Read an Excerpt

The Cardiff Book of Days

The History Press

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)

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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)

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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 38 (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.

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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)

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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)

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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.

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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)

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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.'

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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 theGlamorgan 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)

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Excerpted from The Cardiff Book of Days by Mike Hall. Copyright © 2012 Mike Hall. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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