The Cardiff Book of Days (13 page)

1995:
The Taff Viaduct and Bute Tunnel were officially opened by former Labour leader, Neil Kinnock. (Stewart Williams,
Cardiff Yesterday
)

1976:
Mervyn Davies, the Cardiff and Wales rugby captain, collapsed in a WRU Challenge Cup Final against Pontypool at Cardiff. He had to be carried from the pitch after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage, not caused by anything that had happened in the game. He eventually made a full recovery but his playing days were over. Phil Bennett, who took over as Wales captain, said afterwards ‘what happened to Mervyn was tragic. He was in his prime, playing the best rugby of his life. He had established himself as a great rugby captain – quiet on the field but with a fine tactical brain.' Davies had led Wales to a Grand Slam earlier in the season and only a defeat by Scotland (10-12 at Murrayfield in March 1975) prevented him having a 100 per cent winning record as captain). In December 1975 he had led Wales to a 28-3 victory against Australia. (Steve Lewis,
The Priceless Gift: 125 Years of Welsh Rugby Captains
, Mainstream, 2005)

1913:
The birth of poet R.S. Thomas. An only child, he was brought up in Cardiff and lived in the city until the family moved to Holyhead in 1918 because of his father's work in the Royal Navy. He read Classics at the University College of North Wales and then trained for the priesthood at St Michael's College, Llandaff. He was ordained in 1936. After serving mainly in rural parishes in North Wales, Thomas retired in 1978. He was known for his bleak and moving descriptions of the hardships of life in upland rural communities. Although he wrote in English, R.S. Thomas became a fierce advocate of Welsh Nationalism and believed that the leaders of Plaid Cymru did not go far enough to their opposition to English influence in Wales. Professor M. Wynn Thomas described him as ‘the Alexander Solzhenitsyn of Wales because he was such a troubler of Welsh consciences'. R.S. Thomas died in 2000. (T.D. Breverton,
The Welsh Almanac
, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / Wikipedia)

1555:
Rawlins White, a local fisherman, was burned at the stake in St Mary's Street, a martyr who died during the persecution of Protestants under the Catholic regime of Mary Tudor. He had described himself as ‘a diligent seeker-out of truth'. Unable to read himself, White made sure his son was educated. Every evening the boy read his to father from the Bible. As a result, Rawlins White was able to absorb and quote lengthy passages of Scripture and he preached in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, denouncing what he saw as the false doctrine of the Catholic Church. He is commemorated by a plaque ‘erected by two Protestants of this town' which reads ‘Near this spot suffered from Truth Rawlins White, a Fisherman of this town. We shall by God's Grace light such a candle in England as shall never be put out'. (Dennis Morgan,
The Cardiff Story
, D. Brown & Sons, 1991)

1871:
The Cardiff Medical Officer of Health reported that seventy-one deaths had been registered during February. Of these deaths, eighteen were caused by diseases of the brain and nervous system, twenty-two by pulmonary diseases, two by diseases of the heart, three by diseases of the kidneys, seventeen by infectious diseases (including six from scarlatina, four from smallpox, two from whooping cough, four from croup, one from diarrhoea and six from ‘diseases of uncertain seat') and two from old age. There were eight on which inquests were being held to determine the cause of death. The mortality rate was twenty-four per thousand – slightly higher than the national rate. (
Cardiff Times
)

1960:
Maindy Barracks closed after eighty years as an Army basic training centre. It had opened in 1871. During the Second World War the nearby footpath between Gelligaer Street and New Zealand Road earned the evocative nickname of ‘Burma Road' which was said to stand for ‘Be Undressed And Ready My Angel' because, it was said, American troops and local prostitutes used to meet there. (
www.cardiffians.co.uk
)

1646:
Christopher Reynolds, the Vicar of Llandaff, was arrested by Roundhead troops as he was about to administer Communion at Easter. He was imprisoned in the town jail and later ejected from his post ‘for delinquency' and replaced by a Puritan preacher, David Walter. Walter, a thatcher by trade, ‘mounted the pulpit to deride the church liturgy and, from his vast memory of the Scriptures to preach for three hours, beginning at Genesis and ending at Revelation'. The books and manuscripts of the Cathedral library were removed to Cardiff Castle for safe-keeping during the Civil War but later wantonly destroyed when the castle was taken over. (William Rees,
Cardiff: A History of the City
, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)

1954:
The last flight left Cardiff's Pengam Moors airfield which was to be replaced by a new airport at Rhoose. Its original facilities had been very basic, only a few wooden huts beside the grass airstrip. A sea wall had been built to prevent flooding from the Severn Estuary. Services had included that operated by the Great Western Railway to Plymouth and Birmingham and a daily flight to Le Touquet. An RAF station had been opened on adjacent land at Pengam in 1938.

1792:
Heavy rain and floodwaters caused the first pier on the Canton side of the bridge over the Taff to collapse. This severely disrupted Cardiff's trade and commerce. The mail coach from London had to be diverted via Llandaff. The bridge had been rebuilt in 1671 after being damaged during the Civil War. The new bridge was completed in 1796 on the site of the present one, the former approach through the West Gate being replaced by a route crossing the yard of the Cardiff Arms. The funds allowed for construction amounted to £3,000, less £300 for the materials of the old bridge – prudent recycling!

This new bridge was badly damaged by another flood in 1827 but continued to be used until the present bridge was completed in 1859 (widened in 1877 and 1931). (Dennis Morgan,
The Cardiff Story
, D. Brown & Sons, 1991)

1990:
An earthquake (measured at 5.2 on the Richter Scale) which had its epicentre in mid Wales was felt in Cardiff but there was no significant damage in the city. (
Western Mail
)

1871:
An inquest was held at Llandough on the body of a baby boy which had been buried in the churchyard without permission from the rector. The body had been placed in a draper's pasteboard box in place of a coffin. Police enquiries had established that the child's parents were Evan Morgan, a docks policeman, and his wife. The child had been named David, but had suffered convulsions and died. Evan Morgan expressed his sorrow at having buried his son without obtaining the required sanction from the church authorities. The coroner administered a severe rebuke and the jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence presented. (E. Alwyn Benjamin,
Penarth 1841-71, A Glimpse of the Past
, D. Brown & Sons, 1980)

1987:
Cardiff Bay Development Corporation came into being. The Corporation had been set up by the government of Margaret Thatcher as part of an initiative aimed at revitalising run-down parts of Britain's cities. It was charged with the task of providing 30,000 jobs, 6,000 homes and attracting two million visitors to the old docks area by the year 2000. (John Richards,
Cardiff: A Maritime History
, The History Press, 2005)

1904:
Billy Brian of Whitchurch was famous around 1900 as Wales' Greatest Trick-Cyclist. A silver cup, one of his most prized possessions, was inscribed ‘For cycling backwards from Newport to the Moon & Stars, Cardiff, without dismounting, The Lee Cup presented to W.Brian, 4
^th
April 1904.' Such was his talent in this unlikely field of human endeavour that the great German trick-cyclist, Bud Snyder, who was appearing at the Empire Theatre in Cardiff, begged Billy to join his professionally. However, Billy was, it seems, content to remain in his secure job as a clerk with the local firm of Spiller & Baker. He gave up any chance of a stage career and worked for them for forty years. Trick-cycling remained just a hobby – but one that he continued until well into his fifties. Always the entertainer, in his later years he devoted himself to learning to play the piano! (Stewart Williams,
Cardiff Yesterday
)

1735:
‘Being informed that goods are run on a small island called Flat Holm within the Bristol Channel and it appearing that the King's Boat is stationed at Ely Ouze within your port near the said Holm, you are to order the officers belonging to the said boat frequently to visit this island to prevent any frauds being committed'. (Letter from Custom House, London, to the port authorities in Cardiff in an attempt to curb smuggling quoted in Robert M. Jory, ‘Flat Holm in the Bristol Channel' in Stewart Williams (ed.),
Glamorgan Historian 4
, 1967)