Driver John Hancock, Royal Field Artillery, of Cwmffrwdoer

Back last year I published a book called 'Tell Them of Us', detailing my ancestors involvement in the First World War.  One of the chapters concerned my great grandfather John Hancock of 42 Plasycoed Rd, Cwmffrwdoer who had won a Military Medal for bravery in 1917.  However his service records didn't give any information as to why he was awarded the Military Medal but recently further information has come to light, this was published in a local newspaper.

Driver J Hancock MM

The gratifying news was received by his wife on Saturday morning

that Driver J H Hancock, 29953, Div. Ammunition Column, RFA, was awarded the Military Medal

for 'gallant conduct and devotion to duty in the field on

October 7th 1917 near St Julien', a report of which from his

Regimental and Brigade Commanders was read 'with great pleasure', by

Major General R P Lee, commanding the division according

to the parchment certificate to hand.  Going up the line the truck was blown up and 

Driver Hancock, by means of a pontoon bridge got his horses

and mules safely over.  Driver Hancock who is 32 years of age, has

a wife and four children  residing at 42 Plasycoed Rd, Cwmffrwdoer, and so far as is known

he is the first one at Cwmffrwdoer to win the MM. He voluntarily joined

the army on September 2nd 1914 and 

went out to France in July 1915.  He was recommended

for distinction once before.  He was formerly a timberman's helper

at Blaenserchen Colliery and his many friends will

offer him congratulations on the official

recognition of his bravery. He was home on leave about three months ago"

The closest battle I could find prior to his being awarded the MM is the Battle of Broodseinde, part of the Third Battle of Ypres.  It commenced on 4th October 1917 when the 7th Division units attacked the Germans at 6 am.  Over the next five days they suffered 1500 casualties.

The Broodseinde battlefield 1917

Caption reads 'What the Flanders roads were like during the Battle of the Swamps.

You can buy 'Tell Them of Us' from Amazon or download it to Kindle.

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Llanerch Colliery Inquest: Evidence of Dr Mulligan

"Dr J W Mulligan of Abersychan said he had been surgeon to the colliery for a number of years.  He was called to the pit's mouth on the morning of the explosion about 8.55 am.  He saw most of the bodies as they were brought to bank  The majority seemed to have been burnt and died by the force of the shock of the explosion.  From 26 to 30 men appeared to have been killed by the after damp.  About 60 appeared to have died from injuries.  Many were considerably mutilated by the force of the explosion.  Most of the bodies were covered in coal dust and they must have been in a coal dusty place.
Coroner - "You mean that it was apparent on their faces?"
Witness - "Yes the majority were burnt a brown colour.  Their hair was singed and in many cases the clothes were burnt or blown off and the bodies were as brown as the top of that rail (pointing to a brown painted rail in front of the coroner)
All that might take place purely from firedamp without any quantity of coal dust?
Witness - "It would have to be a slow fire to char bodies like that without coal dust but really I am not in a position to form an opinion on the question.
In reply to Mr Greene QC the witness added that the bodies were burnt all over, not on one side more than another.  About 26 died from suffocation alone.  He went down the pit to see if he could aid any wounded but he did not examine the workings."

Cardiff Times 1 March 1890

Llanerch - the funerals

The days that followed the Llanerch Colliery disaster were covered in detail by newspapers, the following article was published in the Cambrian on the 14th February 1890.

"Some 65 of the bodies of the unfortunate miners who were killed in the disastrous explosion at Llanerch Colliery near Pontypool were on Monday buried.  Thousands of people assembled to witness the solemn ceremony, the whole of the valley from Pontypool to Talywain being a scene of the deepest mourning.  The weather was beautifully fine.  The most striking procession was that which was organised in Broad Street, Abersychan, opposite the police station, the dead bodies being carried thither from the neighbouring cottages.  The funeral was headed by a united choir, more than 100 in number who sang with impressive effect as they paced slowly along the well known Welsh hymn 'In the deep and mighty waters'.  Amongst those present were Mr T P Price, M.P. for North Monmouth, Mr Partridge, Head of the Llanerch Colliery Company and Mr E Jones managing director of the colliery. The coffins containing the victims were brought into the procession at various points along the route until the funeral extended to about three quarters of a mile in length.  There were at least 50 coffins carried on biers, each followed by its mourners and in most cases by friends of the deceased who gave their arms to the bereaved widows.  At Pontnewynydd the roads to the burial grounds parted and the choir joined that portion which went to the Noddfa Baptist Chapel, Talywain, in the cemetery of which 13 were buried.  Here the service was conducted partly in English and partly in Welsh.  The bulk of the procession walked to Trevethin parish church, about a mile from Pontypool where the service was conducted by the Rev J C Llewellyn, the vicar and his curates.  As the mournful gathering entered the church, the organist played the 'Dead March' from Saul.  In the graveyard attached to this church 33 bodies were interred.  The scenes as the bodies were lowered into the ground were painfully affecting.  Seven other bodies were buried at the Penygarn Baptist graveyard and other funerals took place at the Ebenezer and Pisgah Chapels in the neighbourhood of Abersychan.  Members of the friendly societies in mourning costume followed a number of the bodies.

The explorations at the colliery were continuing during the day and three more bodies were recovered.  It is now supposed that all the dead have been got out of the pit, except one body, that of a boy.

Mr Edwin Grove of Newport, the Chairman of the Monmouthshire County Council, has telegraphed to the Lord Mayor stating that 174 bodies in all have been recovered and that a large number of widows, orphans and dependent relatives will have to be  maintained.  Consequently a large fund will be needed.

Remembering the Llanerch Colliery Disaster 6th February 1890

This poem was written by S Jefferson and was printed in the Weekly Mail  on 15th February 1890

Llanerch Pit Disaster

Twas about the time of sunrise

One bright February day

Down the pit three hundred miners

Made their customary way.

 Merry jests and happy laughter

Rose upon the morning air

In the cage, the shaft descending

Young lads went, devoid of care.

Underground the hardy workers

Stripped then to their arduous toil

Far more wearying their labours

Than to plough or delve the soil.

Then Llanerch pits at Abersychan

Soon beheld disaster dire

Far away deep in the workings

Burst the sudden fatal fire.

Up the shaft the red flames rushing

Smashed the gearing and the stays

Whilst the sun, then slowly rising

Paled before their angry blaze.

Rolling smoke clouds, sombre, ebony

Darkened the fair sky of morn

And the men upon the pit bank

Thought of friends from life swift torn.

Then in many a miner's cottage

Was the dread explosion heard

Like an earthquake came the tidings

"Some disaster hath occurred"

Miners wives, pallid and trembling

Sped swiftly oer the fields that morn

Well they knew, while terror led there

Many would return forlorn.

Wives and children round the pit head

Gathered in a mournful crowd

Some in anxious grief were silent

Others wildly sobbed aloud.

Soon a sturdy band of heroes

Humble miners, bravely dared

Deadly choke damp might oppose them

They would see how comrades fared.

They would rescue the survivors

Bring them to the upper air

Gladden hearts now filled with sorrow.

Dauntless they will danger share.

Groping mid the gloomy wreckage

Of the passages below

Horrent sight of dead and wounded

Meet them as they onward go.

Naked bodies, burnt and mangled

Shock them as they sadly grope

Brother toilers, killed whilst toiling

On they pass with scarce a hope.

Crowned is their quest for, ere, the night

Snatched from death to light and life

Near half on who that morn descended

Are restored to child and wife.

O ye who scarce know aught of labour

Seated round your household fire

Think of those now filled with sorrow

Brought by this disaster dire!

Let your pity bear a fruitage

Aid the widow and the child

'Reft of all support and comfort

That your fire grate might be piled.

S Jefferson.  February 7th 1890

An engraving from the Graphic newspaper 15th February 1890

The Llanerch Colliery Disaster - 6 February 1890

During the early hours of Thursday 6th February 1890, a man named Henry Hillier awoke from a disturbing dream.  He was a young man, 31, not long married but he dreamt that he was dead and while being carried to his final place of rest he could hear a hymn being sung by mourners in the procession behind.  Mr Hillier awoke, being alarmed by the dream.  He also woke his wife who told him to go back to sleep, it was only a dream, it was nothing and he had to be up for work soon.  So he did, only for the dream to repeat, this time more vivid than before.  He awoke and told his wife again and this time recited two of the verses of the hymn.

7 a.m., at Llanerch Colliery about three hundred men descended to work.  Richard Ashman was the fire man.  He went around the mine workings and by 8 a.m. pronounced that all was fine.  Then, around fifty minutes later a violent explosion occurred, so loud it was heard for miles around.  On the surface, a witness described the banksman being shot up into the air like a stick.  The timber around the mine shaft collapsed, blocking up the entrance making descent impossible.

News spread of the explosion.  It wasn't long before hundreds of men, women and children from neighbouring villages, Abersychan, Cwmffrwdoer, Talywain, Snatchwood, Garndiffaith etc, came running to the pit.  Some offered to assist in the rescue.  The crowd would stay all night in the bitter cold, hoping and praying their loved ones had survived.

The first party of rescuers entered the mine through the water pit.  Relief gangs had also been put on standby for those exhausted or overcome by gas.  Falls of roof continued through the day further endangering the rescue attempt. Owen Morgan was the first man discovered, semi unconscious he was only slightly injured. The rescuers continued along the workings cautiously.  Four more bodies were found, burned and badly mutilated, one so much he was not recognisable.  The discoveries began to take effect on the rescuers.  One broke down when he was the first to find his brother.

By early afternoon the rescue party had reached a point adjacent to Cook's Slope, the point of the explosion.  At 4 p.m. one hundred and ten men were sent to the surface alive, though with serious injuries. Some didn't survive.  John Beard was brought out alive, minus his leg but later died in the fan engine house, a temporary mortuary.

Once the rescuers reached Cooks Slope, no one else was found alive.  They met with the the wreckage of doors blown off mingled with mutilated corpses.  Some were legless, some armless and most burned so much they could barely be recognised.  The only consolation for the rescuers was knowing their deaths were instant.  No one could have survived a blast so ferocious.

Through the night, large fires were lit to enable the banksman to carry on working.  There were few women present at this point, the task of identifying the dead fell to the men.  By 5 a.m., the following day, one hundred bodies had been recovered.  They were brought to the surface piled into empty trams, not brought out singly, to have done so would have prolonged the operation and prolonged the misery of those anxiously waiting on top.  So trams were brought, filled with corpses, needing a dozen men to wheel them from the cage, such was the weight.

At the mortuary a crowd gathered.  One man had been waiting for hours, asking the same question - 'Have you found Sam yet?'  For hours he received the same negative reply.  Then, at last, he was called in. Witnesses recalled his wails as he identified his son's body.  He left the mortuary, wringing his hands and led his son's stretcher bearers to his home.

The scene was repeated, over and over, bodies identified, stretchered to wagons then taken home.  Some refused to claim bodies, not believing an unidentifiable, shapeless mass could be their relative.

Newspaper reporters arrived quickly.  Accounts of families and heroism were recorded along with the rescue effort.  The Bridges family of Snatchwood, for example, lost a father, three sons and a son in law. Charles Langley left a wife and ten children all under working age.  In River Row, Abersychan, thirteen houses had eighteen victims.  During the rescue, a boy aged about fifteen had been found on his knees, palms of his hands together as if praying.  In that posture he stayed, having to be straightened out for his coffin. William Reed had waited to put on his coat and search for his boy.  Had he been quicker he would have made it out.  Both he and his son were found clinging to each other.  His widow had previously been married to another miner, killed at Abercarn.  Richard Ashman, the fire man, escaped with few injuries but his three sons, his son in law and his grandson, all died.

Joseph Morgan the manager, was hailed as a hero.  He had been working on the same seam though not the same slope.  He felt weight pressing into his ears at the time of the explosion and a rushing wave of air.  He and eleven men ran to the bottom of the shaft. where three were unconscious.  Men were running around wildly.  He managed to calm them and begin a search.  Anyone they found unconscious they brought to cleaner air.  He eventually managed to signal the surface and was rescued along with the others.  Once on top he returned back into the pit to help with the rescue.

In total, one hundred and seventy six men and boys were killed.  Queen Victoria sent her condolences to the families and a relief fund was set up, the Lord Mayor of London was asked to receive subscriptions at Mansion House. The inquest ruled the explosion was caused by the men using naked lights.  No one in management was found responsible.  No one was fined.  Llanerch Colliery re opened on 19th February 1890

As for Henry Hillier, the hymn he had heard in his dream was sang at his funeral, and his story reported to a newspaper by his widow.

The Llanerch Colliery Explosion depicted in the Illustrated London News showing the dead being brought home.

Sources - Cardiff Times 8th February 1890

                Weekly Mail  15th February 1890

Read more about POntypool in Victorian times in my book 'Victorian Pontypool' available in paperback from Amazon or as a download to Kindle.



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Pontypool Workhouse

Some news stories from the workhouse.

John Vincent, a tramp, appeared before Pontypool Magistrates for refractory conduct.  Thomas Walpole, workhouse official said that John had tore his own clothes to pieces and demanded that the workhouse provide him with a new one at the expense of the Guardians.  Mr Walpole said it was a common practice among tramps to tear their clothes when they entered the casual ward so as to be given another suit.  Defendant said he could not get a job in the suit he wore.  He was sent to prison for seven days.


Thomas Garvey was charged with refractory conduct at Pontypool Workhouse in May 1903.  Evidence showed he was admitted as a 'casual' one Friday night and the following morning refused to do the work that was expected of casual inmates who were accommodated for a nights 'doss'.    As a result, twenty other casuals who had also been at the house went on strike as well and it was only after some trouble that officials were able to get them to carry out the allotted work..  Garvey pleaded guilty and was sent to prison for seven days.

Mary Ann Bryant was an inmate of Pontypool Workhouse.  She was charged at Pontypool Police Court in August 1905 with breaking several panes of glass in the cottage homes.  Mr Watkins, clerk to the Guardians said the girl was one of three orphans that were left there in 1895.  For a while Mary Ann was boarded out to her grandparents.  Later she was put into service with a clergyman.  While she was there she developed a habit of chewing pins, needles and candles.  She had also taken two other children away from the Workhouse and these were found in the parish of Llanhilleth.  She had been twice examined by the medical officer who was of the opinion that 'a good dose of the birch would do her good'.  Mary Ann pleaded guilty to breaking the windows and was ordered to be sent to a reformatory for three years.

Sarah Jones, also an inmate, was sent to prison for seven days in August 1905,  for refractory conduct.  Mrs Richards, matron, said that she had asked the defendant to assist her in bathing an aged inmate but Sarah refused.  Dr O Keefe said he had had several interviews with Sarah and she always declined to be examined.  She was quite able to do the task asked of her.

James Mahoney's 1871 engraving of Oliver Twist in the Workhouse

sources - Cardiff Times 26 August 1905
                Cardiff Times 16 May 1903
               Cardiff Times  28 March 1903

Weird News from Pontypool

In the issue of the Cambrian newspaper dated 6 May 1809, this story was printed.

"A respectable correspondent at Pontypool has furnished us with the following extraordinary occurrence.  A young man, of the name of William Davies, who belongs to the Monmouthshire Western Local Militia Band, finding himself unwell, applied for medical assistance, but obtaining no relief went to Pontypool and was advised to drink some mineral water in the neighbourhood.  Having done so, he soon afterwards vomited a creature similar to a lizard, in length about seven inches from head to tail, with eyes, two rows of teeth, six up and six down and four claws or feet exactly like those of the lizard.  Davies says he was subject to very sudden startings from the gnawing of the creature but he is now fast recovering.  There is no doubt of his getting quite well.  The virtues of the water above alluded to not being generally known, we think the faculty cannot too early direct their attention to it."

The Cwmffrwdoer Inn

The first landlord of the Cwmffrwdoer Inn appears to have been my 3 x Great Grandfather, Thomas Jones.  There is little mention of the inn in newspapers prior to 1872 when the  Pride of the Valley Lodge, number 110 of the Loyal Order of Alfreds, celebrated their fourth anniversary.  Their meetings were held at the home of Mr T Jones of the Cwmffrwdoer Inn and it seems to have been quite a spectacle.  A procession left the inn at eleven o clock one morning in July 1872.  A brass band of the 3rd Mon., Newport headed the procession and behind followed King Alfred and two courtiers, on horses and in full costume.  The procession headed off to their sister lodge at the Railway Inn and onward to other neighbouring lodges.
A year before this event, the 1871 census shows Thomas Jones living at no 3 Cwmffrwdoer Road with his wife Mariah.  Thomas had two occupations, that of a collier and a licensed victualler.  In 1871, he had three children, Margaret, who would marry John Lewis to become my 2 Great Grandmother, Ann and Henrietta.

Thomas and Mariah  are also recorded on the 1861 census, at this time though Thomas's occupation is just that of a coal miner.  They also have a son, William, who is not mentioned on the 1871 census at their address.

Inns at this time were not just places to drink.  They were also used to perform inquests on  dead bodies such as in this report from the Free Press in 1881.

"On Wednesday morning last, Mr E D Batt the coroner for the district  held an inquest at the Cwmffrwdoer Inn upon the body of a child, George James Hancock, a month old which had been found dead in bed on the previous Sunday morning.  The mother was called and stated that the child had been healthy from birth.  The jury returned  a verdict to the effect that the deceased had died from suffocation"

The next mention in the news for the inn is on 22 August 1890 also in the Pontypool Free Press.  Mr Evans had mentioned at the Abersychan Local Board meeting that Plasycoed Road was in a very bad state and he presented a petition signed on behalf of 24 rate payers who were also of the opinion that a horse trough was needed close to the old spout near the Cwmffrwdoer Inn.  It was decided to build the trough first and then repair the road.

By 1901 Margaret Jones had married John Lewis and they lived at the Cwmffrwdoer Inn. John died around 1904 and it is not clear at this time who took over the running of the inn.  It may have been Margaret, or one of her children.

The inn is mentioned in the papers once again on 25 August 1906
"Mark Harvey, haulier of Cwmffrwdoer was summoned for being drunk at the Cwmffrwdoer Inn.  P C Shott said that at 9.15 pm on August 11 he saw defendant asleep at the inn.  When witness put him on his feet, he fell to the ground.  Defendant, who denied being drunk, was fined 10 shillings"

 By the 1911 census both Margaret Lewis and Thomas Jones have different addresses.  Margaret is living at 18 Plasycoed Road with five of her nine children, Thomas at Glyn House, Cwmffrwdoer.  He is 82 years old and gives his employment status as a retired publican.  He also has his daughter, Annie Shearn Thomas living with him and a grandson, Thomas Shearn.


sources
Pontypool Free Press
Monmouthshire Central Advertiser
Thanks also to Caroline Leigh Price for information on her line of the family tree :)

The Joneses of George Street part 2

My Great Great Uncle William Jones was a collier and well known Pontypool Football Club forward.  On 4th April 1903, he was in the papers.  He had been summoned to court for an alleged assault upon Maggie Connell on 23rd March 1903, Mr W J Everett defended -
"Complainant said that she went into the Bull Inn, where she saw Jones.  He got up and struck her several times in the face giving her two black eyes.  He also kicked her. The black eye which she now had was the result of the assault.
For the defence, William Jones said that when he went into the Bull he saw Connell, Cleary and two other girls drinking in a room with men from Llanhilleth.  He went into another room but the men and the girls commenced to make a row and break the pints etc.  The landlord got them out once, but the girls came back and said that they would not go until they fetched all of the policemen in Pontypool there.  The girls commenced fighting amongst themselves and he and several others went into the room to take the weapons from them.  He did not touch one of the girls but they assaulted him with a spittoon and a tongs.  He positively denied giving Connell the two black eyes.  She had them when he went into the room.  Edward Hale also stated that he went into the room to stop the row in company with Jones, who did not strike Connell.  Connell, who had the black eyes before they went into the room had been fighting with the other girls. She attempted to throw a glass pint at Jones. John Atkins corroborated and Mr Everett stated that he had several other witnesses to the same effect.  The case was dismissed."

source - Monmouthshire Central Advertiser 4 April 1903

Great Great Grandfather John Lewis marriage entry1877

The entry in Trevethin parish records of the marriage of my great great grandparents John Lewis and Margaret Jones on March 10th 1877.

source - ancestry.co.uk

This week in Victorian Pontypool

On the 4th January 1862 it was reported in the Monmouthshire Merlin that the custom of watching in the New Year was observed in the Town School, when an address was delivered by the Rev. Mr Dovey.  The proceedings were of a very impressive character.

source - Monmouthshire Merlin - 4 Jan 1862

5th January 1856 - John Bethal was brought up in custody for stealing a watch and other articles. the property of Mr Benjamin James.  Prosecutor stated that in the latter end of June or July last, he lost from his house a watch, a trouser piece and a piece of silk.  Joseph Dotter, a watch and clock maker at Pontypool stated that prisoner sold him a watch a fortnight ago.  The watch now produced was the same.
PC John Hodder produced the watch which he obtained from the last witness.  He afterwards searched prisoner's house where he found a piece of silk which prosecutor identified as that which he had lost.  On being taken into custody, prisoner said he was very sorry and was willing to pay for the articles.  The evidence having been read over to the prisoner, he, in a faint voice pleaded guilty.  Prosecutor stated that prisoner had married his niece and was, up to this time a man of very good character, he hoped therefore the magistrates would deal as leniently as they possibly could with the prisoner.  The wife of the accused kept house for the prosecutor and it was during her absence that he went into prosecutor's house and took the articles.  Sentenced to six months imprisonment with hard labour.

source Monmouthshire Merlin


9th January 1880 -  As it was decided turnpike tolls would no longer be collected in the Pontypool district after 31 December 1879, the Albion Road gate was removed on 1st January.

source - Monmouthshire Merlin - 9th Jan 1880




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The Joneses of George Street part 1

Percy Jones lived in George Street, Pontypool, he was my great great uncle.  In March 1907, he was summoned, along with his mother, Maria Jones, before Pontypool Police Court.  The story was recorded in the Monmouthshire Central Advertiser.

"Percy Jones, school boy, George Street, Pontypool was summoned for doing malicious damage to cigarettes and cigars, the property of Jacob Savini,  an Italian ice cream vendor, Pontypool to the extent of 5 shillings.  Maria Jones, mother of the boy was also summoned for assaulting Savini, while on a cross summons, Savini was charged with assaulting Percy Jones.

Savini said he left his shop in charge of his son, and while he was away Percy Jones went into the shop and threw a quantity of mud over some cigars and cigarettes, doing damage to the extent of 5 shillings.  Witness complained to the boys mother of the damage, and she offered to pay for it.  Witness, however, refused to accept the money, and Mrs Jones, thereupon, struck him in the mouth.

Giving evidence on the cross summons, Mrs Jones and her son stated that Savini dealt him a severe blow in the face on learning that he had damaged his goods.

After examining the cigars and cigarettes, the bench dismissed the cases against the Joneses, and fined Savini 10 shillings"

Percy Jones c1914

Welcome

Welcome to my blog, I hope you find it informative and interesting.  Here I aim to include old news stories from Pontypool and some of my family history.