The Cardiff Book of Days (35 page)

1969:
Glamorgan beat Worcestershire at Sophia Gardens to secure only their second County Championship. Wins at Swansea over Middlesex and over Essex in the last fortnight of August had put them into a strong position. In Glamorgan's second innings wicket-keeper Eifion Jones (who had won the Essex match by whipping off the bails with Essex's last man inches from the crease going for the winning run) was felled by a bouncer from Worcestershire's West Indian fast-bowler Vanburn Holder. There were no batsmen's helmets in those days and he had to be helped from the field in a dazed condition. (Andrew Hignell,
From Sophia to Swalec: A History of Cricket in Cardiff
, The History Press, 2008)

2008:
Heavy rain caused flooding in parts of the city. The Cardiff Pride Festival due to take place next day was cancelled. Peterston-super-Ely was virtually cut off and rail services disrupted. (
Western Mail
)

1538:
The Dominican (Black Friars) Priory, which lay just west of the castle, was suppressed as part of Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. This was carried out by Dr Richard Ingworth, Bishop of Dover, himself a former Dominican, who had been authorized ‘to visit and vex' Welsh priories. The tolling of the bell summoned the seven remaining brothers of this impoverished community and ‘with one assent and consent, without any manner of coercion or counsel' they signed the deed which disposed of their property. The only item of any value was a silver chalice which Ingworth retained to pay his expenses. (Dennis Morgan,
The Cardiff Story
, D. Brown & Sons, 1991)

1916:
The
Torridge
, owned by Tatems of Cardiff, was attacked by a U-Boat 40 miles off Start Point. The crew were picked up by the Germans but the
Torridge
was sunk. (John Richards,
Cardiff: A Maritime History
, The History Press, 2005)

1997:
In common with the rest of Britain, Cardiff came to a standstill for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, who had been killed in a car crash in Paris on August 31st. (
Western Mail
)

1835:
With the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act voting for borough elections in Cardiff no longer depended on the old semi-feudal burgess privilege. Instead election was based on residence of at least three years, a property qualification and payment of Poor and Borough Rates. Ancient offices such as that of Aletaster were abolished. The last holder of this post was the appropriately-named Edward Philpott. (William Rees,
Cardiff: A History of the City
, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)

1970:
Cardiff schoolgirl Vicky Halton was released after being one of the hostages held on a BOAC VC10 aircraft that had been hijacked while on a flight from Bahrein to London. The hijackers, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, were demanding the release of one of their number involved in a previous hijacking, the charismatic Leila Khaled. The headmistress, Miss M. Lewis, told the
South Wales Echo
that ‘she's a very sensible and capable girl. I'd expect her to cope with the situation as well as anyone.' Vicky had been travelling alone for the start of term. Her mother worked for a Bahrain newspaper and her father was a Security Officer for an oil firm. He had previously been landlord of the Vulcan pub in Adamsdown.

1855:
Cardiff-born Corporal Robert Shields (28) of the 23
^rd
Regiment of Foot, was awarded the Victoria Cross for his gallantry in the Crimean War. With assistant surgeon William Sylvester, Shields volunteered to go out to an exposed part of the battlefield to bring in a severely wounded officer who subsequently died. Shields later went out to India where he died in 1864. He was buried at St Thomas' Cathedral, Bombay. (T.D. Breverton,
The Welsh Almanac
, Glyndwr Publications, 2002 / Wikipedia)

1939:
Tatems' ship the
Winkleigh
became the first British ship to be lost through enemy action in the Second World War. She was sailing from Vancouver to Manchester with a cargo of grain when she was torpedoed in the North Atlantic. All thirty-seven men on board were rescued and taken to New York. Over 100 Cardiff-owned ships were lost during the war, a third of them in 1940. (John Richards,
Cardiff: A Maritime History
, The History Press, 2005)

1767:
John Wesley visited Cardiff during his tour of South Wales. Of the evening meetings at the Court House on the 9th and 10th he wrote: ‘there were present most of the gentry of the town and the hearers were more than for many years, to give hope even for this desolate town'. (Quoted in William Rees,
Cardiff: A History of the City
, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)

1822:
First issue of the
Cardiff Reporter
, just one of many short-lived newspapers published in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Others included the
Advertiser
,
Times
,
Mercury
,
Chronicle
,
Standard
,
News
,
Examiner
,
Independent
,
Free Press
,
Citizen
and
Leader
. Many of these were unearthed by Mr Brynmor Jones of Cardiff Central Library, who compiled an exhaustive list of Cardiff papers in the 1970s. Names chosen for newspapers do not seem to have changed much. All of these can be found somewhere – but possibly not in Cardiff! (Gerald Talfon Davies, ‘When the Capital Made News' in
The Cardiff Book, Vol.2
, 1974)

1963:
It was the end of steam on the former Great Western main line as diesels took over operation of all trains between Cardiff and London. (
Western Mail
)

1869:
The steamer
Golden Fleece
sank between Sully and Barry. The iron-built barque had only just left Penarth Dock bound for Alexandria. She was carrying 2,000 tons of Powell Duffryn coal and had a crew of forty-three. A leak had been discovered too late and she split in two and sank while being run ashore. The cook's mate, an elderly man, fell overboard. Lifeboats were launched but he drowned. (E. Alwyn Benjamin,
Penarth 1841-71, A Glimpse of the Past
, D. Brown & Sons, 1980)