The Cardiff Book of Days

by Mike Hall

  June 21st

  1836: The Act of Parliament authorizing the construction of the Taff Vale Railway received Royal Assent. The railway was being promoted by Merthyr ironmasters unhappy about the Glamorganshire Canal’s monopoly. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was commissioned to survey a possible route. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

  1889: Glamorgan County Cricket Club’s long-awaited first match ended in a resounding defeat by Warwickshire at the Arms Park. Glamorgan were unable to field three key players due to injuries sustained in the week prior to the game. (Andrew Hignell, From Sophia to Swalec: A History of Cricket in Cardiff, The History Press, 2008)

  1906: The statue of ship-owner John Cory was unveiled in Cathays Park, a decade after the town’s Temperance Hall had been donated in memory of his father. Both men were staunch campaigners for the teetotal cause – and would be scandalised by typical Friday and Saturday night goings-on in twenty-first century Cardiff. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

  June 22nd

  1936: Twenty-year-old Ianto Jones from Tonypandy admitted murdering shopkeeper Stephen Jones in Roath (see June 7th). The gruesome nature of the crime put great pressure on the police to find the perpetrator. DI Lewis, the detective in charge of the case, was delighted and prepared to escort Jones from Brixton Prison, where he was being held on an unrelated burglary charge. As they entered South Wales, Jones managed to distract his guards and fling himself from the moving train. He was badly injured and was recaptured near Caerwent. He need not have bothered – evidence came to light which showed that he was not even in Wales on the day of the murder and the case against him collapsed, causing severe damage to the reputation of the Cardiff Police. ‘It had been,’ commented Mark Isaacs in Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Cardiff, ‘a pointless and futile gesture by a simple and uneducated petty thief, by which he gained the moment of notoriety for which he craved.’

  June 23rd

  1879: Percy Bush, one of the all-round sportsmen of the ‘golden age’ before the First World War, was born in Cardiff. He played rugby for Wales eight times, including the famous victory over New Zealand in 1905 and was regarded as one of the most talented Welsh players of his generation. He played for Cardiff in 171 matches between 1899 and 1913, captaining the club for three seasons. Before his internationals for Wales he played in four matches for the combined British Isles team that toured Australia and New Zealand in 1904, being dubbed ‘Will o’ the Wisp’ by the Australian press for his devastating play at fly-half. He also played cricket for Glamorgan before they were admitted to the County Championship. Unlike many of his contemporise who were doomed to perish in war, he had a long life, dying at the age of 75. (T.D. Breverton, The Welsh Almanac, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / Wikipedia)

  June 24th

  June 24th is St John the Baptist’s Day, the date of one of the two fairs traditionally held in Cardiff from medieval times, the other being the Feast of the Nativity of St Mary on September 8th. These dates reflect the close connection between these fairs and the Patronal Festivals of the two ancient churches in the centre of the town. During the period of the fairs Cardiff came directly under the jurisdiction of the Lord of the Manor who, with the Bailiffs would be responsible for the maintenance of law and order – no easy task as the town would be full of strangers and much ale was consumed in the taverns. For Cardiff’s merchants and tradesmen, a successful fair was vital to their commercial survival. The Royal Charters establishing them laid down that no other fairs were allowed at these times anywhere in Glamorgan. (William Rees, Cardiff: A History of the City, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)

  June 25th

  1912: King George V and Queen Mary made a Royal Visit to Cardiff. Thousands of people went down to the docks in the hope of catching a glimpse of them. Troops were lined up as a Guard of Honour and a horse-drawn carriage was waiting to convey them to the city centre. Among the buildings decorated for the occasion were the Board of Trade offices in Bute Place and the New Theatre. The King and Queen also went to Llandaff Cathedral where they were welcomed by the Bishop, the Rt Revd J.P. Hughes. The last Royal occasion in Cardiff had been in 1907 when George’s predecessor King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra had visited. A Triumphal Arch had been erected in Kingsway, just one of many ornate decorative features that one paper described as ‘being of an extent and character seldom equalled’. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday / Brian Lee, The Cardiff Story)

  1940: The first German bombers appeared in the skies over Cardiff. Following the fall of France, the city was now within easy flying distance for the Luftwaffe. (J.H. Morgan, ‘Cardiff at War’ in Stewart Williams (ed.) The Cardiff Book, Vol.3, 1974)

  June 26th

  1930: Cardiff Speedway riders turned out in their biking leathers to form a Guard of Honour at the wedding of Jack ‘Lightning’ Luke to Josephine Hampson at Llandaff Cathedral. Josephine’s brother was another speedway star, ‘Hurricane Hampson’. Jack Luke, one of the favourites with the Cardiff crowd, later rode for Crystal Palace. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

  1999: Twenty-seven thousand spectators witnessed the first ever rugby match at the Millennium Stadium – which was at that time only partially complete. Captained by Rob Howley (who with fifty-nine international appearances became Wales’ most-capped scrum-half), Wales beat the Springboks 29-19. This was a remarkable turnaround from their record defeat almost exactly a year before in South Africa! By October the stadium was more or less finished, just in time for the launch of the Rugby World Cup. With Wembley Stadium being rebuilt, it was also to stage several FA Cup finals. (Robert Cole & Stuart Farmer, The Wales Rugby Miscellany, Sports Vision Publishing, 2008)

  June 27th

  1890: St Mary’s Street was fully decorated for a visit by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII). (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

  1903: At 6.15 in the morning competitors set off for the Accountants’ Road Walking Race to Caerphilly and back (a distance of 22 miles). It was a very warm day and several cases of sunstroke were reported. G.W. Evans won in a time of 3 hours 54 minutes and 38 seconds. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

  1940: Sudden death of Alderman F. Harold Turnbull, Lord Mayor of Cardiff in 1921-2. Born in 1881, he was 40 at the time of his investiture and the city’s youngest-ever mayor. A popular figure, he was posthumously awarded the Freedom of the City. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

  1998: Wales suffered their heaviest rugby defeat – a 13-96 drubbing in South Africa. (Robert Cole & Stuart Farmer, The Wales Rugby Miscellany, Sports Vision Publishing, 2008)

  June 28th

  1905: The Prince of Wales (later King George V) visited Cardiff to lay the Foundation Stone of the new University College. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

  1953: The Princess Royal, Countess of Harewood, inspected members of the Red Cross at Cardiff Castle, having earlier in the day attended a Service of Dedication and presentation of new Colours to the Glamorgan Branch of the organization at St John’s Church. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

  1980: Opponents of women priests staged a demonstration at Llandaff Cathedral when the Church in Wales ordained its first woman deacon, Revd Iris Thomas. When the chancellor asked whether there were any objections to her ordination fourteen people stood up, led by Revd Kenneth Gillingham of St Mary’s Church, Bute Street. Their objections were over-ruled and the service continued as planned. (John O’Sullivan & Bryn Jones, Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration, The History Press, 2005)

  June 29th

  1905: The Royal Hamadryad Seamen’s Hospital was opened by the Marquis of Bute. The building replaced the former frigate HMS Hamadryad, which had been used as a hospital ship since 1866. He was having a busy day – he also inspected the Cardiff Railway Company’s dock and Guest, Keen & Nettlefold’s steelworks and received the Freedom of the Borough. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

  1912: At a demonstration in Cathays Park Anglicans protested against the disendowme
nt provisions of the Established Church (Wales) Bill being put forward by the Liberal Party Home Secretary, Mr McKenna. There seemed to be a dispute about numbers – one banner pictured in Cardiff Yesterday read ‘Mr McKenna said there were 13 churches in Cardiff. Royal Commission figures said 25 churches and 13 Mission Rooms. Is this playing the game?’

  2001: The official dedication of the Wooller Gates at Glamorgan’s Sophia Gardens ground took place on the first day of the county’s match against Northamptonshire. The honours were done by the president, former Test Captain Tony Lewis, and former England batsman Tom Graveney. Wilf Wooller had been a stalwart of Glamorgan cricket for over fifty years. (Andrew Hignell, From Sophia to Swalec: A History of Cricket in Cardiff, The History Press, 2008)

  June 30th

  1790: At a meeting of ironmasters at the Cardiff Arms Inn the contract for the canal from Merthyr to Cardiff was given to Thomas Dadford & Son (canal builders) and Thomas Sheasby (engineer). As the canal fell some 600ft along its 25-mile route, fifty-one locks would be needed. An expenditure of £60,000 was authorised for the work. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

  1852: The John Brown, the first iron-screw collier, was launched at the Palmer Brothers’ yard in Jarrow. These ships were to transform the coal trade out of Cardiff. They were longer, cheaper to build and could carry more coal than traditional wooden boats. Five years later the William Cory, built on the River Tyne and capable of carrying 1,500 tons, started regular trips to London. The Cory partnership also owned the Deep Duffryn Colliery at Mountain Ash. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

  1969: One day before the Investiture of the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon, a bomb left by dissident Welsh nationalists exploded at the Sorting Office at Victoria Park, Cardiff. No one was hurt. (Western Mail)

  July 1st

  1892: The Lord Mayor of London, Llantrisant-born Sir David Treharne Evans, visited Cardiff. The Town Hall was decorated in his honour and he received the Freedom of the Borough. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

  1948: The Welsh National History Museum at St Fagans first opened. The 18-acre site had been donated by the Earl of Plymouth. St Fagans Castle had been built by Dr John Gibbon in the late sixteenth century. It later passed to the Plymouth family who owned it from 1730. The first director of the museum was Dr Iorwerth Peate, best known for his classic book The Welsh House (1940). In the years that followed, St Fagans has become home to a representative collection of vernacular buildings from all over Wales. In his Foreword to a new edition of the book (2004), Dr Greg Stevenson of Lampeter University wrote that ‘Peate’s warning against the loss of traditional buildings remains as relevant today as when it was first published, as does his assertion that these homes and their owners are inseparable from the traditional Welsh way of life.’ Iowerth Peate died in 1982.

  July 2nd

  1894: ‘Sir – It has been my misfortune to have been an eye-witness to several street accidents, undoubtedly due to careless or furious driving. I have seen in Queen Street a bus, a tramcar and a milk-cart racing down the street abreast. Unfortunately there is no novelty about bus and tramcar racing but the authorities should undoubtedly put a stop to it. Bus and tramcar racing in a narrow thoroughfare like Working Street is a daily occurrence. Only tonight I saw a man driving through Church Street, which happened to be crowded at the time, at the rate of eight to ten miles an hour. He only knocked one man down but that was one man too many. I would feel safer in crossing a busy London thoroughfare than I would in crossing many a street in Cardiff. It is certainly full time that this sort of thing should be looked more sharply into. W. Jesse Williams, Park Hall Buildings, Cardiff, July 2.’ (Western Mail)

  July 3rd

  1882: ‘An extraordinary and sensational occurrence took place at No.43, John Street, Roath. A young man named Richard Barry, who has been under medical attendance for some time past, has given evidence of failing intellect, which has threatened to develop into actual insanity. He seems to have been seized with a fit of violent madness. His mania took a very dangerous form. Without giving any warning of his conditions or intentions he walked into a backroom, which is occupied by a tailor named John Tobin and his wife, with a table knife in his hand. Mrs Tobin was on her knees washing the floor. He deliberately raised the knife and stabbed her on the side of her head, severing the lobe of her ear. Mr Tobin, who was sitting at his work, came to the protection of his wife, and the madman immediately turned on him with the ugly weapon he held raised to strike … He will, we understand, be brought before the magistrates.’ (Western Mail)

  1932: The German airship Graf Zeppelin was watched by many as she cruised over Porthcawl, Barry, Penarth, Cardiff and Newport at a height of no more than 1,500ft. The sound of her engines was clearly audible. (Roy Thorne, Penarth: A History, Starling Press, 1975)

  July 4th

  1849: A Public Enquiry into the state of Cardiff began at the Town Hall. It was reported that the town had no piped water supply and that the drains were frequently blocked with sewage. They overflowed in wet weather, flooding cellars and ground-floor rooms. In his subsequent report the government inspector, Mr Thomas Rammell, wrote that ‘nothing can be worse than the accommodation provided for the labouring classes. The overcrowding is fearful, beyond anything I have ever known of.’ (William Rees, Cardiff: A History of the City, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)

  1940: Home Guard volunteer Frank Morgan, sent from Penarth to Queen’s Dock with a message, refused to pay the toll demanded for travelling along the road via Grangemouth. He maintained this stance on 274 subsequent occasions and eventually in 1942 was summoned to appear at Penarth Magistrates Court where he was fined 10 shillings. This led to a long drawn-out dispute with the owners of the toll road, which dated from 1867. It was not until January 31st 1954 that tolls ceased to be levied. Frank Morgan was the first to drive through for nothing – legally! (Roy Thorne, Penarth: A History, Starling Press, 1975)

  July 5th

  1945: The General Election, held less than two months after VE-Day, resulted in a defeat of Winston Churchill’s Conservative Party. It was nicknamed the ‘Khaki Election’ because it was widely believed that it was the servicemen’s vote that brought about the unexpected victory for Labour under Clement Atlee. Elected for the constituency of Cardiff South was a young James Callaghan, who was to go on to have a most distinguished political career, culminating in serving as Prime Minister from 1976 until his defeat by Margaret Thatcher in the 1979 Election. In 1945 Callaghan defeated the sitting Conservative MP, Sir Arthur Evans, by 17,489 votes to 11,545. He had campaigned for the rapid demobilisation of servicemen and an ambitious programme of house building. One the hopefuls Callaghan defeated for selection as candidate was George Thomas (later Lord Tonypandy, the former Speaker of the House of Commons) who stood instead for the Cardiff Central seat. (Dictionary of National Biography, OUP)

  July 6th

  1903: Twenty-two thousand people crowded into Sophia Gardens for the first performance of ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody’s spectacular ‘Hero Horsemen of the Nations which ran twice-nightly for a whole week. It featured Sioux and Cheyenne Indians in full war-paint and up to a hundred horses in the arena at the same time. Cody had first brought his Wild West Show to Cardiff in 1891 when the attractions included the legendary sharp-shooter Annie Oakley, and a seven year-old Indian boy believed to be the only survivor of the Battle of Wounded Knee. He returned again in 1904 which included re-enactments of Custer’s Last Stand and a raid on the Deadwood Stage. Cody had earned his nickname long before when it was said that in just one year he killed 5,000 buffalo to provide fresh meat for Irish navvies building the transcontinental railways in the 1880s. He came to a sad end, dying penniless in 1917. (Andrew Hignell, From Sophia to Swalec: A History of Cricket in Cardiff, The History Press, 2008)

  July 7th

  1860: ‘Cathays, a suburban district situated about a mile north of the station and in the neighbourhood of whi
ch in the last few years a small town has sprung into existence. The situation is a pleasant one.’ So wrote the Cardiff Times on this date. However, its growth was perhaps too rapid because on January 15th 1870 the same paper stated that ‘the state of Cathays is a reproach which has been hurled at the Board of Health for years past. The alarming prevalence of fever there is unequalled in any other quarter of Cardiff. The dismal condition of the place for want of proper lighting is of the gloomiest and most discreditable nature. Its neglect by, or want of, police – especially on Sundays – is at all times alarming. There are at present scores of houses in Cathays the neglect of whose drainage is known to be the cause of a vast amount of prevailing sickness. The sluggish and dilatory progress of the drainage works is in itself a source of danger.’