Homfray trail sculptures

2

1. Margaret Charlotte Homfray née Stable(28 May 1800- Dec 1852)

3

St. Pancras marriage register 1824

1841 Census Bedwellty House

4

5

1851 Census for Bedwellty House

Burial Register for Bassaleg in 1852.

6

7

2. Norah Childs (1924-2011)

8

Courtesy of Tredegar Museum & Archive Group

9

Courtesy of Gwent Archives

10

3. & 4. Ann Prosser aged 16 and,Mary Jones, aged 15

11

12

Inquiry into the Condition of Children employed in Mines, 1841:

13

5. Samuel Homfray (1762-1822)

14

1789 - Samuel Homfray, ironmaster of Pen-y-darren Ironworks

15

Westminster marriage register 1793

Tredegar Ironworks, 1809 by Richard Fothergill, Jr

16

17

18

• 22 May 1822 – died aged 61

• 1813 - Sold Pen-y-darren Ironworks.• 1813-14 - High Sheriff of Monmouthshire.• 1816 - Harassed William Wilberforce on a coach journey

and, ‘with stentorian voice left me no peace till his whole tale was told. Inventor of tram roads, founder of all great iron works in Monmouthshire, etc.’

• 1817 – Samuel Homfray Jr manager of Tredegar Ironworks• 1818 - MP for Stafford. Moved to Coworth House,

Berkshire

“I was born, bred and reared in commerce and trade, and it has always been my study to promote it.”

Samuel Homfray Senior, 1818

19

20

Merthyr Tydfil baptism register 1790 & 1795

21

6. & 7. Walter Conway (1873-1933) & Aneurin Bevin (1897-1960)

Walter Conway (1873-1933)

• 1920 – Query Club, debating society & member insurance scheme.

22

• 1915 - appointed secretary to the Tredegar Workmen’s Medical Aid Society.

• Served 20,000 local people - surgeries employing 5 doctors, 2 dentists, nurses & support staff.

23

24

Aneurin Bevin (1897-1960)

“All I am doing is extending to the entire population of Britain, the benefits we had in Tredegar for a

generation or more. We are going to 'Tredegarise' you”

25

• MP for Ebbw Vale constituency, which included Tredegar and Rhymney, from 1929 until his death in 1960.

• Remembered as Minister for Health in the post-war Labour Government as architect of the NHS created in 1948.

• Inspired by Tredegar Workmen's Medical Aid Society, which was his model for the National Health Service.

26

8. Mary Elizabeth Davis (née Bramwell) 1825-1857 or Mrs R.P. Davis!

27

28

Hampstead 1851 census

• Mary died before clock was completed in 1858.

29

• Mary was wife of Richard Powell Davis - manager of Tredegar Ironworks after the retirement of Samuel Homfray Junior in 1853.

• Mary was niece of Alderman William Thompson MP, ('Billy ready money‘) who was married to Amelia, sister of Samuel Homfray Junior).

72 feet tall 6 sections of cast iron Minute hands 26” long. Tallest free-standing clock made of iron in UK

30

Courtesy of Tredegar Museum & Archive Group

31

32

33

9 & 10. John Jones, 'Coliar Mawr' and, Thomas Bennett, aged 14

35

Inquiry into the Condition of Children employed in Mines, 1841:

John Jones, Coliar Mawr

36

Courtesy of Tredegar Museum & Archive Group

37

38

Courtesy of Tredegar Museum & Archive Group

39

40

The remainder of the lump, which weighs about 10 tons, is carefully preserved in the Bedwellty House park.’

Evan Powell, History of Tredegar, 1884, pp.61-62:

‘When the project was under consideration, it was intended to get a lump of coal to weigh about 20 tons, but it became obvious that such a massive lump would require more space to be brought to the surface than the Yard level afforded.

At length a lump weighing about 15 tons was got, and loaded safely upon low carriages that were made for the purpose of conveying the "big lump" but, unfortunately, it broke, and the idea of sending it to the Exhibition was abandoned.

41

Approximate measurements on 20 February 2013:

Average Height - 103 cmAverage Width - 150 cmAverage Depth - 561 cm Volume: 8,679,600 cm3

Density of 1.346 g per cubic centimetre for bituminous coal

Mass = 11.5 Imperial ‘long tons’

42

Courtesy of Tredegar Museum & Archive Group

43

Courtesy of Tredegar Museum & Archive Group

44

11. Thomas Ellis (1804-1869)

• Built 11 locomotive engines: Saint David, Tredegar, Jane, Fanny, Charlotte, Lady Sail, Lord Rodney, Prince Albert, Dispatch and Bedwellty.

45

Thomas Ellis (1804-1869)

• Chief engineer at Tredegar Ironworks for 25 years.

• 1829 - drove the first steam locomotive, called the 'Brittania‘, on the Sirhowy tramroad.

• 1st locomotive journey on rails in Wales since Trevithick's trials at Penydarren in 1804.

46

Thomas Ellis (right) & Isaac Thomas (left) on footplate of the Saint David locomotive, rebuilt by Ellis in 1848.

47

• Son of Ann & Thomas Ellis – a carpenter by trade.• Born in Tredegar• Baptism at Bedwellty Church on 2 June 1804.

48

Eldest son, also known as Thomas Ellis, became well-known engineer.

49

50

Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, Glamorgan,

Monmouth, and Brecon Gazette

22 September 1854

51

Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, Glamorgan, Monmouth, and Brecon Gazette 24 October 1857

52

Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, Glamorgan, Monmouth and Brecon Gazette 1 January 1859

53

Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, Glamorgan, Monmouth and Brecon Gazette 12 March 1859

54

55

12. & 12a. Margaret & Rebecca Lewis

56

57

1861 census for no.1 & 2 Plummer’s Row, Tredegar

58

Inquiry into the Condition of Children employed in Mines, 1841:

59

13. & 14. William Williams, 'Myfyr Wyn' and, Sarah Jones, iron piler

60

1860 - William working underground with father when he was killed by rockfall

William Williams ‘Myfyr Wyn’ 1849-1900

1851 census

1849 - Born at Twyn-y-Star, Dukestown, Tredegar

Father worked at Bryn Bach as ironstone miner

Apprentice blacksmith under Joseph Bevan, ‘Gwentydd’, at Sirhowy Ironworks.

61

1871 census

1861 census

• William's brother, David (‘Myfyr Ddu’), published work posthumously, including reminiscences of Sirhowy in C19th

62

• Competed in eisteddfodau; published 2 volumes of poetry

• Articles, which were written in the Gwent dialect, ‘Llythyra Bachan Ifanc’ were very popular

Sarah Jones, Iron piler

63

64

Why do you ask me my age? I have heard that you want the boys to go for soldiers and the girls to go and take care of their clothes and wash for them, that you want to take us all away.

Inquiry into the Condition of Children employed in Mines, 1841:

“I shall be 16 years old in June. I came here to work when I was 11 years old. My work is piling iron bars together for them to put into the heating furnace.

There is one girl here younger than me and she is fast asleep down there. She does not work at night this week. The girls stay at the work until they go away and get married.

I was never in school before I came here and I can’t read. I can’t go to school and come to work. I sometimes go to the Sunday School. We work at night every other week.”

65

15. ‘Jack the fifer’

‘Jack the fifer’

• Led attack on Westgate

66

• John Rees - mason by trade.

• 1835 - Texan War of independence

• San Antonio de Bexar

• Chartist Rising of 1839.

• Goliad massacre of 352 Texans

67

68

69

70

71

72

16. Philip Weekes (1920-2003)

Philip Weekes (1920-2003)

• Tower colliery 73

• Nantybwch, Tredegar

• 1948 - Oakdale colliery

• 1950 – Nigeria - ‘rather well for a grammar school boy’

• 1973 – 1985 - Director for South Wales coalfield

• Miners' strike of 1984-85

• Garden Festival Wales

74

17. Evan Jones, 'Ieuan Gwynedd' (1820-1852)

75

• 1820 – Dolgellau• Independent minister

and journalist. • 1845 - Saron Chapel • 1847 - ‘Blue Books’ -

Inquiry into the State of Education in Wales

• 1848 – Left Tredegar• 1852 – Buried at

Groeswen, Caerphilly

76

77

18. John Williams & family, 7 Heater’s Row, Tredegar (1845-1849)

Cholera victim, Cefn Golau

78

79

‘Er cofarwydd am John, mab David ac Ann Williams, o Dredegar, yr hwn a fu farw Medi 13 1849 yn 4 mlwydd a 2 fis oed’

80

Cholera - claimed 203 lives in 1849 in Tredegar

John Williams’ family, 7 Heater’s Row, Tredegar

When a funeral procession proceeded towards the cemetery, doors were closed, passers-by hurried out of sight, and scarcely sufficient number in many cases were found to convey the victims to their resting places.'

81

1884 - Evan Powell’s History of Tredegar:

'In August, 1849, another visitation of cholera was at our doors … in less than a month there was scarcely a street in the town that had not been visited by the king of terrors.

The death rate rose so rapidly, the fatal cases were so numerous, and the symptoms so terrible, that the doctors were completely bewildered.

82

Thank you for listening

83

1901 census

1891 census

1881 census