Ever received one of those invitations where you wish you had a good excuse handy to say no? I challenge you all to beat this for an excuse:- In 1907 Lieutenant Geoffrey Biggs was unable to attend his brother’s wedding in consequence of him being in command of the famous submarine A1 which was acting as escort for the German Emperor.

It took me a while to realise that in 1907 Britain and Germany were on friendly terms and linked by the family ties in the Royal Family.

The A1 Submarine

The A1 submarine wasn’t quite the first British submarine but was certainly a very early one. It had an unusual history in that it sunk twice. She was accidentally sunk in the Solent on 18 March 1904 whilst carrying out a practice attack by being struck on the starboard side of the conning tower by a mail steamer, SS Berwick Castle, which was en-route from Southampton to Hamburg. She sank in only 39 ft (12 m) of water, but the boat flooded and the entire crew was drowned.

One consequence was that all subsequent Royal Navy submarines were equipped with a watertight hatch at the bottom of the conning tower. She was raised on 18 April 1904 and repaired and re-entered service, in time for Geoffrey Biggs to take command of her in 1907. Following a petrol explosion in August 1910, she was converted to a testbed for the Admiralty’s Anti-Submarine Committee. She was lost a year later when running submerged but unmanned under automatic pilot. Although the position of her sinking was known at the time, all efforts to locate her were fruitless. It was not until 1989 that the wreck was discovered by a local fisherman.

Geoffrey Biggs was one of six Biggs brothers who all played rugby for Cardiff. I’ve written about his brother Norman Biggs previously and how he died after being shot with a poisoned arrow. All six brother however have a story worth telling so here I focus on the younger brother Geoffrey.

Geoffrey Nepean Biggs was born in Cardiff on 12 Jun 1885 to John Biggs, a brewer, originally from Cardiff and Emily Sophia Biggs née Clarke originally from Usk. He was baptised at St Andrew’s church on 16 Jul 1885 when the family were living at 37 Park Place, Cardiff. Soon after the Biggs family moved to their new house they had had constructed, ‘Oldwell’ on Pen-y-lan Road.

He was educated at Bath College on a scholarship. Geoffrey enrolled in Royal Navy in 1900 and the following year, aged 15, passed out fourth at the Navel Cadet training ship HMS Britannia, Dartmouth, Devon. He had a successful naval career gaining promotions fast. becoming a Sub-Lieutenant in July 1904 and a Lieutenant in April 1906. In 1904 he gained a distinction when he served as midshipman on HMS Eclipse in the China despite blood poisoning in his right hand. After that he chose became a submariner.

His military records make interesting reading. He was described as trustworthy, capable, processing excellent judgment, zealous, and painstaking. It added that he was very skilful and dashing in making attacks. At the same time he was noted to be not good socially but processed a fine physique and good at all outdoor games.

Geoffrey Biggs went on to command other submarines after working on the A1. A 1910 newspaper article regarding his finances referred to him as Lieutenant Biggs of the ‘submarine B6’ and late of the ‘Forth’. Between Nov 1913 and Sep 1915 he was in command of C16 as the war started. He died on 22 Nov 1916, aged 31, when the submarine he was commanding, E30, is thought to have stuck a mine at Orfordness, Suffolk. He had been awarded the Crois de Chevalier by the President of the French Republic in recognition of services during the war a few months before his death. He was also posthumously awarded the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun. He is remembered on the Portsmouth Navy Memorial and the Bath College Memorial in Bath Abbey.

Outside the Navy

Geoffrey Biggs was a good rugby player and played at centre for Cardiff in 1906 versus the Barbarians. He also played for Bath, United Services, Royal Navy and Somerset. I haven’t quite figured out why he played for Cardiff in 1906 as evidently he had moved from Cardiff quite a few years previously. Was it just so that it could be said that all Biggs brothers played for Cardiff I wonder.

In 1910 an order of bankruptcy was made against him. His naval records record that a fifth of his pay was to be set aside to pay his debt. There is no indication as to how the debt arose other than it was for ‘money lent and work done’.

Family Life

Geoffrey Biggs married Daisy Elizabeth Boys in Portsmouth in 1907. Four of Geoffrey’s brothers married wealthy heiresses but Geoffrey’s marriage seems different. His naval records record that he made ‘a very undesirable marriage’. Daisy was daughter of naval man William Boys. The 1911 census records the following information: he was aged 25, born Cardiff, Glamorganshire, Wales, married, Lieutenant – Royal Navy, resident with his in-laws at 53 Winter Road, Southsea, Eastney, Portsmouth, Hampshire. Geoffrey and Daisy appear to have had one child together, Gilbert Hugh Kellett Biggs, whose birth was registered as Gilbert Hugh Kellett Boys in 1906 but then re-registered again as Gilbert Hugh Kellett Biggs in 1928. In Aug 1923 Gilbert was charged with stealing six books from a bookshop in Southsea.  A few month later he left for Australia in search of a new career as a farmer. He subsequently returned to England but died in Brighton in 1929 aged just 23. Daisy Elizabeth Biggs died in Camden in 1981 aged 93.

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Jack Petersen was a fine Cardiff boxer, the first man be both a British light-heavyweight and heavyweight champion at the same time.  He boxed in the 1930s and was forced to retire at the relatively young age of 25 after an eye injury.  Tall, good-looking and articulate, he was a popular fighter and favourite with the general public.  He processed tremendous courage but some say he was somewhat prone to injury.

Jack was a humble individual but found his own popularity somewhat tiresome.  He liked visiting pubs in the valleys and talking with local miners who had walked miles to meet him, though was not a smoker or drinker himself.

Petersen was the first Welshman to hold the British heavyweight boxing title. He held it on two separate occasions as well as gaining the Commonwealth heavyweight title in 1934. He turned professional at the age of 20 and went on to top the bill in all of his professional fights.

Over 70,000 people went to see him fight at the White City stadium and 53,000 saw him box Heine Muller at Ninian Park.

Jack had won 33 of his 38 professional fights, winning the Lonsdale belt outright in 1935 after two successful defences.  The belt was sadly stolen from the family home in 2013.  His premature retirement came at the age of 25 due to eye injury.

Jack Peterson’s boxing career if well documented in his biography, ‘Gentleman of the Ring’ by Bob Lonkhurst.  In this article we focus on his ties with our area.

Cathays born

Jack Petersen was born John Charles Peterson on 2 Sep 1911 at 52 Monthermer Road, Cathays. He was baptised at St John the Baptist church in central Cardiff on 2 Oct 1911. He was son of John Thomas ‘Pa’ Peterson (b.1885), a gym owner, originally from Passage West, County Cork, Ireland and Malinda Laura Peterson née Rossiter (b.1887) originally from Cardiff.

Jack’s paternal grandparents were living with them in Monthermer Road in 1911.  They were Albert Peterson (b.1841), a ship’s carpenter, originally from Stavanger, Norway and Catherine Peterson née Cullinane (b.1853), originally from Cork, Ireland.

The Peterson family may not have lived at Monthermer Road for that long.  In 1910, when Jack’s elder sister Kathleen was born, the Peterson family were living at 32 Albany Road.  In 1913 when his younger sister Mabel was born the address given on the baptism register was 6 St John’s Square where the Jack’s father had his health health institute/gym.

John Thomas ‘Pa’ Paterson (Jack’s father)

Jack’s grandparents originally came to Cardiff in the late 1880s, no doubt attracted by stories of Cardiff’s rapid expansion as a port.  In 1891 they lived at 49 Janet Street, Splott.  At the time of the 1901 census they were living at 21 Railway Street, Splott and John ‘Pa’ Peterson, then aged 15, was working as a sawyers labourer.

Sometime over the next ten years he finds his calling as a trainer/masseur and amateur boxer.  He had an interest in medicine and is believed to have studied in Norway.  He purchased the Lynn Institute in St John’s Square in 1905 where he practiced physiotherapy, osteopathy and manipulation as well as teaching boxing and wrestling.  In the 1911 census he describes his profession as ‘instructor of physical culture’, in other places as a Swedish masseur and even a Professor.   Pa Peterson was described as a volatile character.  His boxing record remains un-chronicled but it is thought that he at one stage boxed the famous Cardiff boxer Jim Driscoll.   

   

Jack’s younger years

Jack Peterson’s commendable biography, ‘Gentleman of the Ring’ by Bob Lonkhurst describes his childhood as being unhappy years.  He was one of six children born to John ‘Pa’ and Catherine Peterson.   Jack’s younger brother spent some time in a workhouse.  Pa Peterson also fathered a child with housekeeper Rebecca Morgan.  Sybil Grace Morgan-Peterson was baptised at St John’s in May 1919.

Jack was sent away to school.  In the 1921 census he is attending  the St Elizabeth Convent school at Lower Bullingham, Hereford.  At some stage Jack’s parent’s separated.  When Jack returned from living at the convent school he spent much of his time at the Lynn Institute, doing chores and learning from his father.  He then attended St Illtyd’s College in Cardiff. 

Pa Peterson remarried in 1930 to Enid Williams before moving to Barry. He managed his son’s boxing career for most of his career.  

The family’s religious background is somewhat puzzling.  The children were baptised in St John’s Anglican church whereas they went to Catholic schools.  This is probably explained by the Norsk/Irish ancestry.

Peterson or Petersen?

Yes, it is a bit confusing I admit.  It seems the official spelling is Peterson. The birth, marriage and death records all appear to use that spelling.  Indeed, Jack’s headstone at Cathays cemetery also uses the Peterson spelling.  Petersen is more akin to the traditional Norsk spelling.  It was used by both Jack and his father in boxing circles and was the spelling Jack used on his British Boxing Bard of Control application in 1932.  

Early boxing career

At the age of 15 his father arranged a three month working trip for him to South America aboard the merchant ship Fairwater.  It is said to have toughened him up no end.

Jack developed a love of boxing.  He learnt some of basics from his time with Bob Downey at his gym in Tiger Bay as well as naturally from his father.  After that he joined the Gabalfa Amateur Boxing Club and soon began his boxing career in earnest.

The peak and culmination of his amateur boxing career was when he won the ABA championship in a fight against Joe Goydner at the Royal Albert Hall in 1931.  He turned professional soon afterwards although his father took some persuading, not keen initially for Jack to become a professional boxer.

After his parents separated his mother lived on Mynachdy Road, Gabalfa and his father moved to Kelston Road, Whitchurch which is probably where Jack spent much of his teenage years.  He was a scout in nearby Rhiwbina.  His dedication to the scouting movement was demonstrated in the fact that in Dec 1931 he boxed in a three round exhibition match against Andrew Pettigrew  (of the Pettigrew gardening family) at Rhiwbina Scout Hall the day after he had been involved in a gruelling contest against Gunner Bennett.

Professional Career

In less than twelve months as a professional fighter Jack won three titles and he was not yet twenty one. Jack’s boxing career is very well chronicled in Bob Lonkhurst’s biography of Petersen and well recommended to any boxing fans.  I’ve picked out a few snippets of stories related to our local area.  In June 1933 Jack beat George Cook in front of a 50,000 crowd at Ninian Park.  What interested me was the fact that George Cook and his team had their headquarters at the Claude Hotel in Roath.

On 9 Oct 1935 Jack took time out from boxing to marry 18 year old Annie Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Williams, daughter of an auctioneer.  Betty lived at 18 Ninian Road and was herself keen on sport having played hockey and lacrosse for the school.

They got married in Marshfield church, between Newport and Cardiff, where the Williams family originally came from.  Press reports say that 3,000  gathered to try and catch a glimpse of the couple despite inclement weather conditions.  Jack’s father didn’t attend the wedding leaving the press to question why.  The guard of honour was formed by the 1st Rhiwbina Scout troop where Jack was still a Rover leader.  The wedding was covered by Pathe News.  The reception was held at St Mellons Country Club. One of the bridesmaids at the wedding was Betty’s younger sister Barbara who sadly died in WWII whilst serving as an aircraftwoman with the WRAF.

Jack and Betty lived at 24 Tydraw Road, on the opposite side of the Rec to where Betty had grown up.

In 1933 he visited Cardiff Royal Infirmary when he heard that one of his schoolboy fans Clifford ‘Jimmy’ Laverick was ill with lockjaw after cutting his foot whilst bathing.  Jimmy, a schoolboy boxer himself, had been making poor progress until he was told of the visit of Jack Peterson.  When Jack walked into the ward he shouted  “Who said boxers ain’t good looking?”.  Jimmy made a full recovery and later appeared as a guest on Jack’s edition of ‘This if your Life’

Jack’s retirement

Jack announced his retirement in April 1937, the end of a career of one of the most popular boxers Wales has ever seen. He quickly picked up a job working as a journalist for the Sunday Chronicle.

He spent many years in the army as a physical instructor.  He became a Major with the Territorials and a Captain in the regular Army but his requests to serve aboard were always declined. Training young boxers with the Glamorgan Army Cadet Forces after the war became his pride and joy.  In 1950 he was awarded the Territorial Decoration (TD), a military medal awarded for long service in the Territorial Force and its successor, the Territorial Army.

Tragedy struck in 1945 when his father, Pa Petersen, was found dead in a bath at the Lynn Institute, St John Street in 1945 having been accidentally electrocuted.

In 1938 Jack had stood for the council elections in Plasnewydd for as a Liberal Party candidate and narrowly lost.  After the war he was elected to Cardiff City Council in Dec 1951 when he stood for the Conservative Party in the Plasnewydd ward.  He stayed as councillor till May 1953 bur did not stand for re-election.

Jack remained an ardent supporter of the scout movement.  He was also very much dedicated to developing facilities for the youth of the area in South Wales and did a huge amount of work for the Sports Council of Wales.

He ran a sports shop in Barry but it was not a great commercial success as many of the visitors wanted just to talk to him rather than make purchases.

In 1978 he was awarded an OBE for his services to sport.  He had spent 40 years striving to give youngsters opportunities he had missed out on as a boy.

Jack was the subject of BBCs ‘This is your Life in 1957’, filmed in Barry.

The Petersen family later moved from Cardiff to Itton near Chepstow and later to Porthcawl.

Described as a perfect ambassador for the sport of boxing, he was elected President of the British Boxing Board of Control in 1986 and their headquarters in South London is now names Jack Petersen house.

Jack died of lung cancer in Bridgend on 22 Nov 1990 aged 79. People described him as polite and well-spoken, a gentleman in every sense and a great personality. He is buried in Cathays cemetery.

Children

Jack and Betty had five children, four sons and a daughter. They appeared together in 2011 when a plaque to Jack was unveiled outside 5-6 St John’s Street, site of the Pa Peterson’s gym. The premises is currently up for let.  An ideal opportunity to open a new gym?

One of Jack’s sons is David Petersen, the successful sculptor.  He went to Marlborough Road Primary school and afterwards worked at the steel works in Cardiff before going to college to study art.    Perhaps his most famous work is the dragon memorial at Mametz Wood, erected in 1987, where the 38th (Welsh) Division lost about 4000 men.  

David Petersen has three sons who are all sculptors and blacksmiths in their own right including Gideon Petersen who made the trophies for the 2015 Young Dancer of the Year Competition. 

Roath Virtual War Memorial

In researching this article I came across two of Jack’s family who were lost in conflict and both have now been added to the Roath Virtual War Memorial:-

NORMAN JOSEPH PETERSON

Rifleman, 10th Battalion, Rifle Brigade (Service Number: S/5568)

Norman Peterson was living at 52 Monthermer Road, Cathays when Jack was born there in 1911. Norman would have known Jack for about four years before he went off to war. Norman Peterson served as a Rifleman with the 10th Battalion Rifle Brigade.  He died of wounds on 14 Apr 1916, aged 24.   He is buried at the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in Belgium (grave VI. B. 20).  His Commonwealth War Graves Commission record states he was son of Catherine and Albert Peterson.  This would have made him an uncle to Jack Petersen.  It appears however that Catherine and Albert were probably his grandparents making  Norman cousin to Jack.  After Catherine dies in 1922, Mary Ann Greenfield of Bedford Street, Roath, claims to be Norman’s mother and is awarded his pension.  In the 1911 census Norman is working for Pa Paterson as an ‘assistant instructor of physical culture’.  A couple of stories appear in the newspapers of him boxing in the same contests as his uncle.

BARBARA SARAH WATKIN WILLIAMS

Aircraftwoman 1st Class, Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (Service Number: 883075)

Barbara Williams was Jack’s sister in law and a bridesmaid at his wedding in Marshfield.  She was born on 29 Jul 1922. Barbara joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in 1939. She died on 20 Jun 1940, aged 17,  as a result of injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident at Temple Bruer, Lincolnshire.  She was in a car with two RAF pilot officers on the Lincoln-Sleaford road during the black-out when it was involved in a head-on collision with a truck.  All three occupants were killed.  She is buried at Cathays Cemetery adjacent to Jack’s grave .  Commonwealth War Graves Commission record.  She is remembered on the war memorials at St Edward’s  and St Martin’s church. 

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I first came across Jack Peterson a few years ago when a friend pointed out his grave to me when we were walking through Cathays Cemetery.  I took some pictures and put them aside.  I happened to come across him again this month as part of my Armchair Travel Challenge where I visit a different country each month ‘in my imagination’ and set about a series of challenges.  This month I am in Norway. I was reading about the Norway connections with Cardiff; the Norwegian church in Cardiff Bay, Roldh Dahl and up popped the name of Jack Petersen and his Norwegian background.  I thought I would take a look at his background not expecting it to be so connected with us here in Roath, Cathays and Splott. 

Ted Richards – July 2022

Before the Normans arrived, Roath was variously referred to as Raz, Raht, Rad, Rahat, Rottie and Rothe and there are many theories about the origins of the word. The most popular  is that it derives from the ancient Gaelic word, ‘Rath’ or ‘Raath’ which means an earthwork or enclosure with surrounding rampart. There is evidence that there was such a fortification at the heart of Roath, but the origin of the word could also be from the Welsh  ‘rhodd’, meaning gift.

At that time, Wales was divided into gwledydd (states and kingdoms). A Prince ruled each state (or gwlad) from a llys (court). The chief administrative unit of a gwlad was a cantref (constituency). A cantref was then divided into a hundred small settlements called trefydd. A tref was in turn divided into two or more cymdau or commotes which would be the place of a lesser courthouse dealing with issues of local government.

The lands of Roath lay in the commote of Cibwr (Kibbor) in the cantref of Sengehenydd. The llys of Kibbor was Llys Faen or stone court which is now more commonly known as Lisvane. All were parts of the glwad or state of Morgannwg.

In the late 11^th century,  the Norman warrior lord, Robert Fitzhammon, a kinsman to The Conqueror himself ,  made Cardiff Castle his base. He gave much of his newly acquired land in Glamorgan to his followers, but kept Roath for himself. He established Roath Manor as the ‘home farm’ for the Castle so that it could provide food for the vast numbers of people serving the Fitzhammon  household.

The Manor itself stood on the site now occupied by the Roath Court Funeral Home on the corner of Newport Road and Albany Road. The lands attached to the original Manor were vast and extended far beyond the boundaries of the Parish of Roath taking in parts of Llanedeyrn, Lisvane, even Whitchurch.

During the 12^th and 13^th centuries, the Manor of Roath was divided into three parts. Large areas came under the jurisdiction of the abbeys in Tewkesbury and Keynsham, Somerset, hence the new manors of Roath Tewkesbury and Roath Keynsham. The remaining land came under the jurisdiction of the Lords of Glamorgan and became known  as Roath Dogfield.

Roath Tewkesbury and Roath Keynsham remained under the control of the monasteries until their dissolution in the 16^th century.

The heart of Roath was the manor of Roath Dogfield. The village kept its identity right up until the end of the 19^th century. It was only with the new housing development of that time that the village lost its distinctive rural character.

The village consisted mainly of a group cottages, clustered around the parish church of St Margaret’s but also included various cottages dotted alongside the old Merthyr Road (now Albany Road) as far as the turning for Lisvane (Penylan Road).

Apart from the church, the main features of the village were Roath Court, formerly the site of the old manor house,  Ty Mawr (The Great House) which was demolished as late as 1967, later the site of an old people’s residential home (also now demolished), and Roath Mill, which stood for many centuries next to the stream in what is now Roath Mill Gardens. The ‘village green’ would have occupied the space which is now a roundabout – the junction of Waterloo Road, Albany Road and Marlborough Road.

The Merthyr road (Albany Road) was bordered on the south side by a whitewashed stone wall (some of which is still visible at the eastern end). This denoted the grounds of Roath Court. On the north side of the road up until 1886 there was an open ditch bordering open fields and countryside.

Further down the road on the side of the old wall stood the village school, a small detached cottage providing  a basic education to a handful of local children. When Albany Road School opened its doors in 1887, the village school became redundant and closed in 1902.

Just beyond the school were three terraced cottages known collectively as Roath Court Cottages. The cottages and the old school building survived until 1958 but were then demolished to make way for the petrol station (since demolished) and health centre.

Next to the cottages the Claude Hotel opened in 1890 to provide a local watering hole for the newly built Claude Road housing  and the planned development on the other side of Albany Road.

Opposite the junction of Claude Road and Albany Road stood a thatched cottage – a most ramshackle building, Ty -y-Cwn, or Dog Cottage, where the keeper of the Lord of the Manor’s hounds lived.

Further along stood Cross Cottage and close by Fynnon Bren, a well reputed to have curative properties.

On the 14th April 1880, Alfred Donald Mackintosh (b.1851) of Moy Hall near Inverness, 28th Chief of the Clan Mackintosh and 29th Chief of the Clan Chattan married Harriet Diana Arabella Mary Richards (b.1857) of Cottrell, St Nicholas.  Alfred’s vast estates in the Scottish Highlands covered 124,000 acres, though much of it was moorland with the result that his rent roll, together with the economic potential of the land was considerably less than that which accrued from his wife’s property in Glamorgan even before the Plasnewydd estate was developed.

The Richards pedigree begins with William Richards, a late 17th century Alderman of Cardiff.  In the 18th century the family prospered becoming lawyers, clergymen and administrators and were the most substantial family resident in or near Cardiff. Harriet’s father Edward Priest Richards (1831-1856) was the third son of John Matthews Richards (1803-1843).  He was named after his great-uncle Edward Priest Richards (1792-1867) who for 40 years was the chief agent of the Marquis of Bute’s estates in Glamorgan and while contributing to the Bute fortune, doubtless did not neglect to increase his own.  He also accumulated almost every public office in the county of Glamorgan and the borough of Cardiff and in doing so established a powerful and intricate network of local control.

On the 5th February 1856, Edward Priest Richards the younger married Harriet Georgina Tyler of Cottrell, St Nicholas, 6 miles west of Cardiff.  According to an eye witness Edward was short sighted, wore an eyeglass and walked with short steps and a curious little hop.  He died during the first year of the marriage, when after having attended a ploughing match dinner, he and his horse were involved in a fatal collision with a cart load of manure in Heol y Plwca (now City Road).

At the time of her husband’s death, Harriet was pregnant and their daughter Harriet Diana Arabella Mary Richards was born at Cottrell House, St Nicholas in June 1857, where she continued to live as a young girl.  The St Nicholas Poor Rate Records for 1879 and 1880 show that Cottrell was owned by Gwinnett Tyler, a naval lieutenant, but occupied by his niece, the 22-year-old Harriet Richards.  George William Tyler, a nephew of Gwinnett Tyler, inherited Cottrell in 1886 but did not live there.  He too had entered the Navy in 1866 as a naval cadet and after 20 years service retired, and sold Cottrell to his cousin Harriet.  She could afford it as in 1867 she had inherited the fortune of Edward Priest Richards the elder, who had died that year.  She was now a very wealthy young woman.

Harriet married Alfred in 1880 having signed a comprehensive “Ante-nuptial contract of marriage” the day before.  Arranged marriages were not unknown between the wealthy and there are in the Mackintosh papers, in the National Archives of Scotland, documents which relate to arrangements made for the care of Harriet Diana Arabella Mary Richards from between 1862 and 1874, as well as a copy of the contract of marriage.  The resulting situation seems to have been that Alfred owned the Scottish estates and Harriet the Glamorgan estates. This arrangement seems to have anticipated the Married Woman’s Property Act,1882.

Alfred’s father and grandfather had been fur traders at Detroit in the USA, though the family seat was at Moy Hall, near Inverness.  Alfred was born at Moy and was educated at Brighton, Sussex and Cheltenham College.  He then enrolled at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and in 1870 was commissioned in the Highland Light Infantry.  The death of his brother in 1876, with no male heir, caused Alfred to become the 28th Chief of the Clan Mackintosh.  He resigned from the regular army, but became a Captain in the militia battalion of his local regiment, the Cameron Highlanders.

Alfred and Harriet divided their time between Mayfair, Moy and Cottrell.  For the first six years of their married life, they lived at Cottrell but did not own it. Their main preoccupation at Cottrell was hunting, while at Moy it was fishing and shooting.  The Glamorgan Hunt was not large, as many were in the 1880s and in 1882 they attended a meet at Llanishen (then described as a rural hamlet) and also supported local steeplechases and point-to-point races.  The Hunt Ball was the social event of the year. Alfred and Ella (Harriet’s pet name) would have danced waltzes and performed the Lancers to tunes from The Mikado and Ruddigore.  Polkas listed on the dance card were Buffalo Bill, Bugle Call and Hanky Panky!  Even more energetic were the gallops Post Horn and John Peel.

Both took their role as landowners seriously.  Each Christmas they gave joints of beef and bags of coal to the poorer people.  The schoolchildren of St Nicholas and Bonvilston were treated to a Christmas Party every year.  This would include tea and cake, a bag of sugared almonds, dips in the bran tub and a march around the Christmas tree, after which everyone was given a present.  They gave the Bonvilston Reading Room to the village as a social centre and also donated a cricket pavilion.  Finally they organised a Boy Scout troop, paying for the uniforms and equipment and providing an old cottage in which to meet.

A census taken in April 1881 lists their daughter Violet, then 8 weeks old, who was sadly to die 2 years later.  Puis Henn the butler is still there as he had been 10 years previously.  Maria Jones, age 73, is still the housekeeper but one new face is Hugh Fraser, the Mackintosh piper.  There are 15 other staff, including 2 nurses.

The Queen’s grandfather, George V was a friend of Alfred, staying at Moy Hall on a number of occasions. The Mackintosh held several public positions, ranging from Lord Lieutenant of Invernesshire to President of the Highland Agriculture Society.  He was also President of the Cardiff Caledonian Society.  During the 1930s, Harriet continued with her charitable and social work and was particularly involved with the St John’s Ambulance Brigade.

Alfred died on the 14th November 1938 and was buried in the family vault at Petty near Moy, his piper playing the Mackintosh Lament.  He had no direct heir, his son Angus Alexander (b.1885), a Captain in the Royal Horse Guards had died of pneumonia in Canada in 1918.  He had been on the military staff of the British Ambassador in Washington.  Harriet survived him by two years, living alone at Cottrell, in increasing poor health.  She died in March 1941 and was buried at Petty Church.  In 1942 the Cotrell estate was sold.

This Roath Local History Society ‘Occasional Paper’ was researched and written in 2009. 

Refs:

Cottrell – Cottrell Park, St Nicholas, Vale of Glamorgan – John Richards (1999). 

A Short History of the Mackintosh Estate, Roath.  Jeff Childs (2005)

Personal Reminiscence by Margaret Reeves

Another of our ‘Occasional Papers’ from 2008 supplemented by some photographs and maps – not necessarily of the places referenced in the article.  For some reason historic photos of allotments are tricky to find.

I can claim family connections with many of the former allotment sites in Roath.  Each allotment had a tool shed at one end with a water butt and, at the other end, a compost heap.  We grew the serious root vegetables like potatoes and carrots at the compost end, then runner beans, sometimes peas, then the quick-growing salad crops like lettuce and radish. At the shed end were soft fruits, strawberries and blackcurrant bushes.  Between the salads and the soft fruit was a scrubby patch of grass – I think the intention was that eventually the whole plot would be cultivated but we never kept a plot that long! Meanwhile, if the ground and vegetation were dry enough, we sometimes had a bonfire on the middle patch and we children tried cooking jacket potatoes in the ashes (they always came out burned on the outside and raw in the middle).

I have a dim memory of visiting an allotment off Ty Gwyn Rd or Ty Draw Road in the early 1940s; I think it belonged to my great-uncle, Jesse Tanner.  My aunt, Joan Tremlett, also remembers this allotment in the 1920s, she says it was near the Convent of the Good Shepherd and her mother (my grandmother) also had a plot there.  This was probably the site of my great-grandfather’s market garden, shown in the Street Directories for the 1920s between the Convent and Penylan Road.

The earliest allotment I definitely remember was a plot my mother had on Roath Park Recreation Ground.  The allotments stretched from the stream at the Alder Road end to beyond the junction of Ninian Road and Penywaun Place.  My grandmother and my great-uncle David (Dai) Edwards also had plots on the Rec.

I started Roath Park Girls’ School in 1946 and used to join my mother on the allotment after school.  As well as the runner beans, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, blackcurrants and strawberries, I remember a very large marrow grown on a raised bed which my vegetarian aunts stuffed and roasted.  We must have had this plot during the War because most of the allotment holders were elderly men like Uncle Dai who, although very willing to give Mum advice, never offered help with the digging.

I remember this plot very clearly (there’s a photo on Commanet to prove it!) but plans in Glamorgan Record Office for 1936 and 1947 show the Recreation Ground without allotments – perhaps they were an Official Secret!

I’m not sure when the Rec allotments were closed and turned back into playing fields but one summer great humps of red clay were dumped on the playing field side of the boundary fence (we used to climb over them on the way home from school, rather than using the diagonal path from the allotment fence at the Ninian Road end to the bridge near the Ty Draw/Penylan Road junction).  I suppose this soil was eventually spread to level the height of the allotments and playing field.

When I started Lady Margaret’s High School in 1949 we could see allotments all around the back and one side of the school, on land which later became the Howardian School building and playing fields. Uncle Jesse had a large plot there and sub-let half of it to my parents. The allotments did not extend right to Colchester Avenue and Barons Court Rd; there was rough ground overgrown with blackberry bushes and a tall dead white tree.  Among the brambles there was also a large concrete circle with hooks set into the ground where a barrage balloon had been moored during the War.

Shortly after I started Lady Margaret’s, we moved from Amesbury Road to Connaught Road and the allotment was not so easy to reach.  At some time in the 1950s, my parents rented another plot off Albany Rd at the end of the white-washed wall of Roath Court, where Timbers Square now stands. This was a smaller site surrounded by elder bushes. I don’t remember much about what we grew there, but during a couple of summers we picked the elderflowers to make “champagne”. I don’t know the dimensions of the plots but I have the impression that the one on Colchester Avenue was considerably larger than either the Rec. or Timbers Square.

As well as the fork, rake, spade etc our shed usually held folded deckchairs. There wasn’t room for much else.  I remember one heavy shower of rain on the Rec when three of us, my mother, myself aged about 7 and my brother in a pushchair, tried to shelter from a heavy shower in the shed, all sticking out at knees and elbows.

So far as I know, there are no allotments left in Roath now, the nearest being the site off Clodien Avenue (visible from Allensbank Road and Eastern Avenue) and there are sites on either side of the Lake, one near the junction of Highfields Road with Lake Road West, the other off Lady Mary Road near its junction with Lake Road East.  Unless there may be plots lurking in an odd corner somewhere, waiting to make a comeback.