The Cardiff Book of Days E-Book

Mike Hall

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Taking you through the year day by day, The Cardiff Book of Days contains a quirky, eccentric, amusing or important event or fact from different periods of history, many of which had a major impact on the religious and political history of Britain as a whole. Ideal for dipping into, this addictive little book will keep you entertained and informed. Featuring hundreds of snippets of information gleaned from the vaults of Cardiff's archives, it will delight residents and visitors alike.

Leseprobe

THE CARDIFF BOOKOF DAYS

MIKE HALL

My thanks are due to my wife Linda for all the gems she discovered through her internet research, and also to my fellow writer and local historian Richard Jones, who checked my text for accuracy. Any factual blunders that remain are my fault entirely.

I am also indebted to the many unwitting contributors whose work on Cardiff I trawled through. My primary source was the late Stewart Williams (see January 15th). Without him and all the others acknowledged for each date this book could not have been compiled.

Mike Hall, Redwick, Monmouthshire, 2011

First published in 2011

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2012

All rights reserved

© Mike Hall, 2011, 2012

The right of Mike Hall, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 8593 5

MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 8592 8

Original typesetting by The History Press

Contents

January

January 1st

January 2nd

January 3rd

January 4th

January 5th

January 6th

January 7th

January 8th

January 9th

January 10th

January 11th

January 12th

January 13th

January 14th

January 15th

January 16th

January 17th

January 18th

January 19th

January 20th

January 21st

January 22nd

January 23rd

January 24th

January 25th

January 26th

January 27th

January 28th

January 29th

January 30th

January 31st

February

February 1st

February 2nd

February 3rd

February 4th

February 5th

February 6th

February 7th

February 8th

February 9th

February 10th

February 11th

February 12th

February 13th

February 14th

February 15th

February 16th

February 17th

February 18th

February 19th

February 20th

February 21st

February 22nd

February 23rd

February 24th

February 25th

February 26th

February 27th

February 28th

February 29th

March

March 1st

March 2nd

March 3rd

March 4th

March 5th

March 6th

March 7th

March 8th

March 9th

March 10th

March 11th

March 12th

March 13th

March 14th

March 15th

March 16th

March 17th

March 18th

March 19th

March 20th

March 21st

March 22nd

March 23rd

March 24th

March 25th

March 26th

March 27th

March 28th

March 29th

March 30th

March 31st

April

April 1st

April 2nd

April 3rd

April 4th

April 5th

April 6th

April 7th

April 8th

April 9th

April 10th

April 11th

April 12th

April 13th

April 14th

April 15th

April 16th

April 17th

April 18th

April 19th

April 20th

April 21st

April 22nd

April 23rd

April 24th

April 25th

April 26th

April 27th

April 28th

April 29th

April 30th

May

May 1st

May 2nd

May 3rd

May 4th

May 5th

May 6th

May 7th

May 8th

May 9th

May 10th

May 11th

May 12th

May 13th

May 14th

May 15th

May 16th

May 17th

May 18th

May 19th

May 20th

May 21st

May 22nd

May 23rd

May 24th

May 25th

May 26th

May 27th

May 28th

May 29th

May 30th

May 31st

June

June 1st

June 2nd

June 3rd

June 4th

June 5th

June 6th

June 7th

June 8th

June 9th

June 10th

June 11th

June 12th

June 13th

June 14th

June 15th

June 16th

June 17th

June 18th

June 19th

June 20th

June 21st

June 22nd

June 23rd

June 24th

June 25th

June 26th

June 27th

June 28th

June 29th

June 30th

July

July 1st

July 2nd

July 3rd

July 4th

July 5th

July 6th

July 7th

July 8th

July 9th

July 10th

July 11th

July 12th

July 13th

July 14th

July 15th

July 16th

July 17th

July 18th

July 19th

July 20th

July 21st

July 22nd

July 23rd

July 24th

July 25th

July 26th

July 27th

July 28th

July 29th

July 30th

July 31st

August

August 1st

August 2nd

August 3rd

August 4th

August 5th

August 6th

August 7th

August 8th

August 9th

August 10th

August 11th

August 12th

August 13th

August 14th

August 15th

August 16th

August 17th

August 18th

August 19th

August 20th

August 21st

August 22nd

August 23rd

August 24th

August 25th

August 26th

August 27th

August 28th

August 29th

August 30th

August 31st

September

September 1st

September 2nd

September 3rd

September 4th

September 5th

September 6th

September 7th

September 8th

September 9th

September 10th

September 11th

September 12th

September 13th

September 14th

September 15th

September 16th

September 17th

September 18th

September 19th

September 20th

September 21st

September 22nd

September 23rd

September 24th

September 25th

September 26th

September 27th

September 28th

September 29th

September 30th

October

October 1st

October 2nd

October 3rd

October 4th

October 5th

October 6th

October 7th

October 8th

October 9th

October 10th

October 11th

October 12th

October 13th

October 14th

October 15th

October 16th

October 17th

October 18th

October 19th

October 20th

October 21st

October 22nd

October 23rd

October 24th

October 25th

October 26th

October 27th

October 28th

October 29th

October 30th

October 31st

November

November 1st

November 2nd

November 3rd

November 4th

November 5th

November 6th

November 7th

November 8th

November 9th

November 10th

November 11th

November 12th

November 13th

November 14th

November 15th

November 16th

November 17th

November 18th

November 19th

November 20th

November 21st

November 22nd

November 23rd

November 24th

November 25th

November 26th

November 27th

November 28th

November 29th

November 30th

December

December 1st

December 2nd

December 3rd

December 4th

December 5th

December 6th

December 7th

December 8th

December 9th

December 10th

December 11th

December 12th

December 13th

December 14th

December 15th

December 16th

December 17th

December 18th

December 19th

December 20th

December 21st

December 22nd

December 23rd

December 24th

December 25th

December 26th

December 27th

December 28th

December 29th

December 30th

December 31st

January 1st

1864: The opening of a link between Portskewett Pier and the Chepstow to South Wales line was formally approved after a visit of an officer from the Railway Inspectorate. This enabled the introduction of through fares between Cardiff and Bristol. This was a great convenience for passengers as previously separate bookings had to be made for travel on railways either side of the ferry crossing, as well as a separate ferry toll. (John Norris, The Bristol & South Wales Union Railway, Railway & Canal Historical Society, 1985)

2011: Business leaders attacked a decision by Arriva Trains not to run any Valley Line services into Cardiff on New Year’s Day, despite the fact that it was a Saturday and expected to be a very busy day for shopping in the city centre. Steven Madeley of the St David’s Centre said, ‘it is causing us a significant headache because a lot of our staff will not be able to get their regular train to work.’ A spokesman for Arriva Trains said that the company had received no formal request from any business or organisation for them to run a service and added that it would have considered a request had it been made. (South Wales Echo)

January 2nd

1941: Cardiff suffered its worst air raid of the Second World War. On a cold moonlit night the city was attacked by 100 German bombers. The raid began at 6.40 p.m. and the all clear did not sound until 4.50 the next morning. One hundred and sixty-five people were killed, 100 houses destroyed and many others badly damaged. A shelter at Hollyman’s Bakehouse at the junction of Corporation Road and Stockland Street received a direct hit and thirty-two people, including the Hollyman family, lost their lives. Seven people were killed at a house in Neville Street as were all members of a funeral party sheltering at an address in Blackstone Street. Llandaff Cathedral was hit and the Dean, the Revd D.J. Jones, was thrown through the West Doors when a landmine exploded. All Saints’ Church, Llandaff North, was set on fire. A parachute mine fell on the Arms Park damaging stands and terracing and there was an unexploded mine at the castle. A higher death toll was only avoided because many of the bombs fell in the castle grounds and in Sophia Gardens. (J.H. Morgan, ‘Cardiff at War’ in Stewart Williams (ed.) The Cardiff Book, Vol.3, 1974)

January 3rd

1819: St John’s School opened. It had been built at a cost of £700 as a Free School for poor children on a site donated by the Marquis of Bute, who also subscribed 50 guineas and later gave another grant of land to increase the size of the playground. There were two schoolrooms, one for boys and one for girls. The boys got the usual lessons in reading, writing and arithmetic but the girls were also instructed in sewing and housewifery. (William Rees, Cardiff: A History of the City, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)

1882: The birth of John Lewis Williams, a rugby winger noted for his magical ability to side-step and swerve past opponents. He played seventeen times for Wales, only being on the losing side twice. He was part of three Welsh Triple Crown-winning sides and scored 17 tries in internationals. He played for the British Lions and was a fixture in the Cardiff team for many years. During the First World War he served in the 38th (Welsh) Infantry Division. He died at the Battle of the Somme during the attack on Mametz Woods. (T.D. Breverton, The Welsh Almanac, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / Wikipedia)

January 4th

1940: The birth in Cardiff of Brian Josephson who went on to become an eminent scientist, joint winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize for Physics. A great original thinker, he won a research fellowship at Trinity, Cambridge; contemporaries claimed that he could sniff a flawed proposition a mile off. Josephson discovered how an electrical current could flow between two superconductors, even when an insulator was placed between them. This became known to physicists as the ‘Josephson Effect’. The practical application of this research was in the development of extremely sensitive scientific instruments, for example used in the magnetic field around the brain. He later became fascinated by the links between the brain and paranormal phenomena. His ideas in this area are still controversial and have been criticised by fellow academics. Nevertheless, he insisted that experiments in telepathy have consistently produced results that cannot be explained by mere probability. He claimed his motto was that of the prestigious Royal Society: ‘nullius in verba’ – ‘take nobody’s word for it’. (T.D. Breverton, The Welsh Almanac, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / John O’Sullivan & Bryn Jones, Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration, The History Press, 2005)

January 5th

1873: The funeral of PC William Perry (37) took place. He had been stabbed to death by a mentally-ill butcher, John Jones, in the entrance to the Westgate Hotel, Cathedral Road. Jones was buried with full honours at Adamsdown cemetery. A former soldier, he had served in the Cardiff Borough Constabulary for eight years. Ironically, he had been planning to move to West Wales soon. Such was the public sympathy for Perry that over 12,000 people lined the route from his home in Heath Street to the cemetery and a week later there was a memorial service at St John’s. Perry’s assailant died in custody on January 8th. The cause of death was given as a brain haemorrhage and he was buried in unconsecrated ground at Cathays the following day.

1969: Twenty-three-year-old prostitute Margaret Sennett’s half-naked body was found in the churchyard of St Mary’s Church, Bute Street. It had been partially hidden among leaves and some rubble from recently-demolished houses. An attempt had been made to burn her clothing, some of which was missing. Twenty-eight-year-old Royston Slater from Splott was charged with her murder. After evidence was presented of his mental state, Slater was placed in a secure hospital. (Mark Isaacs, Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Cardiff, Wharncliffe, 2009)

January 6th

1913: Escapologist Harry Houdini began a week-long run at the Cardiff Empire. The theatre bills (illustrated by Stewart Williams in his Cardiff Yesterday series) proclaimed it ‘the Great Performance of his Strenuous Career, liberating himself after being locked in a WATER TORTURE CELL. Houdini’s own invention, whilst standing on his head, his ankles clamped and locked above in the centre of the Massive Cover – A Feat which borders on the supernatural. Houdini offers £200 to anyone who proves that it is possible to obtain air in the upside down position in which he releases himself from this WATER-FILLED TORTURE CELL’. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

2002: Crowd trouble marred Cardiff City’s 2-1 FA Cup third round victory over Leeds United. Cardiff had come from behind to win with a goal three minutes from time. Some Cardiff fans invaded the pitch and confronted the Leeds supporters. Coins and plastic bottles were thrown, the ugly scenes marring the underdogs’ victory. However, the worst casualty was believed to be a Leeds supporter bitten by a police dog as he boarded a bus. (Dennis Morgan, Farewell to Ninian Park, 2008)

January 7th

1871: The Cardiff Times reported that ‘a capital dinner, consisting of roast beef, roast mutton and vegetables, accompanied by an abundant supply of plum pudding etc. was given to the whole of the poor of the parish in the National Schoolroom, Penarth. Judging from their appearance, they heartily enjoyed their repast. Before the guests departed the female portion had a quarter of tea given to them and those males who indulged in the soothing weed had some tobacco.’ (Quoted by E. Alwyn Benjamin in Penarth 1841-71, A Glimpse of the Past, D. Brown & Sons, 1980)

1893: Wales beat England for the first time in a rugby match at the Arms Park that nearly did not go ahead because of extreme cold. The pitch was frozen solid and play was only made possible by the groundstaff who lit fires all over the playing surface. Eighteen tons of coal were used and when the England team arrived in a blizzard they were amazed to see more than 500 hastily improvised braziers (buckets pierced with holes and raised up on bricks). (Robert Cole & Stuart Farmer, The Wales Rugby Miscellany, Sports Vision Publishing, 2008)

January 8th

1930: Cardiff City star Hughie Ferguson committed suicide at the age of 32. Transferred from Motherwell for a fee of £5,000 in 1925, Hughie had been a great favourite with the supporters, scoring 87 goals in 131 appearances, including the winning goal in the 1927 FA Cup Final. At the end of the 1928/29 season he was transferred to Dundee but never settled there. A back injury meant that he was less effective and the home crowd began to jeer him. A sensitive man, he could not adjust to this after the adulation he had experienced at Cardiff. Suffering from depression, he killed himself after a training session at Dundee and was found dead next to a gas ring in the dressing room.

1977: A happier anniversary for City fans. In one of the shocks of the FA Cup third round Cardiff defeated the mighty Tottenham Hotspur 1-0. The goal was scored by Peter Sayer who was only in the team because Robin Friday, Cardiff’s recent signing from Reading, was ineligible for the game. It was only his third goal in fifty-three matches and he later described it as ‘a moment of magic that I shall remember for the rest of my life’. (Dennis Morgan, Farewell to Ninian Park, 2008)

January 9th

1927: Hilda Medd of Stanway Road in Ely died following an illegal termination of pregnancy. The operation had been performed by Reginald Morris, later described as ‘a quack physician and amateur abortionist of the lowest order’. She was discovered dead in bed by her daughter. Her husband, a marine engineer, was away at sea at the time – and not, it was said, the father of the child. Police investigated, knowing that the woman had been ‘medically attended’ by Morris. The baby’s body was discovered buried in the garden, hardened by the winter frost. Morris was found guilty of manslaughter, having induced her miscarriage and left her in a condition that allowed a fatal infection to set in. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment. (Mark Isaacs, Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Cardiff, Wharncliffe, 2009)

1982: The roof of Sophia Gardens Pavilion collapsed after a snowstorm. Opened in 1951, the pavilion had been used for dances, meetings and exhibitions. The boxing matches in the 1958 Empire Games had taken placed there. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

January 10th

1941: A large crowd gathered in Cathays cemetery to pay their last respects to the victims of the German bombing raid on the city the week before. The mourners were led by the Lord Mayor, Alderman C.H. McCale. He wore black crêpe on his chain of office and the maces held by the city macebearers were similarly covered. The remains of thirty or more bodies had already been interred and the ground covered by a large Union Jack. ‘That flag was a symbol of the spirit of Cardiff people,’ the South Wales Echo observed, ‘a mute but infinitely significant portent of the shape of things to come’. The report continued ‘survivors of families which had been practically wiped out were comforted by relatives and friends as they broke down under the stress of pitiful emotion. In one case ten members of one family, their ages ranging from seventy down to a boy of four, lost their lives.’ Many of the bodies interred could not be identified. ‘High and low, young and old, mingled around communal graves while they tearfully but silently honoured the dead.’

January 11th

1962: Smallpox arrived in Cardiff. A traveller from Pakistan arrived by train from Birmingham, unwittingly carrying the virus. Four other people infected with the disease were on the same flight from Pakistan and went to Bradford or Leeds. The outbreak that followed caused fifteen deaths across Britain. One of the Welsh victims was a pathologist who had carried out a post-mortem on one of the first people who died of smallpox. There was mass panic. Nine hundred thousand people in South Wales were vaccinated between January and April. There were forty-six confirmed cases of the disease in the Valleys but only one in Cardiff. In Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration, O’Sullivan and Jones explain why the South Wales Echo was always first with the news of any new case in the area. It seems that the paper’s Rhondda reporter Oscar Rees had a contact in a bookie near the ambulance station in Porth. One ambulance had been reserved for carrying smallpox suspects and every time this vehicle left the ambulance station the bookie phoned to tip him off!

January 12th

1635: The Bailiff and Aldermen of Cardiff were summoned to attend a meeting at Chester to decide on the apportionment of Ship Money throughout Wales. This meeting had originally been scheduled for Ludlow on the previous 29th December but it was rearranged at short notice because the original summonses had only been sent out on December 1st. But the representatives from Cardiff (along with those from Glamorgan, Monmouthshire and Newport) had already had a wasted journey to Ludlow and were not best pleased at having to trek north again. A letter now in the Pembrokeshire Record Office and addressed to the King’s ministers protests ‘havinge made a long and troublesome journey in vaine’ [sic]. (Lloyd Bowen, The Politics of the Principality, University of Wales Press, 2007)

January 13th

1806: Unable to cope financially with the modern world of free trade and open competition, the impoverished Cordwainers’ Gild of Cardiff agreed to sell the guild’s remaining assets to a Mr John Wood for £28 2s 6d. These assets included the ancient Cordwainers Hall at the corner of High Street and Duke Street. This had been their home since the twelfth century but now one of the most valuable commercial sites in the centre of the town passed into private hands. William Rees reports in Cardiff: A History of the City that ‘excavations in 1927 discovered the remains of this building which are now in the custody of the National Museum of Wales.’

1870: The birth of John Conway Rees, the first Welshman to captain Oxford University rugby team. He played for Wales three times, firstly against Scotland on February 6th 1892. His other two appearances were against England in 1893 (the season Wales first won the Triple Crown) and in 1894. He also played for Cardiff, the Barbarians, Llanelli and London Welsh. He taught at Sherborne, Rossall and Giggleswick Schools before spending the last thirty years of his life teaching in India. He died in 1932. (T.D. Breverton, The Welsh Almanac, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / Wikipedia)

January 14th

1621: William Herbert was elected Member of Parliament for Cardiff, Llantrisant and Cowbridge. He later purchased the White Friars’ lands in Cardiff and built a fine house there. He became one of the Deputy Vice-Admirals for South Wales, Mayor of Cardiff and Constable of the Castle, a position he was appointed to at the start of the Civil War. King Charles I instructed him to seize the castle and collect the rents of the Earl of Pembroke who had sided with Parliament. After his death in 1645 his estates, said to be worth £1,000 a year, were bequeathed to his great nephew William Herbert of St Fagans in fulfilment of a promise made to the King after the Battle of Edgehill. (W.R. Williams, ‘Members of Parliament for Cardiff’ / www.british-history.ac.uk)

January 15th

2011: Tributes were paid to Stewart Williams, doyen of local historians, who had died at the age of 85. He was best known as the editor and publisher of the Cardiff Yesterday series. This eventually comprised thirty-six volumes and contained over 7,500 archive photos recording the life of Cardiff and its people. He had begun with the four volumes of his Vale of Glamorgan series (1959-62) which was followed by twelve volumes of the Glamorgan Historian. The success of Cardiff Yesterday enabled him to give up his job as publicity officer for the Western Welsh Bus Company and work full-time on his writing and publishing, assisted by his wife Betty and children Robert and Diane. Fellow author Brian Lee described Williams as an innovator: ‘When he wrote the foreword for my book A Cardiff Century in 2004, he mentioned his pride in having a copy of Cardiff Yesterday included in a time capsule. He just loved history.’

[When I started to do the research for this book, it was with Cardiff Yesterday that I began. It pointed me in the right direction and told me where to look for more information. Clearly, I am only the latest writer on Cardiff to follow gratefully where Stewart Williams has led!]

January 16th

1909: A party led by St Fagans-born geologist Sir Edgeworth David was the first to reach the magnetic South Pole. After education at Oxford, David began his career back in South Wales. In 1881 he presented a paper to the Cardiff Naturalists Society on ‘Evidences of Glacial Action in the Neighbourhood of Cardiff’. The following year he went out to Australia where he became Professor of Geology at Sydney University. In 1907 he was invited to join Shackleton’s expedition to the Antarctic and in March 1908 led the first ascent of Mount Erebus. During the First World War, he enlisted as a Major at the age of 58 and used his geological expertise to advise on the construction of trenches and dug-outs. He was knighted in 1920 and died in Australia in 1934. (T.D. Breverton, The Welsh Almanac, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / Wikipedia)

1919: USS Lake Erie sank off Lavernock Point after a collision with the British steamship Hazel Branch. She had been one of a large number of vessels originally ordered by the British and built in Detroit but requisitioned by the American government when the US entered the war. After the accident she was salvaged and continued to trade for the next forty years. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

January 17th

2011: In a consultation document on managing the flood risk in the Severn Estuary the Environment Agency expressed concern about the sea defences at Penarth. Unless improvements were made, the Agency warned, the Sea Wall could collapse due to frequent ‘overtopping’ by about 2040. The report noted that the Vale of Glamorgan Council had plans to strengthen the Promenade which, if done, would help to reduce the flood risk. The Severn Estuary Flood Risk Management Strategy also predicted that annual flooding could occur in parts of Cardiff and Newport by 2110 if flood defences were not improved. In this Consultation Document the Agency set out a programme of ‘phased improvements’ between 2060 and 2110 ‘to keep pace with climate change’. This was to be carried out ‘in a way that is sustainable for people, the economy and the environment’.

January 18th

1937: The grandstand at Ninian Park, home of Cardiff City FC, was destroyed by fire. At 3.45 a.m. a policeman saw flames coming from the stand, fanned by a strong wind. It took less than an hour for the grandstand to be reduced to a pile of hot, twisted girders. The brave efforts of the fire brigade prevented the fire spreading to other parts of the stadium but the offices, dressing rooms and the team’s kit were destroyed. Sadly, Jack, the stadium guard-dog, perished in the flames, but Trixie, the black cat which had been the club’s mascot in the 1927 Cup Final was rescued unhurt but badly singed. A petrol can was found near the safe in the burnt-out office and appeared to have been tampered with. It is thought that burglars had been trying to steal the takings from the weekend’s game with Grimsby Town (a 1-3 home defeat) but the gate receipts of about £2,000 had been removed from the ground immediately after the game. (M.J. Mace, ‘A History of Cardiff City Fire Brigade’, in Glamorgan Historian, 1977)

January 19th

1963: The inexperienced Clive Rowlands’ first game as Captain of the Welsh rugby team (v. England at Cardiff) was under threat due to the exceptionally cold weather. ‘We weren’t sure if the game would be played,’ Rowlands recalled later. ‘I’m panicking, selected as captain and not certain that I’m going to get to play. The weather was so cold that we didn’t train on the Friday’. The players were issued with gloves and warm woolly underwear. An army of volunteers got the ground playable. The players stayed in the changing rooms while the anthems were played and when they ran onto the pitch the surface was rock hard. ‘They shouldn’t have played it,’ Rowlands admitted, ‘but I’m glad they did because it was my first cap and I may not have got one if the selectors had been given a chance to change their minds’. Wales lost 6-13 but Rowlands went on to captain Wales thirteen more times. (Steve Lewis, The Priceless Gift: 125 Years of Welsh Rugby Captains, Mainstream, 2005)

January 20th

1607: A tidal wave, due to a tsunami or a storm surge up the Bristol Channel (experts disagree on which was the cause) caused severe flooding of the lowlands on either side of the Severn Estuary. The floodwaters stretched for over twenty miles alongside the river and up to four miles inland. An anonymous chronicler wrote that the waters ‘are affirmed to run with a swiftness so incredible that no greyhound could have escaped by running before them.’ Flooding was not uncommon in Cardiff at that time but no one had ever experienced a calamity on this scale. St Mary’s Church was seriously damaged and its foundations undermined. Parts of the churchyard were washed away. The church was later abandoned and a new St Mary’s built on a different site in 1840. The outline image of a church on a wall in Great Western Lane is thought to depict the old St Mary’s whose foundations lie under Wetherspoon’s. It was said that 200 bodies were found embalmed in the salty mud near Marshfield when the waters receded. (John Richards, Cardiff: A Maritime History, The History Press, 2005)

January 21st

1939: Miners’ Leader and novelist Lewis Jones (born 1897) died in Cardiff at the end of a hectic day in which he had addressed over thirty meetings in support of the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. He had been an active trade unionist in the Nottinghamshire and South Wales coalfields. After the General Strike in 1926 he had been imprisoned in Swansea Jail for three months. An individualist, his turbulent private life and his distrust of Stalin’s personality cult led to his being repeatedly suspended and disciplined by the Communist Party. He was sent home from the Soviet Union for remaining seated during a standing ovation for Stalin. He led three Hunger Marches to London during the 1930s. In 1936 he had been elected as one of two Communists on Glamorgan County Council. (T.D. Breverton, The Welsh Almanac, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / Wikipedia)

1982: The Salutation pub in Hayes Bridge Road (first licensed in 1847) closed its doors for the last time, following its near neighbour, The Greyhound in Bridge Street (September 1855 to May 1981). The area was redeveloped and later became the site of Toys R Us. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

January 22nd

1884: Nineteen-year-old Mary Ann Sullivan was sent to prison for a month by Cardiff Magistrates for having been drunk and disorderly the previous evening. It was the eighth time she had been convcted of drunkenness. (Western Mail)

1900: ‘Charles Mullett, a young man with a star-shaped plaster on his forehead, charged George Turner, a wizened-looking man of 59, with hitting him with a hammer at Ethel Street. The facts were that Mullet interposed in a quarrel Turner had with his wife. The prisoner, it was alleged, ran into the street after the woman flourishing the hammer. Responding to her cries for help, Mullet ran between them and received the blow intended for the wife. The defence was that there was a struggle and that Mullett made an unauthorised intrusion into Turner’s home. The bench imposed a fine of 40 shillings or one month’s hard labour.’ In another case on the same day, Margaret Walsall (40) was charged with assisting in the management of a disorderly house at 5 Little Homfray Street. She had a previous conviction for ‘shabeening’ (brewing illicit spirits). (Western Mail)

January 23rd

1923: St Illtyd’s College, Courtney Road, opened. It was staffed by the Catholic De La Salle brothers who went on to serve education in Cardiff for seventy-four years. Over seventy former pupils of St Illtyd’s were later ordained to the priesthood. The college buildings were badly damaged by a German bomb on the night of 4th March 1941 but the school continued to function in what was left of the premises. (John O’Sullivan & Bryn Jones, Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration, The History Press, 2005)

2011: Designer Tim Rice (41) of Grangetown announced his ambitious scheme to redecorate the interior of Brains Brewery’s ‘Yard Bar & Kitchen’ pub diner by plastering the ceilings of the toilets with hundreds of pictures of bottoms. Asked where he would get his ‘models’, he told Wales on Sunday, ‘I’ve been looking everywhere from porn sites on the internet to cosmetic surgery catalogues. I’ve even put out requests to my friends on Facebook to take their own pictures and email them to me. I wanted to go for a look that defied description’. His award-winning redesign of the former dairy at Pontcanna into an art gallery included ‘burlesque dancers can-canning across crocodile-skin floors’.

January 24th

1908: David Lloyd George was made an Honorary Freeman of the City of Cardiff. The honour was conferred by the Lord Mayor, Alderman Illtyd Thomas. This was the first freedom presentation to take place in the new City Hall. (Stewart Williams, Cardiff Yesterday)

1994: The South Wales Echo appears as a tabloid newspaper for the first time.

2005: Sixty thousand people gathered in the Millennium Stadium for a rock concert to raise funds for those affected by the Asian Tsunami of Boxing Day 2004. The Prince of Wales contributed a message of support that was relayed to the crowd via giant video screens. The event had been organised in just twenty-one days by the stadium’s General Manager, Paul Sergeant. It raised £1,248,963. (South Wales Echo)