Now Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding: Feeding the Poor at Christmas

As a nation we are recognised as generous givers to charity and at Christmas we are always more aware of trying to help those in need. It also appears to have been so in the past. Documents at Glamorgan Archives show how some gentry families helped those who lived on their estates who might otherwise have struggled to celebrate Christmas. 

In 1870 Lord Dunraven provided a Christmas dinner for the poor of St Bride’s parish.  A list gives the names of the 27 men and 32 women who attended the meal.  Earlier, in 1866, 96 children were given a Christmas treat.  An itemised list of food shows that a feast was provided for them with 1½ lbs of tea, 6lbs of sugar, bread, 3lbs of butter, an astonishing 60lbs of cake and 100 buns. A quantity of candles was also provided for lighting.

The Carne family of Nash Manor was also keen to offer help at Christmas. An account book from the Carne collection includes a ‘List of Persons to whom Meat was given at Christmas in St Donat’s Parish’. The list is dated 22 December 1848 and signed by John Whitlock Nicholl Carne.  It names the parishioners in receipt of meat, the amount provided in weight and the monetary value. In most cases they appear to have received ‘shin bone’. Jane Edward is noted as being a ‘widow’ and Edward Edward having a ‘large family’. Carne notes that the meat was ‘sent round the village, each piece being ticketed for them and delivered by my workman George Harry.’

 

In 1846 a member of the Edmondes family of Old Hall, Cowbridge, recorded how they celebrated Christmas that year. The family had guests to stay and ate turkey, boiled leg of mutton, cod, plum pudding and mince pies.  It also notes which servants were given a Christmas meal, including ‘Arthur’s coachman William James, William Rees, his wife and 2 children’. Dinners were also served up and kept for several others.   In the evening the family feasted on two geese and boiled beef, but the servants and neighbours were not forgotten.  Dinner and pudding was sent out to ‘Molly Burton, Nancy Robert, Zohin Richards (no pudding) and Evan the Mason’.  The next day the lady of the house noted that pig’s liver and pudding were sent to ‘Philip Horton’s wife and Mary Evans’ and pudding and cold meat for others living around the estate.  Scribbled on the end of the note is a recipe for Christmas pudding made of 7lbs flour, 3lbs currants, 3lbs raisins, 1lb treacle, sugar and spice. The puddings were to be boiled for 3 hours each.
Today charities such as Crisis and Operation Christmas Child focus on providing help and care to the vulnerable over the festive period and it is good to remind ourselves that they are following on a long tradition which stretches back generations.

 

Old Bangers sparkle at Glamorgan Archives!

Next week marks the start of British Sausage week starting on 31 October and with the sausage being a staple on bonfire night the Glamorgan Archive team were interested to find if they had any historical memorabilia relating to the humble sausage.

Glamorgan lays claim to having its own sausage, the vegetarian ‘Glamorgan Sausage’, made using local Caerphilly cheese, leeks and breadcrumbs. However the recipe discovered at the Glamorgan Archives is anything but vegetarian.

The recipe entitled ‘To make sausages’ found in a notebook from 1795-1813 would perhaps be more to the taste of meat eaters as it required a pound of lean pork and the same amount of ‘fatt’.  This was to be mixed in a marble morter and seasoned with salt, cloves, mace, pepper, ginger and a ‘little sage’.  The mixture was bound together with 4 egg yolks and 1 egg white and rolled up ‘in what form you please’.

The recipe is found in a notebook belonging to John Perkins, a gentleman farmer, of Ty-draw, Llantrithyd in the Vale of Glamorgan.  He used the notebook to record the hiring of servants, payment of taxes, deliveries to mills, as well as some interesting medicinal and culinary recipes, including ‘to make sauce to keep’, ‘to make green pease soup’, ‘to cure corns’ and ‘for the ague’.

The notebook is held at Glamorgan Archives (ref. DXAM/3).

Bleddyn Williams – Prince of Centres

Rugby fever has hit Wales and the world as the Rugby World Cup 2011 kicks off in New Zealand.  The Welsh team have arrived and begin their campaign against the holders, South Africa.

Here at Glamorgan Archives we’ve recently received the papers of one of the giants of the game, Welsh centre Bleddyn Williams.

Bleddyn Williams, the ‘Prince of Centres’, played for Cardiff for many years.  His international career began in 1947, and he went on to represent Wales in 22 internationals, captaining his country five times. In 1950 he captained the British Lions for part of their tour to Australia and New Zealand.  In 1953 he captained both his club, Cardiff, and his country to victory against the touring All Blacks side.

Programmes from the collection

 

His papers at Glamorgan Archives include photographs, newscuttings, programmes and correspondence relating to his rugby career, his time serving with the RAF during the Second World War, and to his school days at Rydal School, Colwyn Bay. 

Amongst these are a wonderful series of photographs taken on the 1950 Lions tour to New Zealand, featuring action shots from the matches along with photographs of the players meeting children from local schools.

Bleddyn Williams talking to pupils of Pasadena School, Auckland, 1950

Each player on the tour was presented with a scrapbook compiled by a school pupil, and Bleddyn Williams’ album can be found within the collection.

It would be wonderful to strengthen the links between two great rugby nations, Wales and New Zealand, by finding out who those school pupils photographed meeting the Lions players were; and especially by discovering the name of the child who compiled Bleddyn Williams’ album.

Some of the pages from the scrapbook presented to Bleddyn Williams

The collection also includes photographs and programmes relating to Welsh victories over the All Blacks in 1953.  The question now is, will Wales’ 2011 World Cup side be able to reproduce the winning form of Bleddyn Williams’ 1953 side?  We’ll just have to wait and see...

 

Party Like It’s 1899!

As the Royal Wedding draws closer and local communities finalise plans for street parties, Glamorgan Archives looks back on celebrations in the past.

The ‘party to end all parties’ was held in Cardiff for the Coming of Age of the 3rd Marquess of Bute in September 1868. He was one of the wealthiest men in Britain, and Cardiff pulled out all the stops to celebrate in style. The Illustrated London News reported on the event, describing streets filled with triumphal arches, flags and swags of floral displays.  Thousands of well wishers descended on the town to line the streets, bells were rung, guns were fired and there was an impressive fireworks display to entertain the crowds together with a choir of 15,000 men, women and children. 
The reporter was, however, rather disapproving of some of the more ‘unusual’ celebrations, particularly the goat who had been trained to pick out the letters B U T E from an alphabet scattered on the floor!
Two and a half thousand working men and women of Cardiff sat down to a banquet on tables set out in the open air.  In the evening 600 of the gentry attended a dinner and grand ball.  And in places such as Llantrisant and Aberdare the event was marked with bonfires on the mountains and treats for the children. 

Image from the Illustrated London News showing the streets decorated to celebrate the
Coming of Age of the 4th Marquess of Bute, 1902

There had been a more restrained response to the marriage of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) and Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863.  Captain Oliver Jones of Fonmon Castle, a Royal Naval officer on board the ship The Shannon, received very strict instructions on how the ship was to mark occasion. The Shannon was to fly the English and Danish ensigns, make a Royal Salute at 12 noon and blue lights were to illuminate the ship at 9pm.

School log books held at Glamorgan Archives record celebration of jubilees, royal visits and weddings.  On Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee in June 1897 local schools were given a week off.  At Bute Town National School in Cardiff each scholar was given a jubilee medal and three new pennies (with the pennies probably of more interest to the children!).

Image from the Illustrated London News showing the banquet held for the celebrations

In the twentieth century VE and VJ days were celebrated with street parties and many of us will have albums with photographs of parties in more recent times, from the Silver Jubilee in 1977 to the wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.

A VJ Day street party somewhere in Cardiff,1945, location unknown.

If you have any photographs of street parties we would be delighted to see them to help us and future generations remember how we celebrated in the past.

Living Over the Shop, 1911 Style

The thought of living over a shop today conjures up visions of side doors, narrow stairs, cat raided dustbins and the odour of countless take-aways; however 100 years ago in Cardiff things were different....

In 1911, in some cases ‘living over the shop’ was a world away from this. At that time two of Cardiff’s largest department stores vied for business in the hustle and bustle of the town, with the number of shops growing rapidly due to the demand for imported goods. Both James Howells and David Morgan department stores were expanded regularly, but not only for business purposes. Building plans for James Howells, held at the Glamorgan Archives, show that the upper levels of the store were never intended to be used as a shop floor, as small rooms with fireplaces were clearly marked on the plans submitted to Cardiff Borough Council.

Page from the 1911 census showing some of the staff living over James Howells store in St Mary Street

David Morgans store in
The Hayes, Cardiff c. 1920s

The 1911 census, taken on Sunday 2 April, provides us with further information as it shows that 140 men and women, married and single, from near and far were ‘living over the shop’ at Howells on that night. Draper’s salesmen and women, milliners, dressmakers, apprentices, housekeepers and servants all lived together in the space over the bustling business. Similarly David Morgan also shared their store space with staff, 99 men and women lived over the large departments which were filled with luxury items to furnish the homes and bellies of the ever growing population of Cardiff.
Perhaps you would like to find out who was living in your house a hundred years ago?

The 'Blouse Department' at James Howells, c. 1920s

The 1911 census, and those taken earlier, are available to use free of charge at Glamorgan Archives. 

Some of the staff living over David Morgans store when the
census was taken on 2 April 1911