporter, on the edge of the pit, was "good humourly" invited down and offered a glass of beer. "One glass of that beer was enough for anyone who really valued a good draught of the national breweries."
"The civility of the crowd was no less remarkable than their determination to obey, while this consented to be the law and to avoid creating a nuisance and a scandal," said the correspondent. He said there were "no loafers or corner boys," juveniles were ordered away and the majority of the crowd were "working class masons, fitters, engineers, a few dockers and sailors." He added: "If questioned, I should positively deny that the men I saw were idlers, or blackguards or scoundrels of sorts." The reporter also saw some "well-dressed people," possibly on their way back from church or chapel. Another account reported a group from a theatrical company, who were playing in town.
"They were working men, pure and simple, with a flavour of strong language
and stronger tobacco but undeniably wage earners," said the Echo man.
A separate account in the London Pall Mall Budget found people
turning up in cabs "laden with kilderkins of beer" from as early
as 7am. Fourteen kilderkins (about seven barrels) had been drunk in 10
minutes. Quoting The Morning paper in Cardiff, it was estimated
there were 360 "club members" and another 1,500 spectators. "It appears
almost incredible that the proceedings should have been so harmoniously
conducted as was the case," reports the paper. It found "perfect order"
as the various clubs were "engrossed" in emptying 4.5 gallon casks
and to remind one another there was not sufficient money on the carpet
to pay for the next, "to pay much attention to anything but the business
in hand."
It added: "That business, pure and simple, appeared to be the consuming as much beer as they possibly could."
Up to 5pm, more than 80 4.5 gallon casks were emptied, but after retiring for tea, a "roaring trade" was expected in the evening.
After the attention given to the field club, the "disgraceful exhibitions"
were attacked by Canon Thompson in a lecture to the YMCA. He appealed
for an end to the "club", for the influence it might have on
children. By June, Lord Windsor had banned drinking on his property and
threatened arrests for trespass for anyone found drinking on the Marl.
The drinking club had taken to meeting in other locations near Canton
Common and Saltmead, as well as meeting at the Marl just after midnight
to avoid police. Another club was reported near the tannery and 40 people
were spotted drinking in the open in a field off Clare Road. The Western
Mail remarked that while Sunday was usually the quietest day of the
week, in Grangetown "it was just the reverse." The scenes taking place
were "disgraceful and demoralising."
* There had been an issue for a few years regarding the 1881 Sunday
drinking laws in Cardiff. There were claims of hundreds of "shebeens"
- illegal drinking dens - in the town. Newspapers speculated that the
large Irish community was one factor for their popularity. In 1889, a
Royal Commission heard evidence that there were 450 shebeens in the town
and that police raids couldn't contain the trade. The Western Mail
sent a team of ordinary people under cover to investigate their extent.
In Grangetown, they found 40 shebeens with 173 people present - Cardiff-wide
it amounted to 3,196 in 457 shebeens. There were around 58 people in one
alone in Andrew Terrace, five shebeens in in Hewell Street and Havelock
Street, four in Lucknow Street, two each in Saltmead off Cornwall Street,
Cornwall Road, Court Road, Hereford Street, Holmesdale Street and Sevenoaks
Street, other shebeens in Andrew Terrace, Bishop Street, Courtenay Street,
Earl Street, Newport Street, North Street, Oakley Street, Plymouth Street
and Redlaver Street. Dr Gibbins, the curate at St Paul's Church in Grangetown
said the Sunday closing act had had an "evil effect" on the
area, with drinking been driven underground in clubs and where illicit
drinking in homes had become "widespread." The inspectors also
found illegal drinking in shops, including two fried fish shops and a
barbers. Convictions were running at one a day in 1891-92. In February
1892, police raids included houses in Earl Street and Cornwall Street,
with 4.5 gallon casks of beer confiscated. In October, police found 17
people drinking at William Jones' house in Dorset Street - 11 of them
women. Charles Morgan in Saltmead Road said he had to provide for his
family, as he had been in hospital.
|
Freeman's - a century of cigar-making
One of Grangetown's longest surviving businesses is JR Freeman's, with
more than a century of cigar-making and which has been a major employer of mostly
women. Sadly, it is set to disappear in 2009.
Freeman's was founded in Shoreditch, east London by James Rykes Freeman in
1839, but the company's expansion led to it opening a second works in Cardiff
at the end of the 19th century. The exact details are sketchy, but a cigar factory
under the name of R Kingston & Co - listed as agents for Freeman's - was open
at 57 North Clive Street, on the site of Chivers old vinegar works - by early
1903. By 1906, this was known as Freeman's. The business apparently started
in the late 19th century in Bridge Street before moving to Grangetown. Although
it's not listed in local directories of the time, the company has in its files
invoices with the Bridge Street address there..
JR Freeman and Son by this time was run by JR's son George, whose two sons
were also in the family business. Tennis-playing, non-smoking and radical Peter
Freeman, came to Cardiff, while brother Donald took over the London factory
in 1909. Another brother, Ralph, showed his talents by designing the Sydney
Harbour Bridge.
The South Wales Graphic - an Edwardian lifestyle magazine - for April
1903 has a feature on the new segar factory."The scale and style
in which Messrs Kingston have started their business are sufficient evnidence
that their Cardiff cigar factory is to be no mushroom concern but that is has
come to stay," wrote the correspondent.
He was given a guided tour by Mr Williams, the manager, and found "cleanliness,
happiness, industry" amongst the workforce on rows of long benches in the cigar-making
rooms. The foreman scrutinised the finished product carefully, before the cigars
were stored for around a year to mature. The factory had a mess room, including
a gas stove and library of books, which could be accessed from the recreation
ground. An innovative novelty was an American-made chute-style fire escape for
the workers. The 80 women workers were reported to have all successfully drilled
through the cork-screw shaped escape, to the satisfaction of the head constable.
"It is designed more particularly for the safety of the female employees,
amongst whom there is always a tendency to faint at critical moments, "
commented the Graphic correspondent. Incidentally, an earlier edition
of the publication carried an advert for Kingston's and Freeman's brand of cigar,
Freeman's Flying Horse, which would set you back 3d in 1903 - or five for a
shilling.
Peter Freeman apparently came up with the brand name for one of the company's
best sellers after walking through Cardiff and seeing a billboard for a music
hall act called "The Little Mannikins." The Manikin small cigar became a huge
seller, as the products became popular beyond the smoke-filled rooms of higher
society. A new factory on the site was built from 1914, and was known for its
excellent social and welfare facilities, and finished in 1919. The plant was
producing 25 million cigars a year by the 1920s. Freeman, meanwhile stepped
down in 1931 and became a colourful Labour MP for Newport. Donald's two sons
Robert and John took over the business, but after the war, in need of investment,
the company was taken over by the Gallahers cigarette company (1947). Freeman's
by this time was producing 70 million cigars a year. The popular Hamlet brand
was made from 1955 and by 1961, the company moved to a bigger factory on the
edge of Grangetown in Penarth Road, while opening another factory in Port Talbot
to add to the one in London. The old Freeman site is now home to an automotive
parts seller. The group was eventually taken over by a Japanese tobacco giant.
Sadly, Freeman's closure was announced in September 2007 - set for 2009 - blamed
on falling sales and with work due to move to Northern Ireland. A total of 184
jobs are being lost and will bring to an end 106 years of cigar-making in Grangetown. 
The girls from the JR Freeman cigar factory
before a picnic trip in the 1920s.
|
1899-1912: Distress and disease
Of all districts in Cardiff, Grangetown
had the highest number of people classed as paupers, who were granted poor
relief by the Cardiff Union. There were two types - those, mostly men, who
were in the workhouse (the old St David's hospital site in Cowbridge Road)
and the others, mostly women, who lived in the community as "outdoor
paupers" but were granted a few shillings a week to live on, or payment
in kind in the form of food, boots or medical expenses. Their experiences,
as listed in the Cardiff poor relief books, show a myriad number of maladies
and misfortune. There is simple old age, widowhood and infirmity, people
who have lost limbs or are blind, others succumb to phthisis (better known
as tuberculosis), bronchitis or are senile. Others have been "deserted"
or their husbands are "at sea" or "in prison". Others
are simply classed as destitute.
Few streets in Grangetown escape unscathed. At the end of the century,
Grangetown has a list of 195 families receiving "outdoor" relief. Across
the town there were a total of 140,000 days relief paid out, with nearly
24,000 in Grangetown. This list of families steadily rises past the 300
mark by 1906 to a peak of 330 in 1911 - a total of 838 adults and children
out of 13,291 in the town.
In 1906, for example, across Cardiff, there were 11,798 people receiving
"outdoor" relief, with 709 of them (at its highest 311 families) in Grangetown,
broken down as 91 men, 273 women and 345 children. Admittedly, Adamsdown
and Splott at this time were counted as separate districts, which if combined
would have seen 964 people classed as paupers in the community. In addition,
1,342 men, 729 women and 683 children in Cardiff were receiving workhouse
relief, with another 4,425 people classed as vagrants.
* If you want to view the poor books for yourself, the volumes are kept
in the local studies section of Cardiff Central Library.
Infant mortality was an issue of real concern at the end of the 19th,
start of the 20th century. There had been improvements in sanitary conditions,
the start of vaccination but the numbers of children, dying of malnourishment
for instance, had actually gone up in urban areas at the turn of the century.
To compare, today in Wales the average infant mortality is five deaths
per 1,000 births - in 1902 in major towns it was 146 deaths per 1,000.
That was around 150,000 babies dying a year. It was worse in the large
northern towns and cities, especially where women went out to work - they
could be back in factories and mills a month after giving birth. In Cardiff,
health officials prided themselves that the death rate was the lowest
of all towns of a similar size, and half that of places like Liverpool
and Manchester. If you look at Grangetown, it did show up as a pocket
for deaths in diseases like diphtheria, compared to other parts of the
town. Diarrhoea was also a killer - especially in hot summer months -
in the days before fridges - cases rose 70% in the first few years of
the new century. In 1900, in one three month period in Cardiff there were 611 deaths - of these, 212 were babies under one and 276 were children aged between 18 months and five years - only 81 were deaths of people over 65. (Broken down there were 62 diarrhoea deaths and 21 from diphtheria; other causes were whooping cough, scarlet fever and typhoid) Grangetown's death rate was 15.9 per 1,000 compared to a Cardiff average of 12.5.
There were studies, inevitably, into the causes. Some dismissed arguments
over poverty, claiming bread and meat were cheaper and wages were higher.
Some of the health arguments are familiar to us today - issues like breast
feeding, while there was criticism of diet and the basic milk substitute
products of the day. The conclusions, which did lead to improvements within
a few years, were that women needed more health and nutritional care while
they were pregnant - and again after they had given birth. In Cardiff,
they had a public meeting in 1905 to address the issue of underfed children
in the town's schools - so there were issues of nutrition for some children
who were older.
|
Another of Grangetown's fantastic late Victorian
buildings, long since disappeared. The Grangetown Forward Movement mission hall
was built in 1895 on the corner of Paget Street and Corporation Road. It closed
in the 1960s, was demolished in 1968 and the site later became an office equipment
store and is now a Tesco store. The Calvinistic Methodist Forward Movement was
set up in Cardiff in 1891 and established a number of Christian missions around
the town, in which chapel members provided meals to children from poor famiilies,
as well as Sunday schools. The Grangetown mission started off in a tent in 1893,
before being replaced by an iron building. This brick replacement cost £3,352
to build and typically was rather too grand - and expensive - an undertaking
. For example, a bazaar was held in 1899 towards trying to raise money towards
an outstanding £2,000 debt on the buliding. The movement was started by
Rev Dr
John Pugh, who left his post at the Clifton Street chapel in Roath. By 1894,
four centres in Cardiff and 15 more outside had been established. Five years
later, it had 20,000 members, with 35 centres across Wales, one in London with
hopes of more to follow in Manchester and Liverpool.
| JANUARY 12 1895:
Ice tragedy for local rugby star
This particular sad story illustrates
something of what it was like in what is now the Taff Mead area, before
Merches Gardens, Hafod and Mardy Streets were built at the end of the century.
As well as being an area for dumping some of the town's refuse, there were
also brick ponds between the River Taff and Clare Road. These ponds seemed
quite large, and were popular with townspeople for recreation. They were
on privately owned land, leased by a Mrs Jones of Francis Street (now Franklen
Street) who would charge a 3d toll for entry.
The Western Mail reports how Dick "struggled manfully" and was
seen trying to remove his coat - which onlookers say may have entangled
him. But he was too far away and disappeared before assistance could reach
him. Peter Lynch (101 Clare Road) recovered his body half an hour later
and it was taken to the mortuary to be identified by his mother and sister.
Two other lives were saved by a Norwegian sailor, George Jacobsen. E J
Humphreys, from Adamsdown was rescued after grabbing hold of a plank.
"They laid me on the bank and started pumping me, they thought I was passed
recovery," recalled Mr Humphreys, a non-swimmer. He was taken to the Neville
Hotel, where he was given clothing and refreshments by the landlord Mr
Gillard.
Dick was employed by the Barry Railway Company as a plumber and he lived
with his brother-in-law Frank, an engine driver, in Barry. Dick had briefly
left Cardiff to work in Huddersfield during a builders' strike and was
selected for the town's team. "A genial young fellow, liked by everyone"
he was due to be married in the summer to Prudence Goodhall. His body
was taken to his mother's house at 19 Allerton Street. She had been making
his tea when he drowned and cried repeatedly "if only he had gone to Shields"
when she heard the news. The sad news was telegraphed to Tyneside and
Charlie Arthur, Cardiff rugby club's secretary, who relayed the news to
Dick's brother and the team. A F Hill, captain of Cardiff, led the funeral
procession on the Wednesday from Allerton Street, swelled by members of
other local rugby and cycling clubs. The pall-bearers were four members
of the Cardiff team. A special train had carried 250 of his work colleagues
from Barry.
* An earlier newspaper report from
1893, comparing skating ponds across Cardiff, called another 3ft deep
pond off Ferry Road at the Grangetown Brick Works, "the finest piece of
ice in the town." A small charge covered the hire of skates and you could
have a coffee from a cottage next to the pond. There was
also a Dumballs pond, off Penarth Road, "frequented by people whose
company was anything but congenial."
|
Grangetown's missing streets
Other streets which have gone are Madras Street (off Clive Street),
which made way for St Patrick's School. Hewell Street (above in 1937)
and its 70 homes also made way for a new school and modern housing in the 1970s,
after standing for a century.
Here's a photo dated from about the turn of
the century, in Lower Grangetown. It shows Margaret Saddler standing outside her
son Fred's shaving saloon - near the junction of Worcester Street and Oakley Street.
She would have been in her early 50s at the time this was taken, her son Fred
around 20. Father Edwin was a sailor. These are two of the "disappearing"
terraces, which were replaced by modern housing and an OAP complex. The shop was
still a hairdresser's in the late 1920s.
| FEBRUARY 1904: Unsolved and mysterious murder in Saltmead
She was found dead in bed, with a rope
around her neck and a huge puzzle about not only why she died and who killed
her, but what her real story was. The body of Harriett Stacey, 50, was found
on February 14th 1904, around a week after she was strangled, in the front
bedroom of her house at 41 Saltmead Road (since renamed Stafford Road and
near the junction with Cornwall Street). She was strongly suspected at the
time to be working as a prostitute, but there also existed at the time a
notorious diary, which she kept and was deemed too scandalous to be detailed
at her inquest or divulged in the newspapers, which hinted at clues to her
sexual appetites and deviances.
She was a mother-of-six, originally from Market Drayton, Shropshire,
who via Brecon had come to south Wales from Hereford and a marriage to
engine driver husband John Stacey. After an affair with the couple's lodger,
a sewing machine salesman, she came to live in Cardiff a few years before.
At the time of her death, she was living with a man called Robert England,
a Dutch marine engineer who had left on a voyage in January and was still
at sea when she was killed. Neighbours thought he was her husband and
she was also known as "Kate Stacey" or "Kate England".
According to the South Wales Daily News reports of her "foul murder,"
she was last seen alive over the back garden wall by her neighbours at
No 39, Thomas Williams and his wife on February 7th, a week before. But
the initial suspect, the man who discovered her body, was a William Henry
Warren, a widower from East Moors, who visited her regularly. Neighbours
thought he was her brother but, as he told the inquest, "draw your own
conclusions" when he refused to deny he was a paying customer of Harriett's.
The newspaper said she had "many and frequent visits"..."in most part
from the seafaring class," and "at all hours of the night." In a darkly
comic twist, she kept her door key on a piece of string from the letter
box for convenience because her poor hearing meant callers frequently
had to bang hard on the door to be heard. Warren, who had called with
a loaf of bread, was worried when he failed to rouse her, and suspicions
grew when she was not seen, the blinds remained drawn and washing undone.
Warren found he could not enter the house in the usual way and filed down
his own key to gain entrance before taking a matchlight and making the
grim discovery in her bedroom. The police and surgeon found her in a nightdress,
a rope around her neck, loosely tied to the bottom of the bedstead. She
had been strangled and the surgeon concluded it had been expertly done
and she would have died instantly.
Her estranged husband John was at the inquest, when he questioned Warren about his relationship to her. Mr Stacey claimed not to have seen his wife for two years. Although at least one of her grown up daughters lived in Cardiff too, they were apparently discouraged from visits by their mother.
Harriett Stacey was believed to have been planning to leave Cardiff
and had bought a trunk from her neighbour, had £40 in her account - which
confirmed a local view that she was "never in want of a quid." She was
known to be a regular visitor to LondonThere had certainly been a search
of her possessions by whoever killed her, her purses were empty although
nothing was obviously missing and the next door neighbour belatedly recalled
the sound of what might have been chopping wood from a fire coming from
inside the house late one night in the days before she was found.
Her diary is referred to by the newspaper, as being a journal in which
she kept record of money coming in and out but also "all sorts of peculiar
entries....of a remarkable character and are of such a character they
cannot be disclosed." There is a hint in the report of the inquest that
after a "crisis incidental to womanhood" may have led to a "moral looseness"
and the diary entries reflected a "depravity of the mind of the worst
type."
* Mark Isaacs details the case in his excellent Foul Deeds & Suspicious
Deaths In Cardiff (£12.99, Pen & Sword) and speculates that possibly
Harriett was involved in erotic practices in which her death could even
have been accidental, with the "killer" only trying to get rid of traces
of himself.
|
Churches and schools
St Paul's Church in Grangetown was conscecrated
by the Bishop of Llandaff in 1890. It was built on an acre of land given five
years earlier by Lord Windsor, who also donated £4,000 to build the church's 75ft-long
knave. The building was aimed at accommodating a congretation of 600. The congegration
initially came under the parish of St John's in Canton and first met in Vanstone's
Loft, over a stable in North Street. When the Grangetown National School (renamed
St Paul's Church-in-Wales Primary in 1963) opened in Bromsgrove Street
in 1864, the Sunday services moved there. In 1879, Lady Mary Windsor Clive had
given £500 for the building of the Iron Mission Church, known as "The Iron Room".
It was here that a service was held in March 1889, ahead of the laying of a foundation
stone by Lord Windsor. Around 200 then sat down to lunch at the school. As for
the school, "the Nash" moved to a new building in June 1974 and the
old National School building in Clive Street was demolished. St Dyfrig and
Samson's church dates from 1927.
St Patrick's RC School opened in north Grangetown in 1873, (with the
chapel opening in 1882), to serve an estimated 500 Grangetown catholics and
100 pupils. Classes had been held from the 1860s in a small cottage in Havelock
Place, followed by "The Brickyard School", opened by a pioneer of
Catholic education in the town, Father Fortunatus Signini. He had arrived in
Cardiff in 1854, moving to St Peter's in Roath with the ambition of spreading
Catholic schools across the town. The centenary history of the school, with
extracts from its log books - reflects the period in Grangetown. Residents in
nearby Thomas Street, still semi-rural, hung out their washing "on the hedges
and bushes," and children had to cross ditches and streams to reach school.
Ilnesses like scarlet fever and measles could take their toll - three pupils
died of the former in one month in 1876. These were the days before free schooling
although the inspector's reports were good.
An extract from the log from 1884 gives a flavour of the time: "It
is impossible to get the children to school. The mothers complain of the
roads and the bad weather..it is painful to see some poor little infants
with bad boots trudging through the mud. Even those who are well shod
get wet feet. Another reason for the poor attendance is that the illness
that is always prevalent in damp weather. Many are suffering from bad
coughs, bronchitis, sore eyes, earache and sore throats. The absentees
are chiefly the younger children, who as a rule, leave school in the winter
months."
There were other distractions too. The school head noticed in 1874 that attendances
fell off from April until October, as some pupils took up work at the brick
works next door. Helping to supplement the family's income could be a necessity.
As for St Patrick's RC Church, before the permanent building was opened,
mass was celebrated in people's homes and even at the Irish pub, the London
Style Inn in Lucknow Street. The first church building was opened in 1884 next
to the school on St Patrick's Day. The Bishop of Newport celebrated a high mass,
with various clergy officiating. The building, seating up to 500 people, cost
£1,200 to build - it was 70ft by 28ft, in the Early English style by architect
John J Hurley and builders Richardson and Trick. The chancel and baptistry was
omitted due to lack of funds. The choir gallery had underneath the infants school,
with two large classrooms, separated from the church by shutters. A second site
was eventually found at Grange Gardens which eventually led to the current church
opening on St Patrick's Day in 1930. St Patrick's Memorial Hall, close to the
school, opened in 1920.
Grangetown Baptist Church opened in Clive Street in 1865 and is one
of Grangetown's oldest surviving buildings. An adjoining school was later demolished
for a housing development. The Ebenezer chapel in Corporation Road dates from 1899. Court
Road School was another Victorian school, which was opened on 19 August
1893 by the mayor, W E Vaughan, after considerable delay due to a building strike.
The new board school was much needed in the growing area of Saltmead and Mr
Vaughan commented at the opening ceremony in one of the classrooms that every
child should be educated, whether their parents could afford to pay or not.
The school catered for 380 girls on the ground floor - with class sizes of 70
and 60! The 380 boys were taught upstairs. There was also an infants school
block looking towards the railway, with room for another 468 pupils. The main
entrance was off Rutland Street. A report on its opening in the Western Mail
commented on its design, allowing light and ventilation, and fittings which
gave "an appearence of warmth and cheerfulness." It was built by the
prominent local builders E Turner for a cost of £11,703 and designed by architects
Jones, Richards and Budgen, although Mr Jones did not live to see the opening.
It was later renamed Courtmead Primary School, eventually closing in 1969 and
demolished a year later. New housing was built on part of the site in Rutland
Street and a new community garden opened in 2006 after part of the site was
left as wasteground for 35 years.
Pictured above is Grangetown Council School in 1904-1905 and the boy's
rugby team. The school was founded in Bromsgrove Street in 1884, with spaces
for 1,044 pupils. It was one of five new schools opening across town to accommodate
the growing population. The school board speculated in 1884 that there were
18,400 children of a school age in the town, but 2,284 were "at large without
any education at all." Photo: Grangetown History Society/Grangetown
Primary School.
Ninian Park School opened in 1900 as Virgil Street Board School, before
being renamed with the opening of nearby Ninian Park and the home of Cardiff
City Football Club. During World War One it became a hospital for servicemen.
During this time, pupils travelled to Court Road School for lessons in the morning,
while the host school's children had their classes in the afternoon. More than
30 servicemen died at the school "hospital". The school was damaged
during the air raid in January 1941. In 1948, for 20 years, the school was a
secondary school until the new Fitzalan School opened and it reverted to being
a primary. In 1949 the first Welsh medium class opened in Glamorgan county within
the school. The school celebrated its centenary in 2000 with a Victorian fayre
and exhibition. There's an excellent history and photos on the
school's website
The old Grangetown Library on the corner of Stockland Street
and Clive Street
When SA Brain meant books not just beer
The name "SA Brain" is well known in Cardiff
as the name of a pint of beer, after the brewer of the same name.
The eponymous Samuel Arthur Brain, as well as being co-founder of the brewery
in 1882, was also a Conservative councillor for Grangetown from 1885 and played
a crucial role in founding the area's library.
Councillor Brain took a keen interest in
the education of the area's population. He personally helped to support a reading
room in Clive Street. As chairman of the town's branch library committee, in
1901 he oversaw the opening of a number of lending libraries in Cardiff. The
second of six to open, on September 15th, was the one on the opposite side of
the road to the old reading room. Designed by EM Bruce-Vaughan, the red-brick
building was noted for its natural light and ventilation and regarded as a model
likely to be "widely adopted." It was built by contractors D Thomas
and Sons for a cost of £3,501 including freehold.
Mr Brain, in the absence of the mayor, opened the library by applying for membership
and borrowing its first book. He then received a golden key in return and treated
the guests to lunch.
Grangetown Library remained in use until September 2006, when the service
moved from the corner of Stockland Street and Clive Street to a new building
in Havelock Place. The building, after local campaigning, was saved from demolition
and it is being sensitively converted into flats.
It appears Mr Brain helped pay for 3,000 of the 5,000 books in the library,
chosen by the chief librarian Mr Ballinger. Previously, he had "privately subscribed heavily" to supplement the grant from the rates to maintain the reading room. But the Cardiff Weekly Times
reported that he made clear that "the inhabitants of Grangetown were not
to associate charity with the library, it was their own, bought out of the public
purse." The six branches, which also included Splott, Canton, Roath, Docks
and Cathays, were to "place sound literature within the reach of all."
Time, gentlemen! Grangetown's disappearing pubs
The landlord of
The Grange, Mr Pritchard, in the early part of the 20th century. And a photo
of the pub from the 1990s.
In 2010, there were just three pubs currently open in Grangetown. At the turn of the 20th century, there were 10. Let's start with the trio still open:
The Grange Hotel in Penarth Road back
in 1901 was run by John M Pritchard (pictured above left, centre), then
40, who lived there with his wife Ellen, 27, originally from Swansea. His son
Edgar, 18, was a plumber and there were two daughters Winifred, 11, and one-year-old
May. Also living on the premises was book-keeper Kate Jenkins, a Irish-born widow,
39, barmaid Rose Bernard, 24, servant Emily Brooks, 23, and Mr Pritchard's cousin
Ralph, 16, a sign-writer from Monmouth. The Pritchards lived there until the 1920s.
Part of the pub's present-day lounge used to be a butcher's shop.
The Neville in Allerton Street, in 2010 was put up for sale,
with a serious question mark as to its future. The pub dates from September
1889, started life as the Saltmead Hotel when it was built for the Hancock's
Brewery, before its change of name within about a year. In 1901, it was run
by Devonian John Gillard, 57, assisted by his son George, 20. His wife Annie,
51, looked after their other five children - although the two eldest girls were
an apprentice milliner and dressmaker (so much for the myth that women didn't
go out to work..! You can easily find women who worked as laundry workers in
this area too). The pub by the time of the 1891 census, run by a Bristol
man, who lived there with his wife and six children. It had a bar, tap room,
saloon bar, and two jug and bottle compartments. It had seven bedrooms but no
rooms recorded for guests.
The Neville became the centre of an emergency in January 1895, when a well-known
local rugby player drowned and two other men were rescued while falling through
the ice skating on the frozen ponds the other side of Clare Road. Mr Gillard
looked after the injured. (See above). In 1911, it was run by Surrey-born
Henry Haynes, 47, and his wife Elizabeth, with five others living in to help run the pub.
Down the road in Cornwall Street is The Cornwall (House) Hotel
- which first opened its doors in September 1894. It also seems to have tried
to take the name Saltmead Hotel initially when it was first built for £2,000
in 1893, with a large club room, four public rooms, bathroom "and every
convenience". It didn't initially get a licence, although there was demand
for it, given the numbers in the rapidly growing Saltmead area. Evidence to
the (unsuccessful) licence hearing was that in 1885 there were no houses in
the area, but by 1893 there were 786 with an estimated population of 4,716 and
"a great many houses were in the course of erection." Giving evidence,
a Joseph Hardy of Hereford Street bemoaned the fact that on Saturday nights
in the crowded Neville Hotel down the road "there was no time and not enough
room" to fill jars with beer "for the Sunday consumption." It
was put that the pub was needed to combat the illegal drinking dens, the shebeens
in the area. By 1901, it was run by another Devon-born man, Joseph Martin, 32,
his wife Emma, 34, who had recently moved to Cardiff from London with their
young family and took over the licence in 1898. Also living at the pub in 1901
was an Irish housekeeper, a widow, and two barmaids (who also spoke Welsh) from
Maesteg and Taibach. As well as family accommodation on the first floor, there
were four bedrooms upstairs - three for the use of travellers. The licence had
transferred the following year. The pub in 1902 had two bars, a dining room
and "jug and bottle" compartments. In 1911, it was run by James White,
50, his second wife Laura and his 22-year-old daughter, all originally from
Bath. They had four servants living in helping to run the place. The old story
about this pub is that it is haunted by Will The Pig, the father of an old landlord
who died in the lounge. The Cornwall today is open-plan with photos and memorabilia
relating to the HMS Cornwall ship, with Cardiff connections.
The Neville pub in around 1910 - and then 98 years later, very much in colour, as the Grangetown carnival passes by.
Now those no longer with us:
Pictured above is The Cork Club's picnic day out in 1919, outside The London Style Inn, which stood opposite St Patrick's church hall and had strong Irish links. Before the permanent church was built, it was also often used for Catholic services. It was at No 1 Lucknow Street, at the back of Havelock Place and Madras Street - both street and pub disappeared for the grounds of the modern-day St Patrick's school. I presumed the "Cork Club" was purely connected with the area's Irish community. But it was a "brotherhood", with a set of rules centred around all members having to carry a cork with them - if they were unable to produce one at the request of a member, they were asked to pay into the fund, which went to charity! "Cork Club" rules also included addressing members as "Brother." In 1881, the pub was run by Abraham Brown, 59, a Cornish carpenter who lived there with his wife and six children. He had worked as a ship's carpenter in the docks since the 1860s and took over a pub in Sophia Street in the 1870s.
Another club outing in 1946, outside the Lord Windsor pub, which isn't there any more.
Turner's House on the embankment, and then
in the change photo (left), when it was converted into a public house; the photo
on the right is of the new flats being built in its place in 2009. Cadw did
not believe the building was worth preserving because of the changes made in
1974 - but it still seems sad to see this distinctive building disappear, especially
as it was once the house of a man behind some of the city's most beautiful structures.
At one time it was a popular venue for blues, rock and jazz bands. The association's
plans include one, two and three bedroom apartments.
The inn started life as a town house owned by William Turner - part of the
E Turner and Sons building company, which was based in Havelock Place - and
included a tennis court before being turned into a pub in 1974 by his grandson.
Turners was founded in 1885 by Ephraim Turner, 43, a Herefordshire-born mason
who had settled with his wife Anne in Merthyr Tydfil. With two of his sons James
and William, the company became associated with building Cardiff's finest Edwardian
civic buildings, including City Hall (1905), the law courts, the main University
College building (1909), as well as the Coal Exchange (1911), the David Morgan
store and the Guildhall in Swansea. Ephraim moved his family to Jubilee Terrace
in Penarth Road, when the company was first founded, before he and James moved
to Roath Park. Ephraim died in 1911 but the family continued to be involved
in the business up to the present day, although it has been taken over by a
larger firm. See
also Blitz and Blight
The empty Inn On The River, hit by arson
attacks in June 2006, was demolished in September 2008 and a new flats development
has replaced it. Its history is only comparatively fleeting as a pub but it was
an interesting landmark all the same.
The Plymouth, which was thought to be Grangetown's oldest pub, was demolished
in November 2008. Opening in September 1847, on the corner of Clive Street and
Holmesdale Street,. It had a bar, tap room and smoke room, two jug and bottle
compartments and nine rooms for travellers in its hey day.
It was a landmark pub as Grangetown grew up around it. The hotel was also
host to meetings and dinners in Victorian times, ranging from organisations
and fellowships like the Foresters and the Oddfellows, as well as the Grangetown
Primrose League, the Grange Estate Tenants and until their first club was built
opposite, Grangetown Conservative Association. Inquests were also held here
at times. Sadly, it was empty for several years before its demolition and the
site is set for a flats development.
The Bird In The Hand in Bromsgrove Street,
which closed in 1995 and was demolished for development. It had two bars, smoke
room and two jug and bottle compartments. The licence in 1898 stated that as well
as selling liquor, the pub also provided "ordinary refreshments (cold) and
Bovril!" The lovely picture above is of Ken Lloyd, a member of Grangetown History
Society, as a boy outside the pub in 1931, while next to it is a photo when it
was boarded up before demolition. At one time the pub was run by a landlord called
Mr Clark, who was related to the singer Petula Clark.
Other pubs no longer around are the Penarth Dock at 35 Thomas Street
(Grangetown-born Paul
Flynn MP writes of his mother being the landlord's daughter and growing
up in the "melting pot"). The pub was a short stagger from the Baroness
Windsor. There was a bar, smoke room, tap room, a quite large club room and
a jug and bottle compartment. The Forge Hotel/Inn in Oakley Street (pictured
above), which is thought to have opened in the 1880s. Its building may date
from the 1860s. The pub and terrace around it was demolished in the 1970s, which
these photos date from. It had two bars, a smoke room and two jug and bottle
compartments. The street is now more modern developments. There was also the
Royal Princess in Hewell Street.
Another pub to disappear more recently is the Red House on the waterfront
at Ferry Road (left). The distinctive looking pub sadly made way in 2005
for characterless apartments near the sports village. It was formerly known
as The Penarth Railway Hotel, which pre-dated 1878. It consisted in 1900
of a bar, tap room and smoke room and stables. The Baroness Windsor in
Penarth Road in early 2008 was closed and boarded up. It had been open since
at least the 1860s. There was a planning application to demolish it, but it
seems as if the new owners want to keep the building and convert into flats
and a shop.
A look back at Grangetown - a century ago
Another story from this month a century ago is one which the newspaper headlined
"A sad story of poverty, squalor and neglect." It tells of a time before
the welfare state and with the shadow of the workhouse still looming large.
A mother from Compton Street in Saltmead is prosecuted for child neglect, after
a policeman found three of her children in a sorry state.
The Cardiff Police Court heard that Frederick Ball was too ill to work and
Mrs Ball had pawned most of their possessions, including her clothes, to buy
food. Daughter Nellie, 11, was "weak, poorly fed, dirty and verminous" when
Sgt Whitcombe saw the family in the "dirty" two rooms where they lived
with little furniture and no fire on the grate. Wallace, five, was weak, thin,
poorly nourished, "very verminous" and only wearing a sleeveless coat, a ragged
shirt and no boots or stockings. Sister Violet, only two, was better fed but
poorly clad. The children were taken to Grangetown Police Station, where they
"ate ravenously," before they were taken to the workhouse hospital. Mrs Ball
tearfully told the court of their circumstances and when she applied for parish
relief, was told they had to go to the workhouse. A shopkeeper Mrs Barker said
how she had given her a shilling because she seemed so poor. Sgt Whitcombe said
he had seen her around, but also in a situation when she had had a drink. The
stipendary magistrate warned her that "poverty was no excuse for the insufficient
feeding and dirty condition of the children". He was to review the case
in six months time.
MAY 1908: A couple
of stories of marital issues this month. Ellen Ann Harris summonsed her estranged
husband to court for destertion and wanted a separation order. She had been married
to Benjamin Harris, a boilermaker, for 13 years, lived in Penhaved Street and
they had a child. The court heard that Mr Harris had treated his wife "in a diabolical
manner" by "staying out night after night". She turned detective after obtaining
certain information and found her husband in bed with another woman. He was told
to pay the price, at 25 shillings a week.
Another story in the Western Mail involves a tugboat owner from Amherst
Street who was after a separation order from his wife and to make an arrangement
for maintenance. "The cursed drink" loomed large, with even his mother-in-law
admitting to the court her daughter was "always, always drunk..and the children,
the poor little lambs, are allowed to go around in an awful dirty state." JUNE 1908: One
that sticks out for this month - for all those who say things were always better
in the old days. There was trouble reported in the Echo at Grange Gardens,
as well as parks at Splott and Canton because of misbehaviour from young people,
with stones and balls being thrown. There were threats to withdraw the bands from
the bandstands "unless there was an improvement in conduct of youmg people."
"The old discipline of the schools has declined evidently," said
the paper, when "some children and young people" could pose such a
threat.
JULY 1908: A more heart-warming tale about Edwardian youth the following
month - and also the perils of playing in the river in a heatwave. There was
praise for the heroism of 13-year-old Elmer Darroch, from 35 Saltmead Road (now
Stafford Road), who dived into the Taff to save nine-year-old Clifford Baldry
from drowning, after he got out of his depth. Elmer had just passed out of Court
Road school and was on his way to work at Messrs A McLays printers in Duke Street
in the town centre.
Seeing Clifford in difficulty as he passed over the bridge, he dived from
a parapet, fully clothed, into the water. Passer-by Stephen Keely, who lived
in Court Road, went to help. Clifford was revived by Pc Albert Knight, with
the help of bystanders, and was taken to his grandmother's house in Eisteddfod
Street in Temperance Town, where he lived (approximately where the pitch of
the Millennium Stadium lies today). He came round, although was very wet and
suffering from shock. The Western Mail reported that "but for the
plucky action of the boy Darroch and the man Keely, Baldry would have been drowned."
The paper interviewed Elmer "a bright, intelligent lad", who told
his story with "becoming modesty and treated the matter somewhat lightly".
Elmer told the paper: "He was going under as I got to him - I managed to
hitch one of my feet to his bathing drawers." Finding his clothes and boots
heavy, Elmer had to let him go and Keely took over. Elmer lived with his mother,
"a hard working widow" - the rest of the family had moved to Cardiff,
where Elmer was born, from the north east of England. Two sons and two daughters
had learned to swim at school at the corporation baths. AUGUST 1908: It
really was the "silly season" in Cardiff and nothing to report of note
for Grangetown, this month 100 years ago.
A couple of stories from around Cardiff however caught the eye. Firstly, there
was the tragedy, and remarkable story of survival, of a Cardiff sailor
following the sinking of his steamship off Germany. The Kirkwall, bound
for Cardigan, was in collision with a mystery ship near Cuxhaven. Forty men
lost their lives, including 20 seamen from Cardiff. Most of them were a multinational
crew, based in digs in Butetown. But Cardiff-based Greek sailor John Stellakis
had a remarkable escape. He held onto a plank of wood, as he drifted in the
sea for several hours before being spotted by a German boat. He was one of only
two men rescued. "I held onto a plank with the chief engineer but we were both
washed off," he told the Western Mail on his return a few days later. "I succeeded in regaining my hold but he failed and was not seen
afterwards. Then the messroom steward and the fireman held onto the same plank
but after some hours, they too were exhausted and were drowned."
Stellakis recalled: "I simply let myself drift on the plank. The skipper and
some men escaped on a small boat but that too sunk." When asked whether the
water was very cold, Athens-born Stellakis replied, "it was hell," apologising
for using such a strong expression. He was picked up by a German tug, which
also rescued a ship-mate. He lost his coat and trousers, the only thing left
was his post office savings book.
The evils of speeding motorists were highlighted in the Western Mail, under
the headline "Fast Driving in Cardiff". A chauffeur was prosecuted for dangerous driving in Queen Street
(long before it was pedestrianised, of course). Bentfield Charles Hicks forced
a number of people waiting for a tram to "jump back on the pavement" to avoid
him. Hicks was accused of reaching the dizzying speed of 16 to 18 mph. He was fined £50 - what must have felt like an extraordinary amount for the time - and banned from driving for three years!
OCTOBER 1908: The
darker side of Cardiff was getting attention, with claims that prostitution was
getting out of control. A new church-led group, called the Citizen's Movement
was formed, with Rev John Thomas of the Forward Movement its secretary, dedicated
to measures againt prostitution, illegal drinking and drunkenness.
George Bibbings, who lived in Holmesdale Street, wrote to the chief constable
and the Echo, saying it was clearly evident that there was a "brothel
colony" on the route from Tudor Street to Clarence Embankment, via Penarth
Road. Prostitutes "and their partners in vice" were using the trams,
with the full knowledge of the conductors, claimed Mr Bibbings. "The behaviour
of these gangs of women is flagrantly indecent and an extreme object lesson
in degradation." Problems started in town, with St Mary Street "unsavoury"
at nightfall. Soliciting was going on "under the noses" of police,
while daughters, wives and sisters were being accosted in Tudor Street as they
waited for their cars home. The chief constable had refused to reply to Mr Bibbings
letter and denied at the watch committee meeting that "whole streets were given
up" to brothels. The newspaper this month, as usual, carried reports of women
(and men) running disorderly houses, including a 70-year-old man in Eldon Street
(now Ninian Park Road) and Clare Poole, 24, for assisting in the management
of a disorderly house in Somerset Street - not once, but three times in three
weeks. She was fined £5. A similar case against a couple in Allerton Street
was dropped.
The paper also carried the story of a young Grangetown woman, who had married
into the notorious Agopemonite sect in Somerset. The group, which lived in a
large communal house called the "Abode of Love" had been associated with accusations
under its late founder in earlier years ranging from rape to brain-washing.
Elizabeth Link, 20 (formerly of Ludlow Street and daughter of a dockyard labourer),
had married a "highly educated" retired stockbroker's son John Read.
Elizabeth's father was now at a workhouse, while her mother was a housekeeper
in Kent Street. "Of course I was uneasy about it at first because I had read
so many dreadful things about what is supposed to go on at the Agopenmon,"
said her mother, also Elizabeth. "But I've been there many times and I
know of my own knowledge that most of what is said in the papers is untrue."
NOVEMBER 1908:
Two burglaries in Grangetown made the news. Firstly, a safe was stolen from
a house in Clare Road belonging to Edward Thomas, a turf commission agent. It
contained £130, postal orders and bank notes worth £440 and a gold
watch. Three men in their 30s were charged with the theft, after the safe was
found empty and the trail went as far as Nottingham, where one of the men tried
to pawn the watch, while another was found a little closer to home - Eldon Street
in Riverside (now Ninian Park Road) - with postal orders. In another case, a
pawnbroker's, Lewis Finsberg, was broken into in Penarth Road. Jewellery worth
more than £27 and cash was taken. A watch was found in the back yard where
one of the men, later charged, was lodging in Millicent Street. Jewellery was
also recovered from the Marl, where it was buried in the ground.
Meanwhile, a little cautionary tale from Clive Street. Postman Mr Humphries
returned home with his wife to find a gas leak. He turned off the supply but
unfortunately lit a candle to find his way into the room. There was an explosion
and fire in the front room. Luckily, neighbours helped put out the flames
and the couple escaped with minor burns, scorched clothes and singed hair.
DECEMBER 1908:
Fortune and misfortune at Christmas for two Grangetown folk. Firstly, it was
good news for Nathaniel Hounsell, who lived in Stockland Street. They didn't
have EuroMillions in 1908, but he was the lucky winner of a share in the French
lottery. Mr Hounsell had bought his share of the ticket from an acquaintance,
a marine engineer, who had in turn bought the ticket from a French sailor at
Barry docks. The total amount, with 25 francs to the pound, worked out at £3,400.
There was an appeal in the local paper to track down Mr Hounsell from the man
who held the ticket.
Less of a Merry Christmas for Alice James, of Llanbradach Street, who had
gone to police after becoming the victim of what looked like a scam for cheap
turkeys. This "highly respectable woman," as the court was told,
had answered a newspaper advert offering 8lb Christmas turkeys for 2s 6d postal
order. Unfortunately, rather than a bird, she received a letter asking for
another five shillings - or an offer to sell coupons to friends. Two Cardiff
men, including the son of an Inland Revenue official, were due to appear for
a trial in the new year. JANUARY 1909:
A practical joke at the wedding of a couple in Saltmead Road led to the police
becoming involved. While the bride and groom were at church, a prankster tied
two ropes across the road, attached on one side to a lamppost and to the railings
on the opposite side. "A rather corpulent woman", sitting on a soap box on old
pram wheels, was then pushed down the road, and showered with confetti, as a
crowd gathered. But when the happy couple arrived back from the ceremony by
taxi cab, the driver failed to see to ropes. Thankfully, no-one was hurt but
the force against the ropes pulled down a railing, two gateways, damaged a wall
and also the front of the car. FEBRUARY 1909:
Times have changed and some times for the better. Cardiff's always had a reputation
as a multi-racial town, so it's still a bit of a jolt to read the headline of
a story in the Western Mail from 1909. There's a story about a woman from Somerset
Street applying for a court order for the desertion of her husband, "a black
sea cook." There are details of him being jailed for running a disorderly house;
a common enough occurrence in Somerset Street in 1909! But the headline, even
for the dubious fashion of the time, is ugly. "Married a black man," it reads. APRIL 1909: An
inquest into baby Ivan Jones, 10 months old, who died in Earl Street, the youngest
of 13 children - five still living at home. Neighbours told the inquest that
the mother had a drink problem - "I did it for the sake of the baby, because
she was always out drinking," said one, who reported her. The NSPCC inspected
but the inquest gave the mother the benefit of the doubt. The child was delicate
and had suffered fits before he died. Natural causes was recorded.
APRIL 1908: James W Morgan, a tramway signalman who
lived at 112 Holmesdale Street, was given a Royal Humane Society award for saving
a 17-year-old girl from drowning. Mr Morgan was on duty by the Custom House
Bridge, when he spotted Florrie Williams standing on the top of the bridge.
He could do nothing to stop her jumping, in what was reported to be a suicide
attempt. At first tried to use the long pole for removing the trolley heads
to reach her in the water. But he dropped the pole and ended up jumping in after
her in 10ft of water. The South Wales Echo reported that he was in full uniform,
wearing heavy clogs and leggings, "which much hampered him in the water." He
managed to reach her and two young men also entered the water to help him with
the rescue. Mr Morgan's colleagues in the tram company had a collection for him and he was presented with £1 11s and 6d. He came from a family of strong swimmers and his brother Henry was said to have saved several young people from the River Taff.
Remembered - the wartime sailor who postponed wedding for action
The sacrifice of a Grangetown sailor during World War One has been remembered
90 years after his death in April 1918, thanks to the Friends of Cathays Cemetery.
John Cleal, 24, had served in the Navy for six years and it is believed he lived
in both Clive Street and Holmesdale Street. He had postponed his wedding to
volunteer to take part in the raid. Eight Victoria Crosses were awarded, but
the casualty rate was high with more than 200 killed and a further 300 wounded.
The South Wales Daily News reported ahead of his funeral: "He was engaged to
be married to Miss May Price, and the wedding was only postponed in order that
he might volunteer for the great exploit. His brother George is serving in the
army, and one of his brothers-in-law has been killed." His memorial was erected
by public subscription but had been neglected over the years until his story
was re-discovered last year by two researchers James Lister and Peter Gronow.
The friends group then contacted the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, arranged
for the grave to be tidied up. The Royal Naval Association joined the friends
group to rededicate the memorial.
* Thanks to Elaine Long, who sent us a photo (above) showing another Grangetown
connection. Her grandfather Tom Williams, who once owned the newsagents on the
Square in Holmesdale Street, and who lived in Amherst Street, was involved in
the committee as treasurer which organised the original memorial. He is pictured
third from the left at the graveside, along with George Edwards (asst secretary);
G.Hobbs (president); F.H.Cornish (chairman); and Mr Mossford (sculptor).
* The Friends of Cathays Cemetery would be
pleased to make contact with any living relatives of John Cleal. Contact GCC
and we will pass the details on.
The grave of John Cleal had become unkempt and overgrown until the group stepped
in - and it was re-dedicated in a ceremony on April 20th to mark the anniversary
of the sinking of his ship. The stoker on HMS Iphigenia died of his injuries
on a hospital ship, the day after an attempt to sink three ships filled with
concrete at Zeebrugge.
A DVD telling the story of Grangetown and the
Docks has been released locally. It has been written and produced by Grangetown-born
Ian Malcolm, who is involved with the Cardiff Cine and Video Society and has already
produced films telling the history of Cardiff. This nearly hour-long more localised
history includes comparisons of the area then and now, stories in the words of
local people and some fascinating archive film.
Tales Of Old Grangetown naturally features some common ground, for
those familiar with the splendid "Images of Wales" books compiled over the last
10 years by Barbara Jones and Ian Clarke. It begins with a scene-setting history
of Butetown and the Docks and how Grangetown grew rapidly beyond, although its
name and earliest landmark dated back to the medieval Grange Farm. Certainly, it was fascinating
to be taken on a look inside this, thankfully, preserved building today.
These sort of films give you an appetite to delve further and perhaps take
a look at your surroundings just that bit more. The DVD occasionally has patchy
sound quality and could have done with a little less cheesy background music
in places - a personal bug-bear - but it's well overdue.
Tales Of Old Grangetown (DVD-R) is available at £10 from Video Image, Rumney,
Cardiff, 02920 795 619. There is also a copy to borrow in the Grangetown and
Central libraries.
Cardiff Library members can now access Victorian newspapers online
from home, including the Western Mail from 1869 to 1899. You need
to log on to the Cardiff
e-library with your membership number and password. You can also
access Ancestry.co.uk through your library membership log-in. For visitors,
the Central library, currently in temporary accommodation in John Street,
also has old newspapers on microfiche, as well as old documents and directories
for reference - all in the Local Interest section on the first floor.
Some material is also kept at the library's Stacks warehouse in Roath,
which can be viewed by appointment. Grangetown Library in Havelock Place
has a selection of Cardiff history books.
The Cardiff Museum at
the Old Library building in The Hayes houses regular local history exhibitions,
amongs other shows. When We Were Young: growing up in Cardiff is
running until January 2009. It's also trying to gather memories and photos
for it's ongoing Collecting Cardiff project.
There is also the Glamorgan Records
Office, now in Leckwith, close to the new Cardiff City stadium
development. You can call in but it's often best to book a place in advance
- the office has old archive documents, parish and estate records, original
plans for houses and other buildings in Cardiff, as well as local
directories and maps. You can also access censuses up to 1901. There
are lockers for personal belongings, bring pencils not pens
Other useful links or interesting sites for local or family history
include the Glamorgan Family History Society, which is useful for those both with family connections in the area or those with just an interest in history; ancestry.co.uk (subscription
required for most services); GENUKI
Cardiff, abandoned
communities has details of old Temperance Town and Newtown in Cardiff.
What will appeal to those not already
familiar with local history are firstly the little nooks and crannies surviving
in the area, despite the huge changes. It's also a lesson that too many landmarks
seem to be disappearing or under threat. The most poignant moment is the plaque
marking the wartime bombing of Hollyman's Bakery in Stockland Street and the
death of 32 people. It's left to the owner of the hardware shop built on the
site to retell the story of that night in January 1941, a reminder of an event
not forgotten but of time moving on. Happier times are remembered by other locals
- the St Patrick's church pipe band, Cardiff City players when they lived a
few streets away and walked to the ground (some old colour footage at Ninian
Park is worth a look), and the small but perfectly formed business which is
Clark's Pies. There is also the curious tale of the haunting of The Grange pub
by a former landlord. Although this particularly story may lack cinematic evidence,
there is other film worth a look - including Currans munitions factory during
World War Two and some colour film of one of the earliest adventure playgrounds
on The Marl from 1970 - Grangetown was not immune to some fashion mistakes!
© Grangetown Community Concern and webmaster 2010
LOCAL HISTORY RESOURCES:
For those interested in local history,
the Grangetown Local History Society meets every month at the Grangetown
Library, Havelock Place, on the first Wednesday of month (2.15pm-4.15pm
- all welcome - bring photos along if you have them).
The Society has also published
in 2009 Old Grangetown Shops and Memories, which is a collection
of photos and stories about stores people remember. This 44-page book
costs £4.99, (add for mail order in UK £1.50 and Australia and Canada
£2.50). The Society thanks local people who have sponsored the publication,
as well as J R Freeman. Those who wish to pre-order, 
The
north of Grangetown in particular had strong Irish and Catholic links. The
census of 1871 for Thomas Street shows us a number of Irish immigrants,
who'd settled with their families, many of them labourers with work in the
developing town. Typical is Thomas Fitzgerald, 45, a labourer with his wife
and seven children, all born locally. Neighbours include Ryans and Donovans.
There are also some brickmakers - which perhaps would tally with the brickworks
in Sloper Road. There's a pub at No 22 - The Penarth Dock run by Christopher
Griffith, 37, unusually, a Cardiff native, who lived there with his Swansea-born
wife and four young daughters. Another pub, the Grange Inn in Francis Terrace
first appears in the '61 census, run by a Daniel Francis. By 1871 it is
run by a widow from Durham. Living at 67 Francis Street (it was later renamed
Franklen Street in the 1890s, while there is also a Frances Street in Butetown,
just to confuse you!) are three families brought up in Cardiff and headed
by Irish-born labourers, John Pat Moricy, 45, his wife Mary and their six
children, aged from one to 20 - including 14-year-old Patrick, already a
labourer; John and Alice Cronin also had six children and James O'Brien
and his three young children.
In winter, when they froze over,
the ponds were popular with skaters. On this particular Saturday, tragedy
struck involving a well-known local rugby player. "Dick" Davies (left)
was 26 and was a "dashing forward" for Cardiff football club. On this
particular weekend, he couldn't join his twin brother William and the
rest of the squad because of an ear injury. They had travelled all the
way north for a match at South Shields. Dick instead, visiting his mother
and sister in Allerton Street, joined up to 300 other people skating.
He was one of half a dozen men who went through thin ice, as it grew dark,
10ft from the bank and left struggling in 12ft deep water. Poles from
a building shelter were thrown across the pond for the men to reach. Spectators
used planks and linked hands to try to reach them.