The Cardiff Book of Days (39 page)

1868:
Reverend William Watkiss led the first service to be held at Wood Street Congregational Church in Temperance Town. The famous acrobat Blondin had performed on the high-wire at the building when it was a music hall. Circus performances had also been staged there before it became a chapel. In 1964, when the building had become very dilapidated, it was studied in detail by three young architectural students who described it as ‘the finest architectural treasure in the city'. Inside they discovered mysterious doors that led nowhere, false windows and the fact that the five brown-painted doors facing Havelock Street had brick walls immediately behind them. In 1972 the old chapel was demolished to make way for a car park. Later an office block was built on the site. Twenty-five-year-old Christopher Pendlebury sold his collection of vintage cars to buy the chapel's organ and rebuild it at his father's farm at St Mellons. The Congregational Chapel at St Mellons was reopened after extensive refurbishment on this date in 1955. It was intended to serve the expanding population of Llanrumney but its location on the wrong side of the busy A48 led to its premature closure. (Stewart Williams,
Cardiff Yesterday
)

1714:
For a convivial evening at the Cordwainers' Hall also attended by members of the Glovers' Gild who shared the premises, hops and a barrel of beer were provided and a brewer was paid a fee of 2 shillings to produce the ale. Pipes and tobacco as well as coal and candles were provided and the Hall was white-limed for the occasion. For these festivities the Cordwainers contributed 16
s
4
d
and the Glovers 6 shillings. (William Rees,
Cardiff: A History of the City
, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)

2010:
Dame Shirley Bassey, Katherine Jenkins, Welsh rock band The Lost Prophets and
Britain's Got Talent
star Shaheen Jafagholi were all at the Millennium Stadium to perform at the ‘Welcome to Wales' concert to launch the Ryder Cup Golf Tournament being held at the Celtic Manor Resort near Newport. Actress Catherine Zeta Jones, who also starred in the show, described the Ryder Cup as ‘Great for the country, great for the people and great for morale'. However, there was some criticism that the concert was not being staged in Newport rather than Cardiff. (
South Wales Argus
)

1959:
The complex financial affairs of the Ely Brewery came to a head – possibly a somewhat unfortunate term when beer is being discussed. On the previous day officers from the City of London Fraud Squad commenced investigations into the books of the company, interviewing the combative and long-serving chairman, Lazarus Niddith, at some length. Leslie Lowe, the chairman of a Cardiff engineering company was appointed to take over as acting chairman in Niddith's place. At a stormy Shareholders' Meeting at the Park Hotel on the 30th Mr Niddith faced angry questioning from the floor about the £30,000 he had received as compensation for the loss of his position as chairman. ‘If you sold your company for thirty pieces of silver, what are you still doing here?' demanded one irate shareholder. In December the Ely Brewery, with its 260 pubs in South Wales, was merged with the Rhymney Brewery Company (470 pubs). The Ely's trademark barrel and most of its beers soon vanished from all the pubs and the Brewery was demolished. (Brian Glover,
The Prince of Ales: The History of Brewing in Wales
, Alan Sutton, 1993)

1961:
The first-ever
Songs of Praise
programme was broadcast from Tabernacle Baptist Church, The Hayes. Those taking part included the singer Cy Grant (well-known for his calypsos on the
Tonight
programme) and Arwel Hughes (organist).
Songs of Praise
remains popular, with over 2.5 million viewers each week. (
www.bbc.co.uk/songsofpraise
)

1993:
Over 25,000 people saw Lennox Lewis beat Frank Bruno at the National Stadium in the first World Heavyweight title fight ever staged in Wales. Also on the bill was a young Joe Calzaghe in his first professional contest – but only about 300 people watched his win over Paul Hanlon. (Wikipedia)

1999:
In the first event to be held at the new Millennium Stadium Wales beat Argentina 23-18. It was the first game of the Rugby World Cup and was watched by a capacity crowd of over 70,000. In a Quarter Final at the stadium they were beaten 24-9 by Australia. In the Third-Place Final there South Africa beat New Zealand 22-18. (John O'Sullivan & Bryn Jones,
Cardiff: A Centenary Celebration
, The History Press, 2005)

1915:
Cardiff's Member of Parliament, Lord Ninian Stuart was killed in action at the Battle of Loos, one of six MPs to lose their lives in the First World War. He was the son of the 3rd Marquis of Bute and his wife Gwendoline. During his short career at Westminster the Conservatives had been in Opposition and so he did not have much opportunity to make a name for himself, but he was well-liked in Cardiff – not least for the ways in which he stood up for the people's interests. Cardiff City's Ninian Park ground was named after him. He had helped the club procure the ground in 1910 and supported it financially out of his own pocket. He died when the Germans attacked a position where he was supervising the construction of trenches. Shot in the head, he died instantly. The
South Wales Daily News
, a paper which did not share his political views, wrote of the way in which ‘the bitterest opponents were captivated by the spontaneous and utterly unaffected friendliness of his manner'. Ninian Stuart was buried at Bethune Military Cemetery and a Requiem Mass was said in Cardiff's Roman Catholic Cathedral. (Dennis Morgan,
Farewell to Ninian Park
, 2008)

1864:
Henry Marc Brunel (Isambard Kingdom's youngest son) was staying at Bute Cottage, Penarth, and wrote that it was ‘a very pretty place about 3½ miles from Cardiff. In a lodging, a small truly rural detached house among fields [with a] picturesque honeysuckle sort of garden and orchard. Letters come and go once a day, not Sundays – four shillings to come out in a cab.' As well as being so cut off from a town, he complained that he had to stand on one leg and in his own light in order to shave. The Taff Vale Railway's Cadoxton branch ran close by but the first station in Penarth did not open for passengers until February 20th 1878. (Stephen K. Jones,
Brunel in South Wales, Vol.3
, The History Press, 2009)

1983:
A new Cardiff railway station, the first for over forty years, opened at Cathays, served by trains to Aberdare, Merthyr, Pontypridd, Treherbert, Penarth and Barry. It was conveniently located near to the university and the civic buildings in Cathays Park. (
South Wales Echo
)

1762:
There was great rejoicing in Cardiff and a bonfire at Llandaff on receiving the news that ‘our men took a wealthy place, ye Havannah [Havanna] from the Spaniards'. (William Rees,
Cardiff: A History of the City
, Cardiff Corporation, 1969)

2010:
Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) held a rally at Cardiff University to protest about cuts to the funding of S
4
C. Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt – later the victim of a memorable Spoonerism perpetrated on live television by James Naughtie – had outraged its supporters when he said that Welsh television programmes could simply be those made in English but with Welsh voiceovers accessed via the red button facility. Menna Machreith, speaking for the group, said ‘it's an absolutely crazy suggestion. It shows he does not know anything about the purpose of having a Welsh language channel that people campaigned for over a long period.' In February 2011 they staged a sit-in at the BBC Wales headquarters at Llandaff opposing the plans for the BBC to part-fund S
4
C from 2013. The Welsh-language broadcaster's budget was scheduled to fall by 25 per cent by 2015. (
South Wales Echo
)

1966:
In reporting the death (aged 82) of boxer Patrick ‘Boyo' Driscoll, the
South Wales Echo
recalled the furore caused at his bout with Jack Daniels in 1910, on the same bill as ‘Peerless' Jim Driscoll's bout with Freddie Welch. After the decision had gone against Peerless, Boyo was involved in a stand-up fight with Jim Driscoll's second, ‘Badger' Brian. This scrap, it seems, set off a series of street fights among the local boxing fans that lasted for several days. ‘Boyo' Driscoll was not related to ‘Peerless' although they both lived in Ellen Street in the Newtown area.