The Black Lion Hotel in Victoria Square has played an
important part in the life of the town since at least 1811
when it served as the base of the Aberdare Union Friendly
Society. In the early Nineteenth Century the Black Lion Hotel
was also used as the first Post Office in Aberdare, with
the landlord Robert Jones serving as postmaster. The Black
Lion also operated a brewery and owned a number of tied public
houses in the Aberdare area before the brewery was sold in
1911. One of these tied houses was the Vulcan Inn, which
was located opposite the Black Lion at the bottom of Monk
Street, first recorded in 1844 the Vulcan Inn closed in 1925
shortly after this photograph was taken.
Victoria Square has been an important centre of commerce
in Aberdare since the mid Nineteenth Century and was originally
known as Commercial Place until the name was changed in celebration
of the jubilee of Queen Victoria.
Miles the Butchers was a well established retail business in Aberdare when this
photograph was taken in the 1920's, in 1926 R H Miles owned not only this premises
in Victoria Square but also stores at 8 Cardiff Street, 18 Canon Street, and
56 Jubilee Road, Aberaman as well as a restaurant and confectioners at 2 Canon
Street.
Above: The unveiling of the statue of "Caradog"
Griffith Rhys Jones
10th July 1920
The story of how Griffith Rhys Jones 'Caradog' lead the
Cor Mawr to victory at the Crystal Palace in 1872 and 1873
is well known. Caradog was born in the Rose and Crown in
Trecynon in 1834 and showed an interest in music from an
early age. At age 19 he lead his first choir to an Eisteddfod
at Aberafan and in 1858 was appointed conductor of the Aberdare
United Choir which he lead to great success before his appointment
to lead the Cor Mawr.
The statue of Caradog in Victoria Square was paid for by public subscription
and sculpted by Sir W Goscombe John. The unveiling ceremony took place on Saturday
10th July 1920 and was very popular, bringing Aberdare to a standstill despite
the poor weather conditions. After Lord Aberdare unveiled the statue, Madame
Williams-Penn sang the Welsh National Anthem and then the crowd retreated to
an overflowing Palladium to hear speeches by Lord Aberdare and Alderman Hopkin
Morgan among others.
This photograph was taken during the 1910 Coal strike
in the Aberdare Valley. The dispute began in October 1910
when the collieries of the Powell Duffryn Group stopped
the custom allowing miner's to take home waste wood, insisting
that they required permission to take the wood and would
have to pay for it. This spark ignited miner's tensions
over a number of grievances and the unofficial dispute
spread throughout the collieries of the Aberdare Valley.
The gentleman third from left in the photograph is C B Stanton (1873-1946), the
Miner's Agent for the Aberdare Valley during the strike. Stanton was a controversial
MP for the Merthyr Borough between 1915 and 1922, severing his former ties with
the Independent Labour Party he instead campaigned under a reactionary jingoistic
platform, denouncing many of his former colleagues for their views on the First
World War.
