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What's
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| Twitching
the Iron Curtain: Cardiff to Ukraine, 1959 |
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In
October 1959 a group of four Cardiff City Aldermen travelled
to Lugansk, then part of the USSR now in Ukraine, as an official
delegation on an exchange tour. The party comprised Alderman
Helena Evans, the then Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Aldermen A.J.
Williams, C. A. Horwood and Helen Pooley, councillor for Adamsdown.
The visit came to our attention through the generous deposit
of an official album of photographs given to Helen Pooley by
her hosts (ref. D653). The album is beautifully bound and labelled
in Cyrillic script, enclosed in a red velvet lined box.
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| The
photographs show the Cardiff delegation at the various events
arranged for their information and entertainment, from cultural
displays of folk dancing and wrestling, to the obligatory factory
and mine visits. They are tremendously evocative of the time
and place while the inclusion of women in the group adds the
fashion dimension. |
| Included
in the album is the itinerary for travel to and from Lugansk.
The group left Cardiff General Station on 10 October, flying
from London Airport to Moscow, via Copenhagen, and returned
to Cardiff on 23 October. The itinerary gives useful advice
on weather conditions with the average temperature in Moscow
at 40F, compared with London 51F. It reports that ‘no
figures available for Lugansk, but due to its distance South
it may be quite warm’. |
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| Interestingly,
in light of the current political climate, the Cardiff City
Council minutes note that a letter had been received from the
City of Cardiff Ratepayers’ Association asking for details
of expenses for the trip, wanting to know the purpose of the
visit, how much it was costing and what benefits the City Council
hoped to obtain for the City as a result (ref. BC/C/6/98). The
minutes record diplomatically that the visit was carried out
within the spirit of the local authorities expenses act and
that no further details would be provided. The minutes also
record that a return delegation would be made from Lugansk,
headed by Mr K. I. Strepetov, Chairman of the Executive Council
of the City Council of Working People Deputies of Lugansk. |
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An
Eventful Voyage: the Nanking Incident, 1927
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| An
intriguing document relating to the Evan Thomas Radcliffe
shipping company of Cardiff was deposited at the Record Office
recently (ref. D639). The ship’s log of a journey from
Barry to the port of Newport News in Virginia, made in 1927,
also carries a vivid description of an event which came to
be known as the ‘Nanking Incident’. The ‘ship’s
log’ is in fact a single sheet of paper, now rather
flimsy and delicate. The top half of the document does indeed
record the progress of the ship’s voyage from the end
of January 1927 into February, including the number of days
and times of sailing and weather conditions. For much of the
time during the Atlantic crossing the ship hit ‘strong
head winds and heavy seas’. Unfortunately, the ship
is not identified, nor the captain, but the depositor believed
that it could have belonged to a ‘Captain Jones’
who worked on the Evan Thomas Radcliffe line. |
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| It
is not known where the ship went after it left Newport News
in Virginia, but the bottom half of the document records, in
very faint pencil, an account of the what became known as the
‘Nanking Incident’ which took place on 24 to 25
March 1927, part of the Kuomintang’s Northern Expedition.
The account is written on the 26 March and is in the form of
a telegram, describing how Kuomintang troops entered the city
of Nanking, where many foreign residents lived. The troops targeted
and looted foreign properties, killing and injuring foreign
residents. Dr John E. Williams, American vice-president of Nanking
University was shot to death, and Bertram Giles, British Consul-General,
was injured by gunfire. Refugees retreated to Socony Hill, where
they stayed in buildings owned by the Socony Vacuum Corporation.
Western and Japanese warships on the river responded by shelling
Chinese forces in an effort to stop the looting of the city. |
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Here is an extract from the account which gives a flavour of
the chaos in the city at the time: ‘
…hundred fifty Americans were reported to be still
unaccounted for but special advices state they are all now safe
except one who was killed. Another one was wounded. …Remainder
made for Socony Hill inside walls of town, rising ground visible
to warships in river. Moment of departure of Northerners saw
Cantonese gunmen long concealed in town come forth to loot,
and attack foreigners. It is evident Giles, British consul general,
was wounded in this first rush on consulate which was protected
by six marines from warship Emerald. Shortly after attack by
gunmen regular Cantonese army entered town and got completely
out of hand running wild and looting all shops and British,
American and Japanese consulates. At four o’clock Thursday
afternoon situation became very grave … huge mob mingled
with regular soldiers advancing against refugees on Socony Hill.
Hasty consultation between Captain of Emerald and American destroyers
led to instant decision to protect refugees by heavy barrage
of shrapnel. This policy alone saved lives of nearly one hundred
men and some women for shrapnel cut off Cantonese who had never
met shellfire before. Taking advantage of respite refugees made
their way through town houses and winding streets to only gate
giving access to Bund [the Bund was an area in the city]. Here
they found British and American marines just landed who covered
their retirement to ships without so far as we know single casualty.
From this moment all communication was cut off with British
and Japanese consulates. Various reports and rumours stated
that consul was dead together with Captain [Shear] and his escort
and that the Japanese consul had also been murdered. These fortunately
have turned out to be incorrect but Doctor Williams vice president
of Nanking university has been murdered in cold blood in street.’
Thank
you to Glamorgan Record Office volunteer, Sophie Hall, for
transcribing the document. A full transcription is available
at the Record Office.
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August
2009
25th
Anniversary of the Miners’ Strike, 1984
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It
is 25 years since the start of the Miners’ Strike, which
lasted for 12 hard months between 1984 and 1985. The anniversary
gives us a chance to highlight the wealth of records and photographs
relating to the strike at the Glamorgan Record Office. As
well as ‘official’ National Coal Board records
(DNCB) some of the most interesting are those relating to
the part played by women in support of the miners, including
records of the South Wales Women’s Support Group and
Women Against Pit Closures (DWSG and DX960), whose members
worked tirelessly raising funds, organising rallies and distributing
food. The images displayed here indicate the depth of feeling,
hardship and struggle experienced by local communities during
the strike: |
Poster
publicising a conference in support of the miners’ strike,
Maesteg, June 1985 (DX960/5/1)
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Police
and pickets, Cwm Colliery, 1984
(DXGC189/158)
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Garw
Pit, c. 1984 (DX960/10/15)
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Line
of police and pickets, South Celynen Colliery, Abercarn,
November 1984 (DXGC189/155)
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Please
contact the Record Office for full details of records
relating to the miners’ strike. |
July
2009
Glamorgan
Record Office in Partnership with Parliament
New
exhibition People and Parliament: Connecting with
Communities opens at Westminster Hall, Houses of Parliament
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| Glamorgan
Record Office has collaborated with the Parliamentary Archives
and other project partners in England, on an exhibition examining
how people have influenced Parliament and how Parliament has
affected communities and lives over a period of nearly 500 years.
Glamorgan Record Office is the sole Welsh partner. The
exhibition includes documents, photographs and archive films
from the Parliamentary Archives and the project partners.
The Glamorgan section of the exhibition focuses on the development
of the docks in Cardiff by the Marquis of Bute. The plan from
the Bute Ship Canal Act of 1830, held by the Parliamentary
Archives, is displayed alongside items of Bute correspondence
from 1831 and 1843 on loan from the Glamorgan Record Office
(ref. DA). The letters illustrate the fierce rivalries which
existed between Bute and local ironmasters, including the
powerful William Crawshay of Cyfarthfa, with complaints against
what they believed to be high tolls and tariffs for use of
the Bute canal.
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Councillor
Tony Hampton, Vice-Chairman of Glamorgan Archives Joint Committee
and Baroness Hayman, Lord Speaker of the House of Lords, at
the exhibition launch, Houses of Parliament, 2 July 2009 |
The centrepiece exhibit is the 1821 Land Tax Act, which at
348 metres is the longest Act of Parliament held by the Parliamentary
Archives. The Act, which is made up of over 700 sheets of
parchment stitched end to end contains the names of approximately
65,000 commissioners who were appointed to supervise the assessment
and collection of the land tax. The document is a source of
great interest to local and family historians who are keen
to identify the individuals listed.
The exhibition launches a major four year Parliamentary outreach
project which will see a series of activities taking place
across the country between 2009 and 2012. Activities will
be held with community groups and the five project partners,
based around documents from the Parliamentary Archives and
the partner archives, including Glamorgan Record Office.
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Commenting on the exhibition, David Prior, Assistant Clerk
of the Records at the Parliamentary Archives said: “This
exhibition and the project it is launching mark a new approach
for us in making the material in our care accessible to new
audiences. We are excited about the fantastic connections
that people and communities across the country will be able
to make with our archives through the project.”
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Councillor
Tony Hampton, Vice-Chairman of Glamorgan Archives Joint
Committee and Charlotte Hodgson, Principal Archivist, Glamorgan
Record Office, at the exhibition launch, with exhibition
panels showing the new Glamorgan Record Office, to be opened
in Cardiff in 2010
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July
2009
Would
you know what to do with a sphygmograph?
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| Staff
have recently uncovered an interesting piece of medical history
while researching the case notes of a patient at the Glamorgan
Asylum. Small black graphs of a surprisingly modern appearance
for 1887 were attached to many of the pages. They turned out
to be ‘sphygmographs’, readings taken from a mechanical
device used to measure blood pressure, first developed in
1854 by German physiologist, Karl von Vierordt. The machine
was the first external, non-intrusive device used to estimate
blood pressure, the forerunner of the blood pressure cuff
in use today. It worked by a system of levers hooked to a
scale pan in which weights were placed. By the 1880s the device
was being used in the Glamorgan Asylum as an established part
of medical routine. Interestingly,
the patient whose notes carried the sphygmograph chart had
the cause of his insanity put down to ‘love affairs’
Causes given for other patients include ‘intemperance
– drinking after death of wife and child’, ‘worry’,
‘puberty’, ‘money loss’, ‘over
study whilst at school in Clevedon’, ‘want of
work’, ‘tobacco’, ‘domestic unhappiness’,
‘wife’s scarlet fever’, and ‘sunstroke’
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Examples
of ‘sphygmographs’,
readings taken from patient
case notes.
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| Glamorgan
Record Office holds records of the Glamorgan County Asylum,
Bridgend, including patient case notes from 1864 (Ref. DHGL/1-26).
Access is restricted to some records under 100 years old to
comply with Data Protection legislation, but please contact
the Record Office for further details. |
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