Taf Blue Plaques

TAFF ELY

Freddy Welsh – Ynysangharad Road, Pontypridd

Born in Pontypridd and christened Frederick Hall Thomas, he was nicknamed the "Welsh Wizard". The son of a successful businessman, Freddie suffered frequent illnesses as a child and was sent to California for his health. Here he took up boxing as a result of a suggestion from his physical fitness instructor. He became so good at the sport that he decided to make a living out of it and he turned professional in 1905. He took the name Freddie Welsh to prevent his mother from learning of his new career. The surname 'Welsh' was taken in honour of his nationality.

In 1909, Welsh was awarded the first Lonsdale Belt, in recognition of his winning the European lightweight boxing title. In 1914, he won the World Lightweight title on a points decision against Ritchie in London. He retained the title until May 1917, when he was knocked out at the Manhattan Athletic Club by Benny Leonard.

During the First World War Freddie served as a lieutenant and helped disabled veterans at the Walter Reed Hospital. He was discharged a Captain and returned to the ring in December, 1920.

He retired from boxing after a defeat by Archie Walker in 1922, but retired as a wealthy man. He bought a health farm and a gymnasium but fell on hard times and died penniless in New York

Dr Richard Griffiths – Gelliwastad Road, Pontypridd

By the end of the first decade of the 19th century a tinworks and small ironworks were in operation in Treforest. It was here that the terminus of a tramroad existed, constructed by Dr Richard Griffiths that ran from the first coalmines being sunk in the lower Rhondda. Dr Griffiths also built a private canal known as the Doctor's Canal that linked the tramroad and the Glamorganshire Canal. Significantly, both the Doctor's Canal and tramroad effectively ignored the tiny hamlet scattered around Edwards's bridge and it wasn't until the arrival of the Brown Lenox chainworks in 1818 that Pontypridd experienced development of real significance.

Dr William Price – Round Houses, The Common, Pontypridd

Dr. William Price (4 March 1800 – 23 January 1893) was a physician and a famous eccentric, best known for reintroducing cremation to the United Kingdom. He was born in Rudry and in 1820 went to study medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. He also studied in Caerphilly. Price became fluent in Welsh and English and conversant in Latin and other languages. By the mid-1820s Price was a Doctor at Treforest Iron Works and Brown Lenox Chainworks, a position that enabled him to see at first hand the effects of poor working conditions, low pay, daily danger, accidents, exploitation and conservatism and gave him a strong interest in Chartism as it came to its peak.

Dr Price established the first Co-Operative Society in Wales, known as the Pontypridd Provision Company. He also had a vision to establish a Museum of Welsh Culture and school for the poor and built the Round Houses at Pontypridd. He was a prominent Welsh Chartist and was forced to flee to Paris, France, after being involved in the Newport Rising of 1839. He was an equally prominent Druid and exponent of 19th century Druidic traditions, appointing himself as archdruid. By the following year however, he returned to South Wales and in 1841 his first child, a daughter, was born.

However, Price is remembered chiefly as the performer of the first legal cremation in the UK in modern times, which took place on 18 January 1884, when he attempted to burn the body of his dead five-month-old son, Iesu Grist (Jesus Christ) who had died eight days previously of teething problems. The infant was the illegitimate son of Price and his housekeeper Gwenllian Llewellyn

As part of his druidic faith, William Price believed that burial was a sin against the earth and felt that cremation was a much better option, even though this was widely thought to be actually illegal in Britain at the time. Price was prosecuted, but successfully defended himself, claiming that "It is not right that a carcass should be allowed to rot and decompose in this way. It results in a wastage of good land, pollution of the earth, water and air, and is a constant danger to all living creatures". The judge at the Cardiff Assizes, Mr Justice Stephen, agreed that, under English law, an action wasn't illegal unless it was specifically proscribed. As the existing law made no explicit reference to cremation, the practice was therefore legal. The case set a precedent, which led to the Cremation Act of 1902. In 1885 the first official cremation took place at Woking.

Before his own death, on the night of January 23, 1893, Price fathered a second and a daughter with Gwenllian Llywelyn. He died in 1893 and on January 31 was cremated on a pyre of two tons of coal, in accordance with his will, on the same hillside overlooking Llantrisant. It was watched by 20,000 people.

Sir Geraint Evans – William Street, Cilfynydd

Born in Cilfynydd near Pontypridd - in the same street as Stuart Burrows 11 years later - Geraint Evans was surrounded by music from birth. He became a talented pianist and violinist, and also sang in local productions. A major turning point came when a local opera singer recommended that he should take singing lessons.

He performed as an amateur while working as a window-dresser, until the next major life-changing event came along - the outbreak of the Second World War. Evans started in the RAF but ended up in the music department of the British Forces Network, performing regularly on the radio. The Austrian bass Theo Hermann heard him and gave him lessons.

It was through Hermann's contacts that Geraint Evans got an audition at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on his return. He joined the company, and after starting in smaller roles he quickly progressed to perform Figaro in only his second season. Many other character baritone roles soon followed, and with them his increasing fame particularly in the roles of Falstaff, Don Pasquale, Figaro, Beckmesser, Leporello and Dulcamara. His achievements were acknowledged with a knighthood in 1969.

Another defining moment came in 1960 when Evans was asked to perform Figaro at La Scala in Milan, under the baton of the great Herbert von Karajan. In doing so, he became the first British singer to perform at La Scala in 35 years. Engagements soon followed in Vienna and Salzburg, with New York, San Francisco and Buenos Aires following on. Geraint Evans was one of the very first international opera star jet-setters.

At a time when as a rule great acting was not high on the list of requirements for a successful career in opera, perhaps it was Geraint Evans' unique talent for characterisation that led to his international success, and directors such as Tyrone Guthrie and Franco Zeffirelli loved to work with him. His dramatic talent also led him to regularly stage produce operas in which he was performing, becoming famed for his role of Falstaff. He died at his home in Aberaeron in 1992.

Nantgarw China Works - Nantgarw

The Nantgarw Pottery was established in November 1813, when artist and potter William Billingsley and his son-in-law Samuel Walker, a skilled technician, purchased "Nantgarw House" on the eastern bank of the Glamorganshire Canal and set about building the kilns and ancillary equipment in its grounds, necessary to transform the building into a small porcelain pottery. Billingsley had been instrumental in the development of the porcelain recipe for Flight, Barr & Barr at Royal Worcester, he and Walker, had signed an agreement not to disclose their new porcelain recipe to a third party, but there was no clause preventing them from using that recipe themselves. They had left Worcester in secret and started the venture at Nantgarw with only £250 to invest in the project between them.

By January 1814, the Quaker entrepreneur William Weston Young had already become the major share-holder in their venture, having invested £630 into the first production period at Nantgarw, as his diaries at the Glamorgan Record Office testify, where payments are recorded to a Mr "Bealey;" an alias Billingsley travelled under since leaving Royal Worcester.

It is assumed Young was acquainted with Billingsley through a mutual friend, and fellow earthenware decorator Thomas Pardoe, whom Billingsley had approached at Swansea's Cambrian Pottery, while seeking employment in 1807. Young's work across Glamorganshire as a surveyor may have put him in the position to advise Billingsley whilst still at Royal Worcester, of the suitability of the site at Nantgarw. Its proximity to the Glamorganshire Canal enabled heavy shipments of china clay, as well as the pottery's delicate porcelain wares to be smoothly transported to and from Cardiff docks by barges.

The rare surviving pieces of Nantgarw porcelain are considered today to be among the most valuable artefacts ever produced in Wales, and are among the most exquisite examples of British Porcelain ever made.

The Guildhall – Castle Green, Llantrisant

Llantrisant’s ancient tradition of the Freemen began with a Royal charter issued by the Lord of Glamorgan, Hugh le Despenser, in 1346. The long-held belief that it was granted due to the courage shown by the Llantrisant longbow men at Crecy is untrue, since the battle took place five months later. Although tales of chivalry from a bygone age, when longbow men from the town fought the French at Crecy, continue to spark the imagination. But those gallant veterans of the war were probably bestowed the honour of Freemanship on their return, becoming the first of the Borough of Llantrisant. Tradespeople in the community petitioned Despenser for a charter to allow them to trade freely within their own town. Other traders wanting to sell their goods at the weekly markets would pay a toll to the Lord. So both parties benefited from the Charter, which outlined a boundary line for the freedom of trading.

This created a new borough, which existed until 1889, and gave Freemen a measure of self government, their own courts of law and control of markets and fairs as well as grazing rights over the common. The 1346 Charter created a whole new borough ruled by a Court Leet of 12 jurors. The chief officer was the Constable of the Castle, along with Sergeant of the Mace, Overseers of the Common, Portreeve, Steward, Overseers of the Market and Aldermen. They held their Hundred Court at the Guildhall to govern the ancient borough.

The Pwysty – George Street, Llantrisant

The weighing house, or Pwysty, was located on this site since medieval times. At once known as The Angel Inn, it was at Y Pwysty that the weight of goods were regulated at the markets and fairs held in the town. The town scales were also kept here and this was regarded as a very important establishment when governing the regular markets.

Parish Workhouse – Swan Street, Llantrisant

An historic church vestry meeting on December 5, 1783, was called to, 'consult in regard of establishing a workhouse for the poor'. Until then, the aged, feeble and weak-minded were either cared for by a neighbour for a small fee or simply left unassisted in insanitary cottages. In 1784, it was unanimously resolved to open the workhouse, one of the first in Glamorgan, in a series of adapted cottages along Swan Street and in the Black Cock Inn on Yr Allt. The Union Workhouse was opened a century later close to the Bull Ring.

Rev William Evans – Capel y Ton, Tonyrefail

The Calvinistic Methodist minister was born on June 30th 1795 at Garthgraban-fach, Llantrisant. He was educated at Eagles School, Cowbridge, was converted in 1814 under the ministry of Evan Jones of Merthyr Tydfil, and joined the Methodists at Tonyrefail. That year he married Margaret Cadwgan of Llandyfodwg and the two made their home at Cae'r Curlas Uchaf. He began to preach in 1818 and was ordained at the Cardigan Association, 1825.

In the course of his long life he toured and preached over the whole of Wales, being justly popular not only because of his outstanding personal qualities but also because of the pithiness of some of his observations. He was known to his contemporaries as "the silver bell of Tonyrefail". He and Edward Matthews were responsible for the spread of Calvinistic Methodism in Glamorgan in the days when the population there was growing rapidly. He preached at the opening ceremonies of most of the new chapels which were then being built. He died on February 14th 1891 and was buried in Tonyrefail cemetery. His great-great-grandson was West End composer Ivor Novello

Richard Llewellyn – Gilfach Goch Community Centre

Richard David Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd (8 December 1906-30 November 1983) was born of Welsh parents in Hendon, north London in 1906. Several of his novels were dealt with a Welsh theme, the best-known being How Green Was My Valley (1939), which won international acclaim and was made into a classic Hollywood film. It immortalised the way of life of the South Wales Valleys coal mining communities, where Llewellyn spent a small amount of time with his grandfather in Gilfach Goch.

He lived a perapetetic life, travelling widely throughout his life. Before World War II, he spent periods working in hotels, wrote a play, worked as a coal miner and produced his best known novel. During World War II, he rose to the rank of Captain in the Welsh Guards. Following the war, he worked as a journalist, covering the Nuremberg Trials, and then as a screenwriter for MGM. Late in his life, he lived in Eilat, Israel.

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