Trealaw is said to have taken its name
from one of the local landowner's, David Williams, bardic
name of Alaw. Alaw itself derives from the Welsh word for
either lily or melody or tune. The ownership and tenancies
of Trealaw on the 1847 tithe maps clearly show the beginnings
of coal exploration in the area. Although the executors
of the Anne Sanderson Estate own the farms, such as Brithweunydd
Isaf and Brithweunydd Uchaf, the tenant for these properties
is listed as Walter Coffin the earliest pioneer of major
coal mining in the lower Rhondda. In fact Coffin's leasing
of land at Trealaw dates as far back as 1811, however he
did not open his first level in this part of the valley
until 1839, after his operations at Dinas were proved to
be successful. The mining properties at Trealaw were subsequently
sold to Daniel Thomas, who opened up the Brithweunydd Level
to the steam coal measures in 1862. The colliery was eventually
closed in 1879.
The expanding population of the Rhondda in the second
half of the 1800's led the local district council to realise
that existing cemetery provision was inadequate. As such
a parcel of land was purchased on the mountainside at Trealaw,
known as Llethr-Du, upon which was constructed a municipal
cemetery and chapel. The first burial at the cemetery,
also called Llethr-Ddu, was in 1881 and the chapel was
completed in 1883.
Left: Cemetery Church Trealaw
An important part of Trealaw's history occurred in
the 1920's with the founding of the ‘educational settlement'
known as Maes-Yr-Haf. The driving forces behind the founding
of this institution were Emma and William Noble and it was
to play a vital role during the depression years in the Rhondda.
As well as programmes of classes and lectures, it also provided
a centre for material relief to try to alleviate some of
the worst sufferings of residents of Trealaw and the Rhondda
during those difficult times. It was here that the first ‘Unemployed
Men's Clubs' were formed where those that were unemployed
would gather to educate themselves and attempt to find alternate
means of making a living. These clubs quickly spread throughout
Britain and even to America during the Depression years
The Royal Hotel Trealaw
Trealaw also boasted the impressive building known as ‘Judge's
Hall'. Known originally as, ‘The Judge Williams Memorial
Hall', the building was officially opened in July 1909
by Princess Louise and The Duke of Argyll. The building
was a gift to the residents of the area by Lt. Colonel
Sir Rhys Williams and boasted a 1,500 capacity concert
hall, as well as a library and billiard room.
Left: The Bridge Trealaw
MAES-YR-HAF TREALAW
Today Maes-Yr-Haf serves as a community centre
for the people of Trealaw hosting amongst others a playgroup,
camera club, Rotary Club meetings as well as the meetings
of the Quaker Society of Friends. Its origins however were
as a unique social experiment based in the turbulent 1920's,
an experiment whose results had implications throughout the
depressed areas of Britain and indeed America of that time.
An excellent history of the Maes-Yr-Haf settlement is outlined
in a booklet produced for its twenty-fifth anniversary in
1952 written by William Hazelton, from which the following
details were obtained.
Origins
Britain in 1926 was undergoing an industrial
crisis, which led to the calling of a General Strike in the
May of the year in support of the miners. Although the strike
was called off after nine days thousands of miners continued
to strike in opposition to pay reductions. The Society of
Friends (Quakers) annual meeting at Manchester that year
held a debate on the situation and decided to send representatives
to colliery districts. These representatives were to gather
first hand information on the plight of these districts and
ascertain the emergency needs of their people.
One of the members
of the Society present at the meeting was a young woman named
Emma Noble who decided to travel to the Rhondda.
She arrived in Tonypandy in June 1926 and took lodgings at
a miner's home in Tonypandy deciding to stay three weeks
to assess the situation in the area. She quickly made friends
with local miner's wives and discussed the problems of living
in a predominantly ‘one occupation' area where virtually the entire population
was out of work. After one week in the area she became convinced of the residents
severe need for ‘material help and for loving sympathy'. Emma and the other volunteers
who came to the Rhondda worked on the guiding principle that ‘self help is the
best help'. One of the most immediate needs that Emma identified was for clothing
for the women, children and young people. As such ‘Women's Sewing Clubs' were
formed. These groups repaired, unpicked and remade vast quantities of clothing
sent from the Society of Friends HQ in London and from sympathisers from throughout
Britain. These groups in turn led to the unemployed miners becoming involved
in ‘boot-repairing clubs', which in many cases were attached to local schools.
Leather and tools were supplied through the Society of Friends and the local
Board of Guardians, and unemployed miners spent long hours repairing children's
boots and shoes, in total some 82,000 pairs were repaired in this manner.
After the Strike
By the end of 1926 the miners' strike was over and the miners went back to work
defeated, however many thousands of miners were left unemployed. In January 1927
Emma Noble and others attended a meeting in Oxford convinced of the need for
continuing aid to the deprived mining areas. At this meeting the first steps
were taken to maintain and develop the spiritual and educational service alongside
the practical social work provided in the Rhondda. As such a committee was formed
and Emma and her husband William agreed to return to the Rhondda for a further
two years and a house Maes- Yr -Haf was purchased as a base for the operations.
The idea was for it to serve as a home for adult education, providing opportunities
for discussion, teaching and study. It was seen as pioneer effort to meet the
needs of, ‘a people whose sole occupation was coal mining and whose lives were
darkened by the cloud of industrial depression and unemployment.' The centre
was by its nature experimental and the committee left it up to the Nobles with
their first hand knowledge and experience free, in most part, to develop the
centre as they saw fit. From the outset the centre was intended to be ‘ a place
of friendship, counsel and sympathy and practical helpfulness, of pioneering
adult education in its broadest sense.' Although not intended to be a centre
for material relief events in the valley and the scale of unemployment and deprivation
suffered by its people did in fact lead Maes-Yr-Haf to become a centre for many
kinds of material relief.
Adult Education
Between its formation in 1927 and 1939 more than 475 grant earning classes and
courses of lectures were held at Maes-Yr-Haf, together with thousands of single
lectures, for example in 1937-38 amongst many others the centre held courses
in University tutorials, University preparatory courses, and University extension
courses. These courses were run with the help of volunteers as well as the support
of the University of Wales, the Workers Educational Association, the YMCA, the
National Council of Music in Wales and the National Council of Social Service,
and were undertaken at Maes-Yr-Haf as well as a number of subsidiary centres.
Additionally innumerable informal groups and discussion circles as well as drama
societies and choirs were formed at Maes-Yr-Haf and its outposts together with
dressmaking classes, handicrafts, and Physical Training classes.
Maes-Yr-Haf circa 1930
Unemployed Single Men
By 1928 the valley was filled with a large
number of destitute men who were unemployed and unable to
claim benefit. As such the idea of Miners' Training or Occupational
Clubs was pioneered at Maes-Yr-Haf. The idea was to provide
each man with one days work each week at union rates of pay
together with one hot meal every day and the use of the clubs
facilities. The unemployed men worked on local parks and
recreational grounds carrying out work arranged through local
authorities and recreation committees. The work was of communal
value and was of a nature that it would not be used to displace
normal labour. There were club premises available in each
of the local areas where members could partake of a hot meal
and participate in physical fitness classes, gramophone recitals,
concerts and lectures etc. In the summer each member was
entitled to a weeks holiday at Maes-YrHaf's holiday centre
by the sea. In total some 5,030 men benefited from these
clubs, financed at first by the Society of Friends and latterly
the Lord Mayor's Coalfield distress Fund. Which expanded
this pilot scheme throughout the needy areas of South Wales.
Unemployed Mens Clubs
The success of this experiment for unemployed single men
led to the formation in 1931 of the first Unemployed Mens
Clubs, which were such a success they eventually were to
be seen throughout Britain and even America. The premises
for these clubs were at first makeshift, utilising disused
building within the community, but as the movement grew many
of the men erected their own buildings. By 1932 there were
ten clubs with a membership of 1,500 this grew in the course
of the next seven years to 60 clubs with a membership around
9,000. During this time of great unemployment clubs remained
open all day providing unemployed men with a place where
they could sit and read and socialise, and a place of warmth
and shelter in the winter
The clubs also provided workshops equipped with tools
and materials for woodwork, boot-repairing and upholstery
as well as all the educational and cultural facilities provided
by the Maes-Yr-Haf. These Unemployed Clubs had many fruitful
and unexpected consequences, men disillusioned by being unable
to find work discovered new skills and a sense of usefulness
and community. Women also benefited from instruction on sewing
machines, dressmaking and ‘make do and mend',as well as handicrafts
such as weaving and pottery. In some districts where permission
was given for members to voluntarily work a coal level men
delivered 2cwt. of coal per week for each family in the club,
as well as to old age pensioners and the disabled in the
community. Each club was managed by the club members and
provided an invaluable service in the valleys during the ‘Depression
Years'.
Summer Holidays by the Sea
The Society of Friends believed that the unemployed
of the Valley benefited from a change of environment and
a break away from the everyday ‘ poverty and spiritual
depression' suffered by them at that time. Thus the idea
of providing each member of the Club with a weeks summer
holiday a year, at the seaside, was born. The Society thus
secured the use of a disused malthouse at Wick near Cowbridge
in the Vale of Glamorgan. The necessary alterations to
the building were carried out by the unemployed men themselves
and during its time as a holiday centre thousands of families
benefited from their break at the seaside.
Right: An illustration of The Malthouse at Wick
Severely Disabled persons
In the 1940's the Rhondda Valley had the highest percentage
of severely disabled persons in all of Great Britain, and
in 1941 the Tomlinson Report made a number of recommendations
regarding the rehabilitation and employment of severely disabled
persons. Maes-yr -Haf with its experience of adult education
and work related training initiated an experiment to help
disabled men in the locality. It re-opened its workshops,
previously closed for the war, and equipped them with facilities
for rug-making and domestic furniture making. These activities
were undertaken under expert supervision and instruction
and the goods produced found a ready market in the locality.
At first five men were employed in this scheme, this expanding
to thirty men by 1948.
After the War the needs of the community served by the
Maes-Yr-Haf changed, unemployment fell and the mining industry
underwent a revival. No longer needed were the Unemployed
Clubs and ‘make do and mend' classes. Thus Maes-Yr-Haf reverted
more to its originally planned role as a social, cultural
and educational centre whilst still continuing to serve
those too old for employment and its work with the disabled.
Emma and William Noble retired from their stewardship of
Maes-Yr-Haf in 1945.
