Some names known are: Back row l-r Peter Coombes, Terry
Williams, Brian James, Brian Brown, Harley Erasmus, Ivor Cooper, Carl Tunley.
Next row l-r: ? , Jennifer Rowlands, ? , Marie Gimlett,
? , ? , Fay Jones, Jean Constance. Next row l-r: June Robbins,
? , Thelma Collier, Bronwyn Francis, Brenda Williams. Front row l-r
:Selwyn Marsh, David Smith, Jimmy Smith, Ian Valentine.
... These cottages are adjacent Ty
Pwca road, on the trackway to Pontnewydd Golf club ...
Webmaster:- Many
moons ago I can remember a little shop in the centre of the row known as Lewis`s,
this is where each Summer, we `stocked up on provisions of chocolate crisps and
pop for our trip to the `Slippery Path` or to scale the `Highest Mountain in the
World` Mynydd Maen .
Roger L Jones, Adelaide,
South Australia relates: I have memories of the golf club, just past
Lewis's shop, on the right there used to be a grassed area with swings and a
brook, my friend, and I used to hang out there all the time, we also used to
go up to the "tees" on the golf course in the winter and sled down them, if
there was any snow. I would have been age 12 and 13 then. I spent nearly all
my free time down at the canal, I was also in the Boy Scouts and achieved
the rank of Patrol Leader, the site of our scout club house was just off the
canal bank near Pontnewydd in those days 1956 to 1958, it was just a tin
shed. We then left for Australia where I still live to this day
(2010). n.b: I used to live at 45 Mynydd Maen Road.
.. This view dates
back to 1955 and shows the top end of Maendy Way and the junction of Mynydd Maen
Road ..
Sue Smith relates:- The
street on the left is Heol Newydd which leads on to Rhiw Melin, where I grew up.
This was known locally as `The Pink Path` as each garden had pink flowering
blossom trees in the spring.
Lance Ford
comments: The Square - My Nan stands in the doorway of No.3 with Granpa,
Bill, at the wall with their first child, Muriel.
Mum's
birthplace - the houses used to be opposite the entrance to Bethal Lane
in Upper Cwmbran till the new road was put in.
Permission
kindly given by the Curator to myself, webmaster on the 2nd February 2004 to include extracts from this
publication ;
...`A Search into the Past` written
by Millie Cadwell,
B. A. 1979 ...
Published
by Torfaen Museum Trust
Various stories have been
told of the origins of The Square. One is that it was built near the beginning
of the nineteenth century, and, that its design was influenced by the arrival in
the area of some French nuns, who had escaped from the French revolution. The
inference was that houses were built in the form of a square because that was
the French style of building.
Another story relates
that the wife of the owner of the woollen mill, who had Flemish connections,
influenced the design.
They are interesting
theories. So far, I have been unable to find any evidence to substantiate either
of them, or that The Square was built at such an early date.
The difficulty is that
the houses do not appear on the 2 inch Ordnance Survey map, dated 1813 and
published in 1833, Nor do they show on the sketch-map of Tyr Rees Farm circa 1834,
on which land they must have been built. This farm, however, was let to
Ebenezer Rogers in November, 1839, and the houses are shown on the tithe map,
published in 1840.
I should venture to
suggest that they were built in response to the increased demand for housing
which occurred when the new level, the Porthmawr Colliery, was opened in 1837
and the brickworks were expanded.
The houses are stepped
because of the slope of the land, and were numbered from 1 to 29. The last
number can still be seen on the door of the very derelict little cottage beside
the chapel. Numbers 1 and 2, half of the row at the back of The Square , and
all, except one, on the side above the chapel, have now been pulled down. The
remaining tenants will defend, to the last, their right to continue to live
there.
"After all",
said one, "What other heritage have we left?" One house has been
rebuilt and looks very fine. Another, at the top of the row, has changed in appearance. The
arched feature above the door has gone. The house, like the one opposite (now a
heap of rubble), was larger than the others and must have been built for
better-paid employees.
.. for info on `The
Square and a Family Connection` click here
..
...
Situated within `The Square` is the remains of the Squirrel
Inn, which
played a vital role in community life until fairly recent times ...
It was advertised to be let, with possession, early in 1845:
"The Squirrel Inn at Cwmbrane, adjoining the Porthmawr
Coal Works and the Firebrick Works of the Stourbridge Clay Company. These works
are daily increasing in magnitude and importance and the Inn is so situated as
to command the custom of the greater part of the population."
In
July, 1859, 150 members of the Good Intent Lodge (Oddfellows) sat down to an
excellent dinner at the Squirrel Inn. John Lawrence took the chair on that occasion.
The first school in Upper Cwmbran was
held in the upper room, the fireplaces of which can still be seen.
It was established in 1852 by the local inhabitants, with the
help of the owners of the mines. It continued in that room until 1868, when a
new building was erected on the site of the present Primary Infants` school at
Upper Cwmbran. That "new" building was demolished a few years ago.
The School in The Square accommodated over 100 children.
Ironically, it was refused a government grant one year, because it was
overcrowded. Its first headmaster was Thomas Lewis, a native of Goytre,
Monmouthshire but living, until 1852, at Llangattock in Carmarthenshire.
David Morgan was the headmaster in 1862, and the log-book he
kept provides fascinating reading, and relates life of The Square during the
1860`s. It complains of the noise made by the people in the Inn below, of the
truancy among the boys, of late-comers delayed through playing on the incline,
and of others who had gone to work underground when still under 10 years of age.
most complaints, however, covered unhygienic conditions and disciplinary
difficulties owing to overcrowding.
It took so long to build the new school that Mr. Morgan, a good,
conscientious schoolmaster, handed in his resignation in December 1866, two
years before the "New Room" was ready.
Date:13/12/10 -Madeline Brown
Email: Click
here
I am writing to see if anyone
has any information on the residents of The Square in upper Cwmbran between
1880 and 1901?
From the census records of 1881, 1891 and
1901 I believe that my great grandmother's family were living in No. 28
The Square. They were Benjamin and Elizabeth Thomas. My
great grandmother was Sarah Jane Thomas, born about1857. Sarah married
William Cook also of Upper Llanfrechfa. Sarah died young, leaving three
sons, one being my grandfather, Benjamin Cook. William Cook remarried
and moved to Abertillery. My grandfather was brought up by his
stepmother and his father in Abertillery (the family remained here, my
birth place too)
Benjamin and Elizabeth Thomas remained
in The Square with some of their family until at least 1901 when they
were aged about 70 and 71. Benjamin is listed as being a collier/ black
smith.
Ebenezer
Chapel
The origin of the chapel
is something of a mystery. it was built in two stages, the enlargement taking
place in 1863 when the gallery was added. It was still possible to see the line
in the wall where the extension was made, just above the brick porch which was a
still later addition. The platform at the north end of the chapel was erected
about 40 years ago.
But when was it first
built? I am assured that there is a slab, in the floor of the oldest part, with
the date "1811" inscribed on it. Yet, this chapel is not shown
on the tithe map in 1840.
Folk memory relates that
The Square was built first and then its inhabitants built the chapel. Might I
suggest that it, too, was built early in the 1840`s and that the name
"Ebenezer" was given to it, because not only was it a popular
name for chapels at that time, but also the tenant of the land , on which it was
built, manager of the brickworks and public benefactor, was also called
Ebenezer?
The mystery of the dated
stone remains, but it could presumably, have been brought from another
building, perhaps an even earlier chapel, but not on this site.
The chapel was maintained
by large congregations, until the recent depopulation of the area began to have
the inevitable effect. now, it has become " hard work to keep it
going" for the few who are left.
One feature of interest
in the chapel enclosure is a boundary stone, almost hidden in the grass. One
side has inscribed, the letters "J.C.H." and the other, the
letters "M.de S." They marked the boundary between land
belonging to John Capel Hanbury on the one side, and to Madame de Solignac on
the other.
Madame de Solignac was
formerly Jane Griffiths, wife of, and later, widow, of the late Charles
Griffiths of Llanyravon Farm. He died
in 1836. In 1840, Jane Griffiths married a Frenchman and took up residence at
Grandval, Department of Tarn, France, as Madame de Solignac.
The trustees of the
chapel still have to pay rent to the Hanbury Estates Office for the small corner
of the yard.
Siloam
Baptist Chapel
According to tradition,
meetings of Baptists in the Upper Cwmbran area were held in people's homes until
the chapel was built in 1838. This date follows very closely on the opening of
the Porthmawr Colliery- better known locally as the Clay level- and the expansion
of the brickworks. It is likely that it was erected in response to an urgent
need for a larger building in which to hold services.
The Bethel Congregation
Chapel (now a private residence) near `Millies`s Shop
(now a private residence) appears to be of similar age.
The Siloam Chapel
graveyard contains some very interesting tombstones. The oldest noted dates back
to 1849.
One inscription records
the death of Thomas Morgan, who was killed at the Upper Cwmbran Colliery on 18th
January 1858, aged 40 years. Another is in memory of Isaac Maynard, a mason who
died suddenly in 1866, at the age of 39 years. The following verse records the
sudden-ness of his death.
"Death
to me no warning gave But took me sudden to my grave,
To meet my Lord without delay For sudden death took me away."
Perhaps the saddest one
of all is that which records the deaths of two small brothers, Llewellin and
Thomas Williams, in 1870;one at the age of 2 years 8 months and the other ten
days later, aged 7 years.
It
holds an inscription in Welsh:
"DIWRNNAC YMFFROSTIA OR DYDD Y FORY CANYS NI WYDDOST BETH ADDIGWDD MEWNOD."
" Do not boast of tomorrow because you do not know what will happen within
the day."
Ian Roch relates:
"Ebenezer Chapel"
This Chapel was used as an extra school room for the Juniors of Upper
Cwmbran School; The teachers name was Mr. Evans, the Headmaster was Mr.
Lawrence and the Caretaker was Mr. Moore.
UPPER CWMBRAN (1957)
Reservoirs
n.b. The steel walkway was removed 2006
Before
the reservoir's construction in about 1884, most of the water in the Cwmbran
area, was supplied from streams and wells. water pollution was one of the
results of industrialisation, and repeated epidemics of cholera and typhoid -
and neither were unknown in this district- forced the government of the day to
intervene in the matter of sanitation and good supplies of clean water.
Disraeli`s
Public Health Act of 1875, encouraged the Llanfrechfa upper Local Board to have
a private Water works Act passed in 1884. They then negotiated with John Capel
Hanbury for permission to build a reservoir on the land belonging to Blaenbrane
Farm, at that time in the tenancy of Rowland William Beavan. The need for it was
accentuated by the phenomenal rise in the population of the parish, which had
accompanied the opening of the Lower or Main Cwmbran Adit in 1879 and the
expansion of the steel and tin-plate works in Pontnewydd.
When the
second reservoir was built higher up, during the 1930`s, the Blaenbrane Farm
ceased to exist, although it's field walls can still be traced in the
plantation.
.. This photograph shows the 2nd smaller reservoir, now filled
in ..
A drainage channel and `sluice gates` for controlling the
overflow can still be seen
* (Upper
Cwmbran)
*
Brickworks
At the top of the incline, on the right hand side
of the road, lies the filter station for the reservoirs above.
In the nineteenth century this was the site of a brickworks. The
earliest reference noted, to a brickmaster, is to one William
Wisdon, brickman, in 1634, but he probably lived near Llantarnam abbey. There is
a further reference to a brickyard, owned by James Richards, in Llanfrechfa
Upper Parish, in 1829, although its exact position is not known.
It is however, certain that brickworks, already
in existence, were handed over in 1839, to Ebeneezer Rogers, who had come to
Cwmbran at the age of 22, to manage the Stourbridge Fireclay Company, whose main
premises were situated beside the canal in Lower Cwmbran.
He erected an up-to-date factory and Mr. Blewitt
agreed to deliver fireclay to him, unless he were prevented from doing so
"by faults, failure of clay or coal, or any general strike or combination
among Colliers or Miners".
By 1843 the brickworks were important enough to
be shown on John Prujean`s map of the county, and soon afterwards, production
had risen to 100,000 firebricks per week.
Ebeneezer Rogers left Cwmbran in 1845 to go to
Abercarn where he made notable improvements both in the mining industry and in
the town, and was looked upon as a public benefactor.
In 1854, the brickworks became the property of
John Lawrence who leased them to Henry Parfitt, in 1867, " with the Stoves,
Kilns, Smith's shops and Cottages ". Henry Parfitt was a prominent local
builder in the last three decades of the nineteenth century.
.. Brickyard
Cottages ..
Nigel Kennedy relates: My Grandfather Alfred
John Hicks
was born on St David’s day, 1909
, lived with
his Aunt and Uncle – Horace and Ethel Hicks – in the end cottage furthest from
the road. At that time there were three cottages rather than two. Horace and
Ethel are buried in the Chapel cemetery opposite the cottages. He was a miner
before moving to Slough in the 1930s. My Aunt – Gwyneth – remembers being
‘evacuated’ to stay with Horace and Ethel during WW2.
This building was originally divided into two
cottages, probably built during the 1840`s to house the people working at the
brickworks. The cottages were mentioned in the lease to Henry Parfitt in 1867.
footnote - The grave of Henry Parfitt (1836 -
1898), his wife Ann, (1835 - 1889) and their son Henry William Parfitt (1862 -
1908 aged 46 years) can be found in the cemetery at the Holy Trinity Church,
Pontnewydd.
-
Their family home was ASHLEY HOUSE,
Pontnewydd 
-
Incidentally, close by is a street named
after them - PARFITT TERRACE. 
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