by Mike Hall
1952: ‘Cardiff has many worlds in it, only some of which are Welsh. There are the docks and the crowded town of coloured people cut off geographically by railways and water from the rest of Cardiff; there is a classy part on the road to Llandaff Cathedral; there are other suburbs and there are miles and miles of council estates and little houses. The main shopping streets are the usual hotchpotch of chain stores relieved by a great many glass-covered arcades, so that shopping in Cardiff is comparatively dry. And then bang in the middle of this industrial muddle, which might be Wolverhampton or Birmingham or anywhere – bang in the middle there is a green heart, still spacious and seeming to stretch in all directions. A great part of it is laid out as a Civic Centre. It is the finest Civic Centre in these islands … The present Lord Bute generously gave the Castle and its park, his father having already given the deer park, to the people of Cardiff. We can now go in for a shilling and take a conducted tour of this glittering wilderness of wonder’. (John Betjeman – broadcast on BBC Home Service, script included in Trains and Buttered Toast, 2006)
May 19th
1921: At the Arms Park Glamorgan were playing the second day of their first-ever match in the County Championship. Over the three days they beat Sussex – who included their top bowler Maurice Tate – by 23 runs. It was a very exciting game with a close finish. When their last batsman Henry Roberts was caught by Glamorgan’s Percy Morris, the visitors were just short of their target of 334 to win. Many of the spectators came onto the field to congratulate Glamorgan’s skipper Norman Riches and his team. Afterwards both teams gathered on the pavilion balcony to celebrate the occasion. Sussex captain Arthur Gilligan made a most gracious speech, typical of the spirit of cricket in those days: ‘Glamorgan have given us a magnificent game. We do not mind being beaten in the slightest. We have been down until today – but today we might have won. We did not – Glamorgan did and I congratulate them.’ (Andrew Hignell, From Sophia to Swalec: A History of Cricket in Cardiff, The History Press, 2008)
1958: The Labour Party takes control of Cardiff Council for the first time. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)
May 20th
1763: Burial at St Hilary of Thomas Lewis ‘ye best fiddler in Glamorganshire’ also described by William Thomas (see July 29th) as ‘the Master of Vice in St Fagans for every summer this twelve years past’. He and William Morgan, the harper, played at St Fagans for ten guineas and ‘had much joy of their vanity til Lewis fell ill with a fever and died in four weeks lingering therein’. The ‘Pop Idol’ of his day, Lewis’s effect on his young female fans was described in a poem in The Gentleman’s Magazine:
’Tis he can all the virgins move
And set the nymphs on fire,
At every shake they pant with love
At every trill expire.’
(Charles F. Sheppard, ‘The Parish of St Fagans’)
1903: Official opening of the electric tram route to Splott and Roath Dock performed by the Mayor of Cardiff, Alderman Edward Thomas. Mr Thomas was usually known by his Bardic name of Cochfarf (‘Red Beard’). (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)
May 21st
1826: At a service at Lambeth Palace Charles Sumner (26) was consecrated Bishop of Llandaff. Within a year he had been translated (the approved ecclesiastical term) to the Bishopric of Winchester, exchanging Llandaff’s £900 per year stipend for £12,000 there. As Ieuan Gwynedd Jones tartly observes in his book Mid Victorian Wales (1992), ‘everything suffers in translation – except a bishop’. Apparently, when Winchester became vacant in 1827, George IV hastened to bestow it on Sumner, remarking that he was determined that ‘the see should be filled by a gentleman’. In his short time at Llandaff Bishop Sumner clearly found the remoter parts of his diocese somewhat daunting. On a rare foray into the interior, he visited Dowlais to consecrate the Iron Company’s new church and induct Revd Evan Jenkins as Vicar. Jenkins escorted him a few miles of the road back to Llandaff. When they parted Sumner is reported to have said, ‘Farewell, I leave you as a missionary in the heart of Africa’. (Dictionary of National Biography, OUP)
May 22nd
1864: Henri Marc Brunel, Isambard Kingdom’s youngest son, was in Cardiff. He does not seem to have enjoyed his stay. Four days earlier he had written ‘Awfully hot here, a man died of sunstroke.’ And then, on the 22nd: ‘Cardiff’s not only a horrid place from its costive properties with regard to her acquaintances but has always looked upon it as a dirty place in itself, a dirty town with bad inns, his tradition based on once when IKB and IB were here, the landlord of the inn occupied his leisure moments in dying of cholera as also did the judge of the circuit.’ (Stephen K. Jones, Brunel in South Wales, Vol.3, The History Press, 2009)
1968: Harlech TV takes over the ITV franchise for Wales and the West from TWW (Television Wales & West). This was part of a wider shake-up which introduced London Weekend, Thames and Yorkshire to the network and the disappearance of Rediffusion and popular big-money game shows such as Double Your Money and Take Your Pick. On May 21st 1963, all Welsh programmes on TWW’s predecessor, the year-old Cardiff-based WWN (Wales West & North) station had been suspended because of financial difficulties. (Jane Harboard and Jeff Wright, 40 Years of British Television, Boxtree, 1992)
May 23rd
1120: Bishop Urban of Llandaff had the remains of St Dyfrig reinterred on the north side of the High Altar in the cathedral. The tomb of St Teilo was placed on the south side. The occasion was marked with great ceremony, the Holy Cross and religious relics being carried in procession. Urban was a great reforming bishop. According to Rees in Cardiff: A History of the City, his ‘genius was to unite the Welsh tradition with Roman organization’. Dyfrig, known in English as St Dubriocus and in Norman French as Devereux was a sixth-century ecclesiastic venerated in the Middle Ages as a saint. He founded monastries at Hartland and Moccas and went on to become the teacher of others later proclaimed saints, including Teilo and Samson. There are churches dedicated to him in Somerset and Herefordshire, also Llanvaches in Monmouthshire. (Wikipedia)
May 24th
1858: The Somerset Central Railway opened a pier at Burnham-on-Sea and started a steamer service to Cardiff, where the Bute East Dock had recently been opened. The journey cost 3 shillings and took about three hours. By 1865 the SCR had become part of the Somerset & Dorset and was advertising a new service from Cardiff ‘to Paris, Caen, Bordeaux and the South of France via Burnham, Poole and Cherbourg on the swift and powerful steamer, Albion. However, the opening of the Severn Tunnel killed off the Cardiff to Burnham ferry traffic and the service came to an end in July 1888. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)
1967: Glamorgan played their first match at their new ground at Sophia Gardens. Rain prevented any play on the first day, or before 3.35 p.m. on the second. Unsurprisingly, the match was drawn – Glamorgan scored 117 for 8 declared and the Indian touring side 94 for 6. (Andrew Hignell, From Sophia to Swalec: A History of Cricket in Cardiff, The History Press, 2008)
May 25th
1968: A Nationalist activist group MAC2 (Mudiard Amddiffyn Cymru) bomb explodes at the Welsh Office building in Cathays Park. Many windows were broken by the blast but there were no casualties. This was the seventh such attack since the campaign began against Liverpool Corporation’s scheme which flooded farmland at Treweryn in Snowdonia to create a reservoir. As John Humphries states in Freedom Fighters: Wales’ Forgotten War, 1963-1993, ‘given the dismal record of the Welsh police’, there seemed to be no alternative but for MI5 and Special Branch being brought in to investigate the campaign.
1994: Construction began of the controversial Cardiff Bay Barrage (completed in November 1999). To make up for the loss of important wetland habitat for birds, a new reserve was created on the east side of the River Usk at Nash near Newport. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)
May 26th
1928: The first greyhound race meeting was held at the Arms Park. It seemed very l
ikely that the track would not be ready in time. Work was still being done on it only hours before spectators were admitted. However, all went well. Five thousand people turned up and they were entertained by a band in between races. Beef Cutlet (see April 7th) won the 500 yard Glamorgan Gold Cup. (T.D. Breverton, The Welsh Almanac, Glyndwr Publications, 2002)
1940: Eight Cardiff paddle-steamers took part in Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of 330,000 British and French troops from the beaches at Dunkirk which began on this date and continued until June 4th. One of them, the Brighton Belle, was lost on May 28th after she struck the wreck of a recently-sunk vessel off Ramsgate. All the crew and soldiers on board were rescued. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)
May 27th
1837: The Cardiff & Merthyr Guardian carried an advertisement referring to the use of ‘Cardiff Arms Park by Betty’s Amphitheatre’. This is believed to be the first time the name ‘Arms Park’ was mentioned in print. A few years later, between 1848 and 1853, the diversion of the River Taff overseen by Brunel to provide space for the South Wales Railway’s station greatly extended the area of meadowland at the rear of the Cardiff Arms. The building had once been an impressive seventeenth-century townhouse, originally known as Ty Coch, which had been built near the West Gate for a wealthy family. In 1787 the property had been converted into an inn, known as the Cardiff Arms Hotel. The name derived from a shield, bearing the red and yellow crest of Cardiff, that hung above the doorway. An early proprietor was a Miss Wood, the sister of the Keeper of Cardiff Jail. Reminiscences published in the South Wales Daily News in 1911 said she ‘was a superior type of woman and a high-class establishment was soon created’. (Andrew Hignell, From Sophia to Swalec: A History of Cricket in Cardiff, The History Press, 2008)
May 28th
1874: (Continued from May 12th) St Mellons girl Mary Jones visited Cardiff with James Gibb, the butler from Llanrumney Hall with whom she was romantically involved. The purpose of the visit was to make arrangements with the registrar for their wedding. In the afternoon they enjoyed a carefree visit to the circus. Mary later maintained that she had known nothing of his marriage to his wife Susan, cruelly murdered by him a fortnight before. Yet he must have walked past the site where he had dumped her body whenever he walked from the Hall to Mary’s house for their frequent lovers’ assignations ... (continued on June 3rd). (Mark Isaacs, Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Cardiff, Wharncliffe, 2009)
1949: John Davies (12), a member of the 14th Cardiff Scout Group drowned attempting to save friends swept away as they tried to cross the causeway from Sully Island to Swanbridge beach. He was posthumously awarded the Albert Medal and the Bronze Cross, the Scouts’ highest award for gallantry. Fourteen-year-old Margaret Vaughan from Whitchurch ran into the fast-flowing current and managed to rescue the two boys. She too was awarded the Albert Medal (later upgraded to the George Cross), becoming its youngest female recipient. Rover Scout James Rees also won the Bronze Cross for his part in the incident. (John O’Sullivan & Bryn Jones, Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration, The History Press, 2005)
May 29th
1883: The death of former Mayor John Batchelor, after an eventful career in the town. He was born in Newport but moved to Cardiff in his early twenties. He became a prominent local businessman, involved in shipbuilding and the timber trade. It was his political views that caused some controversy. He was an active Liberal, which brought him into conflict with the Tory Bute family and their supporters – not, perhaps, a wise move in Cardiff. It was widely believed that their scheming led to the collapse of his shipbuilding business. After his death, a fund was started to pay for a statue in his memory – and 2,000 people signed a petition against having the statue. (Wikipedia)
1949: Margaret Vaughan, who only the previous day had bravely rescued two scouts from drowning (see May 28th) was back in the water, representing Penarth Grammar School in a Swimming Gala. Swimming was her passion and, as a schoolgirl, she was one of the pacemakers for Bristol Channel swimmers. Later in 1949 Margaret swam the seventeen miles from Swanbridge to Weston-super-Mare in just over ten hours. (John O’Sullivan & Bryn Jones, Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration, The History Press, 2005)
May 30th
1885: The first meeting was held at Ely Racecourse, which owed its development to the support of noted Glamorgan landowners and hunting families such as the Homfrays. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)
1947: Murder of GWR platelayer Ronald Lewis whose body was discovered in Sophia Gardens by two boys. Forensic investigation showed that he had been violently punched in the face but that the cause of death was drowning. It was unclear whether he had been thrown into the river or had stumbled in after being beaten up. Two pools of blood some 20ft from where the body was found suggested that he had lain in that place for some time. The motive for his killing was also unclear. His watch was missing but not his wallet. Why had he gone into that area of woodland on the edge of the gardens? Had he gone there with someone who then attacked him? Had he been some sort of peeping tom assaulted for seeing something he shouldn’t? No one ever discovered and the case remains unsolved. (Mark Isaacs, Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Cardiff, Wharncliffe, 2009)
May 31st
1882: The new extension to the City Library was officially opened by the Mayor, Alfred Thomas. The event occasioned great celebrations which included a procession and a reception in the Town Hall that evening. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)
1901: ‘Educated Archie’, an elephant that was the star of Sanger’s Travelling Circus, died at Penarth. The circus had been at Newport the previous night and was moving on to set up at Solomon Andrews’ field. Archie had shown signs of illness before starting on the 14-mile journey. He had almost made it but as the procession made its way along Stanwell Road he collapsed. The stricken animal refused bread but was reportedly given five bottles of whisky and two of rum. Whether this medication made any difference or not is unclear but the poor thing died beside the road. A derrick and chain were needed to lift the 4 ton 15cwt carcase onto a cart and six horses to pull it to Solomon’s Field. (Roy Thorne, Penarth: A History, Starling Press, 1975)
June 1st
1854: The old Town Hall in St Mary’s Street was officially opened by the Mayor, John Batchelor (see May 29th). It was replaced by the new City Hall in 1906 and demolished in 1913. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)
1901: The death, at the age of 45, of John Viramu Jones, first Principal of the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire. Son of an independent Minister, he went to University College, London, at the age of 16 and graduated at 19. He died in Geneva and his body was returned to Wales for burial in his native Swansea. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)
1937: 614 Squadron was formed as part of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force and based at Pengam Aerodrome. It was an attractive option for young men who could enlist for training as pilots and air-crew. The squadron proved its worth during the Second World War but was disbanded, along with the rest of the RAAF in 1957. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)
June 2nd
1919: The Lord Mayor, Councillor A.C. Kirk, and members of the Corporation were at Victoria Park for the unveiling of a captured German tank as a permanent memorial to the patriotism and self-sacrifice of the people of Cardiff during the First World War. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)
1982: Pope John Paul II was in Cardiff as part of his Papal Visit to Britain. Arriving from Scotland by helicopter, he was met at Blackweir by Archbishop John Murphy and went on to Pontcanna Fields to celebrate Mass. In his homily, part of which was delivered in Welsh, he said ‘today the Bishop of Rome greets the people of Wales in their own beautiful land for the first time’. A choir of 900 took part in the service along with the folk group Ar Log and singer Frank Hennessy. Gifts were presented to the Holy Father, including a miner’s lamp and a book of Welsh poems. In the afternoon the Pope led a Youth Service attended by over 30,000 at the Ninian Park stadium. T
he Papal Visit had been the subject of some opposition from Protestant campaigners and, until the last minute, had been in doubt due to Britain’s involvement in the Falklands War in the South Atlantic. (John O’Sullivan & Bryn Jones, Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration, The History Press, 2005)
June 3rd
1874: (Continued from May 12th & 28th) With the discovery and identification of Susan Gibbs’ body on July 3rd, the arrest of her husband James Gibbs was a formality. The couple had been seen by a witness arguing in the lane near Hall Farm, Llanrumney. Susan had been heard to cry out in anguish ‘may God rescue me from my pitiful life. I am ruined!’ At his trial, which took place in Newport, evidence was presented that he had first bludgeoned her senseless before going back to Llanrumney Hall from where he brought a razor which he used to cut her throat so deeply that her head was nearly detached from her body. James Gibbs was found guilty and executed at Usk Prison. It was the first execution carried out there for fifteen years. It was not a public hanging but nevertheless the quiet little Monmouthshire town was crowded with ghoulish sightseers on the day. Susan Gibbs was laid to rest at St Mellons, far from her Jersey birthplace. (Mark Isaacs, Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Cardiff, Wharncliffe, 2009)