It was in the latter part of the wet winter in 1903 that Alice May Tovey may have been given the autograph book, most probably for her nineteenth birthday. No birthday cake nor ‘Happy Birthday’ would have been sung as these customs had yet to be established. We don’t know if she had a special afternoon tea in the parlour of 15 Partiridge Road, Roath, Cardiff but we do know she was quick to ask family and friends to write in her book, ‘Confessions, Opinions and Autographs Of My Friends’.
Autograph Book owned by Alice Tovey
This type of book had been popular since the 1860s but the fashion was beginning to decline by the time Alice received hers. The giver may have purchased it for a few shillings from The Park Newsagency, Stationery and Fancy Repository, on the corner of Wellfield Road and Albany Road. Alice asked thirty three people to answer the thirty eight questions; her siblings were the first, on Monday 9th March 1903.
What characteristics do you admire most in a man?
What characteristics do you admire most in a woman?
What would be your ideal life ?
What do you consider your best quality?
What do you consider your forte to be?
If necessary to work for a living, what calling would you pursue?
What do you consider your greatest failing?
What is your favourite pastime?
What gives you most annoyance?
Are you a linguist and what is your favourite language?
In what country would you prefer to live?
What foreign land would you best like to visit?
Who do you consider has the greatest brain power, man or woman?
Do you think women should take part in public life?
Do you believe in women’s suffrage?
What colour do you think is most becoming to you?
Do you think dress influences character?
Describe the girl of the period
Describe the young man of the day
What is your favourite motto?
What is your favorite flower and what is its meaning?
Who do you consider is the best sovereign in Europe?
What nation exercises most influence in the world?
Who do you consider the greatest politician in Great Britain
Who do you consider the greatest artist of the present age?
Who do you consider the greatest musician of the present age?
Who do you consider the greatest man of science of the present age?
Who do you consider the greatest orator of the present age?
Who do you consider the greatest author of the present age?
Who do you consider the greatest poet of the present age?
Which is your favourite reading prose or poetry?
Name two poems that have given you great pleasure
Name two books of fiction that have given you the most profit
Who is your hero in life?
Who is your hero in fiction?
Who is your heroine in life?
Who is your heroine in fiction?
Name the composer whose music you most enjoy
Over the next few years the book was filled in by Alice’s friends and acquaintances. It can be surmised that some of the contributors were also friends of Alice’s siblings, such as the school mistresses and office clerks. Others may have been work colleagues of Alice when she was a grocer’s assistant. She may have had visitors as some entries were labelled, Port Talbot and Fishguard.
By 1911 Alice was a domestic servant to retired tobacconist William Bowles and his wife, Anna, at 140 Cathedral Road, Cardiff where two of their young nephews signed the book; two of their nieces had signed it in 1906, suggesting Alice was the Bowles’ servant by this time. The young priest at St Martin Church, Roath and his future wife, is an obvious connection but two brothers who lived in Newport and became meat traders along with an Italian born refrigeration engineer who lived in Lancashire, it’s harder to conclude what the links were; they are yet to be found.
After years of apparent abandonment the book was resurrected for the last time in 1923, when Alice was living at 118 Richmond Road, Cardiff, with her mother & sisters. In spite of WWI having been fought and some women gaining the vote in 1918 the answers were much the same as in 1903.
Here’s a broad summary of the most popular answers.
What characteristics do you admire most in a man / woman? Stereotypical such as bravery & love respectively
What would be your ideal life? Money
What do you consider your best quality? Many were too modest to answer
What do you consider your forte to be? Many were too modest to answer
If necessary to work for a living, what calling would you pursue? Various
What do you consider your greatest failing? Temper, impatience
What is your favourite pastime? Cycling & walking
What gives you most annoyance? Other people
Are you a linguist and what is your favourite language? English
In what country would you prefer to live? England
What foreign land would you best like to visit? Switzerland
Who do you consider has the greatest brain power, man or woman? Man
Do you think women should take part in public life? No
Do you believe in women’s suffrage? No
What colour do you think is most becoming to you? Various
Do you think dress influences character? Yes
Describe the girl of the period Various
Describe the young man of the day a toff
What is your favourite motto? Various
What is your favorite flower and what is its meaning? Various
Who do you consider is the best sovereign in Europe? King Edward VII (almost unanimously)
What nation exercises most influence in the world? England, Great Britain (almost unanimously)
Who do you consider the greatest politician in Great Britain? Joseph Chamberlain(almost unanimously)
Who do you consider the greatest artist of the present age? Various
Who do you consider the greatest musician of the present age? Paderewski
Who do you consider the greatest man of science of the present age? Edison
Who do you consider the greatest orator of the present age? Various
Who do you consider the greatest author of the present age? Various
Who do you consider the greatest poet of the present age? Tennyson
The rest of the answers were individual.
To conclude, as Alice and her siblings didn’t have any children there was no one to hand the book on to. It’s not known how the book came into the possession of its owner, Richard Adair; he suggested it was from a house clearance as his parents were antique dealers. Richard is the author of ‘Courtship, Illegitimacy and Marriage in Early Modern England’ which may be of interest to some readers. Thank you Richard for sending the images of the entries and collating the answers.
It is with sadness that we learnt recently of the death of Mary Traynor, at the age of 91. Besides being a Society member and a long-time resident of Penylan, Mary was an accomplished artist, who depicted many of Cardiff’s notable buildings in her book Creating Cardiff.
Copies of her book will be available for sale at the AGM and talk on 10 September 2025.
Here is a profile of Mary, first published in the RLHS Newsletter in August 2020.
Some of my most treasured possessions are my sketchbooks. For me they are a record of things I have done, seen and visited over the years on family holidays in places like North Wales, Cornwall, Brittany and painting trips to Palma, Symi and Barcelona; not forgetting Australia and Vietnam where two of my children lived for a while. Being an artist is one thing that has kept me going and has given me pleasure throughout a long life. I have been a widow for many years. There is still a layer of sadness in me, but Brian was so supportive that l was compelled to continue painting, partly in his memory and have done so ever since, exhibiting and selling my work
A four- year course in Theatre Design at Birmingham College of Art & Crafts introduced me to architectural history and the challenges of drawing buildings, especially large historical ones. Perspective has always been difficult and I faintly ‘set square in’ a few vertical and horizontal lines as a guide. The Grade 1 listed art college was the ideal base from which to sketch the huge 19c buildings of the city centre. I then lived in Hammersmith, London for a while, spending my free time in sketching the Thames at Battersea Bridge, going to galleries and museums until I met Brian, a Cardiff man.
Adamsdown School
It was exciting to have the early sight-seeing trips of Cardiff: the gleaming white City Hall and Law Courts, the National Museum, Cardiff Castle, Castell Coch, the parks and in contrast the Docks and The Valleys which paid for all this building. We settled in Roath (this includes Penylan for convenience) and I have lived here ever since, in three different houses in one road! I raised a family and continued doing art through this time as most women artists blessed with children do. I usually love sketching children.
Roath Brook Gardens, from Westville Road
I have spent many happy years living in Roath – and here are some of my favourite places: firstly busy Albany Road and the network of streets surrounding it; the Mackintosh Institute or ‘The Mac’ an early 19c mansion in Plasnewydd Square, a thriving community centre and Farmers’ Market, not forgetting the arts centre opposite in the former Presbyterian Church where I much enjoyed dance performances by the young people of the Rubicon. There is a gruesome side to this as the Albany and Richmond Road crossroads is where Cardiff’s hanging field was! It is very sad that Grade 2 listed Globe Cinema was replaced and The Gaiety in City Road is making way for yet more student flats – how unnecessary is that?
Globe Cinema, Albany Road, Roath, Cardiff A reconstruction based on sketches and photographs of how the cinema might have looked in the 1920’s. It opened in 1913 and was a listed Grade II building that was demolished to build The Pear Tree Cafe.
Top of my list of favourite Roath buildings is the Edwardian Roath Church House with its central panel elegantly carved with the name and 1914 which says it all. Opposite is Grade 1 listed St Margaret’s Church with the polychromatic interior that makes it so special. I felt that I should have painted the interior but the drawing does show patterned brickwork and different stones. I must go down after Covid-19 is over and subtly paint the shadowy interior. I enjoyed doing the front and back in their leafy settings. Nearby I like Willie Seager Cottages, a modern version of the original ones on Newport Road. Charming as they were, it must have been very noisy for the retired mariners living there.
The East Cardiff Conservation Area which takes in the area encircling the parks starts at St Margaret’s and ends at the top of Roath Park Lake. As a representative of The Victorian Society I was on the advisory group. We helped keep the character of the area by vetting detrimental planning applications to both large and smaller houses, sometimes for extensions, more often for new inappropriate windows in the front or as dormers on the front roofs. One application was for another of my favourite buildings – listed Roath Park Primary School- to have replacement windows. We opposed this and the school remains as it was. I did a painting of it as a retirement gift from the school to its Headmistress enjoying putting in the proper windows and children in the playground. Roath Park, said by experts to be one of the country’s finest urban parks is of course of on my list. Scott’s Memorial Lighthouse was done in the raging blizzard of my imagination, instead of from outside! Finally, St Andrew’s United Reformed Church, its elegant spire marking Wellfield Road, the parks and playing field; is for me a reminder of Constable’s paintings of Salisbury Cathedral.
House in Ninian Road Pen and Watercolour Facing the Roath Recreation Ground, the houses in Ninian Road date from 1891 and completed 1910
Artists don’t retire if they can help it and I keep painting and drawing from my sketch books and photos during Covid -19. I am proud to be one of a group of at least five artists living quite near. For a few years an enterprising group of artists organised ‘Made in Roath’, taking place in October when artists, including me opened their studios to anyone who wanted to see them.
When I first started in the late ’60s and ’70s there were a lot of changes going on in Cardiff, such as the building of Boulevard de Nantes, the demolition of the houses at Dumfries Place and the splitting of the civic centre from the city centre. There was even talk of driving a road through Cathays Cemetery. Painting is what I do, so I would go and sketch buildings I knew were going to disappear – but I didn’t think I would still be doing it 50 years later. In January 2003 the Central Hotel was lost, when a huge fire swept through the derelict building. It was demolished in 2006 to make way for a new high-rise hotel. I have mixed feelings about the redevelopment of Cardiff over the years, some things I love – like the walkway around Cardiff Bay and the Millennium Stadium, which I think is fantastic – but other things I’m not so sure about. There does seem to be a bit more sensitivity now though in the way historic buildings are treated.
The climax of my work to date has been the writing of ‘Creating Cardiff’ done alongside my painting and drawing. The illustrations are taken from work done over many years and especially for the book. Now it is published I shall return to my latest project which is a very challenging commissioned painting of Roath Brook Gardens and then continue recording the different styles of the houses of Roath and Penylan.
In June 2014 Glamorgan Archives received a very interesting and unique deposit, when Mary gifted her collection of sketchbooks and loose works. They form an invaluable record and resource, both for researchers and as the basis for many exhibitions.
Creating Cardiff
ISBN: 9781845242961
Mary Traynor
Publication June 2020
Format: Paperback, 150×155 mm, 168 pages
Price : £8.95
Cardiff became a city in 1905 and the capital of Wales in 1955. It has a castle, civic buildings and extensive parklands, docks, two cathedrals, three universities,concert halls and theatres and museums. A new rugby stadium and arts centre marked the millennium.
Author Biography: Mary Traynor is an artist with a vivid interest in architectural and historical subjects. She has spent a lifetime recording Cardiff buildings, many of which have been threatened and has campaigned to save them. All the images in this book have been sketched on site. Sadly, some have been demolished over the years. This book brings the memory of them back to life in the company of her present-day images of the capital.
To me, this beautiful book, honed over many decades, represents a love letter from Mary to Cardiff, for all to cherish. Elizabeth Morgan.
We recently received an enquiry from someone who had visited Coffee#1 on Wellfield Road a few years ago and noticed an old military trunk on display. They wondered if we knew anything about it. Well, I didn’t but it certainly piqued my interest.
Captain B M Dunn trunk pictured by the enquirer a few years ago in Coffee#1 Wellfield Road.
I spend quite a bit of time researching people from the area who lost their lives in WWI and WWII and adding them to our Roath Virtual War Memorial. I wondered if the war trunk had belonged to one of Roath’s fallen.
One of the first things I did was to suggest to my wife that we go out for a coffee and investigate if the trunk is still there. She didn’t take much persuading. Sure enough, there at the top of the stairs on the first floor we found the military trunk, two in fact, seemingly used for storing Christmas decorations.
The trunks pictured July 2025
The chest trunk in question was marked as belonging to ‘Capt B M Dunn MC, 2nd Bn, the Welch Regt’. And no, that’s not a typo. The Welsh Regiment used to be called the Welch Regiment around the time of WWI.
The first thing I did when I got home was to see if he had survived the war by looking to see if he had a Commonwealth War Graves Commission record. I found none indicating he had survived.
I search the newspaper archives and was soon able to identify him. He was Captain Brian M Dunn from Groes-faen, near Llantrisant, who sadly passed away in Oct 1926.
I had initially thought that if I discovered he wasn’t from the Roath area I would leave the enquiry there, but having read the interesting newspaper clipping I decided to keep going. Here was a man who won a number of awards for gallantry and had had a Welsh Rugby trial.
It was time to call in some reinforcements. I copied members of our Society’s research group. I also contacted my friends Gwyn Prescott (military and rugby historian) and Ceri Stennett (military historian and all round good egg) who were a great help. Between us all and our other contacts we managed to piece together the following:
Brian Morgan Dunn was born on 23rd March 1895, one of five children born to Phillip Dunn, a Justice of the Peace and Estate Agent, originally from Carmarthen and Anne Margaret Dunn nèe Morgan from Llantrisant. The family lived at a large house called Crofta, on the outskirts of Groes-faen village.
Crofta on the outskirts of Groes-faen village
At the time of the 1911 census Brian is 16 years old and attending Uppingham School in Rutland.
Piecing together the military history of Brian Dunn has been difficult as is often the case with those of officer rank. It appears he enlisted early in WWI and joined the 2nd Battalion, Welsh Regiment, was made a 2nd Lieutenant on 11 Nov 1914, temp Captain on 9 Jun 1915 and Adjutant on 1 Jul 1916.
The war diary of the regiment records that on 17 Aug 1916 at Becourt Wood during reconnaissance of a new divisional front he was wounded and left the regiment for hospital. On 28 Oct 1916 Capt B M Dunn led a review of a Company of 200 men from the 2nd Welch regiment which had taken part in the Battle of Loos, in front of the King.
The MC after his name on his military trunk is an abbreviation for Military Cross, awarded for acts of gallantry. It is often possible to find a citation to the specific act for which a MC has been awarded but in the case of Capt Brian Dunn he was awarded it in the New Years Honours list (mentioned in the Edinburgh Gazette, 17 Jan 1916), probably for multiple acts of bravery. He was also awarded the Croix de Guerre (Ref – London Gazette 14th July 1917), a French military award for acts of heroism.
Capt Dunn survived the war and continued in the military afterwards. At the time of the 1921 Census we find him at Richmond Barracks in Dublin.
He was evidently a gifted sportsman and well-liked. Between the end of the war and his early death in 1926 we find references to him playing rugby at a high level. He was the recognised hooker for the Army team and appeared in Welsh International trials but was never capped.
B M Dunn wearing No.9 jersey Army v Navy 13.3.26
Here are some of his rugby highlights:
He was selected for Hampshire against Yorkshire in the final of the county championship in April 1926 but he did not play. Yorkshire won 15-14 and one report says his hooking was badly missed.
He was a member of the 2nd Welch (Pembroke Dock) team which won the Army Cup in 1919-20. He kicked a penalty in their 9-0 win over 2nd Life Guards. Also played for United Services Portsmouth at one point.
He played in a Welsh rugby trial for an Anglo-Welsh XV v the Probables in December 1925.
H played regularly for the Army for several seasons and was in the Army XV which won the Inter Services Championship for the first time in 1925-6 when they beat both Royal Navy and RAF at Twickenham in front of the King.
B M Dunn (2nd row third from left) Army v Navy 1926
He was still in the army when he died at Tidworth Barracks Hospital in Hampshire on 6 Oct 1926 aged just 31. He was buried in the family grave at St David’s church, Groes-faen. The papers report that it was a military funeral with warrant officers of the regiment acting as bearers with a firing party present too.
I visited St David’s, Groesfaen and found the grave. It is the largest plot in the cemetery. It appears that the wealthy Dunn family may well have been benefactors to the church at the time it was constructed in the early 1890s.
Dunn family headstone, St David’s, Groes-faenBrian Morgan Dunn headstone, St David’s church, Groed-faen
Brian was one of five children, four boys and one girl, born to Philip and Anne Dunn. All four brothers served in WWI and two were killed.
The eldest brother, Captain Philip Morgan Dunn (b.1888) attended Clare College, Cambridge and then served with the 8th Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He was killed in action during the advance on Kut, Mesopotamia on 3 Feb 1917, aged 28. He is commemorated at the Amara War Cemetery, Iraq. This was of personal interest to me as my grandfather served with the same battalion in Mesopotamia.
Another brother, 2nd Lieutenant Gwynne Morgan Dunn (b.1893), served in the 9th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment). He died of wounds on 23 Feb 1917 at the Somme, France, aged 23, just 20 days after his elder brother died. He is buried at Grove Town Cemetery, Meaulte, France.
The two brothers are remembered on an attractive plaque in the chancel at St David’s Church, Groes-faen, was well as on their parents grave.
The other brother, Rupert Morgan Dunn (b.1890) served as a 2nd Lieutenant in with the Royal Fusiliers and the Machine Gun Corps. He survived the war, married in 1924 and worked as a safe deposit manager in London. There don’t appear to be any offspring from that marriage. He died in London in 1953, aged 62.
The sister, Eileen Victoria Dunn (b.1897), never married and died in London, aged 85, in 1983.
Rupert and Eileen Dunn remembered on Dunn family headstone at St David’s church, Groes-faen
Having found the Dunn family grave and the resting place of Capt Brian Morgan Dunn, owner of the military chest in the coffee house, I was left wondering what had killed a seeming very fit young rugby player. I ordered his death certificate which led to another surprise. He died of gonococcal septicemia, a rare but serious complication of gonorrhea. That in itself isn’t a surprise given it was before the days of widespread use of barrier contraception and pre-antibiotics. The surprise is more the reference to 1 month, 5 days, 10¾ hours. Given the seriousness of this condition that is more likely to be the time since infection rather than the time since diagnosis. It appears he shared some close personal information with the medical team at the military hospital.
Brian Morgan Dunn Death Certificate
I’m always surprised where some of the enquiries we receive via our website lead. If ever you find yourself on the A4119 road from Cardiff to Llantrisant may I suggest you drop into see St David’s church in Groes-faen and have a wander around the cemetery. The Dunn family grave is at the back (west side) of the church.
How the trunk got to end up in Coffee #1 on Wellfield Road I don’t know. My guess would be that it was part of a house clearance sale at some stage.
My thanks goes to Jon Roberts and Jon Lloyd at Roath Local History Society, Gwyn Prescott, (military and rugby historian) and Ceri Stennett, (military historian and broadcaster) as well as others for help with this research. And also of course Alex for making us aware of the military trunk in the first place.
Lord David Owen – Official portrait, 2018 (souce: Wikipedia)
There’s little sign that 86 year old David Owen is winding down. The man who was Foreign Secretary in James Callaghan’s Labour government and who then went on to be a founder of the SDP party will be 87 in a few weeks time. Yes, he retired from a House of Lords last year but is still a prolific writer and gives regular radio interviews offering his opinions on modern politics.
It wasn’t my intention to research David Owen and his Cardiff connections. It was rather an accident. My attention had drawn recently to an unusual grave headstone at Cathays Cemetery. It is unusual in it’s design. Cathays Cemetery, the third largest Victorian in the country, still contains many examples of elaborate headstones despite a harsh clearance scheme that took place in the 1960/70s aiming to make cemetery maintenance easier. There are still examples of Celtic crosses, obelisks, pedestals with urns, angels, broken columns signifying a life cut short and a couple of polished granite globes. There is however only one example of a sword and belt draped around a cross. It is the headstone of Lieutenant John Aubrey Owen.
Even this elaborately carved headstone may have suffered as a result of the clearance scheme. Comparing the present headstone with a historical picture shows the kerbing is no longer present and the headstone itself is lower than it originally was. Maybe this was as a result of the clearance scheme or just sinkage into the ground. The elaborate sword and belt carving and cross too has suffered some damage over time. The sword’s hilt is sadly no longer present.
Lieutenant John Aubrey Owen it turns out was Lord David Owen’s grandfather. Not that David Owen ever knew his grandfather sadly. Lieutenant Owen died during WWI as a result of an accident.
Lieutenant John Aubrey Owen headstone at Cathays Cemetery.
Having found that connection I did some research and ordered David Owen’s biography ‘Time to Declare’ (1991). David Owen was born in Devon in 1938 but has a lot of Welsh blood in him. His biography details how he spent time in South Wales when his father was away involved in WWII. My intention here isn’t to repeat all his South Wales family history but to tease out his interesting connections to us here in Cardiff, starting with his grandfather.
Lieutenant John Aubrey Owen (1876-1917) – Grandfather
John Aubrey Owen was born on 12 Jun 1878 at at 14 Park Street, Temperance Town, Cardiff to William Frank Owen, a coal merchant, originally from Cardiff and Selina Maud Owen nèe Rees originally from Bridgend, Glamorgan. By 1881 the family were living at 9 Crwys Road, Cathays, which is now a hairdressers. He was baptized on 18 Mar 1885 at St Augustine, Panarth and in 1891 the Owen family were living at 24 Pembroke Terrace, Penarth. John joined the merchant navy as a boy sailor at the age of 16, working on the four masted ships sailing out of Cardiff docks. In the 1891 census he is recorded as living at 10 Belle View Terrace, Penarth, aged 22, and a sailor.
9 Crwys Road, Cathays where John Aubrey Owen was living as a child in 1881.
On 8 Nov 1905 John married Gwendoline Mary Morris, the daughter of a Congregational minister. They may well have met each other as teenagers when they both lived on Pembroke Terrace, Penarth. After getting married they settled in Cwmgwrach, in the upper Neath Valley and had two sons.
John’s career soon progressed in the merchant navy, gaining his First Mate’s certificate in 1905 and then his Master’s certificate in 1907. John was employed by Messrs Evan Thomas Radcliffe and Co, Cardiff, one of the more prosperous and better-known of Cardiff-based shipowning companies. John had had been in command of three of their steamers by the time the First World War arrived where he served in the Royal Naval Reserve and was made a temporary lieutenant in February 1917. He served on H.M. Trawler ‘John Pollard’. He however sadly died from a fractured skull on 27 Oct 1917, after falling from the upper deck of his vessel into the stoke hold, while the ship was docked in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. He was aged 39. He is buried in Cathays Cemetery (grave S 509A). Commonwealth War Graves Commission record.
Lieutenant John Aubrey Owen and old image of his headstone at Cathays Cemetery, Cardiff..
David Lewis (1797-1860) G-G-G-Grandfather – Mayor of Cardiff
Researching the Owen family history is made a lot easier, not only by David Owen’s autobiography, but by there being a very comprehensive family tree on Ancestry put together by another Owen family member. In that family tree it details the life of David Lewis (1797-1860). He married Margaret Aubrey, which is where the Aubrey name passed down through the family comes from. In 1841 he lived on Quay Street, Cardiff.
His lengthy obituary in the newspaper in 1860 details how he was a victualler, landlord of the Ship and Dolphin in Church Street, and afterwards became Master of the Ship on Launch, in Quay Street which was the favorite resort of the Cardiganshire seamen when they visited Cardiff. He also speculated in coal and had a rope making business and donated money to the Wesleyan Chapel in Charles Street. In 1854 he was Mayor of Cardiff. He is buried at Llandaff Cathedral.
Wesleyan Chapel, Charles Street, Cardiff, opened 1850. The chapel was destroyed by fire in 1895 and then rebuilt. The rebuilt chapel was demolished in 1984. The plaque to David Lewis (described below) could well be one of those in the sketch under the eaves of the balcony.
A plaque to David Lewis was erected in Charles Street Wesleyan Chapel after his death.
Alderman William Llewellyn (1850- 1923) – Maternal G-Grandfather
William Llewellyn was both a liberal politician and shopkeeper. David Owen writes that ‘Alderman William Llewellyn, was chairman of Glamorgan County Council and chairman of the Bridgend Bench of Magistrates. A staunch Liberal, he was a moving spirit in first the Mid-Glamorgan then the Ogmore Divisional Liberal and Labour Party, of which he also became chairman. He had started life as a grocer and provision merchant in Ogmore, having moved there from Llantrisant. Over the years The Gwalia, as his shop was called, grew until it was described as `a mecca of the valley and neighbourhood’. The shop used to be in Ogmore Vale but has been moved and many of you will have been there. Gwalia Stores closed in Ogmore Vale in 1973 but was then moved and rebuilt at St Fagans National Museum of History in 1991. The ground floor is set up as it would have been during the 1920s.
Gwalia Stores originally in Ogmore Vale now at St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff.
Dr Edgar Llewellyn (1890-1964) – G-uncle
Alderman William Llewellyn had eight children, or more accurately his wife Mary did. One was George ‘Gear’ Morgan Llewellyn (1877-1951), David Owen’s maternal grandfather. He was a blind church minister and lived at Llandow in the Vale of Glamorgan and a big influence on David Owen’s life. David spent time living there as a child when his father was away in WWII.
Another son of Alderman William Llewellyn was Dr Edgar Llewellyn and it is he that has connections with our area. He became a GP in Splott and had his surgery on Splott Road. He was Cardiff Commissioner of the St John’s Ambulance Brigade and the works’ doctor at Guest Keen steel works, and also became a Cardiff Councillor.
In his autobiography David Owen recalls the following:
The brother whose career most closely paralleled my own was Edgar. He was a family doctor in Splott which is an area of Cardiff dominated by the steel-works. He was a great character and adored by his patients His unique way of sorting out their ailments was, according to my mother, to go into his surgery and announce, “Those buggers who are ill can move to the right-hand side of the room and be seen now: those who are not can wait on the left and see me later or chance their luck tomorrow.’ After the war he became infuriated by the politicians on the City Council and so decided to join his wife who was already a Ratepayer Councillor. He was elected in 1951. A photograph of him in a pony and trap, bedecked in a massive rosette, electioneering shows the first combination of doctor-politician in the family’s history. His wife Jenny, who had first stood and won as a Ratepayer in 1946, was a strikingly good looking woman and a considerable character. She was the first person in eighteen years to beat the Labour candidate in her Ward. She stood again in 1949 and won and then lost her seat three years later. The wish to be an independent in local government and to stand against party politics was later mirrored by my mother and, some will say, by me too.
‘
Dr Edgar Llewellyn, Ratepayers Candidate in the Cardiff 1951 Local Government elections (picture credit: Cardiff Yesterday Vol XVI)
Dr Edgar Llewellyn of the Ratepayers Part campaigning in 1951 (Picture credit: David Owen’s biography ‘Time to Declare’ (1991))
What started as a bit of research into the grave of John Aubrey Owen at Cathays Cemetery turned up many interesting stories about the history of Cardiff. Fascinating stuff is histoy.
I spotted a post on social media last week from someone looking for the origin of the street name Theodora Street in Roath. I already knew the basics but was keen to learn a bit more so set about doing some research. Who would have thought it would lead to a lovely day out in rural Herefordshire.
Theodora Street is one eight streets that run between Broadway and Pearl Street that were probably built in the 1870s. The land was owned by William Bradley (1843-1933), a solicitor, who named the streets after his children, Cecil, Bertam, Blanche and Maud (later renamed Bradley Street).
William Bradley, Cardiff solicitor and landowner
The problem was that he had more streets to name than he had children.
Bradley streets, Roath, Cardiff (Ref: Open Streetmap)
Instead, he turned to the using the names of his nieces and nephews.
Beresford Road it seems is named after his nephew James Beresford Bradley, child of Frederick and Florence Bradley.
The three remaining streets, Theodora, Harold and Arthur Streets are named after three of his sister’s children. She was Mary Jane Bradley (1841-80). She married Rev David Nicholl (1842-1916), the rector of the church in St Brides Super Ely, just outside Cardiff, in 1863. In fact they had ten children together so her brother could have kept building streets – there were plenty of names in reserve.
After marrying Rev David Nicholl became a rector in Llanelli for a short time before they moved to the hamlet of Edvin Loach, Herefordshire where he became rector of St Mary’s church in 1873. He was rector at St Mary’s for the next 40 years and lived in the nearby rectory. Having now been there I can understand why he was in no rush to move on. It’s remote and idyllic. But then again I did visit on a beautiful spring day and there was a giant hare hopping around the graveyard.
Edvin Loach church, Herefordshire
The day before I visited I had spent researching the Nicholl family history. It was quite intriguing. The one thing I noticed when I put the Nicholl family tree together on Ancestry was that nobody else seemed to have researched them. The reason for that slowly became evident. Of the ten children Rev David Nicholl and Mary Jane had together, few married and even fewer had children. I can only find two grandchildren and I think the Nicholl family line may be sparse or have even ended there.
Nicholl family tree (as built in Ancestry.co.uk)
Mary Theodora was the first of the ten children born to Rev David and Mary Jane Nicholl in 1865. Mary Jane, her mother, tragically died in 1880, the year after her tenth child was born. In the 1881 census we see Rev David Nicholl living in the rectory in Edvin Loach with the children and a governess and a servant.
One reason I had been keen to visit the church was that I could find no mention of Mary Theodora Nicholl in the newspaper archives. She died in 1914 of heart disease, aged just 49, still living with her father in the rectory. I assume that, as the eldest child of widowed Rev David Nicholl, she grew up filling the motherly and vicar’s wife role in the church, as would may have been traditional at the time.
I was interested in knowing if she is buried at the church. The pictures I had seen of St Mary’s church in Edvin Loach showed few graves and there weren’t many recorded on the ‘findagrave.com’ website either. As I approached through the narrow lanes a small signpost directed to take a turning along a 200m unsurfaced track up to the church.
After watching the hare make his/her escape through the fence into the field I set about looking at the headstones. There were certainly more than I had expected looking at the photos online but the graveyard was by no means packed with headstones which meant some may have been lost over the years to weathering etc.
As I neared the church porch I struck lucky. There was the grave of Rev David Nicholl and his wife Mary Jane who had predeceased him by 46 years. Also buried in the grave is Mary Theodora. The pink granite headstone in the shape of a cross is in good condition.
Grave of Mary Theodora Nicholl at Edvin Loach with old Rectory where she lived in the background.
The other burial in the same plot is Theodora’s brother Francis William Nicholl. He was a solicitor who died the same year, 1914. He had tragically taken his own life. His inquest heard how he had been suffering pain due to a medical condition as well as having financial issues.
Inscriptions on the Nicholl headstone
Having explored the outside of the church I tried the door and found it open. It was lovely, with a vaulted timber roof, cream walls and a dozen pews as well as stain glass windows. As I examined the plaques on the walls and I was in for another surprise. There was a plaque to both Rev David Nicholl, his wife Mary Jane and on the opposite wall a plaque to Mary Theodora, perhaps signifying the prominent role she had played in the church after her mother’s death.
Rev David and Mary Jane Nicholl plaques in Edvin Loach church, Herefordshire.
Plaque dedicated to Mary Theodora Nicholl in Edvin Loach church, Herefordshire
I was in for one more surprise. There is another plaque in memory of the vicar who followed on from Rev David Nicholl. He was Arthur Beresford Holmes. Is it purely a coincidence that a man with the middle name Beresford went to live in the rectory where Mary Jane Bradley had lived, who had a nephew called John Beresford Bradley after which Beresford Road in Cardiff seems to be named? I can’t find a connection but maybe a keen sleuther could turn something up.
Plaque dedicated to Arthur Beresford Holmes, Rector of Edvin Loach 1914-1947. A relative of Theodora or is the name Beresford just a coincidence?
Edvin Loach seems a long way from Roath. I was left wondering if Mary Theodora ever visited Cardiff to see the street named after her.
Theodora Street, Roath Cardiff and Mary Theodora Nicholl headstone in Edvin Loach church
Before I left this lovely location I had a few more things to see, not connected with the Nicholl family. When I’m not huddled up over a laptop doing local history research I’m often to be found out walking in the countryside. To give me an excuse to visit new and different locations I visit hills, trigpoints, benchmarks and find geocaches that people have hidden. It turned out that Edvin Loach had an example of all four of these. There is a cut benchmark on the wall of the new church, the church spire itself is a type of trig point (an intersected station) and the prominent position of the church classifies it as a TuMP (a hill with a 30m promontory). There is even a tiny geocache hidden at the turn off to the church, which I must admit took me a while to find. It hadn’t been found for over a year so was a bit of a challenge. Anyway, that’s enough of my nerdy hobbies. After going to find a couple more trig points nearby and eating my marmalade sandwiches it was back to the local history.
Inside Edvin Loach church and the benchmark on the church wall outside.
My focus now was Lewis Harold Nicholl (1867-1924) after whom Harold Street in Roath is named. Like his father and indeed his grandfather before him, he went into the church and became a rector. He was born in Bodenham, Herefordshire on 18 May 1866. He attended Hereford Cathedral School before going on to St John’s College, Cambridge University and became a priest in 1890. He held positions in the church in Thornbury, Gloucestershire, Ludlow, then Ribbersford, Worcs and Bewdley. He was there for two years before his heath broke down and he sought warmer weather by going to France (1904-14) where he was Chaplain at the Church of England Christ Church, Pau, South of France. At the outbreak of WWI he returned to England and became assistant curate in Clifton, Bristol before becoming Curate in Bredenbury, Herefordshire from 1916 until his death in 1924.
Harold Street in Roath, Cardiff
My next stop was therefore Bredenbury church to see if there was any mention of Lewis Harold Nicholl. He had actually died in Bournemouth where he had gone to try and recuperate from another illness but had died on 21 Nov 1924.
Bredenbury Church, Herefordshire
St Andrew’s at Bredenbury is another lovely Herefordshire church. The first thing I noticed was the large number of headstones in the graveyard so I wasn’t too confident about finding Harold’s grave. Being the rector however I guessed he may have had a fairly prominent burial plot. I walked around the perimeter of the church and after a few minutes I spotted it, an unusual flat coffin-shaped stone slab with raised cross. It looked rather splendid today surrounded by primroses and other spring flowers.
Lewis Harold Nicholl grave, Bredenbury church.
He had married Lilian Theodora Williams in Thornbury, Gloucestershire in 1893. She passed away when they lived in Pau, France which probably explains why they are not buried together.
This church was also open. The highlight here was a wonderful carved marble pulpit. Now that must have taken some time to do.
Carved marble pulpit at St Andrew’s church, Bredenbury
My final stroke of luck for the day, at least from a local history point of view, was finding the brass wall plaque to Lewis Harold Nicholl. It was good to see him remembered. His newspaper obituary records that ‘he was much respected by his fellow clergy in the Deanery and had endeared himself to his parishioners by his sincere and quiet manner. They found him a homely parish priest who shared with them alike in their joys and sorrows’.
Plaque to Rev Lewis Harold Nicholl at Bredenbury church
In the 1921 census records he was living next door to the church at the rather grand rectory with his two unmarried sisters Emily Maud and Katherine and two servants.
The Rectory at Bredenbury, home of Rev Lewis Harold Nicholl and two of his sisters in 1921.
To finish off a splendid day I took myself off to Bromyard Downs for a two mile walk and some more geocaching before heading home through the Herefordshire countryside.
So having found Theodora and Harold that just left Arthur but unfortunately I found little more than I already knew about him and again no picture. Arthur Street in Roath is named after David Arthur Nicholl, nephew of the landowner William Bradley. Arthur was born in Llanelli in 1868, son of church minister Rev David Nicholl and raised in the Bromyard area, Herefordshire. After leaving Hereford Cathedral school he went on to gain three degrees from Cambridge University including law. He married Hilda Maude Chalmers-Hunt in London in 1913 but they appear not to have had children. His career was spent as a Solicitor and Town Clerk including at Scarborough (1900-12) and Wandsworth Council (1912-34) where he was awarded an OBE for his services. He died in 1949 in Bournemouth.
It seems a shame having looked at the Nicholl siblings who gave their names to three Cardiff streets not to briefly mention the other seven.
Nicholl family tree (as built in Ancestry.co.uk)
Francis William Nicholl was mentioned earlier, and is buried with Theodora at Edvin Loach.
Emily Maud Nicholl, lived until 78, and died in Staffordshire. She never married. She lived with her sister Katherine for most of her life in the Bromyard area.
Constance Eva Nicholl, died aged 84 in Staffordshire and again never married. She had a career in nursing all around the country, in both midwifery and as a general nurse. Her nursing records describe her as ‘an educated and refined woman, but not very suited to the work of a district nurse’.
Margaret Nicholl, had a career teaching in private schools and died unmarried in Malvern in 1968 aged 94.
Katherine Nicholl, died a spinster in Malvern in 1947, aged 71. There is no mention of her having a career. She lived with her parents then her brother then her sister.
Violet Cecilia Nicholl, married farmer Albert Bishop and lived in the Worcestershire area and died aged 75. They had two children, Violet, who died unmarried and Edwin David Bishop who did marry and may have had children, the only possible offspring of the Nicholl family I could find.
Edwin Anthony Nicholl, married Isabel Frances Diver in 1916 when he was serving in the army. After the war they ran a guesthouse in Lynmouth, Devon. They don’t appear to have had children. Edwin was tragically killed in 1935 as a result of a road traffic accident in Welyn Garden City. He was heading to his allotment on his bicycle aand carrying a garden fork when he was in collision with a lorry. Witnesses stated he had only one hand on the handlebars.
And on that sad note it is time to leave this insight into the three Nicholl children who gave their names to three Roath streets.
I would be interested in hearing from anyone who can add anything to their story.
If anyone ever does find themselves in the Bromyard area of Herefordshire I would encourage a visit to the churches in Edvin Loach and Bredenbury, in particular on a fine spring day.
William Bradley family tree and street names in Roath
Under the feudal system the manor lands consisted of the lord’s demesne and the lands of the tenants. In addition there were woodlands, commons and wastelands which provided wood, turves and pasture for cattle. The change to money rents, the growth of hired labour, the sale of produce and the extension of leasing all combined to hasten the decay of the feudal system. This would seem to account for John, son of Richard de Sutton, Lord of Malpas, holding land and collecting rents in Llanedeyrn.
By the 16thC most men had gained their freedom, however a quit rent claim for land in Llanedeyrn owned by the Kemeys family shows that the old ways lingered on. Graig y Llwyn, high up on the ridge in the north of the parish is the only farm known to belong to the Kemeys family from 1650 together with Cae Sir Howell, a small area of meadowland. Ty Coch (south of Hollybush Road) seems to have belonged to the Kemeys family since 1702
In his list of things necessary for a good farm or dairy, Randall Holmes (c 1688) listed items for use in the barn, in the stable, in the cow house, in the cart shed and in the farmer’s house. These included digging tools, shovels, spades, pickaxes and mattocks, various kinds of weeding tools, tools for cutting scythes, sickles and pruning hooks, bills saws and hatchets, sharpening and splitting tools, rakes, mauls and forks, flails, winnowing sheets and ladders. In the absence of oxen or horse power, various forms of wheel barrows were necessary.
In the middle ages young cattle were reared on the uplands before being fattened on the pastures in the lowlands. It was this tradition which led to the practice of droving which was at its peak from the 17thC to the coming of the railways. Both cattle and sheep were supplied from Wales. They would walk along traditional routes, grazing at the roadside and in rented pastures as was probable at Cross Farm in Llanedeyrn.
The Kemeys Tynte estates were surveyed by William Jones in 1767 showing their holdings in the parishes of St Mellons, Llanedeyrn and Llanishen. No acreages are given but the map shows 111 tenancies. In Llanedeyrn these included Bridge Farm, Capel y Celin, Church Farm, Cwrt Tregarreg, Y Grose, Malt house Farm, Nant y Draenog, Pentwyn, Pont Brenni, Ty Gwyn, Tytomaen, Tyn y Ffynnon and Farm Shillian from 1788, 13 farms in total.
Between 1798 and 1828 H.A. and J.W. Beiderman of Tetbury in Gloucestershire were the principal land agents on behalf of the Kemeys Tynte family. On 15 July 1803 H.A. Beiderman makes reference to the rebuilding of a stable at Cefn Mabli and on 3 Sept the Steward at Cefn Mabli, George Emerson is writing direct to C.J. Kemeys Tynte enclosing a rough sketch for building a stable and coach house for £128. In 1807 H.A.Beiderman is writing to C.K. Kemeys Tynte Snr thanking him for his approval to exchange some lands “which will be a great acquisition to Cefn Mabli”.
Cefn Mably House (National Library of Wales and Wikipedia – Public Domain)
In Jan 1824 J.W.Beiderman writes to C.J.Kemeys Tynte Snr that “those that had notice to quit, have paid their half years rent and have promised to be punctual in future”. In Feb 1824 he writes again still worried by the uncertainties of being able to collect the rents and in July 1827 he is naming names and commenting “that it is to no purpose letting them go on any longer, and as the crops this year are very good it will be the only time to secure the rent due from them”. Later Beiderman authorizes immediate expenditure on thatching following a severe storm and urges C.K.Kemeys Tynte Snr to improve the land drainage around Cefn Mabli House. Other items refer to the repair of barns, the provision of new stables and a pigs sty (the latter urgent). By 1847 he writes to say that” the greater part of the tenants paid their rents remarkably well at Keven Mably and I have remitted…for Miss Tyntes account £2000”.
In 1801 the Home Office organised a national survey by diocese and parish asking the clergy in each parish to note the acreage devoted to each crop, but were not concerned with pasture or meadowland. Unfortunately the returns for Llanedeyrn are missing but over Wales as a whole oats were grown on 38% of the arable land, barley 29%, and wheat 22%. By comparison, most of the land was used for pastoral farming.
Evidence from the 1844 Tithe Award for Llanedeyrn shows that the 3 most important land owners held 88% of the total acreage, the remaining 12% being divided between 12 small landowners having between 10 and 15 acres each. However these small land owners accounted for 55% (21) of the farms in the parish. Farms of less than 50 acres were generally cultivated by the farmer and his family who were likely to have other occupations. The 19 acres farmed by Thomas Roberts in 1844 supplemented his other occupation as landlord of the Unicorn Inn. Often these small units were absorbed into larger farms, as was the case of Gwern Iddi, which had been amalgamated with Ty Draw Farm by 1844. By 1873 out of a total of 28 farms 9 were under 50 acres in size, 14 were between 51 and 100 acres and 5 between 101 and 300 acres.
Family continuity in tenancies is a feature of large estates and the Cefn Mabli estate is no exception. David Jones held the tenancy of Pant Glas from before 1841 to 1851 by which time he was 80 years old. His son in law Edward Thomas had taken over the tenancy by 1861, and he was succeeded by his own son John Thomas who was still there in 1911. At the time of the sale of the estate in 1920 his wife Ann appears to have purchased the farm and she remained there at least until 1937. The farmhouse was located in North Pentwyn presumably part of the 30 acres of freehold land purchased by Cardiff CC for £200,000 in 1972.
Following the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815, agriculture in South Wales was adversely affected by fluctuating wheat prices, wet harvests, and poor crops of potatoes culminating in a disastrous crop in 1846 coinciding with the Irish potato famine between 1845 and 1849. The continuing bad weather and foreign competition led to arable land giving way to grass especially to dairy farming in South Wales. On the basis of the tithe awards arable land accounted for 45% of the farmland on the Cefn Mabli estate between 1839 and 1846. By 1920 this had declined to 29%. Llanedarne Farm was even more dramatic falling from 40% arable land in1844 to having no arable land in 1920.
After a period of rent reduction, rents showed a steady rise between 1850 and 1860 and the growing interest in farm improvement is indicated by the rise in membership of the Glamorgan Agricultural Society from around 100 in 1830 to 350 in 1837. In 1831 64 (94%) of the 66 families in the parish were employed in agriculture either as farmers or as agricultural labourers. Only 3 residents were employed in non-agricultural occupations. By 1841 farmers and agricultural labourers formed 88% of the occupations, but only 14% by 1891.
Carey’s Improved Map of England and Wales 1830
Cattle were valued for their meat and milk and oxen as draught animals. Improvements of breeds were encouraged by the Agricultural societies. Fox (1794) notes that “ towards Pontypool and Newport the dark brown Glamorganshire kind are much esteemed “. Because pigs were kept on a domestic basis, improved breeds did not appear so quickly as with cattle, sheep and horses. In woodland areas common grazing rights often allowed pigs to feed on acorns and beech mast, but in dairy farming areas the fed on whey. B y 1920 most farms in Llanedeyrn had a pig’s cot. All the farms had accommodation for horses having 2, 3 or 4 stalls and on the larger farms more than one stable.
Specialised dairy farming is known to have existed in the 17thC with butter and cheese being sent across the Severn estuary to the West of England markets. Eight cowmen lived in the parish in 1861 and 4 Heads of households were described as milk farmers in 1891. With the increasing conversion to dairy farming in the parish, the Kemeys Tynte sale catalogue (1920) itemises cow houses, dairies, calf pens, bull houses and fowl houses. Nineteen farms had cow houses, the largest being at Pentwyn, Tytomaen and Maes y Bryn. Few dairies were separately located in the farmyard. Most farmhouses in Llanedeyrn fad a dairy inside the farmhouse as at Church farm, Gorswg and Bridge farms. Hens were kept for their meat, eggs and feathers and other birds which might be kept were ducks geese and turkeys. Keeping hens under cover was practiced from the 18thC. The Kemeys Tynte sale catalogue (1920) lists pig’s cots with fowl houses above them (for warmth) at Pentwyn, Tytomaen, Tyn y Ffynnon, Cwrt Tregarreg and several other farms in the parish.
Changes in ploughing techniques began in the 18thC, when horses gradually replaced oxen. Improvements were also made to the plough, usually based on the design of the Rotherham Swing plough patented in 1730 which introduced a lighter wooden frame and an improved curved mould board. A similar plough was built by John Aubrey at New Forge, Llanedeyrn and used at Cwrt Tregareg before finding its final resting place at the National History Museum at St Fagans. Cart sheds were found only on the larger farms before the 18thC. Most were open building approached from the side as at the Home farm at Cefn Mabli where the construction was of timber and slate. In Llanedeyrn they were sometimes called wagon sheds, often with a granary on the first floor as at Bridge farm and Pentwyn. Early horse engines were housed in a building adjacent to a barn. Early designs needed 4-6 horses to drive a threshing machine, but with later improvements only 1 or 2 horses would be required. Mobile steam engines came into general use after 1854, and engine driving as an occupation appears in the Llanedeyrn census returns for 1871 and 1891.
This is a previously unpublished research paper authored by the late Malcolm Ranson in 2013.
Well, as with many scientific breakthroughs it is often a case of an accumulation of small scientific advances by many different individuals and some good teamwork.
The man most often accredited with the invention of radio is Guglielmo Marconi.
Guglielmo Marconi (pic credit: Wikipedia)
On 13th May 1897 a message was sent by Marconi on Flat Holm island over to Lavernock Point near Penarth. It was heralded as the first time a message was sent over water. The breakthrough would quickly lead to wireless telegraphy and later the wireless radio.
It was hardly the most inspiring of messages. It is reported to have said: ‘CAN YOU HEAR ME’. It was sent in Morse code and it was picked up at Lavernock Point by Marconi’s assistant George Kemp, who replied ‘YES LOUD AND CLEAR’. The recording slip for the first message is now kept at the National Museum of Wales.
Marconi Hut at Lavernock Point (although this is labeled as Marconi Hut on maps like OpenStreetMap I am uncertain of the foundation for saying this is exactly where the equipment was set up. It seems unlikely that such as building would have been built especially to house a short experiment)
The initial experiments were not successful. It was only a few days later when the equipment had been modified by extending a wire down onto Lavernock beach that a signal was successfully received. A report states:
On the 11th and 12th his experiments were unsatisfactory — worse still, they were failures — and the fate of his new system trembled in the balance.
An inspiration saved it. On the 13th May the apparatus was carried down to the beach at the foot of the cliff, and connected by another 20 yards (18 m) of wire to the pole above, thus making an aerial height of 50 yards (46 m) in all. Result, The instruments which for two days failed to record anything intelligible, now rang out the signals clear and unmistakable, and all by the addition of a few yards of wire!
A week later, on 18th May 1897 the same equipment was used to send a message between Lavernock Point in Wales and Brean Head, near Weston-Super-Mare in England. This was probably the first international telegraph message ever sent.
And here I make a bold claim. That first ever international wireless message may have been sent by a man from Roath.
I haven’t found any pictures of Marconi or Kemp sending or receiving their messages. The picture most often associated with these events is below. For years I assumed one of the men was Marconi or Kemp but apparently not.
The picture is in the National Museum of Wales collection and is labeled:-
The actual transmitting apparatus and Morse Inker used for the Lavernock – Brean Down demonstration of wireless telegraphy for the first time across water in May 1897, being inspected by three Post Office officials associated with the occasion.
By courtesy of the G.P.O. Cardiff, these officials have been identified as (from left to right) :-
Mr. G.N. Partridge, Superintending Engineer
Mr.H.C, Price, Engineer
Mr.S.E.Hailes, Linemen
Sydney Hailes
Sidney Edward Hailes (pic credit: Ancestry)
I believe the man sat down at the front is Sydney Edward Hailes. In 1891 he was 17 and living at 8 System Street, Adamsdown and working as a telegraph messenger. By 1901 he had married and was living at 26 Swinton Street, Splott and working as a GPO Telegraph Linesman. In 1911 the Hailes family were living 26 Alfred Street, Roath and Sydney an Inspector 1st Class working at the Engineering Department of the PO Telegraphs. By 1921 he had worked his way up to be Chief Inspector Engineering Department G.P.O.
I was led to looking at Sydney Hailes and the Marconi story when I was researching one of his brothers, Frank Uriah Hailes, who was killed in WWI and remembered on the St James the Great Church war memorial, now at St John’s Church in town. On Ancestry there is a picture of the Hailes family with Sydney identified and looking remarkably like the man in the foreground of the photograph, sat down next to the telegraph equipment in the Brean Down photograph. The man on the right in the photograph appears to be the oldest and is probably Hugh Price (b.1858), who lived at Rectory Road, Canton. The man on the top left would therefore have been George Noble Partridge (b.1873) who lived at Llandaff Road, Cardiff.
What part these men played in the Marconi experiment is hard to tell. The caption describes them as ‘inspecting’ the apparatus. The family tree on Ancestry however describes Sydney was being a technician to Marconi. In his retirement speech in 1934 Sydney Hailes described himself as the telegraphist in those early experiments. So maybe he did indeed send that first international message or maybe he didn’t but he certainly appears connected with the event.
It remains a bit of a mystery as to why there are no pictures of Marconi or Kemp themselves but maybe they were keeping a low profile until the invention was patented a while later.
William Preece
William Henry Preece (pic credit: Wikipedia)
Let me introduce you to a couple of other men who played a big part. The first is William Henry Preece (b.1834), engineer-in-chief at the British Post Office. He was a Welshman from Caernarfon, Merionethshire. There’s a strong case actually for arguing that he was the first person to send a telegraph message over the water. He did this at Loch Ness a few years prior to the Marconi experiment at Lavernock. In fact it seems from a newspaper report that William Preece himself has transmitted a message from Lavernock over to Flat Holm in 1894, three years prior to Marconi. The William Preece apparatus however had no way of recording the Morse code message received. What Marconi did was to add the last piece in the jigsaw, a method to record the Morse onto a paper tape. To be honest there were probably other technological differences between what William Preece had been working on in 1894 and what Marconi ended up in 1897 with but they are beyond my comprehension.
March 1894 – three years before the Marconi experiments
Sir John Gavey (pic credit: Guernsey Society & Cardiff Naturalists)
Working alongside William Preece at Loch Ness and other events was another man who lived in Roath, John Gavey. He was originally from St Hellier, Jersey (b.1842) but at the time of the 1881 and 1891 census he was living at 152 Newport Road, Roath and working as ‘Superintendent engineer post office telegraph’. He was a prominent member of the Cardiff Naturalists’ Society, holding the office of hon. secretary for three years, and the presidency of the society in 1890.
Now here’s something I never knew. In 1881 Gavey opened the first telephone trunk line connecting two British towns, namely, Newport and Cardiff.
In 1894 he worked with William Preece at Loch Ness and succeeded in establishing communication between the opposite sides.
He moved to London and would go on became Engineer-in-Chief and Electrician to the General Post Office.
It was Gavey who was responsible for the organisation of the complete telephone trunk system for Great Britain, and he organised the Post Office telephone exchange system for London. He was Knighted in 1907.
Marconi it seems was a prodigy of William Preece and both Preece and Gavey were involved in the Flat Holme experiments. Marconi was introduced to William Preece when he arrived in England in 1896 and the two worked together.
So having looked at some of the others involved in the Marconi experiment it is time to have a look at the man himself.
He sounds Italian, and indeed he was, well, half-Italian. Guglielmo Marconi (b.1874) was born in Bologna, Italy His mother was in fact Irish. She was Annie Jameson, part of the Jameson Irish Whiskey family. He lived part of his childhood in England and with it is believed paid periodic visits to Ireland.
He was home-schooled and coming from a wealthy family his parents hired personal tutors for him. He never went on to attend university, and judging by his success he had no need to. He homed in on the idea of Wireless telegraphy. This wasn’t a new idea and quite a few people were working in the area. What Marconi seems to have done is make a breakthrough in certain areas and have the vision and commercial sense to turn those ideas into something.
There are a number of things that amaze me about this achievement. How on earth did he gain access to technical information. It was the days pre-computer, pre-radio, and pre-telephone etc. Being home-schooled he would not have had access to academic libraries or alike. Fascinating to think how he managed, but manage he did to come up with lots of ideas.
When the Italian authorities didn’t appear receptive to his ideas his mother bought him to England and it was then that the association between Marconi and Welshman William Preece formed.
His mother Anne Jameson wasn’t Marconi’s only connection with Ireland. He married an Irish lady, Beatrice O’Brien in 1905. They had four children together and moved to Italy. Beatrice served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elena of Italy. The marriage however ended in divorce in 1924. He converted to Catholicism to enable him to marry his second wife, Maria Cristina, who was half his age.
Let’s rewind a few years. After the 1897 Flat Holm experiment things moved on apace. Marconi demonstrated his apparatus in many places in Great Britain and Italy including both sets of Royal Families. He patented the invention and his charisma and marketing acumen led to commercial success. In 1909 he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
His first commercial venture was the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company (1897–1900), renamed Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company in 1900. It became a mainstay of the British telecommunications industry. It was acquired by GEC in the 1960s but the Marconi name lived on in subsequent subsidiaries all the way through to 2006. Not a bad achievement for a man sat in a hut on top of Lavernock Point in 1897.
Marconi’s later years were less admirable. He joined the National Fascist Party and Mussolini appointed him President of the Royal Academy of Italy and the following quote is attributed to him. “I reclaim the honour of being the first fascist in the field of radiotelegraphy, the first who acknowledged the utility of joining the electric rays in a bundle, as Mussolini was the first in the political field who acknowledged the necessity of merging all the healthy energies of the country into a bundle, for the greater greatness of Italy”. I’m guessing this is why the 2024 Radio sculpture on Cardiff Barrage makes no reference to Marconi himself.
Other Players
I’d like to introduce you to a couple of other people who were involved in a small way with the wireless telegraphy and the arrival of the radio.
Fast forward a decade or so following Marconi’s Lavernock to Flat Holm experiment and his invention has been commercialized. Ships are making use of wireless telegraphy to communicate with the shore to relay important messages and save them having to dock.
It was in 1910 that Dr Crippen the notorious London murderer had been rumbled. The body of his music-hall singer wife Cora, had been dug up from under the kitchen floor in Holloway, London. Dr Crippen and his lover Ethel le Neve went on the run, first making their way to Antwerp and then boarding a transatlantic steam ship S.S.Montrose to escape to Canada. Ethel dressed as a boy to avoid being identified. Unfortunately for them the Captain of the S.S.Montrose was very observant and identified Crippen and le Neve from a ‘Wanted’ poster he had seen posted. His priority however was to get the S.S.Montrose to Canada on time. As the ship was passing Cornwall he got his telegram operator to send a message ashore and alert the police as to who was aboard. When the police received the message they promptly sent a party to Liverpool who boarded a faster trans-Atlantic vessel meaning that when Dr Crippen and Ethel le Neve disembarked they were promptly arrested about bought back to England for trial. Dr Crippen was subsequently found guilty and sent to be hung. So why do I tell you this? Well, it was the first time that wireless telegraphy was used in a murder case and the person who sent the telegraph message from on board the S.S.Montrose was Mr Llewellyn Jones who had in Newport for two years (a somewhat tenuous link to our topic I admit).
The part Llewellyn Jones played in capturing Dr Crippen.
The other story I like is that of Dr.J.J.E Biggs and he certainly was a local man and lived on Newport Road, Roath. A lot of scientific advancement had happened between 1897 when Marconi sent his first message over water to Flat Holm and 1923 when wireless broadcasting first began in Wales from a little studio opposite Cardiff Castle. Have a look for the plaque on the wall next time you are passing. The man whose job it was that day to open the first BBC studio in Wales was Lord Mayor Dr.J.J.E Biggs. He gave a speech acknowledging the invention of radio and cleverly predicting the advent of TV. The only blip was he forgot the name of the BBC and then when turning to someone, asking them to remind him of the name, he forgot he still had his microphone on so everyone heard his blooper. I’ve written about him previously in Dr J.J.E.Biggs – the first man in Wales to forget the microphone was still switched on.
The Legacy in the area
There is a plaque on the wall outside St Lawrence Church in Lavernock celebrating the Marconi-Kemp transmission. It was erected 50 years after the event in 1947 by the Rotary Club of Cardiff. I still haven’t been able to find out anything about the shield on the plaque. The building attributed with the historic event is some 50 meters away, precariously perched on the cliff top.
Lavernock Point – Marconi and Kemp plaque outside the church. Can anyone help identify the shield/motif?
There is a sculpture on a roundabout at the entrance to Tesco in Penarth. It is a representation of the equipment used by Marconi at Lavernock by the artist Ray Smith (b.1949 Harrow, London, d.2018), It was commissioned by Tesco Stores with Cardiff Bay Arts Trust and unveiled in 1996.
The newest nod to the historic event of 13th May 1897 is a giant wooden radio sculpture on Cardiff Barrage. I think it was conceived and designed by artist Glenn Davidson and carved at Boyesen Studios in Llangranog, West Wales. The sculpture, titled ‘Radio Flatholm’, re-uses the heritage materials, configuring them through the modem CADCAM technique of 3D carving. It is made from recycled Jarrah or Hornbeam ironwood railway sleepers, originally imported from Southeast Asia during the Victorian era. I think it is a fine piece of artwork, very tactile.
So whist I am sat here reflecting on the achievements of Marconi, William Preece and John Gavey and pondering the possibility that it was Roath man, Sydney Hailes, who sent the first ‘international’ telegraph message between England and Wales, I think it is time to celebrate it all and have a glass of Jameson’s Irish Whiskey. Thanks for reading.
Additional Material you may find interesting
1 May 1897 – Announcement of forthcoming Marconi experiments.
17 May 1897 report
22 May 1897
27 May 1897
10 Jul 1897
1897 July
4 Aug 1897 – Italian Royal Family demonstration
21 Aug 1897 – Demonstation to Queen VictoriaNov 1899 Adopted in USA1899 Dec1902: Sydney Hailes operating the equipment at telegraph boys concert with police present.
Ever since researching the history of Cardiff High School for Girls I’ve been keen to find an example of an ex-pupil from the early days of the school who became a successful scientist and I’ve just found her. Mary Pugh was a very successful eye surgeon, specialized in correcting eye squint and developed the Pugh orthoptoscope.
She was born Muriel Agnes Pugh but later changed her name to Mary Pugh as she disliked the name Muriel. She was born in Barry on 11 May 1900. Her father was a commercial traveler in the drapery business and originally came from Aberdare. Her mother, Agnes Mary Pugh née Jones was from Bath. When Muriel was young the Pugh family relocated from Barry and settled in Roath, living at 67 Bangor Street. Muriel attended Marlborough Road School before moving onto Cardiff High School for Girls in 1911. They later moved to 9 Marlborough Road where they were at the time of the 1921 census.
The head teacher at Cardiff High School for Girls at the time was Mary Collin, an active suffragette. She taught her pupils to ride bicycles, seen as a symbol of the growing independence of women and their determination to cast off chaperonage. The amount of science taught at the school was probably fairly limited when it started up in 1895 but by the time Muriel joined in 1911 things were probably beginning to change.
She left school in 1918 and went on to read medicine at Cardiff Medical School. She then did her clinical training at Charing Cross Hospital and qualified in 1926. She was initially employed at Birmingham and Midland Eye Hospital before moving back to London and working at Moorfields Eye Hospital in 1928 in the Squint Department where she was made Officer in Charge a short time later. Her work in that department led her to developing the Pugh Orthoptoscope, an instrument to investigate and correct eye squint. Her work has been described as individual and pioneering and led to the development of modern day instruments.
She stayed as leader of the squint department at the famous Moorfields Eye Hospital until 1948 during which time she authored the book Squint Training in 1936.
Squint Training by Mary Agnes Pugh
In 1948 she moved to the Institute of Ophthalmology where she worked on a part time research basis until she retired as well as working privately.
Pugh orthoptoscope by Hamblin, London
As well as a love of the arts she also enjoyed her cars and owned a Rolls Royce.
So why can’t I show you a picture of Mary Pugh? Perhaps it is because of her shy nature revealed in her obituary on the British Medical Journal “Mary Pugh was a bright, friendly person, shy and self-effacing, and intensely interested in the arts, especially painting and literature. She travelled widely and had an international circle of friends both medical and lay; indeed her ability to detach herself completely from her profession was remarkable. She will rank as a pioneer in her field and will be remembered with warm affection by all who knew her and with gratitude by a host of patients”.
I’ve also been informed that Mary Agnes Pugh became eye surgeon to both the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth.
She died in London on 21 Jan 1972 aged 71. She left her estate to Audrey Russell.
It would be lovely to hear from anyone who does have a picture that could share of Mary Agnes Pugh.
Her partner in life was Audrey Russell, the first lady of broadcasting, whom she met in war-torn London. They shared a love of theatre and the arts.
Audrey Russell was a pioneer of broadcasting. She was born in Dublin and educated in England and France. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama before becoming an actress and stage manager. Audrey Russell joined the BBC in 1942 after being discovered by them when interviewed about her wartime work for the National Fire Service. She travelled to mainland Europe just after the D-Day landings and reported from Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Norway.
In 1953, Russell gave a live commentary on the Coronation of Elizabeth II, from inside Westminster Abbey. She also gave commentary on the funeral of Winston Churchill in 1965. Martha Kearney on the BBC War Correspondent Audrey Russell.
Audrey Russell broadcaster (pic credit: BBC)
Article compiled with the greatful assistance and input of Ingrid Dodd née Pugh.
The following words and pictures have kindly been provided by Cardiff author Chris Butler along with premission to reproduce them.
The National Pageant of Wales took place in Sophia Gardens, Cardiff between 26th July and 7th August 1909. With 5,000 performers it was an expensive and swanky event reflecting the growth of Cardiff, its new city status (as of 1905), its new City Centre (as of 1906), its aspirations and the fact that it referred to itself as “The Modern Athens”. All this was built on the thriving export trade of coal and iron from its docks.
Coal had come down from the South Wales Valleys and made the Marquess of Bute, who owned Cardiff Castle and the docks, the richest man in the world. It had created a proud, rich city, too. In 1907 it was the largest coal port in the world and our Royal Navy depended solely on Welsh coal.
The official photographer of the National Pageant of Wales was a Mr Corn, trading as C. Corn from the Metropole Studios, 3 The Hayes in central Cardiff.
His trades directory entry shows him as being a portrait painter as well as a photographer. He is clearly a photographer of talent, demonstrable from the suite of 36 real photographic postcards which he produced for the pageant. They are so well composed that these postcards leave a collector of Cardiff wanting more. Participants in the pageant ranged from workers recruited en masse from Cardiff docks to the cream of Welsh society, including even the Marchioness of Bute, appearing as Dame Wales. Although described as “the charming chatelaine” of Cardiff Castle, she looks sternly regal in her postcard, and it is known that her understudy took most of the strain of the actual performances.
It was quite common for prominent local figures to participate in pageants though. Lady Ninian Crichton Stuart for example who was a supporter of Mr Corn, featured as Glamorgan, and both Lewis Morgan, the Conservative Lord Mayor of Cardiff and his wife, Lady Morgan, both had prominent roles.
Some of the performers of this pageant were even playing roles of their actual ancestors many generations before. Lord Mostyn, for instance played Richard ap Howel of Mostyn from the Battle of Bosworth. And even when a rare outsider was brought in, to play Henry V for instance, no expense was spared and an important and influential West End actor in the shape of Victor Wiltshire was hired.
Henry Corn’s Metropole Studios were in an up-and-coming part of Cardiff, the heart of its retail shopping and the scene of a titanic commercial battle between the two competitive drapers, James Howell and David Morgan. Morgan’s investment in shops and arcades had raised the social status of the Hayes buildings but James Howell was a prominent backer of the pageant. And, as we have already witnessed, Corn had made acquaintance with the cream of contemporary Welsh society, and must have spent quite some time with them in his studio. Indeed, his advert in the Pageant’s “Book of the Words” lays emphasis on how much he was patronized by the nobility as well as local political grandees. The list of patrons, as you can see from his advertisement, included The Duke of Argyll, the Marquis and Marchioness of Bute, Viscount Tredegar, Lord and Lady Crichton Stewart, the Lord Mayor and Mayoress of Cardiff, several Aldermen, JP’s and so on.
Mildly surprising though was the fact that, apart from his advertising of the studio Corn does not seem to appear in the local press. He keeps a low profile. The 1911 Census shows a Henry Corn living with his wife, Annie, and servant in 6 Ty-Draw Place in a 7 roomed property in Roath. This part of Roath would probably be considered upper middle-class suburb in the period, reflecting a comfortable lifestyle.
More mysteriously. his hitherto regular entry in trade directories suddenly disappears after 1914. Till this date he regularly advertised his studio. Did he die? There are no relevant UK death records or probate records. As his profession is listed as photographer in the Census this must be him.
A key to all this though, turns out that he was born in Altona, Hamburg on 8th November 1875, information provided on his subsequent entry to America. This corresponds with a German birth certificate for Henry Cohn, son of Isaas Cohn, most probably Jewish.
The 1901 Census then shows him trading as a portrait painter and commercial traveller aged 27 living in digs in Linenhall Street, Londonderry in Northern Ireland and not far from the River Foyle which carried a very busy shipping trade. His religion by that time is recorded as Unitarian.
Thereafter he must have come over to Cardiff,established a respectableand profitable business and found his bride from Bargoed, Glamorgan…But the question remains, what took a young German from Hamburg to Londonderry in the first place?
When the Great War broke out in 1914 resentment against German nationals resident in Britain rose steadily and Henry seems to have found his way out in a narrow squeak before internment scooped him up in its net. Indeed he shows up on a passenger list from Liverpool to New York on a ship with a neutral flag on January 12th 1915.
This was just 4 months before the sinking of the Lusitania on the 7th May 1915, when Internment became much more universal, and his flit is reminiscent of the escape of Burgess and Maclean before they were rounded up as spies. Burgess and Maclean, of course, had been tipped off.
Corn’s “enemy” nationality is listed on the manifest as German. His wife, Annie, does not appear to be with him, unless she is travelling under an assumed name. There is an “Annie” travelling on board and listed as “enemy” but she bears a different surname. His occupation is not recorded like other passengers. Maybe he wanted to conceal it. There is no record of Corn’s wedding or divorce that I can trace, though an Annie “Corn” gets married in Cardiff for the first or second time in 1919 and resides in up-market Lake Road West for the rest of her life.
Henry Corn – Photographer
Then we can trace his naturalization record in the USA on 6th April 1916 – a year before the USA enters the Great War. He is 5’ 5” tall, 140lbs weight, dark brown hair, with a (fencing?) scar on his nose, his last foreign residence being Cardiff in South Wales, and he renounces all allegiance to the German Emperor. He states flatly: “I am not married”. Perhaps he never was – and the Census entry had been another deception. He lists an alternative surname as “Cohn”. He is now a fine art dealer…Corn ultimately died in the Jewish Hospital Brooklyn in 1933 and is buried in the Mount Olivet cemetery in Washington. His obituary records him as having been a manager of several manufacturing firms in Manhattan, latterly Automatic Linker. He left a wife, Rose, behind him.
There are two possibilities. One is that our talented Photographer, the man who captured the cream of Welsh society in the famous 1909 National Pageant of Wales, was a victim of circumstance, and lost his wife, home and business before escaping to a new life in the USA. However, conspiracy theorists may have a different concept. Here is a mobile, linguistically able, artistic young German who finds himself as a gifted photographer in two of the most important ports of Britain before the Great War. He mixes with local dignitaries whom he would have met during the pageant. Potentially, he might have been able to make observations and take photographs of Allied ships and port facilities. Cardiff would have been of critical importance to the war effort, fuelling the Royal Navy and sustaining the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). A war between the Central Powers and the Allies had long been predicted.
Is this a plausible theory? Well, “Defence of The Realm” the authorised history of MI5, revealed in 2009 that the German Admiralty’s intelligence service had set about developing a network of German agents in Britain for some years before 1914, to monitor shipping and provide information. Some of these agents were identified and tried before the war. MI5 records show that 65 German agents were arrested during World War I. This general approach was also captured by popular spy novels of the time such as “The Riddle of the Sands” and “The Invasion of 1910”, the latter predicting a German invasion assisted by a complex spy network, and as early as July 1908 the “Western Mail” posed the questions: “Are we prepared for war? What would happen in a fight with Germany?”
It would have been sensible of course for the Germans to have installed a sleeper agent with photographic skills, an ability to mix with the rich and powerful, and with easy access to the Docks in Londonderry or Cardiff, from his city centre studio.
And then, escaping in the nick of time and concealing his talent as a photographer, he might well have gained entry to New York – a vital port of the USA which was destined to join the war against Germany in 1917. New York was the Port of Embarkation for the American Expeditionary Force and having an observant and experienced agent in place would have been a real coup for the Germans.
So, unless there are some MI5 records available on the mysterious Mr Corn, we may never know whether he was a spy or not… But he certainly was in the right place at the right time, mixing with the right people – and a clear master in his craft, as his postcards bequeathed to us clearly demonstrate.
Towards the top of Pen-y-lan Road, on the corner with Bronwydd Avenue, there stood until the mid-1980s, a rather grand house called Oldwell. It was built the mid-1880s for owner of the South Wales Brewery, John Biggs. It was one of the grand houses of Pen-y-lan along with its neighbour Wellclose and other nearby houses including Bronwydd, Greenlawn and Pen-y-lan House.
Oldwell, Pen-y-lan
I recall visiting Oldwell in the 1970s when it was a residential home for the elderly owned by the local authority. The other owners are listed in an article by Glamorgan Archives. It was demolished in the 1980s and the land repurposed for flats.
Oldwell in 1980s.
Oldwell must have been an idyllic residence when it was first occupied by John and Emily Biggs and their six boisterous teenage boys back in the mid 1880s. It had a snooker room to entertain them in times of wet weather and a stable at the back for them to learn horse riding skills. But the boy’s real passion was playing rugby. All six would go on to play rugby for Cardiff and two for Wales. There is a story associated with each of them. One boy, John James Egerton Biggs went on to be Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Norman Biggs ended up being killed by a poison arrow and Geoffrey Biggs was captain of one of Britain’s first submarines, the A1.
In this article we concentrate on John Biggs, the man who couldn’t stop brewing. His name crops up in newspaper articles from the time and we are able to piece together bits of his life story but admittedly its an incomplete picture.
John Biggs was born in St Mary Street in 1833 to John Biggs, a wine and spirits merchant, originally from Bristol, and Eliza Biggs née Jones, originally from Glamorgan. John and Eliza Biggs are worth a mention in their own right as they have a plaque in their name at St Mary the Virgin church in Bute Street, probably indicating that they were one of the benefactors who helped pay for the building of the church in 1843.
Plaque to Eliza and John Biggs, St Mary, Bute Street,
John Biggs (our future brewer) was baptised at St John’s church in Dec 1833. In the 1841, 1851 and 1861 census he was living in St Mary Street. By 1861, aged 27, his parents had died and he himself was now working as a wine and spirit merchant and living with his three sisters. John Biggs (Snr) died in 1858 and was buried at St Margaret’s, Roath though virtually all the grave headstones at St Margaret’s have now been removed so I haven’t been able to identify his precise resting place.
In 1866 John Biggs (Jnr) married Emily Sophia Clark, originally from Usk. She was daughter of a newspaper editor and publisher James Henry Clark. Please allow me another brief aside. In 1850 Cardiff was growing rapidly and J.H.Clark came down from Usk and opened a branch of his business in Saint Mary Street. In 1853 he wrote and published ‘Cardiff and its Neighbourhood’ which was the first guide book about Cardiff to be published. After four years however he sold the business because of the inconvenience and expense of regular travelling down to Cardiff.
Cardiff’s first guidebook.
Engraving of Cardiff Castle from Cardiff and its Neighbourhood
By the time of the 1871 census John Biggs is now describing himself as a ‘wine merchant and brewer’. He’d realized that that the workers of the burgeoning town of Cardiff are thirsty people and enjoyed a beer or two. An advert from 1872 identifies him as the owner of Trinity Street Brewery which would have been adjacent to the present indoor market. Trinity Brewery was later sold, probably to cater for the expansion of James Howell, the department store.
Trinity Street Brewery, Cardiff, brewery owned by John Biggs, advert from 1872
With the proceeds of that sale John Biggs built the South Wales Brewery in 1876. The drawings for the brewery offices are still in Glamorgan Archives with his signature on. The brewery was situated on a triangle of land on Salisbury Road between the two railways. The buildings would later be used for offices of the Taff Vale Railway and today the land is occupied by university accommodation.
South Wales Brewery
In the 1870s things were going well for John Biggs. Not only was his brewing business successful but he finds time to invest in buildings. In the Western Mail of 22 Sept 1876 there is an article entitled ‘Street Architecture in Cardiff’ in which it congratulates John Biggs on a new building in High Street which from the description I have been informed was 6 High Street, now home of Temple Bar. When I went to visit I looked up to the very top of the building and was surprised to see what looks like his initials, though the bottom of the J seems to have fallen away.
6 High Street, Cardiff with what could well be the initials of John Biggs at the very top.
John and Emily Biggs had ten children together, one girl and nine boys, though four of the children, including the daughter, died in infancy. The family lived in St Andrew’s Place in 1871 and Park Place in 1881 before their house Oldwell in Penylan was built in 1885. I’ve tried to find the family at Oldwell in the 1991 census but have never succeeded (now there’s a challenge for you all) as both Oldwell and Wellclose seem to be omitted from the census.
The South Wales Brewery was owned by John Biggs and a John Vaughan Williams. There would also have been a number of hotels/pubs owned by the brewery. One was the Theater Royal Hotel at the southern end of Queen Street. I have discovered an old picture of the hotel with an advertising hording for the South Wales Brewery.
Theatre Royal Hotel, Queen Street with advert for the South Wales Brewery.
In 1888 the John Biggs and John Williams appeared in court charged with adding saccharine to their beer thereby increasing the specific gravity. They were found guilty and ordered to pay £100. One of those hearing the case was Dr Paine who is buried virtually next to John Biggs at Cathays Cemetery. The following year, 1889, William Hancock buys South Wales Brewery. It appears that as part of this deal John Biggs became a Director of Hancocks Brewery.
His stay on the Hancocks Brewery board was however short lived as in 1892 John Biggs resigns and takes over the Canton Cross Brewery on Cowbridge Road. The Canton Cross Vaults pub is still there to this day but no longer a brewery.
Canton Cross Vaults, Cardiff – used to be Canton Cross Brewery owned by John Biggs then Hancocks.
In 1898 the Theatre Royal Hotel in Queen Street is back in the news. Police object to a licence being renewed on the grounds had been frequented by prostitutes. John Biggs objects saying the landlord at the time has been replaced. The hotel is sold later that year.
It appears that the love of John Biggs’s love of brewing is coming to an end. In 1900, with the children by now having left home, Oldwell is put up for sale with son Selwyn Biggs, a solicitor, handing the sale. In the 1901 census John Biggs is living with his in-laws in Usk giving his profession as a Retired Brewer. The Canton Cross brewery is sold to Hancocks in 1904 together with 5 pubs.
In the 1911 census John and Emily Biggs have retired to The Laurels, London Road, Bath. Emily Biggs died in 1919 and John Biggs in 1920. Both their funerals are held back in Cardiff and they are buried in Cathays Cemetery (plots L1211/L1235). What surprises me is that there is no headstone on the grave and no record of there ever having been one. Four of their children were still alive at the time of the funerals; one, Selwyn Biggs was a solicitor and one John James Egerton Biggs becomes Lord Mayor of Cardiff in 1922. There is however large tree nearby so perhaps the headstone suffered damage over the years. It remains a bit of a mystery.
The other story I like is that of Dr.J.J.E Biggs and he certainly was a local man and lived on Newport Road, Roath. A lot of scientific advancement had happened between 1897 when Marconi sent his first message over water to Flat Holm and 1923 when wireless broadcasting first began in Wales from a little studio opposite Cardiff Castle. Have a look for the plaque on the wall next time you are passing. The man whose job it was that day to open the first BBC studio in Wales was Lord Mayor Dr.J.J.E Biggs. He gave a speech acknowledging the invention of radio and cleverly predicting the advent of TV. The only blip was he forgot the name of the BBC and then when turning to someone, asking them to remind him of the name, he forgot he still had his microphone on so everyone heard his blooper. I’ve written about him previously in 
Roath Local History Society 