Wales Feed

Scammers target ex-miners

2015-02-19T14:24:58+00:00

Our miners have always been like heroes to me. It feels as if those images of them emerging from mines after a day digging for black gold have been engrained since I was young. There’s a sense of national pride in what they did. They’re part of our heritage, our culture, part of the industry which shaped much of south Wales.

Now the pensions that they built through risking their lives every day working underground, are under threat from callous scammers.

After working on X-Ray for more than eight years, I know only too well that these unscrupulous people don’t care who their victims are. They could be elderly, vulnerable, it doesn’t matter. Now it’s our miners who are the latest target.

Lucy talks to Gerry Keighley from Age Cymru on location in Aberdare about the cold callers who are targeting the pensions of former miners

Age Cymru say these people are cold-calling former miners. For £200 they’ll promise to increase their pension through a government scheme. But Age Cymru say it’s all a heartless con to get their cash.

We’ll get the full story on X-Ray on BBC One Wales on Monday 23 February at 7.30pm. But in the meantime, here’s the basic advice.

Never give any information about your pension to people who ring you up out of the blue.
You’ll be able to access your pension fund to invest from April. So watch out for more interest in your pensions from scammers. They could also use it to add credibility to the lie they’re peddling.
Try and stop those cold calls in the first place. The Telephone Preference Service is a free service which enables you to join the official register to opt out of unsolicited calls.

And if you’ve been targeted by this latest scam, let us know. Call X-Ray on 03703 334334 or email xray@bbc.co.uk.

The School of hard rocks

2013-11-27T15:54:39+00:00

Education had always been vitally important to Wales and the Welsh. In the 19^thand early 20th century, when mining was a major employer in the country, it was the ambition of almost every collier who ever went underground to give their sons a better way of life, away from the mines.

The key to what the miners regarded as a better life was education. Education could provide them with a decent job, above ground with white collars and clean finger nails. It was part of the dream, part of the Welsh cultural identity.

Welsh miners at Tylorstown Pit, Rhondda in 1943

Education was also provided within the mining industry, designed for those men in the industry who wanted to get on and succeed in their chosen career. The means to achieve this was through the School of Mines.

The School of Mines was opened in 1913 in what had been the home of mine owner Francis Crawshay at Trefforest just outside Pontypridd.

The School of Mines was the brainchild of some of the largest coal owners in the region and was funded by the levy of one tenth of a penny on every ton of coal that was produced from the coalfield.

The first intake of students consisted of 17 miners who were studying for a diploma and also included three men from China.

The school grew rapidly from that humble beginning but with the onset of the Depression and the decline in world trade, its future was looking rather bleak until it was taken over by the old Glamorgan County Council.

In 1949, after the nationalisation of the coal mines, the school became Glamorgan Technical College, developing and changing again in 1958 when it became the Glamorgan College of Technology.

By this time it was offering a wide range of full and part-time courses in science and technology. In 1967 the college made history by offering the first-ever Welsh for adults course.

In 1970 the college became Glamorgan Polytechnic, merging with the old teacher training college at Barry, and five years later was designated as the Polytechnic of Wales.

It was awarded university status in 1992 and, despite having no links with the University of Wales, was finally able to award its own degrees.

The first decade of the 21^st century saw steady growth and development at the college which, in 2006, formed what was called a ‘strategic alliance’ with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

The arts began to be increasingly important to the college which soon became one of the main centres in Wales for the study of creative writing.

The University of South Wales

Rated as one of the top Welsh institutions for higher education, in 2013 the Polytechnic of Wales merged with University of Wales, Newport, into the University of South Wales.

A year before, it had been awarded the Times Higher Education Award for outstanding student support.

The new university currently offers courses for over 20,000 students, both full and part-time. Notable alumni include the writer Rachel Trezise and politician Kevin Brennan.

Although mining is no longer part of the curriculum, it continues to offer courses that fill a need which is what the place is all about, that and having the ability and the vision to change with the times.

I think the pragmatists and entrepreneurs who created the old School of Mines would be delighted with how their child has grown and developed.

The Gresford Mining Disaster

2013-05-22T14:47:05+00:00

This year, 2013, is the centenary of the Senghenydd Mining Disaster, a tragedy that claimed the lives of 436 men. It was the largest - I hesitate to say "greatest" - mining disaster to ever occur in this country. But mining was always a hazardous occupation and the history of Wales is littered with events of almost similar magnitude.

The Gresford Disaster of 22 September 1934 was one such case. The Gresford Colliery sat just north of Wrexham, the original shaft being sunk in 1908. By 1911 the pit, owned and run by the Westminster and United Collieries Group, was ready to be opened.

There were two shafts: the Dennis, named after the mine owners, who were the principal landowners in the area; and the Martin. The Dennis shaft reached a depth of approximately 2,264 feet, while the Martin was just a few feet shorter. Together, they were the deepest mining shafts in the whole of Denbighshire.

It was unfortunate that the Dennis shaft was very prone to fire damp. Working conditions in the Dennis were always poor, the air being constantly hot and humid. Ventilation was also bad and while there had been a degree of mechanisation, because of the conditions underground some of the coal was still mined by hand.

By September 1934 the Gresford Colliery was employing around 2,200 miners. The previous year the colliery had made a loss and manager William Bonsall was under considerable pressure from the Dennis family to ensure that it did not happen again. That September the colliery was working around the clock in an effort to increase profits and on 22 September 500 men were working the night shift.

At 2.08am a huge explosion rocked the mine. The explosion occurred about 1.3 miles from the bottom of the Dennis shaft and fires immediately broke out. The fires not only killed 266 men, they also blocked access and trapped miners behind the flames.

Six men managed to escape, all of them enjoying a mid-shift break when the explosion took place. Soon volunteer rescue teams, from Gresford itself and from Llay Main Colliery, arrived but they, too, encountered disaster.

Three members of the Llay team were overcome by gas; John Charles Williams, the team leader, was the only survivor. It was later rumoured that Williams was the author of the anonymous ballad The Gresford Disaster, a poem that was openly critical of the managers and management of the mine.

All weekend the rescue teams battled with the flames and the rubble. But on the Sunday evening they were eventually withdrawn as conditions were felt to be too hazardous. The shafts were capped and the fires allowed to burn out. Only 11 bodies were ever recovered from the mine; the rest were sealed up underground.

There were more explosions over the following week but with the mine sealed and nobody working underground they did not cause undue problems. However, a few days later, mine worker George Brown became the final victim of the Gresford Disaster when he was hit by flying debris after a blast blew off the cap on the Dennis shaft.

The disaster brought untold hardship to the area. The wages of over 1,000 miners were docked by the owners as the men had failed to complete their shift - short sighted and incredibly cruel management. And, of course, the mine stayed closed.

By the end of that autumn it was estimated that 1,100 Gresford men had been forced to sign on the unemployment register. Relief funds were set up, with over half a million pounds raised, but they could not even begin to compensate for the loss of regular income.

The inquiry that began on 25 October 1934 highlighted a lack of safety measures and bad working practices in the colliery. Te owners faced possible criminal charges over negligence, and they brought in a formidable team of barristers to fight their corner. They refused permission for anyone to enter the closed-off pit, something that was widely seen as a deliberate cover up.

The owners were never prosecuted and no single cause for the disaster was ever found, although Sir Stafford Cripps, the miners' legal representative, did later use evidence given to the Inquiry as one of the arguments for the nationalisation of coal mines in 1947.

As part of the nationalisation agreement, however, all records of the disaster and the colliery itself were destroyed - yet another betrayal by those in power.

Gresford Colliery reopened in January 1936, with miners working from a totally different angle and direction. The pit continued to run until it was finally closed, as uneconomical, in November 1973.

The Gresford Disaster remains the second largest mining disaster ever to occur in Wales. It decimated the Gresford area and is still seen as the result of cynical exploitation of working men by mine owners. It has to be remembered.

The Fed

2013-02-13T09:25:13+00:00

Very few organisations have ever achieved legendary status or found themselves in iconic positions where they are admired and looked up to with wistful eyes by everyone who knows anything at all about their role and history. The Fed - the South Wales Miners' Federation to give it the full name - is one of the few.

Founded on 11 October 1898, the Fed was a union of south Wales miners, founded with the aim of uniting pit workers across the region and opposing what was then the seemingly limitless power of the mine owners.

There had been several attempts to form a miners union before the Fed came into existence but, in the early and middle years of the 19th century, these had invariably been defeated by the strength of the owners.

Then, in 1898, miners in south Wales went on strike, unhappy with the way that wages were both calculated and paid - the money was linked to the price of coal the owners could get in the open market in what was known as the "sliding scale method." The owners, naturally enough, thought it a fair system; the men who hewed and dug the coal certainly did not.

The strike, like most withdrawals of labour in the 19th century, was defeated but miners finally realised that, if they were ever going to improve their working conditions, they would have to work together. And so the South Wales Miners' Federation was born.

The Fed was a separate entity from the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, which had been formed 10 years earlier. For some reason Welsh miners had never truly identified with this union and by 1898 fewer than 50,000 out of the 120,000 men employed in the Welsh coalfields had become members. The creation of the Fed changed everything and gave Welsh miners a sense of purpose and direction.

By the outbreak of World War One the Fed had a membership of 200,000 and was the largest single union of any kind in Great Britain. And this was despite the fact that, in these early years, the union was a fairy moderate organisation, reflecting the personality and politics of its first president, William Abraham.

After the Tonypandy Riots of 1910, however, things began to change. A new form of radicalism began to seep into the union's activities as new leaders with different agendas began to come to the fore. The Fed was actively involved in the protests and hunger marches of the 1930s, working with the Labour Party and the Communists in a brave but often futile attempt to alleviate the problems of the hungry Depression years.

The Fed was also active in offering support to the left wing forces during the Spanish Civil War - again, with little success as Franco's Fascists eventually achieved victory. More than one Welsh miner found himself fighting against the Republicans, however, in what soon became a prelude to World War Two.

The Fed was rather more successful in fighting off the rival South Wales Miners' Independent Union, a company union set up by the mine owners. This rival puppet union was defeated by a number of "stay down" protests when miners simply remained down the pit once their shifts were over. By 1938 the SWMIU had been well and truly put in its place.

In 1944, with the nationalisation of mines already on the cards, the Miners Federation of Great Britain changed its name to the National Union of Mineworkers. And the Fed became the NUM (South Wales Area).

Many miners mourned the passing of the Fed, which lost a great deal of its autonomy in the change, but as its leaders had always preached the importance of working together - and with nationalisation promising better conditions for everyone - the move undoubtedly seemed the right thing to do.

Over the years the Fed had championed the rights of Welsh miners whenever it had been felt necessary. There were many great leaders on the union, but it was the strength of the membership, at grassroots level, that really gave the Fed its power base. The miners understood what the Fed was trying to do and gave the organisation undying support.

Without the Fed the privately owned coal mines of south Wales would have been far more dangerous places than they actually were.

Cardiff's historic Coal Exchange at risk

2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The news that the company which owns Cardiff's famous Coal Exchange has recently gone into liquidation has cast grave doubts about the future of the building. 'Market forces' and the rising cost of maintenance have caused GYG Exchange to make their decision. Whatever the cause, it means that one of the capital city's most iconic buildings is under threat.

The Coal Exchange was closed for refurbishment in 2007 and despite plans announced five years later for a £20 million upgrade, little has been done. The future of the building has to be in serious jeopardy.

The building was where the leading businessmen of the south Wales area - ship owners, shipping agents, mine owners - met to fix deals, to buy and sell coal and, of course, to make themselves fortunes.

The Coal Exchange was also the place where, in 1901, the first ever £1 million deal was struck. In the closing years of the 19th century it was where every businessman with pretensions of grandeur and success needed to be seen.

Cardiff Coal Exchange

The story of Cardiff's development from small fishing village to the largest and busiest coal exporting dock in the country is well known. Such developments reached their heights in the closing decades of the 19th century when the 'black gold' of the Rhondda became one of the most prized and valuable commodities in the world.

Train loads of coal poured in a never-ceasing stream, down the valleys into Cardiff. And that was where most of the deals were carried out, a shipment bought here, tons of coal ordered there. Fortunes were made and lost every single day.

Unfortunately, in the early years of the town's prosperity there was no central point where all of the various negotiations could take place. Merchants simply chalked up the price they were offering or willing to pay on boards outside their offices and businessmen met in the quiet corners of public houses and taverns to fix prices and buy and sell the coal that was rapidly making Cardiff the greatest trading port ever seen. It was a situation that could not last.

In an attempt to provide a formal centre for the coal trade, Cardiff Coal Exchange was designed and built between 1883 and 1886. It was situated in Mount Stuart Square, within walking distance of Bute Docks, in what had previously been a quiet residential square, complete with a central garden. The design was by the architects James, Seward and Thomas and the building was formally opened on 1 February 1886.

Now, at last, Cardiff businessmen had a place to go each day. It was estimated that as many as eight or nine thousand people passed through the Coal Exchange each day with the hour between noon and 1pm being the busiest trading period.

The building was formally opened on 1 February 1886

With over 20,000 square feet available for use, this was a palatial and magnificent building. Pride of the place went to the wide oak balcony that stood like a sentinel above the main trading floor while rich wood panelling and twin Corinthian columns gave the whole building an imposing sense of grandeur.

Cardiff Coal Exchange quickly became the economic capital of Cardiff and, with the price of the world's coal being decided within its looming portals, it could truly be said that this was as important an economic centre as the Stock Exchange or the Bank of England.

The tragedy of any port or town depending on just one commodity for its wealth, however, was cruelly displayed in the years after World War One when the price of coal plummeted. In the 1920s and 1930s Cardiff Docks went into terminal decline and although there moments when it seemed as if the port had been granted a reprieve, it was not to be.

The Coal Exchange finally closed in 1958 and coal exports from Cardiff ended just six years later, in 1964. For a while the building lay unused. There was talk of using the place as a base for the Welsh Assembly but when devolution plans were defeated in the referendum of 1979 the matter was dropped. When devolution did eventually become a reality a new Senedd building was already being planned and created.

The Coal Exchange is an elegant and distinctive building. It is part of the history of Cardiff - more than that, it is part of the history of Wales. It could have and should have a role in the future, as well.

The recent announcement about the demise of the Coal Exchange's owners is not good news for a building that has always been at the heart of the community. It would be criminal to allow it to fall into ruin but, at the moment, its future remains decidedly uncertain.

A history of Welsh protest

2011-11-29T14:15:22+00:00

The strike by public sector workers planned for Wednesday 30 November 2011 threatens to be the largest organised withdrawal of labour for many years. Without going into the rights and wrongs of the matter, it demonstrates, if nothing else, the deep feelings of unease and unrest felt by most, if not all, ordinary working men and women regarding their working conditions and pension entitlements.

In Wales there has been a long-standing history of protest against perceived injustice. That sense of rankling, of being unjustly treated, certainly lay at the root of the Owain Glyndŵr rebellion in the closing years of the 14th and early part of the 15th centuries.

Tonypandy after the strike 1910

When Lord Grey appropriated part of Glyndŵr's land at Glyndyfrdwy in north Wales, the Welshman initially took the matter to court, intent on staying within the law. It was only when he was met with the off-hand and insulting comment "What care we for barefoot Welsh dogs" that Glyndŵr knew it was time for drastic and dramatic action. The rest, as they say, is history.

The story of Wales and her industrial heritage is littered with incidents of miners, iron workers and quarrymen being pushed to the margins of society and, as a consequence, feeling that they had no option other than to withdraw their labour and make a formal protest.

Only very rarely was there any intention of deliberate and systematic violence, at least not to begin with - that, unfortunately, came almost as a by-product. The Rebecca Riots of the 1840s are, perhaps, an exception as the intention of these, largely, agricultural labourers, pushed beyond all reason by a variety of economic factors, was always to destroy the toll gates and the workhouses in rural areas.

In the main, however, the intention of public gatherings and the occasional withdrawal of labour was simply to protest and show the unhappiness of the workers. The last half of the 18th century, for example, was marked by a series of disturbances centred on the availability of food, right across the country from Pembrokeshire in the west to Machynlleth and Bangor in the north.

It was a time of harsh corn laws and while food supplies were actually quite adequate, much of it was marked down for sale and export to foreign buyers. And sometimes, desperate to feed their families, the initial protest spilled over into fighting and violence.

As early as 1740, while the industrialisation of Wales was still gathering momentum, a group of miners gathered together in Rhuddlan to protest against low pay - the low funds with which, of course, they had to pay rent and feed their families. The military was sent in to disperse the groups of miners and violence erupted. In 1758 a similar protest by the quarrymen of Cilgwyn saw a mass march on the town of Caernarfon in an attempt to seize corn that was being held there prior to shipment abroad. This time two of the protesters were killed.

The Napoleonic Wars might have brought a degree of prosperity and economic growth to the industrial parts of Wales but the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815 ensured a long period of peace in Europe. And that, of course, brought a decline in the amount of iron required by the armed forces and a consequent decrease in wages and, in some areas, unemployment.

In 1816 the riots in Merthyr and Treorchy were so serious that troops were brought in to disperse over 5,000 protesters. Ironmaster William Crawshay was forced to take refuge in a farmhouse while his compatriot Josiah John Guest barricaded himself into his fortified house rather than face the wrath of his workers.

This was also the time of enclosures, farmers and sheep herders losing the land they had worked for years as land owners, many of them in-comers to the area, tried to change the face of the countryside. The War of the Little Englishman, which took place in rural west Wales saw 500 farmers and agricultural labourers attempting to stop one wealthy Englishman enclosing what had previously been common land.

Chartism in Wales - Newport Rising

The story of the Merthyr Riots, the Scotch Cattle and the Chartists - in particular the raising of the Red Flag on Hirwaun Common prior to the Merthyr Riots and the Chartist march on Newport in November 1839 - are too well known to warrant recounting here.

However, the protests and, in many cases, the riots that accompanied them, were all symptomatic of an oppressed people for whom debate and discussion, argument and reason, had led nowhere. There was, literally, nothing else to do but strike. And as the 19th and 20th centuries unfolded, things did not get any easier.

Such was the strength of feeling amongst north Wales quarrymen that in 1896 they embarked on a one-year withdrawal of labour. The hardships endured by the men and their families are barely imaginable. Not even the pressing needs of the British war machine could prevent south Wales miners, unhappy with their working conditions and wages, coming out on strike in July 1915 and it required all the skill of Lloyd George - and important government concessions - to get the miners back to work.

The story of the General Strike of 1926 is well known but not many realise that the nation-wide stoppage was followed by a 10 month coal strike as the miners refused to submit to government pressure. In the mining valleys of Wales the strike brought terrible hardship and anxiety but, in the minds of most miners, it was a battle that had to be fought.

And so it went on, throughout the 20th century, ordinary working men and women feeling that they had no option but to strike in order to get their views and feelings understood by the country as a whole. In 1935, for example, over 250,000 people took to the streets to protest against a reduction of unemployment benefit - it certainly made people sit up and take notice but, ultimately, it had little overall effect.

Welsh miners' wives attend a protest rally

It was the same with the Miners Strike of 1984-85. A doomed attempt to curtail the actions of the National Coal Board, which had announced its intention of closing 20 mines, it was a battle that brought hatred and bitterness to the Welsh coal mining communities. In the opening month of the strike Wales was firmly behind the action, with nearly 100% of miners refusing to work - the largest stoppage anywhere in the country.

Even when the strike ended the following March, Wales still had the strongest support for the protest with almost 95% of miners off work. The death of taxi driver David Wilkie, killed while transporting a working miner to the Merthyr Vale Colliery, was one of the factors leading to the end of the strike. And of course, ultimately, losing the fight meant losing the mining industry - as Arthur Scargill and the other miner leaders knew only too well.

Wales has a noble tradition of resisting oppression, whether it be from individuals or from Government. Violence should never be condoned but the right to make peaceful protest against iniquity and wrong decision making is something that lies deep in the heart of all Welsh people.

The Landshipping mining disaster

2011-11-02T10:12:25+00:00

Here in Wales we are used to news about mining disasters. The history of Welsh mining is littered with tragic accidents that scarred villages and valleys, destroyed families and cut a swathe through the life of so many tiny communities.

Garden Pit Memorial (image: Roger MacCallum)

Most of those disasters took place in the industrial belt of the south east, in the Rhondda and other valleys. For many modern-day visitors to beautiful, sea-girt Pembrokeshire it comes as something of a surprise, therefore, to realise that this tiny county in the far west of Wales also once had a mining industry. And the Pembrokeshire coalfield was not exempt from disaster.

On 14 February 1844, 58 men, women and boys were working in Garden Pit at Landshipping on the eastern branch of the Cleddau River when disaster struck.

The pit workings extended out under the river, and when water suddenly burst through the walls of the mine 40 miners were overwhelmed and drowned before they had time to escape.

There had been mining in the area since the Middle Ages but, in the main, this was low-key and seasonal, the mines being worked by agricultural labourers in the quieter times of year. Then, in 1800, Sir Hugh Owen installed the first steam engine in the Pembrokeshire coalfield, at his mine in Landshipping, and the industry transformed itself into an altogether different beast.

Soon, over 10,000 tons of coal and culm were being produced each year. By 1844 Colonel Sir John Owen had succeeded to the estate and quickly developed the infrastructure needed for such an enterprise. In particular he built a quay at Landshipping from which most of the coal was shipped to a wide variety of destinations.

Garden Pit, like several of the mines around the Cleddau, suffered badly from waterlogging, but even so the shaft was still some 67 yards deep and most of the workings ran out for as much as a quarter of a mile beneath the river.

The level where the disaster occurred had not been worked for two or three years as miners had reported a significant leak in the roof of the tunnel. However, in February 1844 it was considered safe to again open the workings and, on the afternoon of 14 February, 58 miners were employed in digging for coal and transporting the product back to the pit shaft.

The first inkling that something was wrong came when, just before 4pm, a powerful current of air suddenly shot up the shaft. It was powerful enough to force the hands and arms of men working on the surface high into the air.

Then spectators noticed a series of violent eddies, almost like whirlpools, in the water close to shore. The next thing they knew, several miners appeared at the bottom of the shaft, screaming for assistance.

Four men and 14 boys were quickly hoisted up the shaft in the buckets that normally carried the coal, swirling water pulling at their boot tops as, behind them, the pit filled up at a rate of seven fathoms a minute. Nobody else managed to get out, 40 miners being drowned or crushed in the fall of rock and mud that accompanied the flooding.

One miner later gave an account of his escape and this was paraphrased in the local press:

"He was overtaken by the water, which almost prevented his progress, dashing him several times against the side of the pit; when he got into the light he rushed past another man who was about to get into the bucket, and was hauled to safety, the water following him so closely that the next and last man was only saved by climbing up the side of the pit, until the bucket which descended to the other was raised, reached him."

The water had broken into Garden Pit relatively close to the shore, cutting off 33 miners working at the far end of the pit. The horror of such a death can only be imagined.

The other seven casualties, men and children working nearer the shore, had been overtaken by the deluge before they could get out.

The cause of the disaster was put down to the pressure of the water - that particular heading had not, previously, been worked at high water. But in those days there were no mining inspectors to check on aspects of safety; some reports say the miners had already left the pit once that day because they were concerned about safety, only to be sent back to finish their shifts.

The names, where known, of those who perished in the disaster are listed on the memorial (image: Roger MacCallum)

The real tragedy of the disaster, of course, was the human one. Many of the dead miners were related to each other and one of the most heart rending facts about reading the memorial plaque, erected by local people in 2002, is how often the same names occur - Llewellin, Picton, Davies, Cole, Hart and John. One man, Joseph Picton, died along with three of his sons, leaving behind a widow and five more children.

Several of the names on the memorial plaque say simply "Miner" - these were probably women, employed and killed in the disaster even though legislation preventing their employment below ground had recently been passed in parliament. Other names on the plaque give ages as low as nine or 11. In one case a person is listed simply as "child".

The disaster at Garden Pit, Landshipping, has been largely forgotten by history. But it remains just one more terrible tragedy in an industry that has taken such an horrendous toll of life, right across Wales.

The Senghenydd pit disaster

2011-10-14T13:19:16+00:00

At 8.00am on Tuesday 14 October 1913 a huge explosion rocked the tiny town of Senghenydd, to the north of Caerphilly. It came from the coal mine belonging to the Universal Colliery, the most significant employer in the area, and before the hour was out it was clear to everyone, miners and their families alike, that what had happened was a disaster of major proportions.

The explosion, and subsequent release of poisonous gas, killed 439 miners, making the Senghenydd pit disaster the most lethal and tragic mining disaster in British history. On that morning nearly 950 men had been working below ground, and many of them were killed or injured before they even knew what was happening.

The Universal Steam Coal Company (a subsidiary of Lewis Merthyr Consolidated Collieries) had sunk the first shaft at Senghenydd in 1891, full production using two shafts - the Lancaster and York - beginning five years later. In the years leading up to World War One there was an unprecedented demand for Welsh coal, most of it being used to fuel the battleships of the Royal Navy. And Universal, privately owned and privately run, like all of the other south Wales collieries, prospered.

The explosion that brought about the disaster was probably caused by an electrical spark from something like the electric signalling gear igniting methane gas, firedamp as it was known. As if that wasn't enough, the firedamp explosion caused coal dust lying on the floor of the mine to rise and this also caught fire and exploded in a gigantic roar. The shock wave promptly caused more coal dust to rise into the air and this also then ignited. In effect, what happened was a series of self-fueling explosions.

The explosions were so violent that the cage of the Lancaster pit was even blown back up the shaft to wedge in the pithead winding gear. A bandsman standing close by was decapitated by a piece of flying wood.

The fires spread through most of the underground workings, quickly followed by afterdamp. These were gasses formed by the explosion, waves of carbon monoxide, that ensured those miners who had escaped the explosion would be suffocated due to lack of oxygen unless they could quickly get to the surface.

Rescue teams from places such as Crumlin and Aberdare were rushed to the scene but attempts at getting the men out were hampered by fallen debris, by a series of roof falls and by raging fires. One of the rescuers was caught and killed in one of these roof falls but, regardless of the cost, the men worked on.

And they did manage to find men and boys still alive in the wreckage, the families of the Senghenydd miners greeting each successful escape with joy and with the belief that their own loved ones would soon be brought to the surface. However, as the days wore on, survivors grew fewer and the carrying out of bodies became the norm.

The rescue attempts lasted for three weeks although, by then, the chances of finding anyone alive had long since gone. Some of the bodies had been so badly mutilated in the explosion that they could only be identified by certain items of clothing they were wearing. One man was recognised by his new boots, worn for the first time that day; another - a young boy - by the patch his mother had sewn onto his jacket only a few days before.

It was estimated that over 1,000 people in the area were bereaved by the Senghenydd disaster. Certainly nearly all of the families in the town were touched, in one way or another. And yet, despite the resulting enquiry finding numerous faults that could be laid at the door of the owners and managers, when compensation and fines were levied they came to a derisive £24 - in total! As one newspaper commented, that meant that miners lives were worth just £0 .. 1 .. 11 - a sum that, these days, would equate to no more than six pence.

Universal Colliery was back in use by the end of November 1913 and full production was again achieved by 1916. The mine was not to last much longer, however, workmen and staff being given just one day's notice of closure in March 1928. Although the site was later acquired by Powell Duffryn in order to give extra ventilation to their Windsor Colliery, the Senghenydd shaft was finally filled in 1979.

There are several memorials to the men and boys who lost their lives at senghenydd, one at Nant y Parc Primary School which now stands on the site of the mine. There is another at the local comprehensive and a clock in the square at Senghenydd also commemorates the disaster.

But the real tragedy of Senghenydd does not lie in just the 1913 disaster. Proving that the old adage "lightning does not strike twice in the same place" is a mere fallacy, twelve years earlier, on Friday 24 May 1901, the same colliery had experienced its first disaster. At 5.00am on that day an explosion decimated the mine and killed 81 men. There was just one survivor pulled from the mine shaft.

The history of Wales and its industrial past is full of tragedy, human grief and loss. But none of the disasters that have befallen the country are worse than the Senghenydd mining disaster when tragedy struck the same village and the same community, not once but twice within the space of a dozen years.

Listen to an interview with William Vizard, ex-miner who survived the Senghennydd pit disaster in 1913.

The blackening of Wales

2011-03-17T09:44:25+00:00

Modern visitors, people from places like the USA and the Far East, men and women who know little or nothing about Welsh history, heritage and culture, might be excused for thinking that many, if not most, of our valleys were never industrialised at all.

Welsh miners at Tylorstown Pit, Rhondda, 1943

They might have heard stories about hymn singing Welsh miners on their way to and from the pit but where, they might ask, is the evidence?

Such is the extent of modern day de-industrialisation that in many places visitors invariably see only green hills and rugged mountains; the coal mines and iron works, the copper mills and the steel works, that once littered the valley floors might never have existed at all. And yet, as those of us who live in Wales know only too well, nothing could be further from the truth.

And yet it did not begin that way. Until the middle years of the 18th century it is fair to say that industry, where it existed in Wales, was decidedly small scale with a mixed and part-time work force.

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, men, women and children would labour in the fields, on the farms, during the summer months and at harvest time.

But when agrarian needs were not so pressing they would move across to the coal mines and iron foundries to earn their daily bread.

The first reference to coal in the country came in 1248 but it was not until many years later, in 1695, that Humphrey Mackworth began to use the fuel to smelt copper in the area around Neath. It was a slow beginning of a process that took years to reach fulfilment.

Two of the driving forces behind the industrialisation of the country were war and a desire for improved social environments. Conflicts such as the costly Napoleonic War demanded new weapons - guns and cannon - while better wages and living conditions in cities like London meant that there was an urgent need for more luxury goods.

From the 1850s onwards, as the Industrial Revolution began to throw up an unprecedented demand for iron, copper and tinplate that people began to realise that Wales might be the answer to difficulties such as supply and demand.

By the middle years of the 1860s the Mona and Parys copper mines on Anglesey had been created and were employing no fewer than a thousand men - and women. The slate mines and quarries of Blaenau Ffestiniog and Llanberis gave employment to thousands more.

When a copper smelting plant was established at Swansea it created a community that soon became known as Copper Kingdom, its sailing ships travelling across the world with cargoes of the precious metal.

When, at the end of the 19th century, investors like John Guest and Richard Crawshay saw that all the materials needed to produce iron - iron ore, limestone, coal and wood - were readily available in Wales, there was a rush to the valleys of south Wales.

By 1820, just five years after the end of the Napoleonic War, under the leadership of men like Crawshay and Francis and Samuel Homfray, the ironworks of Wales were producing nearly half of all Britain's iron exports.

And coal? Until the 1830s Welsh coal had been used principally as household fuel. Then came the steam ships of the Royal Navy and the burgeoning of the new railway system. And coal, its production and delivery, became an industry in its own right rather than being simply an extra, an adjunct to the smelting of iron and copper.

In 1850 the Rhondda Valleys, both Fach and Fawr, boasted fewer than 1000 inhabitants. By 1910 the coal rush - for such it was - had increased the population of the two valleys to over 150,000. People worked long hours in difficult and dangerous conditions.

Wages, although no doubt better than would have been earned on the farms of the rural homelands, were low and many workers were paid in tokens that were only redeemable in the company truck shop - where prices were, of course, very high.

Almost overnight the valleys turned black from smoke and soot and grime. The angular arches of pit winding gear and huge mountains of slag littered the hills. Houses lined the valley sides and the delicate infrastructure of the communities was simply not able to cope.

Poor housing, awful sanitary arrangements, dreadful living conditions - they brought diseases such as cholera, typhoid and typhus. And, of course, it was inevitable that, sooner or later, discontent would be sure to raise its head.

The Merthyr Riots of 1831, which saw the death of more than a dozen rioters and the arrest and subsequent execution of Dic Penderyn, were just the tip of the iceberg. Bands of men, known as Scotch Cattle, were soon roaming the valleys and hillsides, supposedly punishing those who sided with the mine and foundry owners but, in reality, stealing, looting and bullying anyone with whom they did not agree.

The Chartist movement had begun in the 1830s. It was a movement dedicated to social and political reform and its members were committed to achieving fair representation for all working men.

Their six point charter of 1838 demanded, amongst other things, the vote for all men over the age of 21, a secret ballot and payment for all MPs. In Wales, with the appalling conditions of the industrial areas clear for all to see, the Chartists were well supported.

On 2 November 1839 Welsh Chartists planned a march to Newport. Men came from all the industrial areas of south east Wales and at the town's Westgate Hotel, with feelings running high on both sides, there was a full-scale clash between the marchers and soldiers. Twenty men were killed and the Chartist leaders - John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones - were arrested and later transported.

Welsh opposition to the mine owners and the drive to improve conditions in the mines, factories, steel and iron works of the country did not end with the failure of Chartism. Men and women continued to fight for their rights but, despite terrible conditions, it was not until the nationalisation of most of Britain's industries in the years directly after the World War Two that working conditions really improved.

As the 20th century drew to a close it was clear that the industrial valleys of Wales were also nearing the end of their working life. Coal seams were petering out, cheaper fuel was available from abroad and the iron and steel industries were but a shadow of their former selves.

Visitors to the now green-again valleys might applaud the process but it is difficult to know if those who spent their lives underground or working in the blast furnaces would agree or not.

Tonypandy 2010

2010-11-05T12:53:12+00:00

This weekend marks the culmination of a series of events organised to commemorate the centenary of the Tonypandy Riots. This is a free event. Here's what's happening on Sunday so far. For the most up to date details visit the www.tonypandy2010.com website.

Image of crowds of men in Tonypandy 1910 (Image Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council)

3pm - De Winton Street Car Park

Unveiling of the Lady With The Lamp Statue
Performances from Spectacle Theatre Company
David Maddox & Gwen Evans Book Signing of "The Tonypandy Riots 1910-1911"
Lantern and Miners Helmet Making Workshops
Trace Your Roots With Glamorgan Family History Society
Street entertainers

An image from The Tonypandy Riots 1910-1911

4pm - Central Library

Cordell Festive Mini Safa Prize Giving at Tonypandy Central Library

Tonypandy after the strike 1910

5pm - De Winton Street Car Park

Lantern Parade from De Winton Street to Asda Car Park

5.30pm - Asda Car Park

Concert featuring:
Cambrian Male Voice Choir
RSD Dance & Cheer Group
Unfaced Dance Group
Tom Richards (X-Factor)
Sophie Evans (Over The Rainbow)
Nicola Heywood Thomas (Compere)
Laser Show
Fireworks Display

For more information contact Rhondda Cynon Taf Events team on 01443 425700 or email events@rctcbc.gov.uk

Don't miss Tonypandy Riots - A New History on Sunday 7 November, 10.25pm on BBC One Wales. Eddie Butler challenges four local people - including Over the Rainbow runner-up Sophie Evans - to discover the truth about the events in mid-Rhondda that rocked the world during the Cambrian coalminers' dispute.

Read Phil Carradice's blog on the Tonypandy Riots.

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The Tonypandy Riots of 1910

2010-11-03T14:32:59+00:00

This November sees the 100th anniversary of the Tonypandy Riots. These short-lived but seminal series of events have always held a special place in the memories of most Welshmen, attracting legends and stories, truths and half-truths in equal number - Churchill sent in the troops, Churchill held back the troops, Willie Llewellyn's chemist shop was deliberately spared by the rioters, the shop was off the main street and so the rioters missed it, and so on. As with most folklore, the truth probably lies somewhere in between all the various stories and reports.

The riots took place on the evenings of 7 and 8 November 1910, and involved violent clashes between striking miners and members of the Glamorganshire Constabulary - backed up by both the Bristol and the Metropolitan police. Involvement of the military was, at most, rather limited.

In 1910 the Cambrian Collective opened a new seam at their Naval Colliery in Penygraig. It was decided that a test period to determine the rate of production or extraction should take place, an investigation involving a small corps of just 70 miners.

When they saw the results the company promptly declared that the men had worked far too slowly - a strange allegation considering that miners at that time were paid by the tonnage of coal they produced rather than an hourly rate. They had, quite simply, no reason to work slowly.

Whatever their motives, the mine owners now instituted a lock out and closed the mine, not just to the 70 'test men' but to all 950 workers at the colliery. The miners responded by calling a strike and when the Cambrian Collective duly brought in strike breakers from outside the area it was clear that serious trouble lay ahead.

The South Wales Miners Federation (the Fed as it was universally known) balloted workers on 1 November and within days 12,000 men from all the Cambrian pits were out on strike.

Lionel Lindsay, Chief Constable of Glamorganshire, knew that his resources were stretched as there was already a month old strike at pits in the nearby Cynon Valley. As soon as the Fed announced the strike he appealed to the War Office for troops to help with the crisis. None were sent but by Sunday 6 November extra policemen from forces such as Bristol's had been brought to the Rhondda Valley.

By now the only pit left working was Llwynypia Colliery where strike breakers were maintaining the pumps and other machinery. On the evening of 7 November striking miners surrounded the colliery and, as tempers began to boil, stones were thrown.

Fierce hand-to-hand fighting with the police took place and after several baton charges the miners were pushed back into the square at Tonypandy. There they were charged by mounted police from Cardiff and there were several injuries on both sides. Lionel Lindsay again asked for military backup.

Winston Churchill, as Home Secretary, was not desperately keen to send in troops, feeling that people on the spot were perhaps over reacting. He ordered that soldiers, despatched by the War Office from barracks at Tidworth, should be held back, kept in readiness at Cardiff and Swindon. Churchill did agree, however, to send in an extra 270 mounted and foot officers from the Metropolitan police force.

These men, along with those already in the Rhondda, were exceptionally hostile to the miners, acting, apparently, more like an army of occupation than regular detachments of police. Their attitude served only to infuriate the striking miners.

Further rioting occurred on the evening of 8 November. This time the windows of many shops in the town were smashed, and a large number of the shops were looted by men at the end of their tethers. It was reported that miners, and their wives and children, were parading around Tonypandy in clothes taken from the shops and that a general air of festivity seemed to abound.

Image of crowds of men in Tonypandy 1910 (photo courtesy of tonypandy2010.com)

Detachments of the Metropolitan Police arrived in the town square just before 11pm, several hours after the rioting began - they had been busy protecting the homes and property of the mine owners - and by then the disturbances had, in the main, already subsided. Whether or not their presence in the town centre could have prevented the rioting is something that remains unknown.

It was not until the following morning, on 9 November, that soldiers eventually arrived on the scene, patrolling without serious incident in the Tonypandy and Llwynypia areas. There were clashes in Porth and Pontypridd but, generally speaking, the soldiers were - at the time, at least - more welcome than the policemen from outside the valley.

The strike ground on for several months although the violence of the initial riots in Tonypandy was rarely repeated - even though one miner died, it was said, from injuries inflicted by a police baton during an altercation. The strike finally ended in August 1911, 12 months after the lock out that had begun it. It left bitter scars on the community of the Rhondda, particularly as the miners were forced to return to work after agreeing to a paltry figure of just two shillings and three pence per ton of coal extracted.

Churchill was, until his dying day, reviled by many as the man who sent in the troops - even though he had, initially, held them back. The fact that he and other members of the government were even prepared to consider their use was, in the eyes of many, his worst failing.

And Willie Llewellyn's shop? Unlike so many of the businesses in Tonypandy it was left untouched by the rioters. One theory was that Willie, as a Welsh rugby international and a member of the famous 1905 side that had beaten the All Blacks, was a much-loved son of the town - and nobody was going to damage his business. It remains a matter of conjecture.

There are a whole host of events taking place to mark the anniversary of the Tonypandy Riots.

Restoration of the Aberdare fire engine

2010-10-21T15:12:00+00:00

Wales History visited the Museum of Fire in September 2010. Based in Skewen, near Neath, this small museum, run by an enthusiastic group of volunteers had some exciting plans for expansion. Read the blog article.

One of the fire engines in the museum caught our eye, and it turned out to have quite a remarkable story. Today, on the 44th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster, it seems appropriate to tell the story of this Merryweather fire engine.

Nearly five years ago the museum had been contact by a man in New Ross in Ireland who wondered if the Welsh Area Fire Engine Restoration Society (WAFERS) could give him some information on a rusting, dilapidated fire engine that he had bought. It was just minutes from being broken up when the man bought bought the vehicle.

The Merryweather fire engine was rescued from an Irish scrap yard moment before it was to be cut up

The fire engine turned out to be an important find for Wales. Malcolm Evans, secretary of WAFERS, explains why a Welsh fire engine ended up in an Irish scrap yard:

"A lot of these fire engines are bought after their days in the service for pumping water, and this one was on a quay in one of the docks in New Ross where it was actually used for pumping water into the ships. And then it sent to the scrap yard."

It didn't take the WAFERS volunteers long to realise the engine had been one of the emergency vehicles sent to attend the Aberfan tragedy. The engine, a Merryweather Regent 3 (Park Royal) model had been based in Aberdare and the five-man crew that had raced to the village was one of the first vehicles to attend the scene.

A couple of volunteers from WAFERS went out to Ireland to take the fire engine back to Wales. It was in a terrible condition and even just getting the engine out of the scrap yard was problematic.

Malcolm Evans recalls: "It was just in among trees and bushes and overgrown thorns of blackberries and trying to get in and have a look at it.

"Because the wheels were locked they had to force and pull it out as best they could from the bushes. I think it took them about four or five hours. When it arrived back we looked at it and naturally we could see the terrible state it was in, not knowing that it would then take us four years to rebuild it."

Restoring the fire engine took nearly five years

The restoration of the fire engine required enormous amount of work. All the electrics required replacing. The hard wood had rotted and the metal was rusted. View a slideshow of the restoration of the Aberdare fire engine.

Ray Evans, Chairman of WAFERS, was a fireman for 27 years in Port Talbot and Neath. Evans was also one of the many fireman who formed part of the rescue effort during the Aberfan tragedy.

"You get sort of feeling for different machines and because it did attend that incident you know you do have a special feeling for it. I suppose the boys who actually worked on that machine would be surprised to see it now in the condition that it is in."

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Snowdonia 1890: a new series

2010-10-14T09:16:27+00:00

Following the phenomenal success of the two Coal House series, BBC Cymru Wales has recently launched a new 'back in time' programme, Snowdonia 1890.

Snowdonia 1890 shows the hardship of tyddyn (small holding) life.

Produced by the same team that recreated life in Blaenavon in the 1920s and '40s, this new series will chart the trials and tribulations of two families in the slate-producing region of north Wales, in conditions as closely resembling the 1890s as possible.

Hard as it may be to believe, 1890 is only just over 100 years in the past, yet the differences between then and now are remarkable. There was no electricity and, in rural Wales, there were no gas supplies either. No television or radio, no motorcars or central heating - conditions were pretty primitive. Transport was by horse, if you were lucky - otherwise you walked.

Man had not yet taken to the skies, and ships had only just moved out of the era of sail. Machinery to work the slate and coal mines of the country were basic in the extreme, with most jobs being done by hard graft and by hand.

The year 1890 was a significant one for Wales. In February an explosion in the colliery at Llanerch near Pontypool killed no fewer than 176 miners, one of many such disasters to afflict south Wales. On 14 June that year David Lloyd George, later to become Wales' only prime minister, delivered his maiden speech in the House of Commons, while on 20 July Wales' first millionaire, David Davies of Llandinam, died. Only the previous year his huge new dock at Barry had opened for use.

A year later the first language census in the country revealed that 898,914 people (over the age of three) spoke Welsh. That represented 54% of the population and, of these, 30% were monoglot Welsh speaking. In the slate mining districts of north Wales those figures were considerably higher - 91% of people speaking Welsh, 69% having no English at all. Clearly, then, the effects of the new educational system and the use of deterrents such as the Welsh Not had only limited success (if success is the right word) in Snowdonia.

The slate-producing area of Snowdonia, where the series is set, offered men a combination of industry and agriculture for employment, with one occupation or job supplementing and adding to the other. Neither could really offer enough financial reward for people to survive by just one alone.

That meant that many of the men who worked in the slate quarries also ran small-holding farms. These were tiny affairs, perhaps only three or four acres in size, with fields divided up by dry stone walls. Here men, and their wives, kept cattle and sheep, bringing them down from the high grazing pastures in the winter, and tried to cultivate the unyielding land to produce extra vegetables like potatoes and beans to supplement their diet.

It was a hand to mouth existence. Work in the slate quarries was hard and dangerous but at least such work was plentiful. By 1890 there were nearly 100 such quarries in the Snowdonia area alone.

It was a situation that was replicated in many of the south Wales valleys where miners all had their gardens and vegetable plots. Open land was not so plentiful in the south so not many could run to small-holdings of three or four acres, but the need to add meat and vegetables to the diet meant that cultivating the earth and keeping a few chickens - or even pigs - was a common occurrence.

Children will experience school life in the 1890s.

By 1890 the British Empire was nearing its zenith. Britain was already the richest and most powerful country in the world but to the miners and farmers of Snowdonia there were more important issues than grabbing land in South Africa and India. For them it was a case of surviving from one day to the next - something that the two families in Snowdonia 1890 are about to discover for themselves.

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Open Doors at the Winding House, New Tredegar

2010-09-22T12:03:54+00:00

If you are planning to be anywhere near New Tredegar on Saturday 25 September between 12 noon and 3pm, make a note to visit the Winding House museum, and catch their Victorian winding engine in action.

The Victorian winding engine was used to raise and lower the cages in the mine shaft at Elliot Colliery.

This museum is in a former colliery building that was originally part of the Elliot Colliery. At its peak the colliery employed around 2,800 people and produced over a million tons of coal every year.

Its Victorian winding engine was used to raise and lower the cages in the mine shaft, and these cages transported men and coal between the surface and the bottom of the pit.

On Saturday.the engine maintenance team will be on hand to answer any questions about the Victorian engine. Admission is free.

The museum also has exhibitions on the coal boom and how it changed the lives of the people of New Tredegar, as well as offering a wide range of activities, including historical talks and family fun days.

The Winding House is participating in the Open Doors initiative, which is the largest annual free celebration of architecture and heritage to be held in Wales.

Open Doors is organised by the Civic Trust for Wales on behalf of Cadw, the Welsh Assembly Government's historic environment service.

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David Davies: Wales' first millionaire

2010-09-02T15:24:53+00:00

The story of David Davies, the man who can justifiably claim to be Wales' first millionaire, is a classic.There is no other way to describe it; his life is a real tale of "rags to riches."

Born in 1818 at Llandinam in Montgomeryshire, he was the eldest of nine children and yet rose from being a humble sawyer to a position of power and prestige at the very top of Welsh society.

When he died in 1890 his personal estate was valued at over £400,000. And yet, for the first 30 years of his life he could barely read or write.

Upon leaving school at the age of 11, David Davies began to work on the farm and in the sawpits of his father, also called David Davies.

The young man's nickname, "Top Sawyer," dates from this time - he was proud to record and tell the story of how he had always had the good sense to work at the top of the sawpit and thus avoid being covered by shavings and sawdust.

For several years Davies worked as a sawyer, farmer and local contractor but then, after the early death of his father from TB, he was given the opportunity to create the foundations and the approaches to a new bridge across the Severn at Llandinam. The County Surveyor, one Thomas Penson, was so impressed with the work that he began to put other projects Davies' way. He was on the road to success.

Commenting on the death of his father and brother at this time, Herbert Williams, Davies' biographer, wrote:

"The cause of death of David Davies, farmer is given as 'Decline,' and the next column, reserved for the signature, description and residence of the informant, bears the words 'The Mark X of David Davies, Present at the Death.' Eight weeks later he made his mark a second time as witness to the death of his brother Edward. Five years were to pass before he carefully wrote his name on his marriage certificate."

David Davies had clearly taught himself to read in the years between the death of his brother and his marriage to Margaret Jones of Llanfair Caereinion. And from then on it was all upwards for the young entrepreneur.

As well as roads and bridges, he built several railways across mid Wales, his most notable achievement being the crossing of the mighty Tregaron Bog to finish the line between Lampeter and Aberystwyth. Building railways soon became second nature to Davies, and he even headed to the south west to construct the Pembroke to Tenby line.

By the 1850s he might have become an important and wealthy man but Davies never lost touch with his roots. In his book Davies The Ocean, Herbert Williams wrote:

"He was still the old Davy, ready to roll up his sleeves and turn to with the lads. One morning he saw them struggling to roll heavy stones into trucks in a quarry and with a cry of 'Sweet boys, up with them!' helped them shoulder the stones into place. His effort was all the more impressive in that he was on his way to London on business and wearing a dark suit which was so covered in dust that he had to go home to change before making the journey."

In 1864 David Davies bought land in the Upper Rhondda Valley and sank the Parc and Maerdy coal pits. Further mines followed, including the Garw and the Lady Windsor. So successful was the enterprise that in 1887 the Ocean Coal Company Ltd was established, and became one of the most enterprising coal companies in Wales.

As the Taff Vale Railway Company and Cardiff Docks were unable to cope with the traffic from Ocean Collieries, Davies promptly built himself a new dock at Barry - not without considerable opposition from Parliament and the powerful lobby of Lord Bute, who owned the land around Cardiff Docks.

David Davies was a Liberal MP for many years, representing the town and then the county of Cardiganshire. But as an opponent of Irish Home Rule, he quarrelled with Gladstone and lost the 1886 election by a margin of just nine votes. It was devastating blow and Davies died just four years later.

He had made an incredible journey, from humble labourer to the richest man in Wales. David Davies symbolises the energetic, hard working and imaginative Victorian entrepreneur, a self made man who knew exactly where he was going and, more importantly, precisely how he was going to get there.

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