The Cardiff Book of Days (33 page)

1789:
‘In the afternoon of the 23rd I proceeded to Llandaff which is two miles higher up the Taff than Cardiff. It is a small and inconsiderable place and has not even a market to boast of but the elegant and venerable ruins of its cathedral are sufficiently attractive to commend the occasional resort of strangers. The structure was built about the beginning of the twelfth century. The building now used as the cathedral includes part of the body of the ancient one but is in other respects as modern as the present century, about the middle of which, I believe, the old church underwent such a restoration as was almost equivalent to rebuilding. The ruins exhibit an aspect very different from the present cathedral, the new part of which the architect formed principally on the Roman model, without considering how incongruous this style of architecture is with the plan pursued in the ancient part.' (‘C.C.' in
The Gentlemen's Magazine
)

1926:
Cardiff-born balloon pioneer E.T. Willows was killed along with four passengers in an accident at a Flower Show at Hoo Park, Kempston, near Bedford. (
www.sermonsinwelshstone.com
)

1794:
A band of forty-five men, possibly shipwrecked sailors or mutineers who had landed at Barry, passed through Cardiff heading in the direction of Newport. At Rumney they were overtaken by the dreaded Press Gang, fourteen of them, intent on kidnapping them to serve in the Royal Navy fighting against Napoleonic France. The sailors though, armed with cutlasses and bludgeons, got into position to defend themselves and the gang, deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, retreated. The relieved sailors retired to the inn where they were regaled with beer by the locals. (William Rees,
Cardiff: A History of the City
, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)

1887:
Roath Dock opened. It was equipped with the latest Lewis-Hunter cranes, designed to avoid breaking up the coal as it was loaded into the ships' holds. Three or more cranes could work simultaneously on the same vessel, loading a cargo of 10,000 tons in twenty-four hours. (John Richards,
Cardiff: A Maritime History
, The History Press, 2005)

1964:
The coaster
Farringay
left Queen Alexandra Dock with the final cargo of coal to be shipped out Cardiff. The British Transport Docks Board had decided that in future South Wales coal would be exported through Barry and Swansea. (John Richards,
Cardiff: A Maritime History
, The History Press, 2005)

1932:
Glamorgan captain Maurice Turnbull (
see
August 5th) scored a fighting 205 against Nottinghamshire's fearsome ‘Bodyline' bowling attack led by Harold Larwood. Despite being hit several times on the body, Turnbull never flinched. At the close of play Turnbull was 160 not out and received a standing ovation from the Glamorgan crowd at the Arms Park while the Nottinghamshire bowlers muttered darkly about being expected to bowl on ‘a featherbed wicket', sentiments they forcibly expressed in the pubs that evening. Possibly egged-on by local newspaper men, some of the Notts players then climbed over the wall into the Arms Park and expressed their contempt of the wicket by pouring beer onto it. A scuffle took place when the Arms Park groundsmen tried to stop them and Turnbull was telephoned at his hotel. The
Western Mail
was all set to run the story but Turnbull would have none of it. ‘Think of the embarrassment it will cause English cricket and Glamorgan cricket in particular,' he pleaded. He went on to make 205 but the match was drawn. (Andrew Hignell,
From Sophia to Swalec: A History of Cricket in Cardiff
, The History Press, 2008)

2008:
The day after performing at Bryn Terfil's Faenol Festival opera singer Shân Conti set off on Bank Holiday Monday on a charity pony-trekking expedition from Talacre Beach near Prestatyn, aiming to complete the 300-mile journey to the South Wales coast. The trek was to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer, the disease that had killed her long-term partner Justin Smith, the editor of the BBC Wales political programme,
Dragon's Eye
. Justin had formerly been bass-player in the Cardiff-based glam-rock band, Tigertailz. Shan had met Justin in 1998 at the Avanti television production company when he had the job of editing her show on S
4
C. They lived in Cardiff but he became ill in 2006. The diagnosis came too late for treatment to be effective. They were married at his beside in a Penarth hospice a month before Justin's death. Shan later set up the charity Amser Justin Time to provide support for patients and their families. (
www.amserjustintime.org.uk
)

1921:
Cardiff City's first game in the top flight of the Football League, the First Division was held. The match programme for their eagerly-awaited opening game, against Tottenham Hotspur (the FA Cup holders) advised fans that ‘the ground has undergone considerable improvement during the close season. No doubt the most necessary has been the improvement of the playing pitch. This has been done with sea-washed turf by expert men, the pitch now being equal to the best in the country. An appeal is made therefore to all not to run over the field after the match.' The 60,000 who turned up for the match did not have much to celebrate – Cardiff lost 0-1 and went on to lose their next five matches. (Dennis Morgan,
Farewell to Ninian Park
, 2008)

1981:
Thirty-six women, together with four babies in pushchairs and six token males, set off from Cardiff City Hall on the ‘Women's Peace March' to the American base at Greenham Common near Newbury where they were to set up camp outside the perimeter fence. They were protesting about ground-launch nuclear missiles targeted at the Soviet Union being deployed there. The Peace Camp at Greenham Common remained there for nearly twenty years. (T.D. Breverton,
The Welsh Almanac
, Glyndwr Publications, 2002)

1763:
John Wesley was on his travels in South Wales visiting Methodist congregations. He was much impressed by the fellowship he found at Trevecca, between Talgarth and Llangorse, describing it as ‘all diligent and constantly employed, fearing God and working righteousness' but on his return from Swansea via Cowbridge and Wenvoe, he was less impressed. ‘A man had need to be all fire who comes now into these parts when almost everyone is as cold as ice,' he wrote. At Cardiff on this date he found that the movement was ‘in a ruinous condition' for which Wesley blamed ‘mysticism' which had crept in and ‘well-nigh extinguished the last spark of life'. He claimed that he found more vitality among the group at Aberthaw ‘than I ever found in Glamorgan'. This was not the first time he had been disappointed in Cardiff. Revisiting the Wesley Society there on 10th August 1758 he had been so distressed at the state of decline into which the group had fallen that he made a hurried return from Bristol to visit again on August 21st ‘to gather up the fragments of the Cardiff Society'. (William Rees,
Cardiff: A History of the City
, Cardiff Corporation, 1969, quoting from Wesley's letters and diaries)

1887:
Lady Fanny Henrietta Walker died after an accident in her pony and trap in Queen Street. She was returning with two of her eight sons from a cricket match at Fairwater when the pony slipped on greasy cobbles on the descent under the railway bridge. The trap overturned and she received severe head injuries. She was taken to the nearby Alexandra Hotel where she died four days later. The two boys were uninjured. At the next meeting of the Borough Council concern was expressed about the hazardous road conditions at this location. However, Stewart Williams in
Cardiff Yesterday
commented that ‘many of my cycling contempries would no doubt agree that the tramlines and uneven wood-block surface there posed problems as late as the 1950s' Lady Walker (
née
Morgan) was a daughter of the first Baron Tredegar and a sister of Viscount Tredegar of Balaklava fame. Her husband was the grandiosely-named Sir George Ferdinand Radzivill Forestier Walker of Wentloog Castle, Castleton. Walker Road in Splott was named in her memory. (Dennis Morgan,
Illustrated History of Cardiff Suburbs
, 2003)

1861:
‘What a pity it is that our stipendiary and Borough magistrates cannot be compelled to take up their residence in Butetown for one year. Almost every street has its low beer-house or other licensed establishment and, as a rule, two or three brothels. In front of these houses may be seen drunken sailors and prostitutes dragging each other about in the most obscene and disgusting manner. It is notorious that many of these drinking establishments are kept open for these classes, yet a conviction is scarcely possible before Cardiff magistrates – A Voice from Butetown.' (Letter in the
Cardiff Times
, quoted in Trevor Herbert & Gareth Elwyn Jones,
People and Protest: Wales 1815-1880
, University of Wales, 1988)