The Welsh coal mining community of Thomastown in the Ely Valley, Rhondda Cynon Taff

Thomastown came into existence in 1909, and the two streets Pembroke St and Meyler St that constitute Thomastown were built to house the miners working in the nearby colliery in Coedely.  It is there I was born - a little socialist and a little Calvanistic methodist cum Baptist - at 54 Pembroke St. in 1936,  just before the outbreak of the second world war.  My grandfather lived 5 houses away, my aunt Peggy only two houses away, and my great-uncle Will, six houses away on the other side of the street. Thomastown was therefore for me very much a family community. 

Beyond Pembroke Street in the direction of the mine was open countryside through which a path - the 'Black Path' - lead to the colliery and to the sheep  farms on the high ground  marking the southern edge of the South Wales coalfield.  In those days very few people owned cars - but there was a railway and bus service to Cardiff and - more importantly for a young boy - train service to the seaside town of Porthcawl just 20 miles away.  Beyond a certain age it was feasible to undertake the adventure of a bicycle trip to the seaside town of Barry or even walk to the swimming pool in Porth or Pontypridd. There were also cinemas in Tonyrefail, Porth, Tonypandy and Pontypridd and small boys regularly watched Roy Rogers or Gene Autry cowboy movies for 3 p.on a Saturday morning. Later in life the ballroom in Porth became a must...!  Most males were accomplished dancers by the time of their teenage years as a benefit of the lunch time (when it rained...often!) dances at the Grammar school as well as at the Urdd Gobaith Cymru meetings on Thursday nights - thank you Mr Williams and Mr Evans  (This skill was very important when meeting French women - in joke!!).  The ballroom - all those chairs moved to the back of the hall, Mr Williams at stage right with the 'gramaphone' and vinyl discs!,  boys seated on the left, girls on the right, and away we go -  march - foxtrot - quickstep - waltz - tango - big band - samba - latin - cha cha cha - merengue - reggae - Bomba -  boogie woogie - or for really good fun why not a scottish dance or a polka.

 My elementary school - Cwmlai school - lay across the valley opposite Pembroke St, and often my mothers voice would waft across the valley to encourage me to get home - or else!!!  On Sundays it was three  times to church, but often when my father was working a Sunday shift I could miss Sunday school for the reason that I was required to walk my mother's steaming hot dinner to the colliery  for my father's delectation - a little procrastination helped in this regard, particularly if it involved a trip in a miner's cage into the depths of the mine!  The glory days!!

 In my teenage years long distance walks became important - firstly and quite often simply to the 'Rocks' or the St Peter's Church ruins up on the high ground overlooking the flat farmland of the Vale of Glamorgan  or to Pantybrad the site of the capture in 1326 of King Edward II by the forces of Queen Isabella of France, or to my aunt who lived in Pontyclun;  then over the Bwlch to as far away as Porth Talbot and then the following year to Ystradfellte in the Brecon Beacons region; then the length of the Wye Valley to Hereford; to Brittany and Paris in France, the  Rhine Valley south to Cobourg, and eventually to Nord Kap in Arctic Norway and Finland - all financed by annual summer employment as a painter at the Thomas & Evans 'pop' factory in Porth, as a spring maker in a mattress factory, and a night-shift baker in Roath Park, Cardiff!  In the end I made it to New York City and eventually to Canada where I settled in London, Ontario.

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A very interesting and entertaining series of sketches has been written by Brian Lewis and his wife Della describing the lives of people living in Thomastown during the first half of the 19th Century. The stories are based on the memories of Brian's  father Wyndham Lewis. For me a visit with Wyndham and his wife Sylvia  was always of enormous pleasure because as an 'expat' they would welcome me like a long lost son, and there was always a long and lively conversation over a glass of cold beer! Wonderful people!  Brian is another Thomastown 'expat' living in Calgary, Canada, now retired from the elevated position of Minister of Education for the Canadian North West Territories. Della is a well known Calgary potter and is still active in this field. Click here to download a pdf of the sketches compiled by Brian.  He has also written about the life of his father - I will try to get a link to that sometime in the future. Brian himself was capped for Wales as a schoolboy.

MAP showing the location of the ancient pathway known as the "The Roman Road" leading from Thomastown in the Ely Valley to Llanharan marking the southern edge of the South Wales Coalfield. The map  also shows  the  location of the scenic  landmarks locally referred to as "The Rocks" and the "The Tip".

1914 Ordinance Survey  map of Thomastown

"The Pontyclun - Coedely - Tonyrefail - Penygraig Train" - and then 'shank's pony' from Penygraig to the Empire cinema in Tonypandy.

Annotated Google Earth image of the Thomastown area showing the onetime  location of Coedely Colliery,  various farms and homes of people I knew.

The Joannes Blaeu 1645 map of the Ely Valley: - Note that the ancient Church at Llanbad is referenced as ' Peterston on y mount'.

Emanuel Bowen's 1729 map of the Ely Valley      Note that 'Tu' yn y coid' (Tynycoed) and Allt Grabben are located on this map and were therefore in existence by the eary 1700's; the location referenced as 'Gylenog'  is on the old               Llantrisant to Pontypridd road close to the Tarren Deubath pre-historic holy site (see below). (Map is referenced to a Google Earth image)

 View of Thomastown and Tonyrefail  - from the top of the Coedely Colliery  'Tip' (now demolished).

(Thomastown 'tip' diamonds :- concretionary ironstones in the Welsh Coal Measures commonly contain geoides in which have grown euhedral quartz crystals along with sprays of millerite (NiS).)

Pembroke St the day after a particularly  heavy snowfall around Xmas 1947

Rain Rain...............!!

Historic sites  - Google Earth image showing the location of the Coedcae Hill Fort, the Penycoedcae Roman Marching Camp, and the Castellau Celtic "Tarren Deusant" face carvings

Location of the Coedcae 'Gaer' hill fort  on the 1914 Penybont Ordinance Survey map

Google Earth location of the Coedcae and Ty_yn_y_waun (??) pre-historic Hill Forts

Coedcae Hill Fort overlay image

Google Earth image of the Penycoedcae Roman Marching camp

http://roman-britain.co.uk/places/penycoedcae.htm

http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/military-history/ancient-romes-military-marching-camps/

     See: An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan by the RCAHMW (HMSO, Cardiff) vol.1, part ii, pp.83/4 & fig.47;
     The Roman Frontier in Wales by V.E. Nash-Williams (Cardiff, 1969) p.124;
     Britons in the Roman Army by Dr. Grace Simpson (London, 1964);
     Air Reconnaissance in Britain, 1958-1960 by J.K. St. Joseph in J.R.S. li (1961) p.126;
     Annales by Cornelius Tacitus, translated by J.Jackson (Loeb, Harvard, 1937);
     Military Aspects of Roman Wales by Prof. F. Haverfield (London 1910) pp.97-100.

      The view towards Llantrisant viewed from the west slope of the Glyn mountain The distant dot is the "Billy Wynt"  marking the high point of the southern scarp of  the South Wales coal field (north-dipping Carboniferous Pennant Sandstone limb of the Hercynian South Wales syncline) . The "Billy Wynt" is the remains of a 13th Century windmill destroyed during a battle in the Middle Ages, but still shown as the site of a windmill on Bowen's 1729 map of South Wales. The nearby Llantrisant castle, also built in the 13th Century, was held for Edward I by the Norman de Clare family.   The adjacent common land at Llantrisant, consisting of some 298 acres, was granted along with charter status to the Freemen of  Llantrisant, supposedly in recognition of the participation of Llantrisant longbowmen in the Battle of Crecy in 1346 (not something I mention too loudly in the presence of my French  wife! -  at the battle of Agincourt the French king threatened to remove the 2 string fingers of any Welsh archers who were captured.)

Remains of the 'St Peters on the Mount'  Mountain  Church; the ancient "Ffordd Y Bryniau" ridgetop  road linking Llantrisant to Margam and Neath passes nearby

see Bowen's map

                     MINING HISTORY

Google Earth image showing old mine sites in the Ely Valley and surrounding areas

Brynwyth mine above Tynywaun Farm- Ordinance Survey map 1914

Google Earth image of the Brynwyth mine above Tynywaun Farm - remains of mining activity and the mine tramway still visible on the satellite image.

View of Thomastown in 1915, looking North from the top of the old road incised into the hillside and that led to Tynycoed House.

Same view in 1990 - railbed has now been replaced by a three-lane highway.

View across the Ely Valley incorporating "The Hill", Tylchawen Terrace, and the Cwmlai school soccer pitch (painted by my father Ernie Church).

Panoramic view of Thomastown - Pembroke St to the left, Meyler St to the right, the Ely Hotel in the centre, and the Coedely Colliery slag waste 'Tip" at the top left

Meylor Street in recent times - everyone now owns a car!!

The Thomastown commercial Centre - Elizabeth Street :-  Ely Hotel on the left; Post office and the Co-op food store on the right; and the barber and cobbler at the far end right.

1914 Ordinance Survey Map of Coed Ely Colliery

Coed Ely Colliery in the early years of development.

Coed Ely Colliery, c. 1970; view from the railway bridge in Nantmelyn (Garth Maelog 'mountain' in the background).

Miners strike of 1926 - the miners shoe repair shop   The Quakers voluntary cobblers.

Rhondda Grey - in hommage to that beloved Welshman Max Boyce (+ photos of the river Ely in full flood 1937)

Rhondda Grey sung by Max Boyce

                                PEOPLE

Thomastown - people

The most important man in Thomastown - William Watkins

Second most important person - perhaps the first - in Thomastown  - Gladys the baker - bread, milk, and mail were all delivered by horse and cart in those days -

The community also boasted a well eqipped military force, a nursing station, and a local 'resident capable of acupuncture and other seemingly miraculous cures.

Broken arms, legs, cuts, concussions - no problem, the community was always well prepared!

Sometimes 'royalty' would pass by in a rather splendid two-seated carriage

They were always very well dressed - the Queen was an expert taylor!

Handsome English immigrant playing the field!!

And when there was a marriage to celebrate - aboriginal Welsh to the left, immigrant English to the right!!

1940 World War II evacuees sent from London to live out the war in South Wales; one stray bomb created a crater on the mountain top and managed to break a few windows in Pembroke St.

       The most famous of the evacuees brought to Wales was Petula Clark :     

                  -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RED_7HNogDw  

Coed-Ely station in Thomastown - the 'Kozy Club' annual trip to the seaside at Porthcawl (Cwmlai Elementary School in the background).

c 1945  the Pembroke St 'mobile' choir celebrating the end of the War -  conductor Ernie Church (and thanks Mr Bugler!)

c. 1950 - two Pembroke St families on holiday in Weston-Super-Mare - the Hendys and Churchs

c. 1950 Pembroke St girls: Shirley Pring, Thelma and Lorna Gibbs (twins), Anne Watkins, Marilyn Church, Margaret Harris (front)

1968 - celebrating the return of his parents from Czechoslovakia after the Russian invasion of this country   

2016 Former Thomastown residents Brian and Anthea Davies self-congratulate after vanquishing the dreaded Caerphilly dragons!! 

           The omelette was reported tp be deliceous!!  

The Thomastown Gymnastics Club -  Thursday night at Cwmlai Elementary School was gymnastics and dance night (where you learned about girls and vice versa!!).  The gymnastics team would give displays as pre-game entertainment  at  local soccer games and other events.

                                   TONYREFAIL GRAMMAR SCHOOL

Tonyrefail Grammar School - one way to avoid having to work as a miner deep in the dark and dusty Earth would be  to become a geologist - enjoy travelling the world and only occasionaly be required to go undergroundl!!

-      More often there is a need to go well above ground - Ciorneva, Italian Alps!

-     And then there is the peace of the desert - Gebel Zebara, Egypt!

Iris Pring - (top row 3rd from the right) first person in Thomastown to graduate from University - an historic event in Thomastown! Sister Shirley was also among the first to graduate from Nursing school.

TGS 1949 -  photo with Cliff Morgan in the 2nd row extreme left; Thomastown men of letters - Arthur Holman, Bill Church; Stan Cornish  (Wyndham Jones back row 2nd from the right)

TGS 1949 - centre right

TGS 1949 - centre

TGS 1949 - Centre left

TGS 1949 - left

TGS rugby team  c. 1950    Back row :- ?? , Louis Robling, Brian Lewis of Meyler St, Ken Francis, Malcolm Bodilly, Stan Cornish of Meyler St,  ?? , Arthur Holman of Pembroke St;  Middle row :- Headmaster Bowen-Jones,   ??,  Keith Berry, John Hunt, Phys. Ed. teacher Les Hayward (played rugby for Cardiff); front row :- Eddie 'Golf' Davies, ?doucette ?,  Glyn Williams, Gary Williams,  ??.

Brian Lewis - Welsh School  boy Interational 1954-55

1955 Wales versus Yorkshire - Welsh  team included Brian Lewis of Thomastown and Gary Williams of Tonyrefail.

Tonyrefail Grammar school athletics team c. 1950 - Thomastown members, Arthur Holman (top row furthest right), Brian Lewis (third row furthest left), Bill Church (first row 2nd left). The person holding the discus  in the front row is Wyndham Jones, to whom the TGS facebook owes a considerable debt for his many contributions to the development of this site.

Tonyrefail Grammar School  rugby team c. 1952; Thomastown representatives:- Brian 'Lanky' Lewis (back row centre; was capped for Wales as a schoolboy); to the right of Brian -  Eric Hellings (his grandfather played for Wales), Bill Church (mostly played 'reserve'), Malcolm Thomas; and in front of Bill and Malcolm - Keith Berry; the photo also includes Mr Hayward, Mr Gribble, and Headmaster Bowen-Jones and notable rugby players Gwyn Griffiths , Ken 'Cheesy' Francis,  John Hunt, Val Tambini, Gary Williams, Malcolm Bodilly, Eddie Stevens, 'speedy' Glyn Williams, and equally speedy David Tomkins (back row extreme right)

Tonyrefail Grammar School rugby team 1955   show casing  the school's two International School boys Brian Lewis and  Gary Williams. Also of note -  David Tomkins (next to Mr Gribble) who played rugby for the RAF, the Combined Forces and for London Welsh while teaching in Southhall, London. He is also an accomplished skier, but says however that he prefers Courchval over the 'old Roman road' - too steep!!!. Team also included Eddie Stevens (2nd row left), Malcolm Bodilly and Lynn Andrews (centre back row), Alan Andrews (2nd row right)

Tonyrefail Grammar School students in the early 1950's - Dennis Gibbs, Ken Francis, John Hunt, Gwyn Doman, Alan Noble, Louis Robling, Doug Firstbrook, Bill Church

Thomastown expatriates in Australia and New Zealand - the Andrews bothers Mel and Allan, Jeanette (Church) Andrews, Mair Owen, and Malcolm Thomas (New Zealand). Also Doug Firstbrook (Miskin) and Paddy  Firstbrook (Gilfach Goch)   Well known 'paper delivery' boy Malcom Thomas and his brothers Hadyn and David

Canadian expatriates - Brian 'Lanky' Lewis (left) and Bill Church (right); Brian was Director of Education for the Canadian North West Territories and Minister for Education.

                                            SPORTS 

Thomastown - a very sporting community!

As for outdoors swimming in the summer  - why not just dam the River Ely?

Thomastown Hitch-hikers Club:  Brian 'Lanky' Lewis, Bill Church, John Hunt, and Ken 'Cheesy' Francis hitch-hiking the Wye Valley.

                                                     Billy Bridge, Bill Church, and Brian Townley in Gay Paree!!;

                                                     Brian Townley and Bill Church at the Dutch - Belgian border

'The Rocks' - "D'duw Cariad Yw"  -  the Welsh words "D'duw Cariad Yw" (God is love) are carved in the the sandstones. The rocks lie on the ancient hill-top road "Ffordd y Bryniau" linking Llantrisant to the Ogmore Valley and to the 12th  Century Cistercian Abbey in Margam - see Bowen's map (above).

View of the Vale of Glamorgan looking due south from "The Rocks"  - "The Rocks" marks an outcrop of cross-bedded Pennant Sandstone on the elevated rim of the synclinal South Wales coalfield. The outcrop overlook the Ewenni Fach brook and the hamlet of Llanharan, and the ancient Ffordd Y Bryniau road linking Llantrisant to the Ogmore Valley. "The Rocks" can be accessed from Thomastown via the 'Roman Road' linking Thomastown and Brynna/Llanharan, or by the road passing through Graig Fatho farm to its junction with the Ffordd Y Bryniau road. From this vantage point one could look down on the Vale of Glamorgan - who since the Norman Conquest has looked down for centuries upon everybody else!!

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http://www.capeli.org.uk/uploads/capel_tonyrefail.pdf  - very interesting site on the history of  the Churches and Chapels of the  Tonyrefail - Thomastown - Coedely region

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     The sinking of Coed Ely Colliery, some two miles to the south of the old  village, led to the formation of new villages which for many years were quite independent of the older community. The limited transport facilities at that time had led to a demand for new housing within easy walking distance of the new coal mine and coke works.

     Thomastown was the first of these new communities to be built between 1908-9. It was built on land owned by the Ynys y Plwm estate of Mr William Meyler Thomas J.P, which he had inherited from his aunt Mrs Margaret Cozens in May 1901. Her obituary appeared in the Western Mail for 25 May, 1901 and reveals the extent of the Estate and the circumstances leading to her nephew's inheritance:

    'The death of Mrs Cozens of Ynys y Plwm took place on May 22nd 1901. She was the wife of Collwyn Cozens who predeceased her by many years. She was the owner of most of the pretty valley of the Ely river from below Llantrisant to Tonyrefail, a distance of between five and six miles. Her husband was the owner of Fforch Nest, to the west of Penygraig which he sold to the Naval Colliery. She died childless but had absolute power of disposing of her landed estates, that power having been bequeathed on her by her husband. The deceased lady is a native of Haverfordwest'.

     Collwyn Cozens had inherited the land as a result of the marriage, in 1831, of his father the Reverend James Cozens of Tenby to Crisley the daughter of John Thomas of Ynys y Plwm. The family seem to have spent most of their time in Pembrokeshire especially after the death of Collwyn Cozens in 1880.

      Indeed in the census of 1891 it was her niece and nephew, Elizabeth and Edwin Thomas, who were residing at Ynys y Plwm. Their brother William Meyler Thomas seems at the time to have been with his aunt in Haverfordwest. He sold the mineral rights soon afterwards to the Welsh Navigation Coal Company and it was on his land at Tontraethwg that the village of Thomastown was built between 1908-9 . The village is, indeed, a memorial to the family as each of the streets is named after a family member: Meyler Street clearly after himself; Elizabeth and Francis Streets after his relatives.

     Whilst Pembroke and Haverford Streets were so named because of his and his ancestors' links with that county. His obituary of 6 November 1917 shows how the wealth he had accumulated led to a position of importance in Glamorgan, Welsh and indeed English agricultural affairs:

    'The late Mr W. Meyler Thomas, who died on Sunday at the age of 67, was a Pembrokeshire gentleman who years ago inherited the residence and estate known as Ynys y Plwm. This property is in the fertile Ely Valley and lately has become valuable because of the discovery of coal beneath it. It is all in the area taken by Messrs. David Davis and Sons Ltd.

     A pioneer member of the Glamorgan Chamber of Agriculture he as also delegate to the Central Chamber of Agriculture since 1906 and was a member of the Agricultural Council of Wales and the committee of The Royal Bath and West of England Show'.

     From the outset Thomastown was designed as an independent community. It had its own public house, the Ely Hotel (which opened on August 1st, 1912 and served free beer for the day), a post office, a chapel and ten shops for 120 houses. In Meyler Street there was a greengrocer's, a general grocer's, two sweet shops, a cobbler's, a haberdasher's and a fish and chip shop. Pembroke Street had a general store, a second-hand clothes shop and a police house.  Elizabeth Street soon had a new co-operative stores to replace an earlier Thomas & Evans Stores as well as the post office and hotel, whilst behind 'the Co-op' was a bakery. A Captain Payne ran the Ely Hotel and a Captain Webber the Bakery. The earliest form of entertainment was a 'Biorama' which was an early form of 'pictures' and was held in a tent on the site of the present club's car park. During the 1921 strike Mr Arthur Evans - 'Long Arthur' - built a cinema with the aid of the striking miners. Beneath the cinema was a billiards room. The silent films, which included such films as 'Charlie Chaplin and the Kid', shown at the cinema were accompanied by a number of talented local pianists amongst whom were Idris Evans of Garth Hall and Rhys Williams an accomplished member of the Pen Wen family. Jenny Williams, another member of the family, sang 'Song Cycles' during the intervals between the films. This leisure attraction which was known as the Kozy Club burnt down in 1925 and was rebuilt as a dance hall which was in turn taken over in 1930 by the present day club which is still registered as 'The Thomastown Kozy Club and Institute'.

      On the hill above Pembroke Street was the 'new' house, of the Agent of Coed Ely Colliery, built on the site of the old Tynycoed farmhouse. At the same time Pentwyn House was built on the lane leading to Gelli Seren farm. It was here that Mr Edwards the manager of the colliery lived. He travelled to work in a horse and trap and the children would often race each other to collect the penny or half penny he threw to them for opening the gate at the end of the lane. It was to Pentwyn House also that the children went on New Year's Day to collect their calennig of an apple and a penny.

      Cwmlai School was built just the other side of the Ely River to serve both Thomastown and the new communities of Nantmelin and Penygarreg.  Nantmelin and Tylcha Fach were built between 1908-10 by a Mr Ben Swindon and for a while were known as 'Swindon Houses'. Penygarreg followed soon afterwards and was occupied by 1911. This road was intended to be a shopping centre and all the houses were designed with large front windows and with access to the upstairs from the back kitchen, leaving the hallways as entrances to the shops. In the event, only one of these houses ever became a shop and the new hotel, the Imperial, built opposite the houses was never granted a licence. Instead for a number of years it served as the place of worship of the local church members and in its later days was used as a button factory before it was demolished and replaced by new housing in the late 1960s.

     Some 200 yards further along towards Tonyrefail a row of larger bay windowed houses named at first Tylcha Wen Crescent - later Terrace - was  built to house officials of the Coed Ely Colliery who moved down from the parent colliery at Ferndale. The local perception was that these were favoured employees who were often given the best jobs. One such job underground was that of cutting pwcins - caused by pressure lifting the ground under the rails. These had to be cut regularly and the task was considered quite a perk. Thus the nickname of the terrace for many years was Pwcins Terrace. With the building of these houses came the building of the road directly up to Tonyrefail which greatly improved communications in the area. Coed Ely village built opposite the Coke Works just above Garth Grabban corn mill was again built on land owned by Meyler Thomas. The streets are also named after his relations. The mill which gave its name to Garth Street had been powered by a leet running from a weir built across the River Ely where it was joined by the Nantmelin stream, but was only to continue working for a few years after the opening of the colliery and coke ovens.