The Cardiff Book of Days
Page 3
January 24th
1908: David Lloyd George was made an Honorary Freeman of the City of Cardiff. The honour was conferred by the Lord Mayor, Alderman Illtyd Thomas. This was the first freedom presentation to take place in the new City Hall. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)
1994: The South Wales Echo appears as a tabloid newspaper for the first time.
2005: Sixty thousand people gathered in the Millennium Stadium for a rock concert to raise funds for those affected by the Asian Tsunami of Boxing Day 2004. The Prince of Wales contributed a message of support that was relayed to the crowd via giant video screens. The event had been organised in just twenty-one days by the stadium’s General Manager, Paul Sergeant. It raised £1,248,963. (South Wales Echo)
January 25th
1795: While construction of a new bridge over the River Taff was still in progress, a sudden thaw after a long cold spell released vast quantities of ice which demolished the temporary replacement structure. Traffic, including the London mail coach, had to be diverted via Llandaff for many months. The new bridge (on the site of the present one) was not completed until the following year – only to be carried away by another flood some years later. (William Rees, Cardiff: A History of the City, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)
1908: New City Freeman David Lloyd George ‘kicked off’ the rugby match between Cardiff and Blackheath at the Arms Park. His kick went the full ten yards and Cardiff eventually won 19-3. Lloyd George was at that time president of the Board of Trade but went on to become Prime Minister and one of the country’s greatest politicians. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)
1945: German POWs were employed to clear snow in Cardiff after transport was disrupted by a sudden blizzard, Cardiff’s worst since 1878. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)
January 26th
1973: Local politicians were shocked by the announcement of the result of a council by-election held the previous day. Schoolteacher Yvette Roblin unexpectedly won the ‘true-blue’ Penylan ward with her slogan ‘Stop The Hook Road’. The Conservative-controlled City Council had been expected to approve the controversial new road which would have run through Roath and Adamsdown to Cardiff Bay. Two thousand homes would have been compulsorily purchased and demolished in the scheme which had been proposed in traffic expert Professor Colin Buchanan’s 1999 ‘Plan for Cardiff’. The new road would also cut through Cathays cemetery, necessitating the exhumation and reburial of a thousand bodies. The by-election result changed everything. When the Planning Committee met, its Conservative chairman Reg Watkiss formally proposed that the scheme go ahead – but then deliberately abstained from voting, allowing it to be defeated by just one vote. (John O’Sullivan & Bryn Jones, Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration, The History Press, 2005)
January 27th
1928: The execution of Danny Driscoll and Edward ‘Titch’ Rowland for the death of Dai Lewis, whose throat was cut in a fight near the entrance to the Wyndham Arcade, St Mary’s Street, the previous September. Neither had actually inflicted the fatal wound. This was done by Rowlands’ younger brother John, who had been declared insane and sent to Broadmoor. The fight had been over Lewis’s attempts to take over a protection racket being operated by the Rowlands at Ely Racecourse. Many felt that the death sentences were too harsh and more than 500,000 people throughout Britain signed a petition calling for the men to be reprieved. The Home Secretary, Sir Austen Chamberlain, refused, even when two of the jury who had found the men guilty, travelled to London to plead on their behalf. Canon Daniel Holmes of St David’s Catholic Cathedral heard Driscoll’s last confession and told the congregation at Mass that ‘they hanged an innocent man this morning’. (John O’Sullivan & Bryn Jones, Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration, The History Press, 2005)
January 28th
1316: Ordered by King Edward II to answer charges of treason and threatened with execution, Llewelyn Bren, son of Gruffydd ap Rees, rose in revolt in early 1316. Beginning with a surprise attack on Caerphilly Castle in which the town was set on fire and inhabitants slaughtered, Llewelyn’s revolt quickly spread throughout Glamorgan and Gwent. Castles loyal to the King were attacked and, on the 28th, Cardiff was raided and many buildings in the town destroyed. The rebels were defeated by the King’s forces in March and the siege of Caerphilly lifted after six weeks. Llewelyn surrendered and was held prisoner in the Tower of London. In November 1317 Hugh Despenser, one of the king’s favourites at court who had been made Lord of Glamorgan in November, conveyed Llewelyn to Cardiff Castle where, without any orders from the King to do so and no proper trial, had him hung, drawn and quartered. Despenser had parts of his body exhibited around Glamorgan before he was buried at the Grey Friars in Cardiff. His actions were widely condemned as Llewelyn’s gallant behaviour and noble bearing had earned him the respect of many. (John Davies et al., The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales, 2008)
January 29th
1951: Evangelical preacher Evan Roberts died in a home for the elderly at Penylan. He was the Calvinistic Methodist preacher whose oratory brought about the Welsh Revival of 1904-5. Chapels were packed with fervent worshippers and thousands were converted to Christianity. Yet many opponents wrote off the whole thing as mass hysteria. The young and handsome Roberts attracted many young women as devotees, regarded by some as ‘little better than chorus girls’. What some did for him shocked critics; ‘they even washed his socks’ some whispered, this at a time when flirting and reading romantic novels signified to some a soul lost to the Devil. Yet all the adulation became too much for this highly-strung young man given to lengthy prayer sessions in the small hours. Aged 27 and claiming that opponents were trying to hypnotise him, he suffered an emotional collapse and retreated to a friend’s house in Leicester where he became a virtual recluse, cutting off family and friends and refusing to answer letters. He spent the rest of his life living on the charity of a few supporters and made only a few brief appearances at religious festivals. (John O’Sullivan & Bryn Jones, Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration, The History Press, 2005)
January 30th
1925: The death of Cardiff boxer ‘Peerless’ Jim Driscoll was marked in one boxing magazine with the headline ‘the King Is Dead’. Born in Newtown, Cardiff, Driscoll won over fifty professional fights in Britain before going to America. He outboxed US featherweight title-holder Abe Atell in a bout in 1909 but was unable to secure the knockout that would have given him the title. A title rematch was arranged but Driscoll opted to come home as he had promised to raise money for orphans being cared for by the Sisters of Mercy in Cardiff. The First World War deprived him of the chance to fight for the title again. The end of his career came when he was defeated by Frenchman Charles Ledoux in London in 1921. He died at the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel (where he was the landlord) at the corner of Ellen Street, the street where he was born. One hundred thousand mourners lined the route of his cortege and it was reported that ‘hard-bitten boxers wept unashamedly’. (John O’Sullivan & Bryn Jones, Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration, The History Press, 2005)
January 31st
1596: Llandaff became a battleground between the followers of rival noble families who were conducting a long-running feud, the Herberts of Cardiff, with their allies the Lewises of Caerphilly, and the Mathew clan of Llandaff. The Lewis supporters paraded through the streets hurling insults at the Mathews’ family retainers. They were routed and George Lewis fled for his life across Llandaff Bridge pursued by an armed mob. One man was left for dead and another, who tried to restore order, was assaulted with such violence that his shinbone was broken into slivers. (Dennis Morgan, The Cardiff Story, D. Brown & Sons, 1991)
1983: Legislation came into force requiring car drivers and front-seat passengers to wear seat-belts. A survey by the AA found Cardiff drivers particularly lax about this. Only 64 per cent of their sample in Cardiff were obeying the new law, compared to an average for the UK of 90 per cent. A survey by pupils of Kenfig School near Bridgend revealed that only 40 per cent of drivers there wore
belts before they became compulsory. (South Wales Echo)
February 1st
1890: Opening of Cardiff Coal Exchange – the scene of the first £1m trade deal in the world. Designed by architect Edwin Seward it reputedly cost £60,000. In 1911-12 the interior was expensively redesigned by Seward, with sculptures by Tom A. Jones. The doorway into the central hall was guarded by two mighty lions, bearing clocks which indicate the times of high water, morning and evening. (John Newman, The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan, Penguin, 1995)
1995: Richey Edwards, rhythm guitarist and lyricist of rock band The Manic Street Preachers, disappeared on the day before he was due to fly out to the United States with the rest of the band for a promotional tour. He checked out of his hotel in Bayswater Road, London, and drove to his flat in Cardiff. There were unconfirmed sightings of him at Newport Bus Station and the nearby Passport Office but he was never seen again. It was subsequently established that he had withdrawn £200 from his bank account every day for the previous fortnight. Edwards, born at Blackwood on December 22nd 1967, had become known for his politically-committed and intellectual songwriting. (T.D. Breverton, The Welsh Almanac, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / Wikipedia)
February 2nd
1595: Two ruffians in the service of Sir William Herbert forcibly entered the house of a local vintner on the pretext of searching for traitors. The bailiffs arrived and arrested the two intruders and threw them in jail. William Herbert’s son Nicholas then arrived with twenty armed men, occupied the Town Hall, beat up the bailiffs and released the prisoners. As Dennis Morgan writes in The Cardiff Story: ‘The Herberts’ gang were now in what amounted to a military occupation of Cardiff, making the inhabitants’ lives a misery for several days. However, the wronged townsmen and bailiffs complained to the Star Chamber in London and eventually this resulted in William and Nicholas languishing in the Fleet Prison before being freed on payment of 1,000 marks and £500 respectively.
1997: Irish President Mary Robinson visited Cardiff. She watched Ireland beat Wales at the Millennium Stadium, attended Mass at St David’s Cathedral and hosted a reception at Cardiff Castle. She thanked the people of Cardiff for welcoming refugees from the Potato Famine of the 1840s. (Western Mail)
February 3rd
1968: Gareth Edwards captained Wales for the first time. Scotland were the opponents at the Arms Park. Steve Lewis in The Priceless Craft: 125 years of Welsh Rugby Captains describes how ‘a dreadful match saw Wales sneak a 5-0 victory thanks to a try scored after a blatant forward pass that went unnoticed by the referee.’ It was not a particularly auspicious start but the Cardiff scrum-half became one of Wales’ greatest players and captained them thirteen times between 1968 and 1974, including a 24-0 victory over Australia in November 1973. On January 27th 1973 Edwards, playing for the Barbarians against New Zealand, scored what is considered by many to have been the finest try ever. Starting almost under the Barbarians’ posts, the ball was passed from Phil Bennett to J.P.R. Williams to John Pullin to John Dawes to Derek Quinnell and so to Edwards who intercepted Quinnell’s intended pass to John Bevan. The final score was 23-11 to the Barbarians in, to quote Terry Breverton, ‘the days when rugby was amateur, understandable and entertaining’. (T.D. Breverton, The Welsh Almanac, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / Robert Cole & Stuart Farmer, The Wales Rugby Miscellany, Sports Vision Publishing, 2008)
February 4th
1854: Speaking at a meeting to consider the issue of delinquency, Town Clerk Edward Priest Roberts, who was also Lord Bute’s agent, said that Cardiff must enter the national debate on the subject: ‘A smaller town should confine itself to local issues but Cardiff needs to stand in that position which our wealth, our population and, I may add, our intelligence entitle us.’ (Cardiff & Merthyr Guardian)
1891: The East Moors Steelworks was opened by the Dowlais Steel Company. The firm had begun in Merthyr Tydfil but, once local supplies of iron ore had been exhausted, it became necessary to import it, raising production costs there to an uneconomic level. It was decided to build a new works on the edge of Splott. The land was owned by Lord Bute who performed the opening ceremony. That evening a banquet was held at the Drill Hall in Dumfries Place but this event was marred by a fire caused by the new-fangled electric lights overheating! (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)
February 5th
1958: Wales made its only appearance in the football World Cup. They were lucky to qualify. The team failed to win its group but were given a second chance when the Arab nations refused to play Israel for political reasons. Football’s governing body FIFA decided that Israel would have to play one of the seven runners-up from the qualifying groups and in the lottery which followed Wales was picked out. With a 2-0 deficit from the first leg in Tel Aviv, Israel’s uncompromising tackles did not win them many friends in the crowd and their keeper Chodoroff was instrumental in keeping the Welsh at bay. With twenty minutes to go he was injured in a collision with John Charles – breaking his nose, injuring his shoulder and suffering from concussion. There were no substitutes allowed then and he bravely carried on but Wales scored twice before the end. When taken to hospital afterwards, he spoke to the nurses in Hebrew, thinking he was back in Israel. In the final stages, held in Sweden, Wales drew all their group matches before losing to Brazil (the eventual winners) in the quarter-final. (Dennis Morgan, Farewell to Ninian Park, 2008)
February 6th
1886: The SS Great Britain left Penarth on what turned out to be her final voyage. By now her glory days were long behind. Her engines had been removed and she had been converted into a three-masted sailing ship for carrying coal from South Wales around Cape Horn to Valparaiso, Panama and San Francisco. South Atlantic storms forced her to seek shelter in the harbour at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, where she was sold and used as a hulk for storing coal and wool. She remained there until 1970 when she was towed back to Bristol, arriving there on July 19th. (Stephen K. Jones, Brunel in South Wales, Vol.3, The History Press, 2009)
1932: Cardiff City achieved their record win in the Football League, a 9-2 defeat of Thames FC in the Third Division South. Thames FC were a short-lived team whose home group was the West Ham Speedway Stadium (not the same ground as Upton Park, home of West Ham United). The club was disbanded at the end of the season. (Dennis Morgan, Farewell to Ninian Park, 2008)
February 7th
1882: ‘Lord Bute’s name appears among the signatories of the memorial remonstrating against any alteration in the law or usage tending to dispense with the recognition by Parliament of the supreme authority of God.’ (Western Mail)
1976: Two Scottish rugby fans got themselves into an unfortunate predicament when they got stranded on the West Stand roof at the Arms Park on one of the coldest nights of the year. For reasons best known to themselves they had climbed up a ladder onto the roof the previous evening but when they tried to come down they discovered that the hatch that they had clambered through had been closed. Sustained only by half a bottle of scotch, they remained there until they were spotted just before kick-off peering over the edge of the roof. Their day did not improve much; Wales, captained by Mervyn Davies, won 28-6. (Robert Cole & Stuart Farmer, The Wales Rugby Miscellany, Sports Vision Publishing, 2008)
February 8th
1770: The stables at the Red House Inn (on the site of the site of the Cardiff Arms) were destroyed by fire. Three horses died in the blaze. The inn was owned by the Bradley family who were involved in horse racing in Glamorgan. In 1796 John Bradley ‘Postmaster, Mail Contractor and Innkeeper’ owned the Angel Hotel. By 1860 the family were wealthy enough to lease Splott Farm at 300 guineas a year. Ten years later they unsuccessfully petitioned the Commissioners of Turnpikes for exemption from tolls for carrying of hay to their stables twelve miles away. (William Rees, Cardiff: A History of the City, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)
1978: Guitarist and folk singer Victor Parker, well-known for performing in pubs around Bute Street, was given a New Orleans-style funeral following an all-ni
ght wake at the Butetown Community Centre. Guitarists from all over South Wales contributed plectrums for a distinctive wreath. Headed by a jazz band, the coffin was carried along Bute Street to St Mary’s Church where the band played ‘When the saints go marching in’. (John O’Sullivan & Bryn Jones, Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration, The History Press, 2005)
February 9th
1775: ‘A vessel bound from South Carolina to Bristol with a cargo of wheat and flour foundered near Sully. Mr Jones of Fonnon and Mr Price, Duffryn, and others came to preserve the goods but, on the 10th to the 12th, country people broke in to steal flour. On the 12th, at night, some broke the ropes that kept the vessel firm. For four days the tide cast up the wheat and people by the hundreds, farmers and others, pilfered it and sold it at 4s a bushel. The vessel was taken to Aberthaw.’ (Contemporary accounted quoted in E. Alwyn Benjamin, Penarth 1841-71, A Glimpse of the Past, D. Brown & Sons, 1980)