The Cardiff Book of Days

by Mike Hall

  1960: Maindy Barracks closed after eighty years as an Army basic training centre. It had opened in 1871. During the Second World War the nearby footpath between Gelligaer Street and New Zealand Road earned the evocative nickname of ‘Burma Road’ which was said to stand for ‘Be Undressed And Ready My Angel’ because, it was said, American troops and local prostitutes used to meet there. (www.cardiffians.co.uk)

  April 1st

  1646: Christopher Reynolds, the Vicar of Llandaff, was arrested by Roundhead troops as he was about to administer Communion at Easter. He was imprisoned in the town jail and later ejected from his post ‘for delinquency’ and replaced by a Puritan preacher, David Walter. Walter, a thatcher by trade, ‘mounted the pulpit to deride the church liturgy and, from his vast memory of the Scriptures to preach for three hours, beginning at Genesis and ending at Revelation’. The books and manuscripts of the Cathedral library were removed to Cardiff Castle for safe-keeping during the Civil War but later wantonly destroyed when the castle was taken over. (William Rees, Cardiff: A History of the City, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)

  1954: The last flight left Cardiff’s Pengam Moors airfield which was to be replaced by a new airport at Rhoose. Its original facilities had been very basic, only a few wooden huts beside the grass airstrip. A sea wall had been built to prevent flooding from the Severn Estuary. Services had included that operated by the Great Western Railway to Plymouth and Birmingham and a daily flight to Le Touquet. An RAF station had been opened on adjacent land at Pengam in 1938.

  April 2nd

  1792: Heavy rain and floodwaters caused the first pier on the Canton side of the bridge over the Taff to collapse. This severely disrupted Cardiff’s trade and commerce. The mail coach from London had to be diverted via Llandaff. The bridge had been rebuilt in 1671 after being damaged during the Civil War. The new bridge was completed in 1796 on the site of the present one, the former approach through the West Gate being replaced by a route crossing the yard of the Cardiff Arms. The funds allowed for construction amounted to £3,000, less £300 for the materials of the old bridge – prudent recycling!

  This new bridge was badly damaged by another flood in 1827 but continued to be used until the present bridge was completed in 1859 (widened in 1877 and 1931). (Dennis Morgan, The Cardiff Story, D. Brown & Sons, 1991)

  1990: An earthquake (measured at 5.2 on the Richter Scale) which had its epicentre in mid Wales was felt in Cardiff but there was no significant damage in the city. (Western Mail)

  April 3rd

  1871: An inquest was held at Llandough on the body of a baby boy which had been buried in the churchyard without permission from the rector. The body had been placed in a draper’s pasteboard box in place of a coffin. Police enquiries had established that the child’s parents were Evan Morgan, a docks policeman, and his wife. The child had been named David, but had suffered convulsions and died. Evan Morgan expressed his sorrow at having buried his son without obtaining the required sanction from the church authorities. The coroner administered a severe rebuke and the jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence presented. (E. Alwyn Benjamin, Penarth 1841-71, A Glimpse of the Past, D. Brown & Sons, 1980)

  1987: Cardiff Bay Development Corporation came into being. The Corporation had been set up by the government of Margaret Thatcher as part of an initiative aimed at revitalising run-down parts of Britain’s cities. It was charged with the task of providing 30,000 jobs, 6,000 homes and attracting two million visitors to the old docks area by the year 2000. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

  April 4th

  1904: Billy Brian of Whitchurch was famous around 1900 as Wales’ Greatest Trick-Cyclist. A silver cup, one of his most prized possessions, was inscribed ‘For cycling backwards from Newport to the Moon & Stars, Cardiff, without dismounting, The Lee Cup presented to W.Brian, 4th April 1904.’ Such was his talent in this unlikely field of human endeavour that the great German trick-cyclist, Bud Snyder, who was appearing at the Empire Theatre in Cardiff, begged Billy to join his professionally. However, Billy was, it seems, content to remain in his secure job as a clerk with the local firm of Spiller & Baker. He gave up any chance of a stage career and worked for them for forty years. Trick-cycling remained just a hobby – but one that he continued until well into his fifties. Always the entertainer, in his later years he devoted himself to learning to play the piano! (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

  April 5th

  1735: ‘Being informed that goods are run on a small island called Flat Holm within the Bristol Channel and it appearing that the King’s Boat is stationed at Ely Ouze within your port near the said Holm, you are to order the officers belonging to the said boat frequently to visit this island to prevent any frauds being committed’. (Letter from Custom House, London, to the port authorities in Cardiff in an attempt to curb smuggling quoted in Robert M. Jory, ‘Flat Holm in the Bristol Channel’ in Stewart Williams (ed.), Glamorgan Historian 4, 1967)

  1951: Speedway returned to Cardiff after an absence of twenty years thanks to the enterprise of Leslie Maidment, a Dorset garage proprietor, and Cardiff businessman Major A.J. Lennox. Twenty thousand fans attended the opening meeting in which the Cardiff Dragons lost to Rayleigh 52-56. The speedway stadium at Penarth Road was formally opened by the Deputy Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Alderman George Ferrier. A prominent member of the Cardiff Dragons team was Australian Mick Callaghan but he had to withdraw from the team after getting injured in a match against Long Eaton. Unfortunately, support for speedway in the area fell away after a promising start and the stadium closed after just a couple of seasons. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

  April 6th

  1927: Keen to secure some of the traffic of migrants leaving South Wales in search of a new life in Canada, the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company made Cardiff a port of embarkation for outgoing passengers. The first of their ships to call at Cardiff was the Montrose. Cardiff shipping firm P&A Campbell took trippers from Cardiff out to meet her as she arrived from Liverpool. There were already emigrants from North Wales aboard and they were welcomed by the singing of Welsh hymns from the Campbells’ steamer. The response of those on board was cries of ‘Play Up, City’, a reference to Cardiff City’s forthcoming appearance in the FA Cup Final. A special train from Paddington brought more migrants ready to set sail on the Montrose from the Queen Alexandra Dock, including a party of ‘young Empire settlers who have undertaken a course of training in farm work under a government scheme’. Other ships called at Cardiff, which was being promoted in the local press as ‘a second Liverpool’ but the Great Western Railway’s attempt to drum up the transatlantic passenger trade ended with the visit of the White Star Line’s Baltic in August 1930. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

  April 7th

  1883: Cardiff’s Angel Hotel opened. It occupied a prime site overlooking Cardiff Castle and close to the Arms Park. During the First World War it was used by the United States Navy as its headquarters. Advertisements in The Cardiff Blue Book in the 1930s extolled its ‘American Bar & Snackery’. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

  1930: Cliff Morgan, Cardiff, Wales and British Lions outside-half born at Trebannog, Rhondda. Morgan joined Cardiff Rugby Club straight from school. Blessed with natural balance and strength, astute line-kicking ability and quick acceleration, he won his first cap for Wales against Ireland in 1951. He was part of the Grand Slam-winning Welsh side of 1952 and became captain in 1956. After his retirement from the game he found a new career in broadcasting and became BBC Head of Sport and Outside Broadcasting in 1976. One of the original team captains on A Question of Sport, he died in 2010 at the age of 80. (T.D. Breverton, The Welsh Almanac, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / Wikipedia)

  April 8th

  1895: Cardiff Councillor G. Beynon Harris proposed a motion permitting boating on Roath Park Lake on Sundays. A deputation of local Nonconformists protested against this idea and the motion was d
efeated. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

  1930: Terry Nation, science fiction writer and creator of the Daleks in Doctor Who, was born in Cardiff. He devised the television series Survivors and Blake’s 7, and wrote scripts for many others, including The Avengers, The Champions, Department S and The Saint. He died in Los Angeles in 1997. (T.D. Breverton, The Welsh Almanac, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / Wikipedia)

  1937: The Cardiff-registered steamer Neath Abbey discharged a cargo at Alicante, having sailed from Rotterdam. Due to the high rates being paid to shipping companies prepared to risk sailing into the Spanish Civil War, this trip earned the Frederick Jones company a profit said to be equal to a whole year’s earnings in normal times. The dangers were graphically illustrated on June 6th 1938 when another Cardiff ship, the Winifred, was bombed at the Alicante quayside. Five men were killed. The vessel was badly damaged and was towed to Marseilles where she was sold. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

  April 9th

  1928: Twenty-five thousand spectators watched greyhound racing staged on Easter Monday at the Sloper Road track, nicknamed the ‘Welsh White City’. This was a big improvement on the ‘crowd’ two days before when persistent rain meant that a mere 9,000 bothered to pay the 2s 4d admission charge. It was at Sloper Road in 1930 that Mick the Miller, the first ‘celebrity greyhound’ and still perhaps the most famous of all time, set a World Record of 29.55 seconds when winning the Welsh Greyhound Derby. Another well-known dog to race at Sloper Road – and also at the Arms Park – was Beef Cutlet, owned by Jane Merritt, daughter of the Cardiff City FC Chairman. Beef Cutlet won the 1933 Greyhound Derby in a time of 29.56 seconds and had won his first race at the inaugural race meeting at the Arms Park track in 1928, winning the Glamorgan Gold Cup (see May 26th). (T.D. Breverton, The Welsh Almanac, Glyndwr Publications, 2002)

  April 10th

  1823: The Bristol to Swansea steam packet service was introduced, the journey taking eight hours. For Cardiff passengers the boat stopped off at Sully Island and they were taken ashore on small boats. A direct service between Bristol and Cardiff started in 1834, using the paddle-steamer Nautilus. This killed off any passenger traffic via Sully and the Swansea boats began to call at Cardiff from February 1835. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

  1957: Jacob Epstein’s statue of ‘Christ in Majesty’ in Llandaff Cathedral was consecrated and the nave rehallowed. The ceremonies marked the completion of work on the cathedral to repair the damage caused by wartime bombing. This strikingly piece of modern art on its parabolic arch, designed by George Pace to divide nave and choir without blocking the view, was extremely controversial at the time. Epstein considered it an act of faith: ‘If the Majestas were my last work I were ever to make, I would be content,’ he said. ‘It is not to everyone’s taste,’ wrote Simon Jenkins in 2008. ‘Peter Sagar [Pallas Guide: Wales, 1991] calls it ‘murder in the cathedral’ but it is a fine work, filling the building with a human presence’. (Llandaff Cathedral guidebook / Simon Jenkins, Wales: Churches, Houses, Castles, Allen Lane, 2008)

  April 11th

  1932: The inauguration of the Great Western Railway’s air service from Cardiff to Haldon (for Exeter) and Roborough (Plymouth). Even allowing for the bus transfers at either end, this gave passengers a much shorter journey than the rail route via the Severn Tunnel but the cost was much greater, £3 single and £5 return. A three-engine Westland Wessex was chartered from Imperial Airways and painted in the GWR’s chocolate-and-cream livery. There was only room for six passengers. Mail was carried from May 15th, a GWR air mail stamp (3d) being required in addition to the normal postage of 1½d. On the opening day of the service a special luncheon was held at Cardiff during which a message was read by Lord Londonderry, the Secretary of State for Air. After this the distinguished guests left for the airport at Pengam (see April 1st) to watch the first plane leave. Among those present was Mr S.B. Collett, the GWR Assistant Secretary. He was a qualified pilot whose brainchild the service was. Financially the venture was not a success. The GWR lost about £6,000 a year on it but it nevertheless lasted until the outbreak of the war. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

  April 12th

  1871: The Cardiff Chief Constable’s report for the previous Quarter reported that there had been a fall in the number of arrests compared to the same period in 1870 (226 as against 336), but there had been a larger number of convictions (200 to 177). Twenty-nine persons had been convicted of selling intoxicating drinks without a licence. Twenty-three brothel-keepers were summonsed. Most were convicted and many others had left the town. (E. Alwyn Benjamin, Penarth 1841-71, A Glimpse of the Past, D. Brown & Sons, 1980)

  1884: Rugby internationals between Wales and Ireland got off to a shaky start. The first, played at Lansdowne Road, Dublin, in 1882 had been treated with such apathy by the Irish players that only four of those originally selected turned up to play. In 1883 Ireland refused to play Wales at all. In 1884, for the first international to be played at the Arms Park, the Irish once again had great difficulty in fielding a team. They were forced to ‘borrow’ two Newport players, believed to be Charles Jordan and J. McDonald to make up the numbers. Wales won by two drop-goals and a try to nil. The points system (later amended to give greater value to tries) was not introduced until 1890. (Steve Lewis, The Priceless Gift: 125 Years of Welsh Rugby Captains, Mainstream, 2005)

  April 13th

  1869: A Thanksgiving Service was held at Llandaff Cathedral to celebrate its restoration after years of neglect. Architect John Pritchard had carried out an extensive rebuilding programme, begun in 1843. This included reconstructing the presbytery and nave. The tower that had collapsed in 1723 was replaced by a spire. Critics agreed that Pritchard’s work blended in well with the remaining medieval structure. Other Llandaff buildings designed by Pritchard include the Probate Registry and St Michael’s College in Cardiff Road and many of those around The Green. (Llandaff Cathedral guidebook)

  1895: The official opening of Penarth Pier. The Cogan Brass Band provided the musical entertainment and steamers the Bonnie Doone and the Waverley embarked for Weston-super-Mare. Pleasure trips proved very lucrative for the ship owners and there was always the temptation to cram on extra passengers. In July 1900 the Master of the Glen Rosa was prosecuted for carrying 797 people when only licensed for 541. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

  April 14th

  1969: The Tenovus Cancer Research Centre at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, was opened. It had been financed by the Welsh business community. The charity had been registered in Cardiff in 1964 but its origins go back to the Second World War. John O’Sullivan and Bryn Jones in Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration describe how, in 1943, a haulage contractor named Eddie Price received multiple injuries when a lathe he was delivering fell on top of him. He was unconscious in Cardiff Royal Infirmary for ten days and took several months to recover. One of his visitors was Prudential Insurance manager David R. Edwards who remembered how Eddie had come to his rescue when he ran out of petrol. He gave Eddie a portable radio which he was not allowed to play as it would have disturbed other patients. With the help of eight other businessmen – making up the ‘Ten of Us’ – Eddie and David raised £1,200 to buy headphones for every bed in the CRI. Commentaries of football matches at Ninian Park were relayed to the hospital.

  April 15th

  1912: Two local boxers, Leslie Williams and Dai Bowen, died in the loss of the Titanic. Cardiff boxing promoter Charles Barnett had been asked by Pittsburgh millionaire Frank Torreyson to send out two men that he could sponsor on the American boxing circuit. They were to be paid £5 a week pocket money, free board and lodging, travelling expenses plus all they earned in the ring. His first two choices, Jimmy Wilde and the aptly-named Newport lightweight Johnny Basham, had turned down the opportunity – and must have been very glad they did! Originally booked on the liner Baltic, Williams and Bowen trans
ferred to the Titanic as this would be quicker and, as there was a gym on board, they would be able to keep fit en route. (John O’Sullivan & Bryn Jones, Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration, The History Press, 2005)

  1969: A bomb planted by Free Wales Army activists protesting against the Investiture of Charles as Prince of Wales, exploded outside the Lost Property Office at Cardiff’s new Police Headquarters at Cathays Park. Considerable damage was done but there was no one in the office at the time. (John Humphries, Freedom Fighters: Wales’ Forgotten War, 1963-1993, University of Wales, 2008)

  April 16th

  1935: Fighting broke out at Cardiff Docks when the Chief Engineer of the Ethel Radcliffe was prevented from selecting coloured seamen for his crew. This was later reported by George S. Brown in ‘The Keys – The Official Organ of the League of Coloured Peoples’, dated October/November 1935. Mr Brown claimed that this was only one of ‘35 extreme cases’ of ‘the wilful misapplication of the Aliens Registration Act in the cases of coloured British seamen residing in and working out of Cardiff’. This Act forced non-British citizens to carry ‘Alien Cards’ but he described cases in which the Police ‘forced cards on those who should not have needed to carry them …Seven of the men had their passports forcibly withheld by the Cardiff police when displayed for inspection as a protest against Alien Classification. No receipts were given for them.’ The article quoted fifteen cases where seamen described by the police as aliens had excellent records of service in the British Forces. One had been in the Boer War and another at the Battle of Jutland. Three had been torpedoed, suffering severe injuries and later getting compensation awards from the Government.