NEWSLETTER

Covering the period 1st December 2001 - 28th February 2002

Welcome to the latest editon of the Glamorgan Record Office Newsletter

This edition of the newsletter sees the new year beginning with a flying start. The 1901 census has proved very popular with searchers, and our experimental Saturday opening was a great success.

NEW ACCESSIONS DECEMBER 2001 - FEBRUARY 2002

The list which follows gives brief details of accessions received by gift, deposit or purchase for the period 1 December 2001-28 February 2002. Please note that not all items shown are available for immediate consultation, and some dates given are approximate. Some items may be on restricted access. Reference codes or accession numbers are given in brackets.

British Railways Board (Residuary), documents relating to the Pontypridd, Caerphilly and Newport Railway Co., 1890s (2002/20), Papers relating to the opening of Cathays Station, Cardiff, 1983 (2002/29), documents relating to Bute Docks Company and Cardiff Railway Company, C19-20 (2002/6)

Caerphilly County Borough Council, electoral register, 2002 (2002/15)

Cardiff County Council, Cardiff Market, rent books, registers, wage books and other records, c.1890-c.1960 (2001/190), Schools Services yearbook, 2000-2001 (2002/12)

Cardiff Borough/Glamorgan County Council, annual reports of Medical Officer of Health; Joint City and County Public Analyst annual reports; papers re lease of laboratory, 1899-1974 (2002/1)

Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, register of electors, 2002 (2001/184)

South Glamorgan County Council, minutes of governing bodies of further education colleges, 1970s-1990s (2001/194), photographs of roads, railways, bus shelters, 1970s-1990s (2002/13a)

Glamorgan Constabulary/South Wales Police Authority, photographs, posters, station journal, C20 (2002/27), annual report, 2001 (2001/188),

Lansdowne Hospital, patients’ files, c.1930-c.1960 (2002/5)

Blaencaerau Junior School, Maesteg, centenary booklet, 2001 (2002/2)

St. Mary’s Roman Catholic primary school, Canton, records including admission registers, 1925-1985 (2002/9)

Hawthorn Road School, Llandaff, photocopy of admission registers, 1907-1969 (2002/18)

St. Mary Magdalene, Church in Wales, Pontygwaith, marriage register, 1903-1996 (2001/182)

St. Paul’s Roman Catholic church, Cardiff, baptism registers, 1881-1908 (2002/14)

Trecynon English Methodist chapel, marriage register, 1958-1970 (2001/181)

Merthyr Mawr Estate, Merthyr Mawr village millennium commemorative booklet, 2000 (2001/187)

Gill family of Cardiff, deeds and plans of 7 Wellington Street, Canton, 1885-1956 (2001/189)

D. Emlyn Evans papers, research papers on Fochriw; Payne family of Fochriw, C19-20 (2001/195)

Norman D. Clark papers, personal papers relating to Eisteddfod Genedlaethol urdd Gobaith Cymru at Blackmill, Welsh-medium education etc., 1889-1988 (2002/11)

Mrs. Ida Dix papers, Cardiff Borough Official Manual, 1881 (2002/13b)

Dr. T.F. Holley papers, ‘History of Tabernacle Baptist Chapel, Bryants Field, Merthyr Tydfil’, 2001 (2002/16)

Gronow family of Cardiff, deeds and papers of 87-88 Wellington Street, Cardiff, 1870-1942 (2002/26)

Bryn John papers, scrapbook of Bryn John as chairman of Caerphilly UDC, 1958-1959 (2002/23)

Roath Estates, copies of principal vesting deeds, 1926 (2002/31)

Rowland Harris papers, publisher, Glamorgan County Magazine, 1949-1952 (2002/24)

Councillor J. Smith papers, Cardiff City Council: report on proposed national concert hall, 1978 (2002/10)

Sonia Davies papers, posters for First National Feminist Film and Video Conference, 1983 and United Nations Decade for Women World Conference, 1980 (2002/7)

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, South Wales branch: papers, 1970s-1990s (2002/8, 21)

Charles Jones & Sons, florists, Penarth, Account books and financial papers, 1940-1980 (2002/17)

John Griffith, blacksmith, Cowbridge, customer account books, 1839-1856 (2002/25)

Stephenson and Alexander, plans of clients’ estates, sale papers, 6-inch plans of Bridgend and Cowbridge Union, C20 (2001/191, 193 2002/19, 22)

Cardiff Printers, City Road, minute book, 1927-1946 (2001/186)

Mothers’ Union, Llandaff Diocese Overseas division: minutes, reports, correspondence, pictorial, 1970s-1990s (2002/28)

Glamorgan Family History Society, Journal, 1983-1997 (2001/196)

Charles Street Carnival (Cardiff), photographs, annual report, short history, c.1979-1987 (2001/192), advertising posters c.1980 (2002/3)

Film and theatre posters, 1930s (2002/4)

Engraving of Penllyn castle by Sparrow, 1786 (2002/30)

Microfilms of Hearth Tax returns for Glamorgan, 1660s-1670s (2001/183)

Microfiche, Census for Glamorgan and part of Monmouthshire, 1901 (2001/185)

Staff News

This quarter has seen the departure of a long serving member of staff, Valerie Letton. Val was a part time cleaner of the office for the last 13 years, and played a very important role in the preservation of our documents by keeping the strongrooms clean of dust.

We are also saying goodbye for a year to Rosemary Boyns who has been seconded to the 'Gathering the Jewels' project.

This exciting venture, funded by the New Opportunities Fund is to digitise over 20,000 images of cultural heritage material held in institutions throughout Wales. It will bring those images together as part of a single Web site which will become a new national learning resource, reflecting and promoting the extraordinary diversity and significance of materials held in Welsh libraries, museums and archives.

Lisa Snook, the Archive Trainee featured in last quarter’s newsletter, has been successful in her application to Liverpool University and has won a place on the Masters in Archives and Records Management course. She will be starting her course in the new academic year, and the Record Office will be recruiting her replacement over the summer.

Fees and Charges

The new financial year will herald a change in the charges made for some of our services. A new leaflet has been produced called ‘Fees & Charges’, which lists all our charges. While the cost of photocopying is going up slightly, the cost of printing from microfilm and fiche will be going down more!

Other documents available to the public are the Collection Policy, Preservation Policy, Media Use of Archives Policy and our Terms of Deposit.

In addition, some of our other information leaflets will soon be available in Welsh. 'Tracing your Family Tree', 'Municipal Cemeteries', 'Useful Addresses', 'Fees & Charges', 'How to use the GRO Index' and 'The Census' leaflets have all been translated, and can be obtained from the Office.

Roman Catholic Church Records

The Glamorgan Archives Joint Committee, the Gwent Joint Records Committee and Herefordshire Council have come to a formal agreement with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff concerning the deposit of parish and school registers and records of the Archdiocese. The first fruits of this agreement have already appeared (as reported in last quarter’s newsletter) with the deposit of records from St David’s Cathedral, and St Peter’s Roath (pictured below, c. 1870).

A transcript of the baptismal register for St David’s Cathedral covering the period 1881 to 1898 has been completed, and is available in the Copy Searchroom. This quarter baptismal registers from St Paul’s church Cardiff, now closed, have been deposited. Unfortunately the first register covering baptisms from 1881 to 1898 has been badly water damaged but will be available once it has been repaired.

~Open Day~

As part of Local History Week, the Record Office will be holding an Open Day on Saturday 11 May. The day will feature, amongst other things, an exhibition on the theme of Crime and Punishment, and it is hoped that the success of last year’s Open Day will be repeated.

Mine of Information

This project, which will prove to be a very valuable one for those interested in the history of the south Wales coalfield, is now nearing completion. The idea behind the project was to create an on-line catalogue for documents relating to the south Wales coalfield, making it far easier for researchers to discover information. The University of Wales, Swansea, has managed the project with contributions from other institutions, of which the Glamorgan Record Office is one. The Record Office has contributed many lists to the project, such as that of the National Coal Board, as well as other colliery collections which will soon be available online. You can find out more information about this project, and about the partner institutions, on the website: www.mineofinfo.ac.uk

Useful Websites

www.workhouses.org.uk

This website charts the development of the Poor Law and workhouses, and includes photographs and detailed histories of individual Poor Law Unions and workhouses. In addition, it gives information about surviving records and where to find them.

www.rhondda-cynon-taff.gov.uk/photos

Over 10,000 photographs of the Cynon Valley from 1880 to the present day have been digitised and displayed on this website. Photographs of the villages in the valley are included, covering many aspects of life, such as sport, work, education and entertainment.

www.newtown-cardiff.org.uk

This is a website devoted to Newtown, Cardiff that was demolished in the 1960s. The area was known as ‘Newtown: Little Ireland’ on account of the large number of Irish families living there. The site includes photographs of streets and individuals as well as reminiscences from former residents.

www.stpeters-roath.co.uk

You can find out more information about St Peters Roman Catholic Church, Roath by accessing their website. On this site you can view photographs of the church from the time it was built, to its restoration a few years ago.

Cardiff: The building of a capital

The Glamorgan Record Office has been successful in an application to the Heritage Lottery Fund for £48,600 of funding. The money is to be used in a project to catalogue and conserve over 40,000 building regulation plans dating from the 1870s to the 1960s. Included in this collection are plans of schools, cinemas, sports stadia, hotels, public houses, coffee bars, air raid shelters, shops, workhouses, hospitals, offices, factories, churches, mosques, synagogues and houses built by speculators, housing societies and the municipal authorities.

This series of plans vividly reflects the remarkable transformation of Cardiff from a provincial borough to the capital city of Wales. By the end of the 19^thcentury Cardiff was the largest coal exporting port in the world, with a diverse international community to match.

It was home to the richest man in the world; the Marquess of Bute, on whose estates many of the new urban classes were housed and whose industrial wealth helped pay for William Burges’ fantastic rebuilding of Cardiff Castle, a project which exerted a huge influence on the architecture of the city dubbed the Chicago of Wales.

Once the project has been completed a database of the plans, searchable by address, architect or developer will be mounted on the Glamorgan Record Office website, together with information and resources promoting the use of the plans.

D39: Theatre Posters from 1930s

Office Equipment

The Office has recently purchased some flat-screen monitors for the searchrooms. We hope these smaller screens will make members of staff more visible, and more approachable!

NEWSLETTER 1ST SEPTEMBER 2001 - 30 NOVEMBER 2001