The Cardiff Book of Days

by Mike Hall

  June 4th

  1923: The Cardiff-owned Trevessa, sailing from Liverpool to Australia, sank in severe weather in the Indian Ocean, 1,700 miles from Mauritius. The crew took to two lifeboats and, despite the vast distance, decided to head there. It was inevitable that the two boats should lose contact with each other and drift apart. However, they both made it, arriving on June 26th and 28th. Seven men had died and another died on reaching land. The others were weak and emaciated but still alive. At the official inquiry into the loss of the Trevessa it was put on record that ‘the Court is unable to find words to adequately express its members’ admiration of the fine seamanship and resolution of the officers, the splendid discipline and courage of the crew, both European and non-European.’ (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

  2000: Archbishop Desmond Tutu addressed an invited audience at City Hall. Speaking of events in South Africa, he said ‘there is no future without forgiveness, which will help to heal the scars of the past. We have a tremendous capacity for evil, but the most important thing is that we have an extraordinary capacity for good.’ (John O’Sullivan & Bryn Jones, Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration, The History Press, 2005)

  June 5th

  1893: Two pleasure steamers, the Lorna Doone and the Ravenswood operated by rival Cardiff firms collided as they jostled to be first to arrive at the pier at Weston-super-Mare. The Board of Trade enquiry into the incident decided that P&A Campbells’ Ravenswood had been ‘navigated negligently’. £125 costs were awarded against her captain, Alec Campbell. The Weston Pier Company was told to employ a harbourmaster in future. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

  1949: Birth in Cardiff of Ken Follett, the son of a tax inspector. Banned by his born-again Christian parents from watching television or films, he developed an interest in reading. In 1967 he went to University College London to study Philosophy and after graduating in 1970 he returned to Cardiff to work as a trainee reporter on the South Wales Echo, later moving to the Evening Standard in London. He began writing fiction as a hobby, later saying he needed the money for car repairs! His 1978 novel Eye of the Needle made his name and fortune. Active in Labour politics, he became an advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair. (Wikipedia)

  June 6th

  1917: Cardiff councillors were informed that the average weekly bill for the animals at Victoria Park was £4 19s 0d, of which £1 14s 0d was for Billy the Seal, resident in the lake and a great attraction, after being accidentally netted off the Irish coast in 1912 (see July 10th). It was agreed that the cost of feeding Billy was becoming prohibitive. A sub-committee was formed ‘to report on the best course of action to adopt with regard to the seal’. One suggestion was that the animal should be returned to the sea but it was eventually agreed that Billy be put on short rations for a month. Ominously, it was also decided that the chairman be authorized to have the seal put down if, in his opinion, this became desirable. Billy managed to survive on his short-rations, not least because his many admirers among the park’s visitors kept him supplied with titbits. Billy died in 1939, when a post-mortem examination discovered that ‘he’ was actually female! (Brian Lee, Cardiff Remembered, The History Press, 1993)

  June 7th

  1936: The body of 42-year-old Stephen Gilbert was discovered at his greengrocer’s shop on the corner of Croft Street and Clare Road, Roath. He had been subjected to an attack so frenzied that a pool of his blood had formed in the cellar below, having dripped overnight through the floorboards. The police investigation was beset by false leads and a bogus confession (see June 22nd) which made something of a laughing-stock of Cardiff’s detectives. (Mark Isaacs, Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Cardiff, Wharncliffe, 2009)

  1967: Glamorgan’s first County Championship match (versus Northamptonshire) at the new Sophia Gardens ground turned out to be a low-scoring affair. Batsmen on both sides complained bitterly about uneven bounce off the pitch making their task very difficult, if not impossible. There were also complaints about poor drainage and it was even suggested that the drains had been installed incorrectly. The MCC’s Inspector of Pitches carried out an investigation and remedial work was undertaken in the autumn. (Andrew Hignell, From Sophia to Swalec: A History of Cricket in Cardiff, The History Press, 2008)

  June 8th

  1893: The L.E. Charlwood, an 849-ton cargo steamer owned by Lee Finch & Co. of Cardiff, sank after a collision with the Glasgow-registered Borghese off The Longships. The Borghese struck her amidships with such force that the plates on her port side were completely torn away. The Charlwood’s engine had not stopped and she kept moving – but in a circle on the port tack and another collision seemed inevitable as she came round again. However, she stopped just short of the Borghese, her stern rose in the water and then she sank immediately, only seven minutes after the collision. An unknown vessel, thought to be from Swansea, was signalled to for assistance but her captain, reportedly fearing being put into quarantine, refused to take the stricken seamen on board. Another steamship, the Ashdene, did rescue the crew* and landed them safely back in Cardif that evening. (Western Mail) [*including my wife’s great-grandfather, James John Moses. Along with all his other possessions on the ship, he lost his ‘ticket’ in this incident and it had to be re-issued subsequently in Newport – author.]

  June 9th

  1790: An Act of Parliament was passed which authorised the construction of a canal from Merthyr Tydfil to Cardiff. Most of the shares in the new Glamorganshire Canal Navigation were brought by the Merthyr ironmasters, the Crawshays. Their business was thriving – in May 1787 Richard Crawshay had signed a contract with Henry Cort, agreeing to pay a royalty of 10 shillings a ton on iron made by a new technique that Cort had devised and required by the Royal Navy for its ships. Cort had supervised the building of the Crawshays’ furnaces at Cyfarthfa and trained the local labour force. Crawshays’ iron was to be transported to Cardiff by the new canal and then shipped to Portsmouth to be rolled at nearby Funtley, or to the Thames at Rotherhithe. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

  1980: In what could have been a very serious accident, the wing-tip of a taxiing jumbo jet smashed a window of the main lounge at Cardiff Airport. No one was hurt. (Western Mail)

  June 10th

  1716: On the reputed birthday of the Old Pretender, several people appeared in Court in Cardiff charged with ‘wearing branches of oaks, a sign of ill-will and disobedience towards King George, assembling riotously and seditiously to show their hatred of the King and to incite sedition and insurrection’. (William Rees, Cardiff: A History of the City, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)

  1865: The official opening ceremony took place at the new Penarth Dock. The Cardiff Times described how ‘the streets resounded with the notes of the bugles summoning the Artillery Volunteers by whom four guns and two ammunition wagons of the 1st Glamorganshire Brigade were conveyed to Penarth and placed in position on the hill overlooking the dock.’ Crowds occupied every vantage point to watch the first vessel enter the dock. This was the William Cory, described by the paper as ‘the largest collier afloat, dressed overall with flags’. The William Cory was capable of carrying 1,650 tons of coal. Rowing in the procession that followed was the new Penarth lifeboat which was ‘named by throwing a bottle of wine at her’. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

  June 11th

  1799: The Cavalry was called in by the Sheriff of Glamorgan to deal with a hostile crowd opposing an Ejectment Order granted to the Marquis of Bute to remove illegal settlers on the Heath. Demonstrators brandished pitchforks and other weapons. One squatters’ cottage was set on fire by the authorities and later the sheriff brought in workmen with horses and equipment to destroy the fences that the settlers had put up. (William Rees, Cardiff: A History of the City, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)

  1919: Race riots broke out in Cardiff, following similar disturbances in other ports such as South Shields, L
iverpool and Newport. Windows of coloured seamen’s lodgings were smashed and Chinese laundries attacked. Furniture was taken from immigrants’ homes and set ablaze in the street. According to the subsequent Home Office report, the trouble began when some white women ‘accompanied by men of colour’ were subjected to abusive remarks from passers-by. Three people were killed during three days of mayhem in the city and there was much damage to property. (Western Mail)

  June 12th

  1830: Walter Coffin ‘of Llandaff Court, Glamorganshire’ appeared before the House of Lords Select Committee on the coal trade, in which he had been active for twenty years. He told them that nearly all his coal was sent to Ireland, especially Cork and Waterford: ‘Nearly all from Newport, we send very little from Cardiff now’. His boats also traded with Barnstaple, Bideford and some Cornish ports. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

  1928: The Welsh National War Memorial in Alexandra Gardens was unveiled by Edward, Prince of Wales. Its design featured bronze statues of a sailor, a soldier and an airman. Brian Lee in Memory Lane, Cardiff (2002) describes how one of the models for these figures was in fact not a Welshman at all but a Londoner, Frederick Baker (born in Brixton in 1898). A.E. Burton, the sculptor responsible, saw Baker by chance at Waterloo station and told him, ‘you have the very face I am looking for,’ explaining that although he had found men to pose for the soldier and the airman, he was still lacking a suitable original for the sailor. Some year’s after Baker’s death in 1962, his daughter, Mrs Priscilla Jeffries, visited Cardiff and saw the statue for the first time.

  June 13th

  1865: News spread that the William Cory, the collier that had taken a prominent part in the festivities for the opening of Penarth Dock on June 10th, steaming fully-laden and much too fast, had collided with the dock gates, causing considerable damage. A newspaper account of the mishap added that ‘as if this was not enough ill-luck, a seaman from the ship, being drunk, fell into the basin shortly afterwards and, after being rescued, seeing his cap in the water, was insane enough to jump in after it – but was again got out safely.’ Perhaps the festivities on board the William Cory to mark the opening of Penarth Dock had been rather too energetic or bibulous! The formal breakfast served to 350 invited guests after the dock’s official opening had doubtless been more restrained. There had been fulsome tributes paid to the John Batchelor, vice-chairman of the Penarth Dock Company, at which it had been stated that he ‘had never been absent from any meeting or neglected the slightest opportunity of promoting the interests of the company’. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

  June 14th

  1911: The Cardiff Seamen’s Strike, led by Captain Edward Tupper of the National Sailors’ and Firemens’ Union, began. It was called in protest against low wages for British seamen and the employment of cheaper Chinese sailors and other foreign ‘blackleg’ non-unionised crewmen. Tupper and the union did not lack support. Hundreds of supporters gathered at the Law Courts to get his release on bail after his activities brought him into conflict with the authorities. Despite strong support from other workers, including firemen, the strike came to an end on June 24th. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

  2008: An unusual sight passing through Cardiff was the World Naked Bike Ride. With the slogan ‘Real Rights for Bikes’, riders cycled in the nude to highlight their vulnerability in city streets and to draw attention to ‘the destructive effects of car culture’. The event attracted 2,000 participants in cities across the country protesting against oil dependency and to promote ‘green energy and sustainable transport’. In Cardiff, thirty-seven riders set off from Cathays Park to ride through the city to the Bay and Sophia Gardens. (www.bikeforall.net)

  June 15th

  1910: The British Antarctic Expedition, led by Captain Robert Scott, set sail from Cardiff, seen off by cheering crowds and brass bands. Their ship, the Terra Nova had left London on June 1st but called at Cardiff to acknowledge the great support given by the citizens of Cardiff, led by the Lord Mayor (Alderman John Chappell) and also the Western Mail. Supplies of coal had been donated by the Ynyshir Steam Coal Company, as well as 1,200 bottles of Stone’s Ginger Wine. Before the ship set sail, expedition members were royally entertained in Cardiff with various theatre visits, dinners and offers of accommodation. Scott himself was not on board when the Terra Nova sailed as he was still involved in fundraising for the expedition but he and his wife sailed for Cape Town on August 2nd. On September 3rd 1912, the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who had beaten Scott to the Pole, gave a lecture in Cardiff. The Terra Nova sailed back into Cardiff on June 14th 1913 to be welcomed by Scott’s widow and young son, Peter. Many people travelled to Cardiff by specially-chartered trains to take the opportunity of seeing over this historic vessel. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

  June 16th

  1676: A new ship, belonging to Cardiff owner John Priest, newly-arrived from London, sank in the harbour with the loss of its cargo, valued at £3,000. This included silver plate belonging to Sir Edmund Thomas of Wenvoe and all his servants’ clothes, as well as £600 belonging to Priest and his brother Richard. A woman on board was drowned. (William Rees, Cardiff: A History of the City, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)

  1998: Seventy-nine-year-old South African President, Nelson Mandela, was in Cardiff to receive the Freedom of the City. The crowds were out in force to greet the highly-respected leader of the struggle against apartheid. He paid tribute to the response by Welsh people to the discrimination against black people that had existed in his country in the past. In a walkabout prior to the ceremony at Cardiff Castle, Mr Mandela stopped to sing with a group of local schoolchildren. (John O’Sullivan & Bryn Jones, Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration, The History Press, 2005)

  June 17th

  1851: ‘I am informed that a very close canvass is proceeding for the representation of Cardiff. My own feelings are warmly interested for the success of Mr Coffin and I wish you to mention to any tenants or workmen of mine who may have votes that I shall be very glad if it is consistent with their own opinions to support him. I write this because I am informed that much intimidation and undue influence is proceeding on the other side and to prevent misrepresentation of my views. This, I am told, is the case respecting Thomas John who rents of me and on whom I wish you to call without delay upon the subject.’ (Letter from Lady Charlotte Guest to J.H. Austin, quoted in Rosemary Jones, ‘The Cardiff Borough Elections’, University of Wales MA thesis, 1982 / Trevor Jones & Gareth Elwyn Jones, People and Protest: Wales 1815-1880, University of Wales, 1988)

  June 18th

  1850: The South Wales Railway line from Chepstow through Cardiff to Swansea opened. However, through services from London via Gloucester were not possible until Brunel’s bridge over the River Wye at Chepstow was completed in July 1852. The low flat land on the north side of the Severn provided an easy route into Cardiff from the east. Beyond Cardiff, the railway followed the Ely Valley towards Bridgend, Port Talbot and Swansea. The SWR was not the first railway in Cardiff – the Taff Vale line from Merthyr had been opened to Cardiff Docks in 1840. The year 1843 saw the opening of the Bristol & South Wales Union Railway which ran from a ferry terminal on the Gloucestershire side of the Severn to Bristol via Patchway (see January 1st). The line through the Severn Tunnel opened in 1886. (Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Western Main Lines: Swindon to Newport, Middleton Press, 2004 / Gloucester to Cardiff, Middleton Press, 2005)

  2005: In a result described by the Sydney Morning Herald as ‘the greatest shock in Australian sporting history’, Bangladesh beat Australia by five wickets at Sophia Gardens in a NatWest limited overs match.

  June 19th

  1790: The Hon. John Stuart, eldest son of the fourth Earl of Bute (of Cardiff Castle), was elected as the Member of Parliament for Cardiff, succeeding Sir Herbert Mackworth who had been MP since 1766. Stuart was the first in a long line of members of his family to serve as th
e Member for the borough. Married in 1792 to the sole heiress of the Earl of Dumfries, he seemed to have a golden future in front of him but he died in Essex in January 1794 following a fall from his horse. (W.R. Williams, ‘Members of Parliament for Cardiff’)

  1843: The 4th Light Dragoon Guards were sent from Cardiff to Carmarthen to put down the ‘Rebecca Riots’. In what turned out to be the last cavalry charge in Britain, they galloped into the town, scattering the protestors. As Stephen Jones wrote in Brunel in South Wales, ‘it was a scene reminiscent of what happened in 1819 at St Peter’s Fields in Manchester but thankfully without the scale of violence that occurred at Peterloo.’

  June 20th

  1874: The opening of Roath Park was celebrated by a procession of horse-drawn floats. The Cardiff Times described how ‘the day’s festivities began with a luncheon at the Town Hall to which some 300 people had been invited. At the appointed time the various trade organisations, friendly societies and local bodies, equipped with bands and banners and in many cases wearing the uniform of their Order or bearing artistic models of their crafts, assembled at Cardiff Arms Park. The Boilermakers and Shipbuilders Union decorated their floats with gigantic specimens of their skill and workmanship. Most of the men wore buttonholes or rosettes and seemed to enjoy themselves to the utmost. The Cardiff Hibernians presented a highly creditable turn-out, their silk hats, white trousers and regalia evoked no end of favourable comment from the thousands who lined the route. The procession through the town extended from St Mary Street to the park in one unbroken line.’