History
Group Meetings are
held on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at the
Meeting Venues
Scout Hall at the corner of Jubilee Way & Sandy Lane, Caldicot.
or
Day Luncheon
Centre, Sandy Lane, Caldicot
Commencing at 2-15pm
*please click on the History Group programme for meeting venue:
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
The January meeting had a talk by David Harrison on Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Some claim that Brunel was the greatest engineer of his age; he accomplished works that others refused to even contemplate undertaking. The Clifton Suspension Bridge over the Avon Gorge, not completed until after his death, is a wonderful piece of engineering. It is worthy of admiration now; when it was constructed it was viewed with awe.He tunnelled through two miles of solid rock at Box in Wiltshire for the Great Western Railway. He constructed the first ship to be constructed entirely of iron.
He designed and built the Tamar Bridge, a masterpiece of precision engineering, using tools of a previous age. During its construction, communication between different parts of the bridge was effected using semaphore flags. Such was the care taken that the two halves of the bridge were joined to an accuracy of one-eighth of an inch. This was long before any modern conception of accuracy, or the means of achieving it, was devised.
He saw things on a much larger scale than ordinary men, in short he thought big. He and his father were very fond of the adjective ‘great’; the word ‘great’ appears in lots of the names because that is what he thinks of. For example the Great Eastern was by far the largest ship ever built up until that time. The Great Western Railway, with its broad gauge of 7 ft ½ inch, provided the most stable rail travel of its time.
He had his failures, such as the Atmospheric Railway; it would have been possible to make it work, but the technology of the time was inadequate for the task of making it reliable. Tragically Brunel died before the Clifton Suspension Bridge was completed, and before the Great Eastern proved its worth. In every sense Brunel was a man who lived before his time.
Marc Brunel, his father, was a great engineer in his own right; he had anoutstanding imagination and an incredible attention to detail. Isambard was born in 1806, and by the age of six had mastered the principles of geometry.
Educated in England and France, he started work at the age of 16in his father’s office. By the time he was 18, he was assisting with the boring of the great tunnel under the Thames. For digging the tunnel his father had devised a wooden frame which would enable many men, working at several levels, to hew rock and earth from the face before them, the frame being periodically moved forward.
Progress was not easy and they had to overcome many obstacles: quicksand, slime, and leaks. Some portions were easy, some were arduous, and the occasional incidents of water breaking through made it very risky. These inundations were mostly caused by traffic on the river above dropping anchors, etc. and damaging the lining of the tunnel. Brunel junior solved this by placing bags of sand on the river bed over the tunnel, using a large bell suspended from a boat to access the sites of the leaks.
Work started in November 1825, was suspended in 1828, and was finally completed in 1843. To part fund the enterprise, certificates were sold stating that the holders had ‘eaten their dinner under Father Thames’. The tunnel is now in use for the London Underground between Wapping and Rotherhithe.
If we view the Thames Tunnel as his apprenticeship, Brunel was then prepared for greaterthings. The Clifton Suspension Bridge (his next project) had to span the Avon Gorge (a distance of 630 feet) at a height of 230 feet above high water level. Construction started in 1835, but was not completed until 1864, after his death.
During that time Brunel did some work on Bristol Docks, which brought him into contact with the promoters of the London to Bristol Railway. Impressed by his energy and vision, they appointed him an engineer for the line in 1833. He then spent his days surveying the proposed course of the line, travelling on horseback, for up to 20 hours a day.
His intention was to transport people from London to Bristol in comfort, choosing the optimum gradients and a seven-foot gauge for stability. Starting at the Paddington end of the Great Western Railway, he travelled with two horses fitted with panniers containing his maps, papers, slide rules and provisions. He surveyed the probable course of the line starting with Berkshire, and continued day by day until he reached Bristol.
In the course of this, his reputation and prestige increased, and in 1836 he married into London society. His wife was Mary Horsley, a beautiful and talented lady. They set up home at 18 Duke Street, and had three children in the years following. While performing a conjuring trick for his offspring, he got a coin lodged in his throat. He immediately summoned his servants and instructed them to attach him to a round table, and spin him around at great speed; the coin was ejected from
his throat by centrifugal force.
When construction of the Great Western Railway began, the first section to be built was from Paddington to Taplow. Nearby at Maidenhead a bridge was constructed which was then the largest brick-built span in the world.
At the time critics claimed that it was too low for its span, and would not carry the weight of railway traffic. This was opened on 4th June 1838, and is still in use today.
Another GWR feature which was a marvel of its day was the Box Tunnel. The construction of this cost the lives of more than 100 men. It took 2½ years to excavate; they used one ton of gunpowder and one ton of candles each week.
This tunnel was a great achievement, being one of the greatest projects since the construction of the pyramids. Building it required 4,000 men and 300 horses employed around the clock. By June 1841 the Great Western Railway had been built as far as Bristol, at the cost of £6½ million.
Another engineering marvel was the bridge over theRiver Tamar; it is 1,100 feet wide, and the river is 70 feet deep. There are only two spans, each one of 455 feet, supported by a single deep water pier in the middle. The work started in 1854 and ended in 1857. In the absence of radio for communication, they used boards bearing numbers, or semaphore flags. The two bridge sections were floated into the river on pontoons and then raised into place. It was opened in May 1859, and named The Albert Bridge after the prince consort. The parts fitted together to an accuracy of an eighth of an inch.
Brunel became interested in steam navigation. One of his ambitions was to build a ship which could carry enough fuel to complete a journey without having to refuel en route and if possible to complete the return journey as well without refuelling. Brunel’s solution was to build bigger ships.
His first attempt was The Great Western, a paddle steamer made of oak. In 1838 it completed the trip to New York in record time, but the boiler lagging ignited, causing a fire in which Brunel sustained injury. A vessel named Sirius, in competition with The Great Western, took 19 days at sea and on completed the journey with 15 tons of fuel left in the bunkers. When the Great Western arrived it had taken 15 days and there were 200 tons left in the bunkers. Consequently the Great Western won the contract, and during the following eight years crossed the Atlantic 67 times.
The Great Britain was his next venture into maritime transport. It was 289 feet long, 51 feet broad, built of iron and weighed 3,270 tons. It was driven by screw propellers, and in spite of the gloomy predictions it floated.
On its fifth voyage it left Liverpool with 180 passengers, and in foggy conditions it ran aground on the coast of southern Ireland. It was refloated several months later, and made many more voyages. It took people to Australia, it was used on the bullion run, and it took soldiers to various foreign climes including the Crimea and India.
When it went out of service, it was used in the Falkland Islands for storing coal. In 1970 it was transported back to Bristol, to the dry dock where it was originally built, refurbished and is now run as a museum.
Brunel’s most ambitious venture, and subsequently his greatest failure, was the Great Eastern. This was part of his dream to bring all of Australia’s exports for a year back to Britain in one voyage.
The Great Eastern was built in Milwall in the Isle of Dogs, east of London. It was to belaunched sideways into the Thames, since it was too large to be floated in the conventional manner. Its progress down the slipway controlled by massive drums holding heavy chains; it was intended that these be let out slowly as the drums turned, allowing the vessel to progress towards the water.
The scheduled launch date came, but the massive hull did not move. It was several months before it entered the river. A craft this size had never been built before – besides the construction, the launch itself required new technology. It was another forty years before a larger ship was built.
The discovery of gold in Australia, and the increasing emigration traffic, prompted a boom in the Australian shipping trade. Brunel’s notebooks reveal that he had a dream of building a gigantic steamship. As his obsession grew, he met a man that he thought would be the perfect partner to make his drawings a reality: John Scott Russell.
Russell was a practical marine engineer; he had his own yard on the Isle of Dogs at Millwall. Brunel’s estimate for the cost of this great ship was £½ million, and the contract was signed in December 1853. It provided for the construction, trial, launch and delivery with the general dimensions of 680 feet long, 83 feet in beam and 53 feet deep.
Brunel was in charge of the paperwork, Russell the hardware, and a controlled sideways launch was agreed. The keel was laid down in July 1854, and the hull as to be built from the ground up, consisting of 30,000 iron plates, each plate weighing about ⅓ of a ton, the plates to be hammered together by 3 million rivets.
The screw engines were built by Watt in Birmingham, and the paddle engines by Russell at Millwall. Russell however dragged his feet; by February 1856 the yard fell silent, and the workers discharged. In May 1856 Brunel took over, and the leviathan continued to grow. It represented 12,000 inert tons, the largest dead weight that man had ever tried to move. In October 1857, when it was ready for launching, the Great Eastern lay 330 feet from the surface of the water at high tide.
The ad hoc slipways were ready and one of the great retarding drums revolved. An inattentive workman was caught by a rotating handle, throwing him into the air and causing his death. The fame of this ship spread throughout the East End, and on 3rd November 1857, thousands of tickets having been sold, people came to see the launch. However the leviathan moved but little, and it was January 1858 before it finally reached the water, having inched forward day by day.
Members of the public were asked to write in and suggest ways of completing the launch. The ideas submitted varied from impractical to impossible. One such proposed that a barrier be constructed across the Thames, allowing the water level to rise until the ship would float. While theoretically feasible, it would have the unfortunate side effect of flooding large parts of Kent, Surrey, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Essex; also millions of people in London would drown, but that is a mere technicality. On a more realistic level, engineer Robert Stephenson arranged for a number of large presses to be assembled at Millwall. These machines could provide a total force of 5,500 tons, and eventually, on 31st January 1858, the Great Eastern floated on the tide, and moored safely on the other side of the river at Deptford.
The site of King Henry VIII’s dockyard, it was also known as West Greenwich. Brunel and his family were on board for the launch – he had gone without sleep for sixty hours. His company was in ruins, the ship had cost £732,000 instead of £500,000 and his health was broken. The ship was just a hull – the engines, cabins and all other fittings were yet to be done.
The hull alone weighed 12,000 tons. It was an uncompleted masterpiece, so on the day the cheers were mingled with jeers. Brunel was forced to take a holiday for the sake of his health, while company tried to raise the £172,000 needed to fit out the Great Eastern. John Scott Russell, to everybody’s amazement, acquired the contract for fitting out the ship. Brunel was not pleased; his health deteriorated, but he worked on. He installed the engines, checking every detail, and on her maiden voyage on 5th September 1859 he collapsed with a stroke and was carried home as the Great Eastern steamed out into the English Channel.
As the vessel passed the Dungeness lighthouse, there was an explosion, caused by excess steam pressure in the paddle wheel boilers, so it was laid up for repairs at Weymouth. Brunel died on 15th September. The Great Eastern went on to work for 30 years. As transatlantic passenger ship it was a failure – it did not carry enough passengers to be profitable. Instead it was used to lay cable across the Atlantic, and later became a showboat.
The Suez Canal opened in 1869, making the run to Australia much easier, and making vessels the size of the Great Eastern unnecessary.
He lived before the era of electricity, the telephone, the motor car, the aeroplane and the computer, yet his vision went far beyond his own time. He was truly a man ahead of his time.
Dave Edwards
HISTORY GROUP November 2011
For the November meeting, the History Group had a talk by Don Wood, on the History of Christmas Carols. The assembled audience had a mini carol service as well as an interesting talk, with Dorothy Bee providing musical accompaniment on the keyboard.
The original carols could be defined as ‘songs accompanied by music and dancing’. If we start to look back, then we can make an educated guess as to the day and month of the first carols, but not the year.
This is because the first carols were sung to commemorate the winter solstice on 21st or 22nd December (the shortest day of the year), and on that day there was singing, dancing and general celebrations, including bonfires etc. to encourage the sun to recover; the people did not want to have any shorter days.
This then is the presumed origin of the first song, dance and instrumental carols. These were not Christian celebrations since the era concerned was 2000 BC. Coming forward to about 650 BC, the Greek theatre in ancient Greece was in progress.
In the Greek theatre, there were actors and actresses wearing masks, there was a chorus and there were instrumentalists. The chorus spoke and sang in conjunction with the actors and actresses, and the instrumentalists played on stringed instruments that we would recognise as lyres. This continued for a 100 years or so, and then a piped instrument called an ‘aulos’ was introduced in 55 BC.
It was a double-reed instrument, one reed for the low notes and one for the high. One Greek philosopher was quoted as saying that ‘he could not stand this modern music, with its screechy pipes’, a complaint still common in the 21st century. The chorus and ‘aulos’ were together referred to as ‘choraulos’ which over time became ‘carols’.
Moving forward to the 11th century AD, the French decided that they would replace the musicians with voices, but they kept the dancing.
Many carols were pagan (e.g. the winter solstice carols and the Greek theatre carols). For example a carol familiar to all is one which starts ‘The holly and the ivy, when they are both full grown’; the original wording for that was ‘Now at last the old year passes’, and was sung on New Year’s Eve. The sentiments expressed were associated with the old year dying and the new year starting.
It was Christianized to ‘deck the halls with boughs of holly’. Another one which was quite famous in its time was the ‘Agincourt Carol’; this was composed for the victory of Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt, and includes the refrain (in Latin) ‘England give thanks to God for victory’. The sentiments expressed were of course political rather than religious. Another one popular in medieval times was a food carol, sung when a boar’s head was ceremoniously borne into a feast – this dates from Anglo-Saxon times.
Until comparatively recent times, dance was always associated with carols; the tempo
associated with the majority of today’s carols is much slower than the original tunes, just as the link between carols and dancing has been lost.
It was only when the printing press was invented that the verses in carols became standardized. Prior to that, the small variations crept in as words were transmitted orally from person to person. During the fifteenth century, song sheets for carols were printed out, but even then there were variations for different parts of the country.
A well known carol is ‘While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night’. The tune currently associated with it was taken from Handel’s opera ‘Sireo’ but the original was a folk tune, now associated with the Yorkshire dialect ditty ‘On Ilkley Moor Bah Tat’.
Carols and the established church have had a difficult relationship; the church banned them until 1443 and they were banned again between 1520 and 1540 (the period of Henry VIII’s quarrel with the pope over his intended divorce from Catherine of Aragon). Carols
and Christmas were banned entirely by Oliver Cromwell and his son at the time of the Commonwealth. However carols survived, as ordinary people sang and celebrated in the confines of their own homes.
A very early carol is ‘The Angels’ Hymn’. Neither its words nor its tune are known, but we know of it because a pope referred to it in 129 AD. He wrote that ‘the Angels’ Hymn should be used as part of the midnight mass celebrations at Christmas’. By the fourth century Prudentias wrote two carols; some of them are still used today, but are not well known. One of them is called ‘Bethlehem oh Noblest Cities’.
In the seventh century was written a carol called ‘Oh Great and Mighty Wonder’. These early carols were written in Latin. The language issue was not as big a problem as it would be later on. In those days Latin was the common second tongue of all the areas that had been conquered by Rome Empire.
In south Wales for example, the Silures would have spoken their own native tongue, but they would also have spoken Latin, so that they could carry on trading with the Roman town at Caerwent and the legionary fort at Caerleon. However after the Romans retreated from this country and the fall of the western Roman Empire, Latin dropped out of use apart from church and scholars.
Scholars still wrote in Latin until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and it was only in the last century that doctors did not have to learn Latin as part of their training; until then they had to be conversant with Latin as well. The question arises, “How did the ordinary folk manage once they had lost the use of Latin?” They could go into the church, they could hear the Latin chants going on, they could hear Latin music, and they could hear the service itself in Latin.
They relied on the stained glass windows and the wall paintings that they
saw inside the church. During the thirteenth century St Francis of Assisi invented the nativity play; he would stage a play in a real stable, using real animals, and actors to play the various parts, and the words were spoken in the language of the people. There were of course songs associated with the plays. At about the same time, there were groups of people running what were called ‘mystery plays’.
The mystery plays were initially done in Latin, with tableau of people dressed up in costumes in posed positions, while verses from the Bible were read explaining what was going on. After a while the players involved tired of this and introduced some dialogue and movement. Thus they became more like ordinary plays. The church took exception, and objected to the clergy being involved in such vulgar activities. When the church withdrew its patronage, the staging of the plays was taken over by the guilds of craftsmen in the various cities.
The consequence of this was that the action of the plays was conducted in the languageof the people, not in Latin; they therefore became very popular. They were mounted on wheeled vehicles called ‘pageants’ and a play could be performed many times, at various locations in a town or city. Various plays were performed at religious festivals such as Christmas, Easter, and Whitsun. Also various Bible stories were illustrated, a famous one being Noah’s Flood and the Ark. Main areas of the country where they were performed were York, Coventry, Wakefield and Chester. Songs and carols accompanied some of the plays.
A song which accompanied the play of the shearmen and tailors of Coventry became known as ‘The Coventry Carol’, and is one of the saddest of Christmas carols. These touring plays, these pageants and mystery plays, developed into passion plays (still performed at Eastertide in Oberammegau) and nativity plays (as presented in so many primary schools today). However apart from these special occasions, these were not the only occasions on which carols were sung.
A number of different groups used to sing carols. The first of these were called ‘waites’ (town musicians); some time after the Norman Conquest in 1066, a curfew was imposed on
all towns. Therefore after sunset, no-one was allowed out on the streets. This was relaxed after about forty years, and the footpads and robbers came out on the streets again, along with the honest people. As a result King Henry II introduced town watchmen; these were employed to walk the streets crying ‘Ten o’clock and all’s well’, repeating the walk each hour. The watchmen were often accompanied by musicians, who would sing as they walked. If they serenaded the streets during the hours of darkness then their efforts were probably not appreciated. Over time town bands were developed; these performed carols and other music.
Other groups who sang were choirs (original spelling ‘quires’). These were the church musicians who led worship from the gallery above the rood screen. This group consisted of players of various instruments together with singers, and their function was to lead the singing in the church. This was of course long before the introduction of the church organ. At Christmastime the choir would go out into the town or village to the homes of the gentry and various farmers, etc. and would sing carols, probably expecting contributions to church funds in return, together with liquid lubrication for their throats.
Similar groups, though not necessarily connected with the church, were the ‘wassailers’. The first type was a good luck or good health wassailer, who danced and sang in the orchard and beat the trees with a wooden stick to promote a fruitful harvest. Another type was the home wassailer, who would dance in front of a house and call down a blessing on the house, on the people who lived there and the cattle kept there.
The wassailers, usually seen in groups, would then produce a large wassail bowl, and expect the householder to contribute some ale. The wassailers’ part of the bargain was to empty it. The wassailers were regarded as luck bringers, and people really looked forward to having them visit and sing the carols. Wassailing could be regarded as a form of legalised
begging, but a group accompanied by a local official such as a mayor might expect to avoid penalty.
Another sub-group known to most people are the ‘mummers’ or ‘guisers’. These would have blackened faces, fancy costumes and therefore be ‘in disguise’. They would come around particularly at Christmas and perform a drama, always taking the same form.There was a hero, sometimes St George, sometimes a white knight, who fought with a villain such as a Turkish or black knight.
These protagonists fought with wooden swords, resulting in the death of one of the combatants. A doctor would arrive and perform a miraculous cure, involving strings of sausages emerging from the patient.
When the patient had been brought back to life, there would be general celebration with song and dance, the advent of Father Christmas, and everyone being wished a happy Christmas. They also performed on Halloween, All Souls Day, New Year and Easter.
From those different groups – waites, quires, wassailers, and mummers – we get today’s carol singers. There are official carol singers in the form of groups raising money for charity, and there are ‘little urchins’ who provide little entertainment but expect generous reward.
The songs that we know as Christmas carols are not in fact confined to Christmas. One of the earliest feasts for which there is a carol is the 25th March, which is the Annunciation. The carol concerned is Gabriel’s Message (‘The Angel Gabriel to Mary Came’). The next carol comes from the season of Advent (‘O come O come Immanuel’). There are a whole group of carols intended to be sung on Christmas day itself. A carol intended for Boxing Day (or St Stephen’s Day) is Good King Wenceslas. The Coventry Carol mentioned earlier is
intended for Holy Innocents Day (three days after Christmas). Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly is a New Year carol, as is ‘Here We Come A-wassailing Among the Leaves so Green’. ‘We Three Kings’ is a carol for the 6th of January.
The carol ‘While Shepherds Watched Their Flock by Night’, written by Nahum Tate in 1700, was introduced after the Reformation, and it was allowed because the words are taken almost entirely from the gospel according to St Luke.
The carol ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ was written in 1848 by Cecil Frances Alexander. It was published in a book titled ‘Hymns for Little Children’; she produced the book in response to her own children’s complaints about the dreary catechism that they had to learn in church as part of their Sunday school teaching. Two other hymns written by her are amongst the best known today, namely ‘There is a Green Hill Far Away’ and ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’.
The carol ‘Joy to the World’ was written by the Rev. William Holford. The tune is thought to have been ‘borrowed’ from Handel’s ‘Messiah’, being very similar to that for ‘Lift up Your
Heads’.
The hymn ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ was written by Charles Wesley, using a tune by Mendelssohn. A hymn for Christmas Day, it was written in 1830.
‘Away in a Manger ‘ is an American carol which came across to this country between 1880 and 1890, when revivalists Moody and Sankey were active. It originally appeared in a booklet called ‘Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses’. The UK and USA have different tunes for the carol.
The carol ‘Silent Night’ was written by an Austrian priest Fr. Xavier Gruber and church organist Josef Mohr for a Christmas night mass, and was sung to a guitar. The legend that a guitar was used because the organ was broken down was added later.
‘Oh Come All Ye Faithful’ dates to about 1740. It was written by English Catholics at a time when they were being persecuted. It was developed from the ‘plain chant’ which was in use in the church at that time.
Memory songs were common in medieval England. One person might start, “I went to the
market and bought a hen.” The next would say, “I went to the market and bought a hen and a bushel of corn.” The next player would repeat the first two items and add another, and the game would continue until missed an item or failed to add a new one.
The ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ developed from this idea. The song does have some unusual features. For example ‘partridge in a pear tree’ may originally have been ‘partridge or a perdrix’, as the French for ‘partridge’ is ‘perdrix’. ‘Four colley birds’ were ‘four coley birds’ (blackbirds). Five gold rings might refer to goldfinches or pheasants, which have narrow bands of golden feathers around their necks.
Dave Edwards
For the October meeting, the History Group had a talk by
Peter Strong entitled ‘the Four Ages of Sudbrook’.The village of Sudbrook is best known for its association with the Severn Tunnel, but its history goes back a long time before the tunnel was built, and did not end after the tunnel was completed. The village is however closely associated with the Severn and its crossing points.
Part of the Silures tribe were living at Sudbrook over 2000 years ago in what is now known as Sudbrook Camp. Some of the early observers believed, quite incorrectly, that the earthwork had been built by the Romans. In fact the fort predated the Romans by several centuries; it was an Iron Age promontory fort, possibly contemporary with Maiden Castle in Dorset, and Llanmelin Hill near Caerwent.
The fort at Sudbrook and one at Worlebury near Weston-super-Mare have a similar design, making it likely that the tribes belonged to the same ethnic group.
The Silures were not the uncivilised, superstitious savages of popular myth. From artefacts excavated. we get a impression of farmers, craftsmen and traders..Indeed some of the items were widely traded, and have been found over a wide area of Europe.
Because of the strategic importance of Sudbrook the Romans occupied it throughout their stay in this area. It is unlikely that they lived there, but stationed guards there to cover the ferry point at Blackrock. It is likely that a ferry at Blackrock was used throughout the Roman period, something that is confirmed by the numerous coins found in the mud near Blackrock, thrown to propitiate the god of the waters, as the coins covered the whole period of Roman occupation.
Little is known about Sudbrook in the immediate post-Roman period (known as the Dark Ages). In the medieval period the village of Sudbrook (or Southbrook) was built very close to the Iron Age camp, on what was formerly known as Trinity Cliff, right on the edge of the Severn, but all that remains of that part of the settlement is the ruin of Holy Trinity Church. The name ‘Holy Trinity’ indicates that this was an English rather than a Welsh foundation, since the feast of the Holy Trinity, was celebrated at that time in England but not in Wales.
The nave walls of the church date back to the 12th century, but other parts are at least a hundred years older. The manor of Southbrook was mentioned in documents dated 1245, when John of Southbrook was listed as lord of the manor. It covered roughly the area south of the railway line today. It is believed that the dividing line between Sudbrook and the separate manor of Portskewett was marked by a series of boundary stones placed in the ground.
The church remained at the heart of the medieval settlement, which included a water mill, cottages, and a village green. It was very typical of the Saxon villages of southern England, and unlike the more isolated settlements common in Wales. For example the fields of the earlier village were divided into strips for cultivation. The fields had names such as Fern Acre, Head Acre, Mill Field, Trinity Field, etc.
Division between strips were marked by stones, some of which survived into the eighteenth century, since local people were by then insisting that they be replaced by something clearer such as sheep hurdles. Several cottages were built around the chapel, and part of the rampart was demolished to make room for settlement there. Also a number of cottages were built inside the camp itself. Within one such house artefacts and pottery from Gloucestershire were found, confirming the trade across the Severn during the middle ages.
The settlement flourished for a time, and additions were made to the church: the chancel was added in the fourteenth century and the south porch in the early fifteenth. This suggests a prosperous community during that period. Trade continued across the River Severn, one unusual example being the harvesting & sale of kelps (seaweed) to a soapmaker in Yate, south Gloucestershire.
One unusual feature of Sudbrook is the divided nature of the settlement; there was an area of settlement around Holy Trinity Church and another around the manor house. Nowadays Portskewett lays claim to this area, but it is quite possible that the people living in the area of Trinity Cliff moved inland as the cliff became unstable due to erosion. Therefore the lumps and bumps visible near Portskewett Church were probably due to that resettlement. However it seems that the village partially abandoned by late 15th century, and by 1720 the church was derelict. By that time much of the churchyard had been washed into River Severn, and bones were visible on the beach.
The decline of the local mill also demonstrates Sudbrook’s decline. The mill was in existence by 1280, in 1711 a new leat was cut, but in 1765 it was referred to as ‘the old mill’ and in 1766 was in ruins. One factor that may have hastened the decline of the community was the enclosure of the corn fields.
In 1858 when the Monmouthshire Antiquarian Association visited Trinity Cliff, they put in their report that there was not a single inhabited building for half a mile in either direction.
In spite of this, at Blackrock (less than a mile away) there was still a thriving ferry point; there being a regular ferry across the Severn from the mid-eighteenth century, access being via the turnpike road. By the mid-nineteenth century it was competing fiercely with the Aust-Beachley crossing for the Royal Mail contract, and in 1863 a branch line was built down to Blackrock, where passengers would alight from the train, embark on the ferry and board another train on the other side. The footings of the Blackrock Pier are still visible at low tide.
Next chapter in the history of Sudbrook covers the Thomas Walker years. A new community grew up around the construction work for the Severn Tunnel. The new community was originally known as Severn Tunnel Works, sometimes even Walker’s Town, until the opening of the post office in 1881, when it was given its official name of Sudbrook.
The nature of Sudbrook was very much a reflection of the personality and character of Thomas Walker himself. However it must be remembered that as the contractor who built the tunnel, Walker was not involved from the very beginning.
The work started in 1873 using direct labour from the Great Western Railway. For the first six years that was the case, and they built the first Victorian houses in what is now known as Old Row (near the camp) to house workers. Walker only became involved in 1879 after they hit the Great Spring, which discharged millions of gallons of water into the tunnel every day.
At this point the construction team nearly abandoned the project, but decided instead to employ a private contractor to complete the work. We must remember that the tunnel was built for transporting Welsh coal across the Severn, not for carrying people.
As the project progressed, more and more workers were required, and there was a problem of accommodation, as existing houses were rapidly becoming overcrowded. To solve the problem Walker bought land in Sudbrook from the St Pierre Estate, and arranged for houses to be built.
One of the first houses built, known as Cliff House, was allocated to the senior foreman Joe Talbot. In 1881 he built Post Office Row, added more houses to Camp Row, and some detached houses for his senior staff. Church Row was built in 1884, more houses were added in Sea View (some had been built earlier).
One interesting feature of the newer end of Sea View is that they were constructed by pouring concrete into moulds of wooden shuttering. It is claimed that these were the first concrete houses to be built in Britain.
In 3-4 years the village emerged from being not much more than a single row of houses to quite a populous community. Well known is the story of the first mission hall, which was well attended. The hall was gutted by fire on November 26th 1872, Walker instantly put plans for a replacement into operation. Construction of the new mission began next morning at 10 o’clock after clearing the debris, and they had completed the foundations by 1 pm the same day. Lighting was set up to enable twenty-four-hour working, and the mission hall, with room for a thousand people, opened on 17th December, just three weeks after the fire.One of the foremen, interviewed some years later, reminisced with nostalgia about the rivalry and stand-up fights between workers. In light of this, it was probably appropriate that Walker invested money in a village hospital. The building now known as the Walker Flats was the original infirmary, and a Chepstow medical practitioner was hired to provide care for workers and their families.
Eleven tunnel workers died in accidents, five of these in a single accident in December 1882. However it is clear that compared with other construction sites of the time, the casualty rate was quite low.
Once the tunnel was completed, Walker departed for other projects: docks at Buenos Aires, docks at Barry, and the Manchester Ship Canal. It was only 4 years later that he died, and was buried in Caerwent churchyard. His wife died 2½ years after. With her death, Sudbrook passed into the hands of their four daughters, Mary, Elizabeth, Annie and Alice.
Their various properties were held in trust, in equal shares for their daughters, but it was Annie, married to ophthalmic surgeon John Cropper, who was to play the most important part in the future life of Sudbrook.
Thus began Sudbrook’s fourth age, the Cropper Age. The pumping station at Sudbrook had become the main employer, and in many ways dominated the life of the village. Employment there still had a paternalistic semi-feudal feel about it. If someone wanted a job there, the biggest factor in their favour was a father or uncle who already worked there.
Of course the pumping station did not just keep the local people fed and clothed; it also kept them warm and clean. It was said that Sudbrook people were the cleanest around. This was due in part to the presence at the pumping station of a pipe which discharged hot water into the Severn, in which local children would wash.
Another notable feature of Sudbrook people was their good teeth, since the pumping station supplied very hard water to the village. The boys in particular were very well groomed, largely due to the presence of an unofficial barber on the top floor of pumping station.
Under the terms of Thomas Walker’s will, his son-in-law Charles H. Walker was given the authority to carry on or wind up as he saw fit any businesses in which Walker Snr. had been engaged. One of these was the shipyard that Walker had established while building of the tunnel.
Charles Walker expended this business, and it became a significant employer in the village. Clearly the shipyard was doing well in its early days, and during the First World War it went on to build barges and tugs for the Admiralty. The largest (and last) ship built was the Frencham, a vessel of 739 tons launched in 1922, registered in Montevideo, Uruguay, and scrapped in 1973. The yard did not survive the depression, and closed in the 1920s.
Mrs Cropper was responsible for establishing orphanages in some of the village cottages. The village was also used to house orphans for the Chepstow Board of Guardians, the infants being placed there instead of in workhouses. This was an early form of ‘care in the community’.
In pre-NHS the hospital relied on charitable donations, village collections and any happenings which might attract visitors, such as the presence of a dead whale on the foreshore.
It did become more a centre of activity during the Second World War when a gun crew was stationed at the camp. It was claimed locally that the guns were never fired except in practice, and when they were fired, they managed to crack all the windows in Old Row.
During the war, the Cropper age came to an end with the death of Charles H. Walker, when it was decided to sell the village. The only buildings that were not sold were the pumping station, Old Row, the mission hall and the manse. The sale of the village was reported in The Times as ‘whole village 180 houses, and village store for the tidy sum of £23,000. Then in 1949 houses were sold individually to the occupiers, usually at £200 each.
Since then Sudbrook has faced many changes. For example the removal of the steam engines at the pumping station in the 1960s resulted in the loss of many jobs. The shops, the post office and the mission hall were demolished in the early 1980s, the paper mill has come and gone, and now new housing developments threaten to swamp the village. However, for now at least Sudbrook does retain some of its unique character. The local history centre in Sudbrook contains much information about the tunnel, the camp and the village, and is well worth of a visit.
Dave Edwards
*Please click here to access our History of the Severn Tunnel
History Meeting September Caldicot Castle from the Begining
The September meeting of the History Group had a talk by Pat Hayward, entitled ‘Caldicot Castle from the Beginning’. Why would a castle be built in Caldicot? It was a small agricultural holding. Remains of a Bronze Age settlement have been discovered, but the area shows no indication of being anything other than agricultural.
However when William of Normandy took over England including part of what is now Gwent, he was anxious to secure his western flank – the border with Wales. He also wished to stamp his authority on the border area. Harold Godwinson (briefly king of England) had attempted the same when he established a hunting lodge at Portskewett.
After William was victorious at the Battle of Hastings, he kept a fifth of England for himself, and distributed the rest among his loyal followers. One of these was his cousin William Fitz Osbern, who was made Earl of Hereford and the Marches, and given the part of Gloucestershire between the rivers Severn and Wye. He was encouraged to fortify the border with Wales as a safeguard.
He built castles at Chepstow 1067, White Castle 1075, Abergavenny 1075, Cardiff 1091, Skenfrith, and Raglan. When Fitz Osbern was killed in 1071 he was succeeded by his two brothers, Durand and Roger. Roger implicated in rebellion against king, imprisoned, and his lands confiscated. However King William’s successor relented and restored the estates to the family.
Roger was succeeded by his son Walter Fitz Roger. A great builder, Walter constructed several castles, including those at Gloucester and Bristol. Caldicot castle must have been built between 1086 and 1127 because the Domesday Book entry for Caldicot (compiled 1086) contains no reference to one, and Walter died in 1127.
The castle lies close to the Nedern Brook, and could therefore be accessed by water, without the risks of travelling by land. That first castle was a single tower (top right-hand in this picture), with no attached bailey (surrounding wall).
Access was via a ladder to a door at second floor level, and even today the steps on the outside lead to the same doorway. The surrounding land was very marshy and that single tower was built on rocky ground at the highest point. However the builders also dug two layers below the entrance level, and threw up the mound around the outside, so the result is not a keep of traditional design.
The west side of the keep has a bulge, giving the impression of housing a stairway, with a window at the top to support this impression. However attackers could pound away all day without gaining entry, as it is solid stone. For extra security the keep was surrounded by a dry moat.
In 1854 historian Octavius Morgan suggested that there was a sluice system in the adjacent Nedern Brook, which would allow the moat and surrounding land to be flooded in the event of attack. The keep was self-sufficient, since there was a well inside the tower, and the garderobes (latrines) drained into the dry moat. However there is no record of the castle ever being attacked, so the defensive measures were probably never used.
Milo FitzWalter gave land to Augustinian monks to build Llanthony Secunda priory in Caldicot, and the first stone church. Milo had 5 sons and 3 daughters. Sons Roger and Walter both became monks, so died without heirs, Henry was slain in a fight with a Welsh prince, Mahel was killed by a falling stone at Bronllys Castle, and William was killed in as hunting accident.
Eldest daughter Margaret (heir to the estate) married Humphrey de Bohun II, second daughter Bertha married William de Braose, and youngest daughter Lucy married Herbert FitzHerbert. Having acquired the estate by marriage, Humphrey De Bohun and his successors managed it for the following 200 years; they were responsible for building most of the castle as we see it today.
Their efforts are still visible today in the de Bohun Gate and the curtain walls. Under that gate was a postern gate, accessed inside via a trapdoor; this small entrance would be used instead of opening the larger one. The curtain walls were accessed via sets of steps spaced around the inside of those walls. The de Bohuns also built the south east and south west towers, and a large banqueting hall (possibly wooden) near the south east tower. The windows in south wall are large, indicating that they were built in time of peace. Earlier windows would have been smaller, narrower, and easier to defend.
Thomas of Woodstock, youngest son of Edward III, married Alianore, elder daughter of Humphrey de Bohun X when he was 22 and she was 11, and so acquired the earldom of Hereford, the title Constable of England, and extensive estates. At Caldicot, Thomas built a tower (now known as the Woodstock Tower) with 3 floors, 3 fireplaces, and 3 garderobes at a cost of £57. He also built a larger entrance gate, which is still used as the main entrance.
On the east side there is a breach in the wall; it is possible that it was made during the Wars of the Roses, but more likely during the Civil War, to prevent the whole castle being ‘slighted’ by parliamentary troops.
When the main gate was excavated, a pit was discovered; this convinced Joseph Cobb (owner from 1885 to 1930s and restorer of the castle) that the castle had a drawbridge operated on the pit and pivot principle. When the main gate was rebuilt, a drawbridge operated it that way was included.Another theory, proposed by Octavius Morgan in 1854, was that the pit was covered by wooden platform which could be withdrawn in the event of attack. Such an arrangement was used in some other castles.
The main entrance had doors, two portcullises, and ‘murder holes’ above, through which oil, boiling water or hot ashes could be thrown onto attackers. Also there may have been portcullises on other doors.
A record dated 1601 mentioned an ‘old ancient castle’ at Caldicot, but there is no record of it being lived in for nearly 400 years, until it was bought by Joseph Cobb in 1885.
During the intervening period the estate was owned or leased by various people, who farmed the land but ignored the fortification.
When bought by Cobb the inside of the castle was used as farmyard, and there is a drawing by his son showing it in that state. He initially restored the gatehouse as a summer residence, and left the rest in its ivy-covered state.Two important figures in the later history of the castle were Anna Cobb and Percival Morgan. When Joseph Cobb died, the castle passed to Geoffrey Wheatley Cobb. He more interested in things seafaring, but his wife Anna, a wealthy lady in her own right, financed more work on the castle. Morgan was initially employed as groom at the age of 16, but later did much of the restoration work on the Woodstock Tower and the keep.
Mrs Cobb’s architect (Mr Forsyth) would tell Percival Morgan what was required, and he would then use a wooden frame to cast concrete blocks so that they resembled the existing stonework. Her husband had founded the Foudroyant Trust for training youths for the merchant navy, and when workmen were required in numbers (e.g. for digging out the moat) boys and men from the Foudroyant provided the labour.
After Anna Cobb died in 1943, parts of the castle were used as temporary accommodation for local people, until in 1963 it was sold to the local council for £12,500. It is now part of a country park, owned by Monmouthshire County Council.
Dave Edwards*please click here to access our webpage with a photo slideshow of the Caldicot Castle and the Country Park
History Group meeting July
For July, the History Group had a talk and conducted tour entitled ‘Beautiful Barriers – Rood Screens in Some Monmouthshire Churches’.
Our guide was our new convenor, Don Wood.
First venue was St Jerome’s Church, Llangwm Uchaf.
The Church of St John at Llangwm Isaf (a mere hundred yards away) was rebuilt in Victorian times; but St Jerome’s is largely as it was constructed in the 14th century, though there are signs of an even older church.
During 19th century restoration, a stone artefact which may be a holy water stoup was found in the wall; this is a relic from earlier centuries. All of these early churches were built near something of spiritual significance, be it a stream, spring, well or ancient tree.
It is unusual to find two churches so close together, but they were in different parishes: Llangwm Uchaf (upper Llangwm) and Llangwm Isaf (lower Llangwm), though the ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ do not refer to height above sea level. However both parishes are old, being mentioned in the Llandaff Scrolls of 1130.
Part of the lane giving access to the two churches was the original main road between Usk and Chepstow. The major road through Shirenewton was a toll road built in 1834 (note the toll house near St John’s Church).
Regarding the rood screen itself, ‘rood’ is a Saxon word for crucifix or cross and early screens were surmounted with crosses, often accompanied by figures of the Virgin Mary and St John. The rood screens were constructed to separate the chancel from the nave, and therefore to separate the clergy from lay folk.
The screen juts out a lot to accommodate a rood loft, the platform on which the church musicians sat, there being no organ to provide music. Faint colouring can be seen on the bottom of some of the panels; originally the whole screen would have been brightly coloured.
The body of a church is called the nave because of its resemblance to an upturned ship (navis in Latin). Medieval churches contained no pews, but there were benches running the length of the walls. The majority of the congregation were expected to stand, but the weak and infirm were allowed to sit on the benches, giving rise to the saying ‘weakest to the wall’. Much of the interior decoration was refurbished by J.P. Seddon between 1830 and 1860, rather sensitively done compared with some Victorian restoration.
Next stop for the party was Bettws Newydd. The name means ‘new oratory’, the first one having been established by St Aeddan or Aiden, and the replacement (dedicated to St Jerome) dating from the 15th century. An oratory is a chapel intended for private prayer. The font is a survivor from the earlier church, as is the outer door.
The rood screen is original in part, the remainder being 19th century. The churchyard contains several ancient yew trees. The largest of these could be 3,000 years old; it has a hollow trunk and a younger tree inside it, growing from the same root. These venerated yews could be the reason for church having been sited here.
Alongside the church is a preaching cross, which would have been used for preaching sermons in English, those given inside the church being in Latin. The base of the cross is original but the cross itself is a replacement.
The church survived the Civil War virtually unscathed, probably because the parliamentary forces never found it, or the village that adjoins it.
Final venue was St Mary’s Church Usk. As well as being the parish church, this was the place of worship for the nuns at Usk Priory, which was home for up to twelve incumbents. The main gate to the priory, which dates back to 1180, still stands, alongside the current entrance to the churchyard. Alongside the church door is a stone dedicated to Saint David Lewis, a 17th century martyr.
The rood screen at Usk was repainted in bright colours in the 1930s, and reflects the original appearance.
The carved and painted ceiling bosses are replacements, the originals having rotted away long since. Running through the centre of the nave is a stone arcade which divides the church in two; one half was reserved for the nuns and the other for the lay people.
In the nave is the original parish chest, which would have contained important church records. The chest has many locks, so opening it would require the consent of all key-holders.
The organ in Usk church is a rather grand instrument for a parish church. It originally sat in Llandaff Cathedral, and was moved to Usk when the cathedral acquired a new one.
The large protruding pipes, called Spanish trumpets, are a most unusual feature.
Our thanks go to Don Wood for a most unusual and informative afternoon.
Dave Edwards
History Group meeting June
The June meeting of the History Group had a talk by Beth Butler entitled
‘The Origin of Nursery Rhymes’.The many rhymes that most of us remember from our childhood have been found all over the world, possibly with different words, but always with the same rhythm of syllables. Most can be put into categories such as counting songs, alphabet rhymes, singing games, riddles, street cries, drinking songs and rhymes based on historical events.
The counting songs such as One two three four five are designed to educate by repetition, as are alphabet rhymes and action songs.
The largest and best known examples of rhymes are based on historical characters or events. Examples are Ring-A-Ring-A-Roses (which mentions symptoms of those suffering from the Great Plague), Baa Baa Black Sheep (alluding to tax evasion, since black wool incurred less duty than white), Humpty Dumpty (possibly King Richard III), Little Boy Blue (Cardinal Wolsey, chancellor to Henry VIII), Ride A Cock Horse (possibly referring to Queen Elizabeth I, who made several royal progresses on horseback), Doctor Foster Went To Gloucester (a reference to King Edward I’s embarrassment when his horse became stuck in a very large puddle while on a visit to the city),
Little Jack Horner is a cynical comment on the distribution of estates after the dissolution of the monasteries. The Lion and the Unicorn Fighting for the Crown is an analogy for the friction between England and Scotland over the redesign of the royal arms after the Act of Union of 1707, Rock-a-bye Baby, in the Tree Top refers to Roman Catholic King James II and his precarious hold on the Protestant English crown.
Jack and Jill Went up the Hill is a reference to the collection of dew on midsummer morning. It was claimed that the moisture concerned had beneficial properties for those who drank or bathed in it. However young people who ascended the hillside on Midsummer Morn might well have intentions other than gathering dew.
Dave Edwards
In April the History Group had a talk entitled
‘A Walk in the Brecon Beacons’ by Chris Barber.
The Brecon Beacons National Park is one of the finest stretches of walking country in
Britain. Travelling from east to west, the places encountered are many and varied, from the mountains around Abergavenny in the east (Blorenge, Skirrid Fawr and Sugar Loaf) to the Carmarthen Fan in the west.
Nestling in the shadow of the Blorenge, the village of Llanfoist was once a busy commercial centre, having an inclined tramway on the side of the mountain, a canal wharf for the loading and unloading of goods, and road links to Abergavenny.
The Skirrid Fawr mountain has a long and varied history, having been the site of an Iron Age fortress, a Roman Catholic chapel (now demolished), and a geology which gives rise to legends involving giants, the devil and others. The nearby Skirrid Inn is reputed to be one of the oldest in Wales, and is certainly one of the most haunted.
The Blorenge Mountain is a popular venue for walkers and hang-gliders. The north face of the mountain has a steep face which facilitates easy launching of a glider.
Several miles to the north-west of Abergavenny is the town of Crickhowell, birthplace of General Sir George Everest, Surveyor-General of India, after whom Mount Everest is named. The village of Llangattock (south of Crickhowell) has mountains with escapements, caves and spectacular views.
The Clydach Gorge (near Gilwern) was a highly-industrialised area in the nineteenth century, criss-crossed by tram lines and standard gauge railways. Near the village of Clydach is Devil’s Bridge, so called because a rock formation under the bridge reputedly shows the Devil in profile. A few metres upstream of the bridge is a deep pothole in the river, known as the drowning pool.
Blaenavon, across the mountain from Clydach, is also famous for its industrial history, mainly in the iron and steel trades. Further west is waterfall country, near Ystradfellte and Pont-Nedd-Fechan, full of spectacular cascades, river walks and birdsong.
Along one of those tributaries is Porth-yr-Ogof (‘entrance of the giant’) where the river disappears underground for several miles.
In the westernmost part of the beacons
are the Carmarthen Fan and Carreg Cennen Castle, sited atop the mountain ridge.The highest peak in south Wales is Pen-y-Fan, near the Brecon Mountain Centre. Once upon a time, when taking a group up Pen-y-Fan, Chris Barber was told by a local that it was now possible to park on the mountain, since a group of students had ‘planted’ a London parking meter near the summit.
His party agreed to dig it up and bring it down. In transporting it, they realised that there were still coins inside, so they took it to the nearest police station. An officer then issued a receipt for the artefact, stating that it would be returned to the finder if not claimed within two weeks. Chris Barber claims to still have the receipt, but has never bothered to return to the police station.
On one occasion he and a friend were encamped in a wet field, sodden by two solid days of rain. When the despondent friend left, Chris decided to stay, until he realised that the airbed on which he lay was floating.
Dave Edwards
Jack the Ripper.
In March Roger Morgan gave the History Group a talk on Jack the Ripper.
image: The Illustrated Police News. Dramatic crime scenes were sketched on every front page.
(c) The Museum in Docklands
On a hot humid summer’s night in 1888, there was a murder in Whitechapel, east London. At that time Whitechapel was an overcrowded and poverty-stricken suburb of London, the home of criminal gangs, thieves and prostitutes, the venue of many atrocities, and an area where policemen did not venture forth singly. Since there were docks in the vicinity, there were many different nationalities in transit, often for short periods of time. Murder was commonplace, resulting from domestic disturbances, money lending, gambling, and many associated activities.
At 4 am on August 7th 1888 Martha Tabram was found murdered by a workman on his way home. When police examined the body, besides a severed throat, they found 39 stab wounds. Rumours abounded, tension increased, but there was no discernable clues to point to a particular person as murderer. Police increased patrols in the area, but having no evidence, they had no idea of who to look for.
On August 31st, there was another murder: Mary Ann Nichols was found with her throat cut in the same manner as the first victim. Police Sergeant Abberline was one of the investigating officers, and in later years his notes were used to support various theories.
On September 8th there was another murder; he victim was Annie Chapman, prostitute. Her throat had been cut, and she had been disembowelled, but there was very little blood. One curious feature was that the contents of her pockets had been very neatly arranged at her feet. Where were the members of the local constabulary? That day the heat wave had broken, and the police were occupied assisting the fire brigade in preventing a bonded warehouse, full of imported alcohol, from catching fire after being struck by lightning.
Vigilante groups were formed, mainly under the guidance of George Lusk, a prosperous businessman and aspiring politician who claimed that he could ‘clean up Whitechapel’. The area was flooded with leaflets, causing suspicion and mistrust between racial groups, but no new information was received, and no one was arrested.
One senior policeman had the original idea of dressing policemen as prostitutes; some of these were propositioned, but not by the murderer. Maybe the sight of burly six-foot female figures was a disincentive.
At the scene of Annie Chapman’s murder, the police found a leather apron, and presumed that it had been used to protect someone’s clothing while they committed the murder. That may have been so, but the owner of the apron proved to be innocent, and there was no evidence of who else might have used it.
The day after the murder, the Central News Agency received a letter signed ‘Jack the Ripper’. Certain facts relevant to the previous day’s horror were mentioned, things which could have been known only to the killer, so the letter was deemed genuine. At last the press had a label for the person responsible.
Post mortem examination of the body indicated that the knife used to cut her throat was a surgical instrument, since it was very thin and very sharp. Also the internal organs had been removed by someone with surgical expertise. These two facts suggested that a member (or past member) of the medical profession was responsible for these crimes.
On September 30th Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes were murdered, and the tips of Eddowes’ ears had been cut off, as predicted in the letter sent to the news agency. That news agency received another letter supposedly from the Ripper, but the handwriting was different, so it was viewed with suspicion. Written on a wall near the Eddowes murder was ‘The Juwes are the men That Will not be blamed for nothing’. Police Commissioner Charles Warren insisted that it be removed to prevent an outbreak of inter-racial tension. A constable removed the graffito using a rag found at the scene, then realised that the rag was a piece of Eddowes’ apron used by the murderer to wipe the bloody knife.
Lusk again encouraged his vigilantes to ‘patrol’ the streets, but without result. Then he received a package; it contained a piece of human kidney and a letter, purportedly from the Ripper. In the absence of modern forensic techniques, they could not be certain that the organ had been taken from the latest victim. However the portion matched the piece that had been left in the body; also the kidney had the appearance of Bright’s Disease, from which Eddowes suffered.
On November 9th there was another murder. Mary Jane Kelly was found; her body had been dismembered. After that Whitechapel became relatively quiet, and the murders stopped.
The suspects were many, varying from a member of the royal family to Polish immigrants. Alas there were no arrests and no trials.
Part of the fascination with this affair is the amount of publicity that it was given. It was the first case to be fully investigated, documented and photographed. However the murders were not identical, and even now no one can be certain that all were committed by the same person. There are still no answers to many of the questions posed at the time.
Dave Edwards
‘The 1607 Flood – A Tsunami in the Bristol Channel?’
The February meeting of the History Group had a talk by Professor Simon Haslett entitled ‘The 1607 Flood – A Tsunami in the Bristol Channel?’
Professor Haslett is dean of the School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S.T.E.M.) at the University of Wales, Cardiff.
His area of specialization is the development of coastal areas since the last Ice Age.
In 2001 he published a scientific paper in the Journal of Geology, examining the theory that the Great Flood of 1607, which laid waste to coastal areas of Gwent, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire and Somerset, was really a tsunami.His co-author was Dr. Edward Bryant, an Australian geoscientist who had already examined evidence of similar occurrences in the southern hemisphere. Professor Haslett (left) and Dr. Bryant are pictured.
The term ‘tsunami’ means ‘harbour wave’, and was first coined by Japanese fishermen who found that their home port would occasionally be badly damaged while they themselves were unharmed out at sea.
Dr. Bryant is an expert on tsunami and their associated characteristics. Having concentrated on the prehistoric era (which in Australian terms was the period before the advent of Captain Cook), he found geological evidence, and heard Aboriginal legends, of the coastline being ravaged many times by extraordinary waves. He wrote a book on the subject, entitled ‘Tsunami – The Understated Hazard’.
The Pacific Ocean has an early warning system for such events, having suffered undersea earthquakes on previous occasions. However the Indian Ocean has none, so the 2004 tsunami in was a total surprise.
The funnel-shape of the Severn Estuary (which causes its high tidal range) could also be the reason that the Great Flood of 1607 caused so much damage, particular as arrival of this ‘wall of water’ coincided with high tide.
Another factor is that some of the coastal plains were reclaimed from the sea, first by the Romans, and again in the medieval period. In time those reclaimed areas became sub-sea level, since tidal action added to the shore line, but not to the portion inside the sea wall.
Evidence of the 1607 Flood:
Contemporary pamphlets give the date (adjusted to the modern calendar) as 30th January 1607, and the approximate time as 9 am. Using tide tables, it is possible to estimate the state of the tide on that day; calculations suggests that high tide at Burnham was 8.28 am. Therefore a high tide, together with the extra surge provided by a tsunami would inevitably cause extensive flooding.
An average storm may last many hours, but each surge of wind-driven water would last seconds and the pressure exerted would abate as the wind died temporarily. The distance between waves would be correspondingly short, a few metres at most.
However a tsunami in deep ocean can have several thousand metres between waves, giving a continuous surge of water, possibly metres in height.
Each wave could travel at a speed comparable with a jet aeroplane, and cross an ocean in a day. When a tsunami reaches land, the speed is reduced, but the wave height is enlarged, sometimes to more than 40 metres. In such a continuous torrent of water, most of the people caught would either drown or die of hypothermia. The effects in January 1607 can only be imagined.
The level reached by the 1607 Flood is recorded in several churches on both sides of the Bristol Channel. The Somerset Levels slope inland from the seawall, so inundation was unavoidable once water had got over that barrier, and it is claimed that the waters reached the foot of Glastonbury Tor.
The flood was particularly severe on the Welsh side, covering coastal areas from Laugharne to Chepstow, with Cardiff as the worst affected town. This event could be considered as the greatest natural disaster ever on British soil.
The Kingston Seymour plaque reads: "An inundation of the sea water by overflowing and breaking down the Sea banks; happened in this Parish of Kingstone-Seamore, and many others adjoining; by reason whereof many Persons were drown'd and much Cattle and Goods, were lost: the water in the Church was five feet high and the greatest part lay on the ground about ten days. WILLIAM BOWER"
Eye-witness accounts record phenomena associated with tsunami, such as the appearance of sparkling lights on the tops of the wave. This could be caused by the spontaneous combustion of methane gas released from the sea floor by the pressure of the wave, the generation of static electricity or by some phenomenon as yet unexplained.
Another tell-tale sign was the speed of the surge which was compared with the pace of a greyhound.
Near Newport, Gwent, a wealthy woman, Mistress Van, lived four miles from the sea and although she saw the wave approaching from her house she could not get upstairs before it rushed through and drowned her.
The idea was published in a journal ‘Archaeology in the Severn Estuary in 2002 under the title ‘Was the AD 1607 Coastal Flooding Event in the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel a Tsunami?’Testing the theory became a matter of visiting key locations to gather samples, and conducting tests to support or negate the idea.
Several inland places which were reputedly inundated by water in 1607 have layers of sand, indicating a severe flood from the sea.
Nearly all the contemporary salt-marsh in the Severn Estuary was eroded.
At certain locations in the Severn Estuary rocky outcrops have been severely scoured, suggesting the river bed was reshaped, probably in the seventeenth century.
At various points along the shoreline of the Bristol Channel there are large boulders, which could have been repositioned by storm surges, or by a tsunami. Estimates of the wave power required to move them indicate that a storm surge would need to be four times as powerful as a tsunami to achieve the same result.
In the wake of the article, the BBC decided to make a television programme on the subject, and agreed to follow Dr Bryant and Professor Haslett on a field trip around the Severn Estuary. Also many days were spent at Shepperton Studios building a 17th century village in a dry water tank, and then filming it as it was flooded.
The programme was scheduled to be broadcast in January 2004 but nature intervened, providing a real tsunami on Boxing Day 2003. The broadcast was delayed in deference to the people who had died in that tragedy in the Indian Ocean, and shown in the following April instead.
Though a definite conclusion cannot be reached regarding the true cause of the Great Flood of 1607, a tsunami remains a strong possibility.
The flood was commemorated in a contemporary pamphlet entitled God’s Warning to his People of England. A transcript can be read on the following website:
http://website.lineone.net/~mike.kohnstamm/flood/jonespamphlet/godswarning.html
The 2002 article from ‘Archaeology in the Severn Estuary’ can be found on:
http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1100&context=scipapersDave Edwards
In the January , Mark Lewis gave the History Group a talk entitled
‘Caerwent and its Region in Roman Times’.Caerwent is 2 miles from Caldicot Town, Castle and Country Park.
The Romans invaded Britain, which they called ‘Britannia’, because the country was rich in mineral resources (lead, slver, copper and gold), and grain. The country was also famous for its hunting dogs and slaves.
There were several attempts at invasion, but the final one was the only successful one; Julius Caesar mounted two expeditions, in 55 BC and 54 BC but realised that he had insufficient troops to achieve very much. Gaius (nicknamed Caligula) and his army reached the northern shore of Gaul, but declined to cross the channel to Britain.
AD 41 Claudius had been declared emperor by the Praetorian Guard, but his reputation in Rome was poor. He was part of the ruling family, but they considered him to be a fool and an imbecile. To bolster his authority and improve his popularity, he needed a quick military victory which would bring glory and wealth to Rome.
As a result four legions invaded Britannia in AD 43, landing in Kent and working their way westwards to Exeter. Within four years troops had occupied and subdued the area of southern England south of a line from Gloucester to the Wash.
The Second Augustan Legion then marched westwards from Gloucester, expecting to achieve equal success in their campaign against the native Celts. Their first fortress in the area was built on the flood plain at Usk (which they called Burrium). However the difficult terrain and the obstinate natives made progress slow. The Celts preferred guerrilla warfare to pitched battles, since this made best use of their forces and terrain. Roman historian Tacitus describes the Silures as ‘changed neither by cruelty nor by clemency’.
However operations in Wales were interrupted in AD 60 or 61 by the Boudicca (or Boadicea) rebellion in eastern England; it was another 15 years before the Romans again turned their attention to Wales.
Sextus Julius Frontinus was appointed governor of Britannia in AD 75, and he adopted an alternative approach for the Romanisation of the Celtic tribes – he encouraged tribal groups to dwell in lowland towns rather than hill forts. Also he established a chain of Roman forts, each within half a day’s march of another. In this way any minor disturbance could be dealt with before it became a major rebellion.
In many cases modern towns are located on the sites of those Roman forts, since the sites chosen were in most cases strategic. Also many modern railways follow the paths of the Roman roads, since both chose the simplest routes and the best gradients through mountainous countryside.
The ‘carrot and stick’ approach had been adopted in an attempt to reduce the number of troops in Britannia, and therefore reduce the cost of running this frontier province. However in Britannia it took about a hundred years (three generations) before it could be considered a success. By AD 122 there was limited trust between Roman and Briton, as grandchildren of the people who had first fought the invasion force adopted a Romanised style of living. Before the advent of the Romans, the indigenous Celts lived in hill or promontory forts, each group having only limited contact with adjacent ones. The Romans however preferred a centralized structure, with local groups controlled by regional capitals. As a result they established Venta Silurium (now Caerwent) as the capital for south east Wales.At the centre of Venta Silurium (‘market place of the Silures’) were the forum and basilica; the forum was open, being a venue for public meetings, markets, etc., while the basilica served as town hall, law court, and local council. Adjacent to the basilica are the foundations of a pagan temple; analysis of excavation results have shown that it was built when the basilica was derelict, roofless, and used for metal-working. Since this was at a time when Christianity was gaining popularity throughout the Roman Empire, it suggests that there was a local sect who had reverted to an older form of worship. No effigy or inscriptions have been found to indicate the deity or deities worshipped there.
Outside the east wall at Caerwent, under the Burton Homes Almshouses, another, smaller temple has been discovered. This was octagonal in shape, and aligned on the main compass points – the door opened to the rising sun.
A major part of the excavation at Caerwent was conducted between 1900 and 1918 by the Caerwent Exploration Fund; most of the finance was provided by its president Viscount Tredegar, and most of the labour by the Clifton Antiquarian Club. This effort produced a plan of the Roman town, and showed that the area within the walls was divided into plots (termed ‘insulae’ by the Romans). Each insula was 275 Roman feet square (269 imperial feet, or 8.2 metres).
When some stones at the centre of Caerwent were examined, one was found to have a dedication to Tiberius Claudius Paulinus, a former commander of the Second Augustan Legion (which was stationed at Caerleon for many years), and who later became governor of Britannia. This inscription shows that at Caerwent the Silures were self-governing, and had their own senate.
The walls at Caerwent were built much later (AD 330) than the buildings they enclose. At that time, the fort at Cardiff had become the base for operations against sea-raiders from Hibernia (Ireland), and Caerleon had been reduced to cohort strength (800 men). The residents of Venta Silurium were understandably nervous, feeling that they were vulnerable to attack.
The towers attached to the north and south walls were constructed later still (AD 349-50). The north and south gates were probably blocked at about the same date. The towers were built so that the wall could be defended using a small number of men. Though irregularly spaced, the towers gave covering fire to the whole length of the wall. However there is no historical or archaeological record of the town being attacked, so the danger presumably passed without incident.
When Cardiff Castle was rebuilt in the 19th century, the outer walls were constructed on the foundations of the Roman fort, and the rear entrance was given a Roman appearance, with large towers flanking an arched gateway. The reconstruction iscredited as being reasonably accurate.
At Caerwent, In the ruins of a large courtyard house north-west of the temple, some food vessels were found. They had presumably been buried to hide them from thieves, but not recovered. The presence of a ‘Chi-Rho’ symbol on one suggests that they were used for ‘agape’ (a ceremonial meal held by members of the early Christian church). Besides items with a Christian association, some earlier objects were discovered scattered through the ruins: for example a figurine of a pagan fertility goddess was found in a pit eleven feet deep, obviously intended to be lost forever.
The basilica in the town centre was a law court amongst other things, but serious cases such as murder could be tried only by the governor of the province. He therefore travelled through a wide area, dispensing justice as he went. For example the trial of Julius and Aaron, during a religious persecution in AD 304, must have taken place at Vesta Silurium ,and the death sentence carried out at Caerleon. They are claimed to be the first British Christian martyrs.
One room in the basilica was a council chamber; this had tiered seats along the long sides of the room for the elected representatives (decurions), and two seats at one end for the presiding officials.
The legend St Patrick indicates that he was kidnapped from his home in Britannia and taken to Hibernia by pirates. His description could easily apply to the area around Caerwent, but there is no direct evidence to link him with this area.The accepted derivation of ’Caldicot’ is ‘cold cottage’, being an unheated shelter for use by wayfarers (travellers on foot) and herdsmen. However Caldicot in Monmouthshire was the site of six kilns, and together they must have produced pottery on a commercial scale. The area around the kilns must have been very hot, and the Latin word for hot is calidus. Since other places named ‘Caldicot’ or ‘Caldecote’ also had potteries in Roman times, could the name mean ‘hot place’?
Dave Edwards
A History of Nonconformity since 1500
In November, the history group had a talk by Ken Payne, entitled
‘A History of Nonconformity since 1500’.The term ‘nonconformist’ was first used in England to describe one who would not conform to the Acts of the Clarendon Code, passed after the Restoration of Charles II. The principal item of contention was the Act of Uniformity, which came into force in August 1662, and which required all English and Welsh clergy to consent to the entire contents of the Book of Common Prayer. For refusing to conform, over 2,000 clergymen were ejected from their livings.
In Europe the movement had begun as dissatisfaction with the established (Roman Catholic) church and its practices. The early protagonists were Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther. Erasmus provided the religious theory, and Luther voiced the criticism in populist terms. It has been said that Erasmus laid an egg, and Luther hatched it.
The church had been criticised in previous centuries, notably by Wycliffe, who advocated separation of church and state, simplicity of worship, and translation of the Bible into English. The church rejected his proposals, but his ideas influenced later reformers.
In 1526 Protestantism in England was given momentum when John Tyndale published the New Testament in English. Though he was burned as a heretic, his text survived, and was used in subsequent versions. Indeed, he was the originator of many English phrases in common use today.
In 1611, the first Baptist church was established in England. In 1727 groups of Moravian Brethren began missionary work, based on the teachings of 14th century reformer Jan Hus. In 1739 the Methodist movement was created, following the ideas of John Wesley, who was influenced by the Moravians. Other non-conformist groups include Anabaptists (‘self baptisers’) and Mennonites (followers of Menno Simons).
In Bristol the Broadmead Baptist Church was established in 1658 (the replacement building still survives today). The Horsefair in Bristol contains Wesley’s first Methodist chapel.
The first independent congregational chapel in Wales was established in 1639 by William Wroth, vicar of Llanvaches. His original chapel was replaced in the 1920s using the same site.
Dave Edwards
The Last Train
In October the group had a talk by Renate Collins (nee Kress), entitled
‘The Last Train’.
In June 1939, 5-year old Renate Kress was put on a train at Prague station by her mother. She then travelled to the Hook of Holland on the North Sea coast, by ferry to Harwich, and train to London. The children on that train were the last to leave Prague before war was declared.
Transport had been arrange by Nicholas Winton (now Sir Nicholas), a British businessman working briefly in Prague. He realised the danger to Jews posed by the German occupation of Bohemia and Slovakia (later Czechoslovakia), and persuaded the Prague authorities that children should be allowed to leave.A further train of children, by then known as the ‘Kindertransporte’, was arranged for September 3rd, but as Britain declared war on Germany that day, no one was allowed to leave. The young people concerned did not survive.
The children who came to Britain were allocated places to live, many of them with families. Renate was taken in by a Baptist minister living in Porth, Rhondda Valley. He and his wife had no children of their own, and they treated her as their daughter, eventually adopting her.
By September 1939 Renate had learned enough English to start school. After grammar school, she attended commercial college, and worked for British Overseas Airways (BOAC) at their depot in Porth.
Some contact with her parents in Prague had been established by Nicholas Winton, and there was some correspondence between Czech and Welsh parents. Also, her cousin Liesl had travelled between London and Prague before the war, and had kept in touch with Renate’s parents. After 1945, Liesl brought some family photographs from Prague and death certificates for Renate’s parents. These documents were needed if she was to be formally adopted by her foster parents.
After seeing a television programme in 1988 about ‘The Last Train’, and hearing Esther Rantzen appeal for children who were on it, Renate contacted the producers, and took part in further radio and television programmes, and met Nicholas Winton.
Dave Edwards
History September 2010
In September, the first meeting of a new session, John Evans gave the history group a talk entitled ‘James Green of Llansantffraed, Spy’.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many wealthy people made their homes in Monmouthshire; one such was James Green. He was born in 1759 in Mortlake, Surrey, the son of a rich merchant. Green married several times, fathered a number of children, and established contact with influential families through arranged marriages. He became a member of parliament under the patronage of the Duke of Norfolk. He lived at Llansantffraed near Abergavenny, was involved in many activities in Monmouthshire, and was an officer in the local militia.
When Green’s business affairs became complicated and debts mounted, he fled to France, where he empathized with the revolutionaries, and voiced the opinion that the guillotine was an efficient way of removing aristocrats. Very soon he became acquainted with Napoleon, and was charmed.
However he was still in contact with Sir Benjamin Waddington, owner of the Llanover estate adjacent to Llansantffraed, and very soon agreed to provide information to the British Government in return for money. Green was writing to Waddington, informing him on French matters and Napoleon’s opinions. He was soon under suspicion, and departed secretly when the authorities tried to stop British people entering and leaving France, On his return to London, he gave a full account of the preparations being made on the north French coast for Napoleon’s intended invasion of England.
Deeply in debt, he died at Llansantffraed in 1814. A court case in regard to his will and associated affairs took 56 years to resolve.
Dave Edwards
Caldicot & District U3A Trip to Caerleon
On 23rd June a group of U3A members had a tour around some of the Roman remains at Caerleon, organised by Sue Shepherd. The guide was Dr Mark Lewis, curator of Caerleon Roman Museum.
These islands were famed in the ancient world for their grain production, mineral deposits, hunting dogs, and slaves. Roman traders were regular visitors, so tales of lucrative resources would have reached Rome, making it a target for invasion and Romanization.
The Romans invaded Britain in AD 43, when Claudius was emperor. The preparatory work had already been done in the reign of his predecessor Caligula, but not put into action. Four legions were used for the campaign, and within 5 years, they had subdued the part of Britain south of a line from the Severn to the Wash.
The Romans’ next objective was Wales. They intended making a route west from Gloucester through Weston-under-Penyard and Abergavenny to mid Wales. With this in mind they established a fort at Usk (called Burrium). However the Boudicca (or Boadicea) rebellion in Norfolk in AD 61 changed priorities and all thoughts of invading Wales were abandoned.
On their return to Wales in about AD 75, the Romans adopted a different strategy; a small town was established at Venta Silurium (‘marketplace of the Silures’) and the Silures from Llanmelin hillfort were persuaded to resettle there. This greatly reduced the level of tribal unrest and attacks on the Romans; in time Venta Silurum (now Caerwent) was declared ‘tribal capital of the Silures’, and granted a degree of self-government.
Also Burrium (Usk) was abandoned and a new fortress created at Isca Silurium (Caerleon). The site chosen at Usk had been a mistake: it was liable to flood, and the river was navigable to that point only with difficulty. The site chosen at Caerleon could be reached by Roman sea-going craft, so it could easily be supplied via water.
After our short history lesson, Mark showed how some Roman tombstones could be used to assess the life expectancy and family relationships of those living at Isca Silurium and the adjoining civilian settlement.
High up on one wall of the museum is a large inscribed marble slab, made in Italy to commemorate some major reconstruction at Caerleon. It was probably first carved when Trajan was consul for the second time, and installed at Isca Silurium just before or just after he was elected consul for the third time; witness the crudely carved and unevenly spaced third digit.
In a nearby display case is a hoard of 599 silver pennies (denarii) found at Llanvaches. This would have been a soldier’s life savings, his daily pay being slightly less than a denarius. The coin inscriptions covered more than a century, the latest being AD 160.
Another of the display cases contains a large number of inscribed gemstones, most of them recovered from the bathhouse drain. The intricate detail of the carving indicates to a high degree of skill by the craftsmen concerned.
The museum contains a stone coffin used for an inhumation, as well as several pots containing cremated remains. Roman burial practices varied: early ones were cremations, but other customs were adopted over time. The skeleton normally in the coffin has been removed, so that some tests can be done. It is hoped that analysis of a tooth will indicate his place of birth.
One of the major Roman sites in Caerleon is the amphitheatre, the best excavated in Britain. This was contemporary with the earliest fort, and was used for ceremonial parades, gatherings of the whole legion and gladiatorial contests. During the nineteenth century a museum was established at Caerleon to collect and conserve antiquities found in the area, and became part of the National Museum of Wales.
In the nineteen twenties Dr Mortimer Wheeler (director of the National Museum) agreed to excavate the site. Knowing that the museum was short of funds, and being aware that the field containing the amphitheatre was known as ‘The Round Table Field’ in local folklore. he exploited the reputed association with King Arthur to foster interest and raise sponsorship for the project.
After intense negotiation the Daily Mail newspaper agreed to buy the field and fund the dig, in return for exclusive daily reports. In the meantime Wheeler had been appointed director of the Museum of London, so his wife Tessa supervised the excavation and despatched daily reports to their benefactor for publication.
Dr Lewis also suggested an alternative derivation of ‘Caldicot’. The accepted meaning is ‘cold cottage’, being an unheated shelter for use by herdsmen and wayfarers. However there was a Roman pottery at Caldicot, so the area around the kiln would have been hot (calidus in Latin).
Dave Edwards
website link: www.caerleon.net/history/dig/2010
Public tours will be available twice daily during the excavation season, which runs from August 9th - September 17th 2010 (excluding Saturdays). A guide will meet visitors at the gate to Priory Field on The Broadway (next to the amphitheatre car park) at 11 am and 2.30 pm.
For the June meeting, the Judiciary: a History of the Magistrates’ Courts’.
The June meeting of the History Group had a talk by Ross Goff entitled ‘The Judiciary: a History of the Magistrates’ Courts’.
The office of Justice of the Peace was created by act of Parliament in 1361, and JPs have been involved in the court system since then. During the medieval period JPs had great powers, and could handle all cases with the exception of treason. Their other duties included raising taxes, raising armies, and prior to the creation of county councils, administration of the shires.
JPs are required to take two oaths – the judicial oath (to apply the law fairly), and the oath of allegiance (to the monarch). For many years a Book of Statutes has been prepared, listing new legislation. Originally a slim volume produced once every few years, it is now a far larger publication issued several times a year.
Until the late 20th century appointments were secret. Ross Goff for example received a letter informing him of his appointment, having had no indication that he was even being considered. He was sworn in by Peter Temple-Morris QC, whose advice to a new appointee making his first appearance in court was to ‘keep his eyes open, his ears open and his mouth shut’.
Jurisdiction of a magistrate is normally confined to a particular area, but can be overruled when necessary. For example Ross Goff’s area was Chepstow and Newport Quarter Sessions (when they were held there). When a high-profile case involving the Bishop of Llandaff was heard at Cardiff Quarter Sessions, Ross and other JPs from Chepstow were temporarily sworn in at Cardiff, since the bishop was well acquainted with their Cardiff equivalents.
In recent times magistrates have been expected to play a part in the wider community, and not just appear in court. Many sit on committees for the probation service, the police authority and various advisory bodies, as well that governing court administration.
Appointments now are completely open: candidates can apply themselves or be nominated. They are interviewed carefully, and given specimen cases to assess their judgement.
Dave Edwards
For the May meeting, the History Group had a talk by David Evans, entitled
‘My Father’s Secret Past’.His father, Vincent Evans, was born in 1899, spent many years in the Church of Wales, first as a curate and then as a vicar, and died in 1992. David thought that was an accurate summary of his father’s life.
However in 2001 a newspaper article appeared, describing the activities of an underground wartime group in north Monmouthshire, including the Reverend Vincent Evans, vicar of Llanddewi Rhydderch.
The article was based on the reminiscences of another member of the group, George Vater. After some research, David found that has father had been part of a clandestine organization formed to operate secretly in the event of a German invasion.
The activities of the Home Guard are well known, but there was also a network of special duties agents. These were trained to maintain contact with the local community, gather and transmit information, create and equip subterranean hiding places, and if necessary act as saboteurs. These voluntary agents were told that if captured, they could be treated as spies, and shot.
The radio operator for the group was Rev. Richard Sluman, vicar of Llantillio Croesenny. The radio was hidden behind the church altar, with the aerial nestling behind the lightning conductor on the tower.
In 1944, the Rev. Cecil Gower-Rees, vicar of Llanarth, realised that he had very little information about American troops stationed in the area. Consequently he went to see their commanding officer, and invited them all to his Sunday services. The officer laughed and asked, “Do you realise how many men I have under my command?” He then proceeded to list the units, giving the strength of each one. The cleric then had data he could pass to the War Office.
As a result of that newspaper article, a radio programme, a television documentary, other newspaper features and several books were produced, with titles such as ‘Dad’s Underground Army’ and ‘The Mercian Maquis’. Fortunately these careful preparations were never needed in earnest.
Dave Edwards
HISTORY GROUP April 2010
For the April meeting, we had a talk by Stan Griffiths entitled ‘The Camera Never Lies, or Does It?’
In 1935 a London doctor known as Buck Ruxton murdered his wife Isabella, and their maid Mary Rogerson. Being a surgeon he expertly cut up the bodies to remove identification, and disposed of the remains in Scotland.
As no direct identification using fingerprints, dental records, etc. was possible, newly developed forensic methods were used. A technique called photographic superimposure provided evidence of critical importance. This involved comparing a photograph of Isabella with a photograph of one of the skulls found. The match was perfect – the camera could not lie. Ruxton was hanged.
In July 1917, two young girls in the Yorkshire village of Cottingley excused the untidy state of their clothes by claiming that they had been playing with the fairies in the beck. The father of one of the girls, suspicious of the explanation, gave them a camera, and asked them to take photographs of the ‘fairies’. Within an hour they returned, having taken a picture.
When developed, the photograph showed one of the girls surrounded by fairy figures. The girl’s parents viewed the picture as a possible fake, and it was put aside.
One of the parents was a member of the Theosophical Society, founded to explore the wisdom underlying all religions. It was after one of the society’s meetings in 1919 that the photograph, along with several others taken in the intervening period, was given a public airing.
Kodak examined the camera and negatives. They concluded that no camera trickery was involved, but were reluctant to draw any other conclusion.
The affair came to the notice of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes). He published an article claiming that the pictures proved the existence of fairies.
Speculation and discussion continued for many years, but it was not until 1983 that the girls, now of advancing years, admitted that they had copied and cut out drawings from a book, hung them on bushes, and taken the photographs.
The camera never lies, or does it?
Dave Edwards
HISTORY GROUP March 2010
For the March meeting, John Evans gave a talk on The Quaker Self-help Movement in the South Wales Valleys in the 1930s.
In the period 1920-1935 much of Great Britain suffered greatly from the after-effects of the First World War. South Wales was one area which suffered more than most – a fall in the demand for coal when the war ended meant that many thousands of miners were suddenly unemployed.
Also an increase in bank rate to counteract inflation made the problem worse. Some newspapers speculated that the south Wales valleys would never recover. Another source of concern was the health of children. Tuberculosis, rickets and malnutrition were rife, and 80 percent were thought to be below an acceptable standard.
The Quakers came to the area, and established schemes to provide employment. Among other enterprises they set up a boot repair factory in the Rhondda valley, the resultant footwear being distributed to the poor.
As part of the impetus to find a solution, the Quakers came to Brynmawr (one of the unemployment blackspots), and were shocked by the living conditions they found. They organised a Christmas party for the children, and distributed 350 donated toys to them. For most children, these were the first toys they had ever had. They twinned valley towns with English towns such as Eastbourne, and some children had their first holiday as a result.
Activist Peter Scott, working with the Quakers, set up a series of clubs and work schemes. There were some small projects (e.g. building a swimming pool), but most were intended to provide full-time work, albeit on a subsistence basis.
There were allotments, a bakery, a butchery, a furniture factory, and men’s’ clubs (to repair boots). Local people were however reluctant to accept what they saw as subsistence work provided by ‘Bloody Quakers’.
By 1938, things were improving, and the outbreak of war in 1939 saw an upturn in any industry connected with war effort, including coal and steel.
Dave Edwards
HISTORY GROUP February 2010
For the first session of the reformed History Group, we had a talk by Peter Strong, entitled ‘Ted Gill – a Working Class Hero’.
Edward Gill was born of Welsh parents at Leominster in 1879. They moved back to Abertillery, where the young Ted grew up. He left school at the age of 10, becoming a miner when he was 15. His powers of oratory soon made him a local representative of the South Wales Mineworkers Federation (‘The Fed’). His intelligence and oratory won him a place at Ruskin College, Oxford, where he met several influential figures, and a young miner named Aneurin Bevan. On leaving college Ted became a full time union official.
When war broke out Ted opposed it, and campaigned vehemently against it. However he changed his mind when German atrocities became known and he enlisted for the army. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant, a very unusual step for a working class recruit. He was first made recruiting officer for the Abertillery area, but sent to France with his battalion in 1915.
For his gallantry in rescuing a wounded comrade under heavy fire, he was awarded the Military Cross. He was wounded himself in 1916 when the battalion stormed Mametz Wood as part of the battle of the Somme, and he retired from the army. Ted stood as Labour Party candidate for Frome and fought elections there in 1919 and 1922, coming second in both.
In 1923 while campaigning at Blythe in Northumberland for another Labour Party candidate, he became ill and died, aged 44. When his body was brought from Blythe to Abertillery, miners lined much of the route, and his funeral was one of the largest ever seen there. Had he lived, he would probably have become MP for Frome in the 1923 General Election.
The church at Rogiet Llanvihangel has been restored by a group of local volunteers, and an exhibition is proposed for September. It is also open to groups for conducted tours.
The subject for the March talk will be ‘The Quakers in Monmouthshire in the 1920s, and their Social Work’, by John Evans.
Dave Edwards
.Visit to Berkeley Castle
What a great day we had at Berkeley. Raining in the morning, by lunchtime it had cleared and we have a lovely afternoon.There has been a defensive structure on this site since the Conqueror's time. Early in the 11th century, Henry II granted Berkeley to Robert Fitzhardinge, who is the forbear of the famkily which hasd owned the Castle until the present day.
*please click the image below to access a photo slideshow of the visit to Berkeley Castle
The photos were taken by John Sherrington
We are accustomed to great Norman structures partially in ruins. What we have here is a "home", albeit rather large but sophisticated, with rooms you could live in. What makes a tour so interesting are the little stories that the guide tells you.
For instance, the owner in l924 married an American heiress. He had to sell Berkeley Square - for £24M - I wonder what it is worth today - The first thing she said on arrival was "where's the central heating". She was a Lowell, the eflite family of Boston.
There was a saying at the time that the Cabots - another elite family in Boston - spoke only to the Lowells but the Lowells spoke only to God. Another story - when the family set off for London in medieval times, nearly all the land they travelled over belonged to them.
Many Americans visit the Castle as you can imagine. They always ask about the pronunciation; they say BURLEY, we say BARKLEY. They are always reassured that their's is the correct way!.
The Edward Jenner Museum
Nearby is the house where Edward Jenner lived. Born in l749, he discovered the process of vaccination. Being a countryman he was particularly interested in cowpox It was accepted in then countryside that if you contracvtred cowpox, as many dairymaids did, you were immune to smallpox.
After many experiments over a number of years, he proved that this had a basis in fact and in l980 the World Health Organisation declared "smallpox is dead". In the grounds of the house is a thatchroofed stone building called the "Temple of Vaccinia", where he vaccinated the poor.
Jenner was also a naturalist. He discovered that a fledgling cuckoo throws its foster brothers, or the eggs of its foster parents, out of the nest. He also studied the migration of birds little of which was known at the time. He found that the same birds returned to the same place summer after summer.
At the age of 49 he was internationally famous. In the war with Napolean, two Englishmen were held in France and were suffering from the effects of confinement. It was suggested that Jenner should write a letter to Napolean asking for their release. Napolelan was about to refuse the request when the name on the letter was pointed out to him. "Jenner", said Napolean, "We can refuse nothing to that man".
Truly a remarkable man though a modest one, whose work with smallpox has saved countless millions of lives
And last but not least is the Butterfly House. A feast for the eyes! A tropical paradise but without all the creepy-crawlies!Warm, moist, with an abundance of tropical plants, the butterflies danced as in an unrehearsed ballet, showing jewelled colours as they alight on their source of nectar. A lovely experience reminding you that beautiful as man-made structures can be, nothing beats mother nature in its own glorious display.I'm sure an enjoyable and interesting time was had by all and thanks to Iris and her team for taking us there.
Sheila Ford..
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Berkeley Castle and Gardens
*please click the image below to access a photo slideshow of the visit to Berkeley Castle and Gardens
photo: Waiting for the bus to Berkeley Castle and Gardens
The photographs werer taken by Glenice and Adrian Dallow and Dorothy WitcombHistory of Berkeley Castle
Home of the Berkeley Family for 850 Years The most remarkable thing about the Castle is that for nine centuries, the building, the Berkeley family, the archives (which go back to the 12th Century), the contents, the estate and the town have all survived together.Its place in history is significant, not just because it is still intact, but because the Berkeley family and their home have played an important part in the power struggles of so many centuries.
Built for War The Castle is one of the March Castles, built to keep out the Welsh.It has all the trappings to match: trip steps designed to make the enemy stumble during an assault, arrow slits, murder holes, enormous barred doors, slots where the portcullis once fell, and worn stones where sentries stood guard.
It is also a fairytale Castle with its warm pink stone that glows in soft sunset light. Outside, the battlements drop some 60' to the Great Lawn below; but inside the Inner Courtyard, the building is on a human scale, with uneven battlements, small towers, doors and windows of every shape and size. The surrounding land would have been flooded for defence.
Where History is a Home The Family are one of only three families in England who can trace their ancestry from father to son back to Saxon times. English history has been lived out within these walls - and by this family. The Castle is the oldest building in the country to be inhabited by the same family who built it.For centuries, the Berkeleys were close to the throne, able administrators and fighters who supported their king or queen (as long as they could), backed the winning side, and married well. The Castle, naturally enough, is full of stories.
The Archives housed in the Castle date back from the earliest part of the 12th Century and number around 20,000 documents, 6,000 of which relate to the mediaeval period. The latter are mainly manorial records which relate to every county in England, excepting two only.
Website Link: www.berkeley-castle.com
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Iris Price with the bouquet of flowers presented to her by Alma Gaskell on the occasion of her retirement from the position of Convenor for the History Group.
Along with Iris are four of her helpers who have given her continued support throughout her term of office
Wells Cathedral
*please click the image below to access a photo slideshow of the visit to Wells Cathedral
The Photographs were taken by Glenice and Adrian Dallow
In 909 the large diocese of Sherbourne was split and the minster church of St. Andrew became the first Wells Cathedral. Giso, the last Saxon bishop built both to the south, buildings for live-in priests, and north, a cloister. Pottery and animal bones were found to the south and a fine tomb cover of the tenth century with a pattern representing the Tree of Life to the north.After the death of Giso in 1088, his successor John of Tours moved his seat to Bath Abbey and Wells was temporarily demoted. In the early 1100s Bishop Robert partially rebuilt the neglected church and carved stone fragments of the Norman period were recovered during the excavations.
By 1180 the foundations of an entirely new church were being laid to the north of the old one and on a better east-west alignment. Bishop Reginald, the then Bishop of Bath and a Norman by family, brought with him the exciting ideas of a new architectural style - the Gothic.
Probably by 1196 the demolition of the Saxon cathedral began as the new church was sufficiently advanced to be used for worship. Some stone was recycled for use in the new building. Out of respect for the ancient sacred site of the Roman mausoleum, the St. Mary Chapel was preserved and joined on to the new east cloister at a skewed angle. It became known as the "Lady Chapel by-the-Cloister".
In 1477 Bishop Robert Stillington embarked on a complete rebuilding of the chapel on a grand scale. The foundations of this cruciform building are what can be seen today in the Camery garden. This grand chapel did not last long and was blown up with gunpowder in 1552 because Edward VI had abolished Chantry chapels in the height of Reformation zeal.
Website Link: www.wellscathedral.org.uk
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DOLAUCOTHI GOLD MINES
On 11th May 2009 members of the History and Science Groups visited the Dolaucothi Gold mines in Carmarthenshire where gold has been mined since Celtic times.
*please click the image below to access a photo slideshow of the visit
to Dolaucothi Gold mines in Carmarthenshire
photo: Rosa finds Gold
The Photographs were taken by Dorothy Witcomb, Glenice and Adrian Dallow
We were given a warm welcome by members of the National Trust and divided into to groups. One group went on a short walk along a Victorian adit (tunnel), the second climbed up the hill for an extensive tour of Roman and Victorian mines.
We then tried panning for gold and learnt to distinguish between fool's and red welsh gold. There was also time to see the exhibits, buy gold, and sample Irene's delicious home made deserts.
These unique gold mines are set amid wooded hillsides overlooking the beautiful Cothi Valley. The Romans who exploited the site almost 2,000 years ago left behind a complex of pits, channels, adits and tanks. Mining resumed in the 19th century and continued through the 20th century, reaching a peak in 1938.
Guided tours take visitors through the Roman and the more recent underground workings. The main mine yard contains a collection of 1930s mining machinery, an exhibition about the history of gold and gold mining, video and interpretation.
Gold panning gives visitors the opportunity to experience the frustrations of the search for gold. Other attractions include waymarked walks and picnic areas. There is fishing and accommodation on the estate, including a 35-pitch touring caravan site.
Website link: www.nationaltrust.org.uk
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