History Meeting January

On a cold January evening the attendance at the meeting was a little low, however those not present missed a very informative talk, by longstanding member of the Society and lifelong devotee of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Mr Glyn Williams. Mr Williams has given many talks over the years about the achievements of Brunel and this time he took the terminus at Paddington as his topic.

The lecture began on the layout of the station which began with a small entity in 1833 between Bristol, Temple Meads and London. The new railways could not proceed into central London and following the abandonment of an attempt at Lambeth, since the population was north of the Thames, the GWR looked at the possibility of a site at Vauxhall, before linking with the line from Birmingham at the rural location of Paddington. A previous further attempt at Euston came to nothing because of a clash of broad and standard gauge lines.

The building of the line began in 1835, at Bishop Walk in a small valley of the Bourne or Serpentine, which is now underground. The cost was monumental for the time at £6,500,000. The initial terminus was made of wood , but by 1850, and in its present form by 1854. The station was built accommodating 10 railway tracks with 3 for arrivals and two for departures, this was serviced by 62 “Firefly” locomotives, and passengers went between platforms via a “transverse”. Although Brunel gets most of the credit for the design, the decorations so associated with the arches was the work of architect, Matthew Digby Wyatt. The Great Western Royal Hotel was built and is now part of the Hilton chain, this was renovated in the 1930, and the work of Phillip Charles Hardwick.

Three underground railways emanate from Paddington, the first built shortly after Brunel’s death in 1859, by Fowler and Benjamin Baker, as the first “cut and cover” railway in the world. Baker was a genius and designed the Metropolitan Railway in New York, and he also built the original Aswan dam on the Nile. He was also instrumental in designing a ship to carry “Cleopatra’s Needle”, as a gift to the UK from Egypt. The ship was called unsurprisingly Cleopatra! Remarkably, Baker had trained at the Neath Abbey Works! Later a second station entrance was built at Parade Road, which was not originally called Paddington.

Mr Williams concluded his talk with a discussion on the architectural wonders of the station including reference to a certain Michael Bond character whose statue is in the station and his fondness for marmalade sandwiches is well known.

Mr David Woosnam, thanked Mr Williams for a very memorable and informative talk.

Trefor Jones.

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A report on the December meeting of Resolfen History Society

The notion of a members’ night was struck upon some years ago when it was decided not to have a speaker, since the Christmas period inevitably, meant a smaller audience. This year, however, Storm Darragh’s aftermath kept the attendance lower than normal though did not dampen the enthusiasm or enjoyment of the evening.

Mr David Woosnam started proceedings with an interesting discussion of how the internet allowed a person to inspect his own ancestry. By use of an algorithm he found that he was distantly related to several well-known figures including Marion Morrison (John Wayne), Charles Dickens and even (presumably through her mother) Queen Elizabeth the second!

Mr Colin Evans read a section of the Alun Evans and John Mc Mahon’s history of Resolven, involving the Marie Celeste of Wales, SS Resolven, a brig found abandoned off the coast of Newfoundland with the fire still alight in the grate. He has followed the story since 2010, but the story seems to have now run its course, and no new leads as to the origins of its name and the links with Aberaeron are appearing.

Mr Trefor Jones, then gave a short talk on the derivation of some Christmas traditions including Christmas cards. The Welsh Christmas and new year were then discussed, along with plygain, the Mari Lwyd , Hela’r Dryw and Calennig. This was illustrated with digital items of Triawd y Tabernacl, singing a plygain song and a live rendition of “Blwyddyn newydd dda i chi”.

The meeting concluded with a festive quiz and some mulled wine.

Nadolig Llawen from the History Society.

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