2012 Society Programme

As the Society’s main website (http://www.llanishenhistory.btck.co.uk/) is currently out of action, we’re posting the current programme of talks on our blog here for interested parties.

Each talk takes place at 7:30pm at Coed Glas School (http://www.coedglasprm.cardiff.sch.uk/), Llanishen. Entrance cost is £1.50 to non-members, or you can become a member of the Society for just £7 a year.

2012 Programme

January 11th – “A Box of Old Photos…and the stories they told” by Margaret and Stan Jenkins and Ann Konsbruck

February 1st – “The History of Bute Park” by Rosie James

February 29th – The Annual General Meeting, followed by “A Celebration of Wales” by Walter Jones

March 14th – “Cardiff Hospitals” by Keith Moger

April 4th – “Nantgarw Pottery” by Gwen Griffiths

 

 
For any further enquiries about the Society, contact us at llanlochist@btinternet.com

An Apology

This is just a short post to apologise for not having updated this blog for so long and for those who have left comments – they have been passed onto the society. This long silence is due to the joys of marriage and house moving hitting the webmaster simultaneously.

More articles will be forthcoming, we have lots to share. Thanks to those who have read and enjoyed this, we’ll have more soon.

Finally, the society’s current website has been down since mid-2011 but we will have it running with the current programme and news as soon as possible.

Do You Remember Stuart House?

We are asking you for help this month. Some recent visitors to Llanishen asked if we had any information about what they described as a hotel in the village called Stuart House where their relatives “had stayed during the war years to escape from the bombings in London”.

A little ferreting among our archives came up with some information but we are looking for more.

Stuart House was located on the present Everest Avenue, where a block of flats now stands, close to the entrance to Christ the King School. The rather fuzzy photograph below shows the narrow lane which led from Station Road up to Mill Farm before the construction of Everest Avenue in the 1950s.  The remains of the stone wall and gate of Stuart House can just be seen on the left and Station Road appears in the background. To the right of the tree was Norfolk House, then a private school, which is now Cartref.

The first occupant of Stuart House was a Mr Cory, a corn and hay merchant, who lived there at the beginning of the twentieth century. But although we have searched various directories and censuses we can find no official record of its existence. Is it feasible that, being a small isolated house situated off a narrow lane, it was missed by officialdom?  We have also failed to trace who lived there after Mr Cory. It is possible that he was there until the 1930s but we can’t be sure.

But we do know who was there later. They were Mr and Mrs Wall. Their daughter Gwen and her husband, Mr Wood,  kept a grocer’s shop on Fidlas Road, where the Old Joinery now stands, but on the death of Mr Wood all three moved to Stuart House where they ran a small guest house. By one of those fortunate coincidences which happen when you are undertaking historical research and think you have come to a dead end we had a stroke of luck. One of our members unearthed a ‘Coronation Cookery Book’ produced by Park End Presbyterian Church in October 1936 and there, among the recipes, was an advertisement for Stuart House!

Mrs Ward was a loyal member of the Church so it is no surprise that she supported the venture by advertising in the book. The advert suggests quite a substantial building since parties could be catered for and it was also a place where people could drop in for refreshment on their way to and from the nearby station. But that is the only real confirmation we have of the existence of Stuart House.

Advertisement for Stuart House

Someone who remembers the building describes it as a typical farmhouse, very old, but with what was for its time a modern extension, which was presumably what the owners used to take in their paying guests. It had a large garden area where children used to go to see the ‘gleenies’ (guinea-fowl) which roamed freely, but after the deaths of Mr and Mrs Wall it fell into disrepair and stayed empty for several years. But it remained a source of great fun for local children who loved playing in it and pretending it was haunted.

There is still much to learn about Stuart House. Why does it not appear on any official documentation? There is a mystery about the place; and the biggest mystery is – where did the name come from?

So, if you know the answer or can add to this rather sparse information we would love to hear from you.

 

Collision in a Railway Tunnel

The building of the Rhymney Railway in 1871 involved the construction of the Caerphilly tunnel, at over a mile and a half long, a remarkable feat of engineering.

On Friday March 8th the following year a collision took place in the tunnel which was significant enough for it to be reported in the national press. The two contrasting ways of reporting the same incident remind us of the different journalistic styles with which we are familiar today.

The London-based Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper restricted itself to the facts and described the incident in this way: “The nine o’clock passenger train from Cardiff on Friday morning, while passing through the Caerphilly tunnel, which is upwards of a mile long, and is situated on the Rhymney railway, between Rhymney and Cardiff, hit a mineral train. The force of the collision overthrew two of the mineral trucks, which blocked  up the down line. Immediately afterwards another mineral train came up, and dashed into the overturned trucks. A scene of frightful excitement ensued, which was aggravated by the darkness. The shrieking of the engines, one of which was upset, and the shouts and cries of the passengers, were terrible. One engine-driver was injured, but with that exception the officials state no one was seriously hurt. The line was blocked for half the day, during which period the traffic was totally suspended. The Rhymney railway, by means of a short loop line, joins the London and North Western, and affords direct access between South Wales and the North of England.”

The following day a report appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette, a newspaper which tended to dramatise and sensationalise new stories. Relying heavily on quotations from the earlier account, it embellished the story, resorting to flowery language and a warped sense of humour which we would today regard as highly inappropriate, treating somewhat lightly what could have been a disaster of major proportions:

“One of the most popular attractions of the old transpontine melodrama was the “terrific combat of three”, a deadly encounter carried on in a triangle, the apex of which was formed generally by the “British tar succouring female virtue in distress”, while the first and second villains occupied respectively the angles at the base. The latest “novelty” of the railway companies is apparently founded on a similar numerical principle, with the addition of this further element of interest, that the scene of the encounter has been transferred to the subterranean regions. The “terrific combat of three” to which we refer took place in the Caerphilly tunnel, which is situated on the Rhymney Railway, between Rhymney and Cardiff, and the combatants consisted of a “mineral” train travelling over the up line of the Rhymney Railway, another mineral train travelling over the down line on the same railway, and the nine o’clock up passenger train from Cardiff. The latter, while passing through the Caerphilly tunnel, caught up with the mineral train, ran into it, and knocked over two of its trucks on to the down line. Immediately afterwards the down mineral train arrived and dashed into the overturned trucks. A scene of frightful excitement ensued, which was aggravated by the darkness. The shrieking of the engines, one of which was upset, and the shouts and cries of the passengers were terrible. One engine-driver was injured, but with that exception the officials state no one was seriously hurt. The scene must have been a highly effective one, and fully equal to the best “sensations” of modern melodrama. The passengers’ dissatisfaction with it, which would seem to be indicated by their “shouts and cries”, was no doubt due to a feeling that they were unfavourably placed for witnessing the spectacle. Perhaps this defect in the arrangements might be remedied in future by giving the occupants of trains an “invitation to alight” and select for themselves a position from which to observe these magnificent encounters.”

 

Who Was St Isan?

There is only one fact definitely known of him: he would never have heard of the name Isan. His name was Isien (pronounced “eeshen”).  The rest is conjecture. So what can we surmise of this patron of Llanisien and Llysfaen?

He was probably a monk, either a priest or lay brother, based at Llandaf or more probably at St. Illtud’s European famous monastery at Llanilltud Fawr (Llantwit Major). Was he the monk, Yssen, who sat beside the dying Illtud in 500AD? Legend tells us that Isien lived at the end of the fifth and early sixth centuries dying possibly in 527 or 537. His feast day is 9^th October.

Where was his first chapel in this area? Typically, early Celtic chapels lay on the lower edge of a mountain ridge close to running water. The present church’s location is a standard example, and it’s also on a possible route from western Gwent to the lowest ford of the Taf at Llandaf. However, Isien is also associated with Llandennis (The Oval) where there is an abundance of running water in a marshy area, a still active holy well and another possible east-west route to the ford of Llandaf. Well do I remember my parents encouraging my brothers and me to bathe our eyes and faces in the spring renowned for healing eye and skin diseases. We frequently took kettle-loads of water for family use. In fact I regularly stopped to drink the deliciously fresh, cool water until recent years.

And what about that prominent mound north-west of the well? Is it really hiding the remains of an ancient church or just a clump of agricultural waste? One thing is certain – it makes a great ramp for teenage cyclists! In the 1890s the new road linking the recently built lake with Fid Las deliberately skirted the well after much public agitation.

So which came first; the present site or Llandennis? How did Isien become associated with the Latin name Dionysius, and the Norman French Dennis? Did the Normans change his name? Or was it Bishop Bledri of Llandaf who encouraged Latin in his diocese a century before the conquest and so called him Dionysius? Much more likely it was Isien himself. Pilgrimages to Rome were very common at this time. Welsh, and especially Irish,  monks voyaged from Llanilltud Fawr to Padstow in north Cornwall, thence down the Camel and Fowey valleys and on to Brittany. Legend says Isien Latinised his name in Rome. Many other local monks did the same. Eirwg became Melonius: both his names survive in Cardiff East. (St Mellons and Llaneirwg).

There are other mysteries too. Why did Llandennis and the church at Lisvane have the Latin Norman name but the village and church in Llanishen the Welsh name? Why was the church dedication Anglicised in a predominantly Welsh speaking area?

So who was Isien? Undoubtedly he was a humble monk most of whose life was spent praying and working in his monastery. On a regular basis he visited our area to preach and, if he was priest, to offer Mass in a wooden chapel long since vanished.

 

Llanishen Girl Guides

We cannot let the centenary of the foundation of the Girl Guides pass without some mention of the early activities of the movement in Llanishen.

Glamorgan Archives holds three bound volumes containing Llanishen Guides Gazette from November 1916 to July 1918 which gives a delightful picture of the guides and brownies in the parish at the start of the century.

In her introduction to the first issue the Captain, Dorothy P Lewis, of Elsinore, Lisvane Road, writes:

“This is a new venture, this magazine of ours, and I want it to be a great success. If it is to be one, each one of you must help and not leave a few leading spirits to write the articles and stories. We have made a rule that only the Girl Guides are to read it and so you need not be afraid of “grown up” criticism. Try, all of you, to put your thoughts and ideas down on paper, and you will be surprised what splendid articles, stories and poetry you will write”.

She is writing two years after the outbreak of war and reminds her readers that they have an important part to play “ in these dark days when the fate of nations hangs in the balance”.

“From among our immediate circle many have gone to be nurses, munition workers, or are taking the place of men in office and shop. We are proud of them, and would gladly follow their example, but to many of us this is not possible. But there is work for all and though perhaps there is more glory attached to nursing and munition making, the smaller service you can all do is just as valuable if done thoroughly and with a willing heart. So go on with your waste paper collecting, your knitting, your vegetable growing and in all your work remember Guide Law No. 8 ‘A guide smiles and sings under all circumstances for work done cheerfully is twice as acceptable as work done with a long face.’ Throw yourselves heart and soul into whatever you are doing, whether it be learning to tie a reef knot or filling a sack with paper, ironing a petticoat or training a recruit. Give of your best, for we want the best only, and 1^st Llanishen Company will have no place for half-hearted girls this year”.

There was still time for fun and in July 1917 a tea party for the Brownies was held at The Hollies on Station Road which was enjoyed by all, as this report shows: “This tea was a lovely one, and we enjoyed it awfully. We had a lovely tea and when we had all finished, we had our photo taken …Then we had some very jolly games. First we had Nuts and May, then Oranges, then Rebeckah where art thou?, then Twos and Threes, then English and French, which really ought to be English and German, because of the war. We had beautiful weather and the sun shone brightly all the time, and it was beautifully hot as there was not much breeze, and all was quiet and still. We were very lucky to have so many Saturdays fine. The Brownies are very grateful to their kind host and hostess Mr. and Mrs. Botsford, and three cheers were given for them and their kindness”.

The photograph shows Officers and Patrol Leaders with their colours in 1917.

The magazines give a fascinating picture of the lives of the young people during the war, with the emphasis of their articles and drawings on nature and country life, some of them exquisitely done, as the water colours of butterflies  by Miss Bots ford show, all of which reminds us how rural Llanishen was a hundred years ago.

But war was never far from their minds as this poem by their Captain reminds them:

“I cannot draw, I cannot paint,

I cannot sing or play;

But I can help in growing food,

And keep the Hun away.”

 

Lost over Germany

In this 70^th anniversary year of the Battle of Britain, the RAF’s Memorial Flight will be extremely busy. Those of you lucky enough to see them might spot the iconic Avro Lancaster bomber as part of the group of aircraft. This majestic plane, of which there are now so few left, was the airborne fist of the Royal Air Force, taking part in the major missions during the bomber offensives.

We knew that Llanishen already had some members of Bomber Command, but a chance letter written to us alerted us to another Llanishen member of this elite force. Sergeant Donald Edward Croft, who lived in Wyndham Terrace, was a Sergeant/Air Gunner in 97 Squadron, Royal Air Force. He was one the unfortunate “tail-end charlies” who had to operate the four .303-inch Browning machine guns in the Lancaster’s rear turret. 97 Squadron was part of Bomber Command and during Sergeant Croft’s time was part of its elite “pathfinder” force.

A Lancaster of 97 Squadron being "bombed up" at the Squadron's base at RAF Bourn in Cambridgeshire in the summer of 1943

Sergeant Croft’s first operation was a raid over the town of Krefeld in the Ruhr region. On this first raid he flew with the crew that would, for the most part, stay together until they met their fate a little over a month later. The pilot of Sergeant Croft’s aircraft was Pilot Officer Clifford Shnier, a Canadian attached to the Royal Air Force. For most of Sergeant Croft’s missions the navigator was Flight Sergeant F.S. Pratt. He disappears rather mysteriously from the Flight Ops books in July – possibly he’d been transferred or become “flak happy”. There is no mention of him being wounded in action but that is also a possibility. His replacement was Flying Officer Geoffrey Homersham. The crew’s wireless operator on all missions was Sergeant Peter Evans, a Coventry man; their bomb aimer was Flying Officer Paul De Villiers from Rhodesia; their flight engineer was Sergeant Alfred Gibbons from Bilston in Staffordshire, and their mid-upper gunner was Pilot Officer Benjamin Knoesen, another Rhodesian.

Between June 21^st and July 30^th 1943, this crew flew a total of nine missions, mainly over industrial towns like Krefeld and Gelsenkirchen. However, they also undertook one extraordinary mission on the night of 12^th/13^th July to attack the Italian town of Turin, presumably to increase the shock effect of the recent Allied invasion of Sicily. Their final missions took place between the 24^th and 30^th July when 97 Squadron took part in Operation Gomorrah. This was the infamous five-night bombing of Hamburg which razed the city to the ground and created horrendous firestorms that incinerated the populace. The wrecked city would have been one of the last things that Sergeant Croft and his crew saw as they took part in one of the final raids on the night of 30^th/31^st July. During their run, their Lancaster was attacked by a German night-fighter and crashed several miles outside the city, killing the entire crew.

Sergeant Croft and his crew now rest peacefully at Becklingen War Cemetery in Germany, overlooking Luneburg Heath where peace finally came to Europe, a peace which they fought and died for.

 

Worrels: Transport Pioneers – Part Two

In 1914 John Worrell decided to establish a bus company with his son Sydney, operating from the family home and garage at 10 City Road. His first route ran from City Road, up Mackintosh Place, Shirley Road, past the lake to Llanishen and then on to Rhiwbina. This meant that passengers wishing to travel to Llanishen from the centre of Cardiff would first have to take a corporation tramcar to City Road and change to a Worrell’s bus. Cardiff City Council were extremely protective of their electric tramways that had cost them so much to construct and would not allow anyone else to run alongside them.

Rivalry between the two operators was cut-throat as this report from the Western Mail in 1926 describes: “The perils of  ’bus competition were illustrated at Cardiff Police-court on Wednesday when Reginald Worrell, driver of a privately-owned motor-bus, and James Stone, a  ’bus driver in the employ of the Cardiff Corporation, were both fined £5 for exceeding the speed limit. According to police constables Lester and Jones, the two ’buses kept pace in Mackintosh-place, Roath, at nineteen miles an hour, Worrell’s  ’bus, which was leading, keeping to the middle of the road in order to prevent the corporation ’bus overtaking it”.

It should come as no surprise that residents of Mackintosh Place and Shirley Road made many complaints about the vehicles passing their doors but nothing seems to have resulted from them.

A local resident we interviewed some years ago had an amusing story to tell: “The train was the only way of going into town until a private bus service, Worrells, started which used to run erratically, but they would stop anywhere to pick you up and put you down. They were only charabancs with a canvas top. During the First World War, when this service started, petrol was hard to come by and these two charabancs had huge bags filled with coal gas on their roofs; they were supposed to run on this but one day a bag caught on a tree on Ty Glas Road but the bus went on – it made no difference !”

Some of John Worrell’s buses were garaged at No. 1 Beulah Road where he had bought a shop and a niece came from Norfolk to run it as a tea shop but the enterprise did not last long as she became homesick and left. Trips were, however, run from Cardiff to Rhiwbina, and tea was taken at Cliff Smart’s tea gardens and zoo, where Mrs Smart provided tea and cakes. Rhiwbina was a very popular destination on Bank Holidays and for Whitsun treats and vehicles were always packed with more passengers having to hang on the sides.

After the boundary extension of the city Cardiff Corporation expanded their routes outwards and competition remained intense. In 1925 Worrells began a service from Cardiff to Lisvane and Cardiff Corporation immediately retaliated by starting a service in competition up to the city boundary at the Nant Fawr on Lisvane Road but extended it by travelling two thirds of a mile further on and turning around in someone’s private drive.

In 1925, after eleven years at City Road, John Worrell moved his operations to 20 Kimberley Terrace, Llanishen, in the premises now occupied by Babbages. He did not stay there long and in the following year, probably because of  intense pressure from the Corporation, he left Reg Worrell to supervise the closure of the bus service while he himself sold the house and purchased one in Castleton where he opened a successful petrol station. In October 1926 Cardiff Corporation bought Worrells’ nine motor buses and the goodwill of the company for £2,400; the photograph shows the fleet of buses in Kimberley Terrace on the last day of service.

(With acknowledgements to Chris Taylor)

 

Worrels: Transport Pioneers – Part One

The fleet of multi-coloured buses belonging to Cardiff Bus/Bws Caerdydd are a common sight in Llanishen and Thornhill, but it was not always so.

The first public transport in Cardiff appeared in 1872 when horse-drawn trams were introduced by the Cardiff Tramways Company. These were purchased by Cardiff Corporation in 1902 who introduced the first electric tram which ran from Castle Road (now City Road) to the docks. By 1905 the fleet had grown to 131 electric tram cars but the war stopped further development. Not until the 1920s did a network of trams (and, later, trolley buses) start to develop in the city, extending out to areas like Whitchurch Road, Penylan Road, Roath Park, and the Pier Head.

But none of these directly served residents of Llanishen which was part of Llandaff and Dinas Powis Rural District Council, (later to be renamed Cardiff Rural District Council) and was not incorporated into the city until 1922. Llanishen residents wishing to travel into Cardiff had either to use the train or take advantage of the new private bus service run by members of the enterprising Worrell family.

Who were the Worrells who made such an impact on various forms of transport in the city?  John, Fred, William, and George Worrell came to Cardiff from Norfolk at the turn of the twentieth century to install machinery in Spillers flour mills in the docks. They were all skilled millwrights and soon George and John decided to use these skills and set up on their own. They left Spillers and established businesses making bicycles, George in Canton and John in Roath.

George opened a garage on Cowbridge Road West and at one time in the 1920s he achieved notoriety when he became the only garage in south Wales to sell a controversial cut-price petrol from Russia, known as ROP (Renowned of Petrols). This was produced by an independent supplier known as Russian Oil Products which sold petrol direct to local retailers at a price well below those of the major national companies.

John’s cycles were traded under the name Richmond, after Richmond Road where they were built. William too went into the same business and opened his first cycle shop at 2 Angus Street, Roath, on the corner of Albany Road. Shops were opened throughout south Wales and a cyclists’ training track was constructed on Splott Road for people not familiar with this new means of transport.

They also built motor cycles, the first being sold to Mr Gardner, a cab proprietor and coal merchant who lived in Station Road Llanishen.

A taxi business was started up and proved highly successful, known as Worrells Taxi Cab Company, which had a taxi stand and office outside the Royal Hotel on the corner of Westgate Street and Wood Street together with offices and garages in other parts of the city. Their reputation was clearly high and one of their taxis, a Napier, shown in the photograph below, was apparently used for a royal visit to the city in 1912.

 

 

The other photograph shows the fleet of taxis outside the firm’s garage on City Road during the First World War.

But for many Llanishen residents it was the omnibus service which linked them to the city.  And more about that next month.

 

Ffynnon Llandennis

In 1833 the Welsh antiquarians Samuel Lewis and Walter Davies published their Topographical Dictionary of Wales. In the section relating to the parish of Llanishen they say  “The water of a spring called St. Dene’s Well is considered efficacious in the cure of scorbutic complaints”.

Ffynnon Llandennis

They are referring here to the spring which still exists at The Oval and which was the principal reason for the arrival of St. Isan in the area in 535AD. This spring, also known as Ffynnon Dennis or Ffynnon Llandennis, was one of a number of wells in Cardiff which were considered to be holy and endowed with powers of healing.

With the development of Roath Park and the area to the north at the end of the nineteenth century there was a danger that the spring might have been buried beneath a road and lost but, fortunately, the Parks Committee were persuaded by John Hobson Mathews, the city archivist, of the historical and religious significance of the site.

He wrote: “Within the northernmost area of Roath Park is, as you are doubtless aware, a beautiful well or spring. It rises out of the soil with great force, and immediately forms a pool of considerable size, which is overhung with trees, and teems with aquatic growths of various kinds. The scene is one of wild and romantic  beauty…

It is known to old inhabitants as Ffynnon Llandenis…and has for ages past been regarded with veneration by the country folk. This was owing to its association with the memory of a Saint, and to the reputation it enjoyed as a healing well. Its water was believed to possess singular curative properties, especially in cases of rheumatic and scrofulous affections, and also for the eyes. It is certain that the water is of remarkable purity. I have been informed by old people living hard by, that down to quite recent times this well was resorted to for the cure of the maladies referred to above, and on account of the excellent quality of its water for ordinary drinking purposes – persons coming from great distances to procure the same”.

It is doubtful whether sufferers from scurvy, rheumatism, tuberculosis, or eye infections would find drinking the water or bathing in the spring beneficial today, but we are fortunate that this little green oasis is still with us and reminds us again of Llanishen’s past.