The Cardiff Book of Days (19 page)

1999:
The first meeting of the Welsh National Assembly was held at Cardiff. Critics claimed that it had little power compared to its Scottish counterpart. (T.D. Breverton,
The Welsh Almanac
, Glyndwr Publications, 2002)

2001:
The FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Arsenal was the first to be played at the Millennium Stadium while Wembley was being rebuilt. Over 80 million people worldwide saw it on television. Liverpool came from behind to win 2-1. (Wikipedia)

1926:
In the aftermath of the General Strike there were a number of court cases relating to incidents of disorder. Forty-five year-old William Walsh appeared before Cardiff Magistrates. The court heard that he had thrown stones in an attempt to bring a Cardiff Corporation bus to a halt. He was sentenced to two months hard labour. Two other strikers were jailed for trying to prevent volunteers from manning a bus. The accused appeared in court with their heads swathed in bandages. Cardiff's Lord Mayor, Alderman William Francis, was given a standing ovation in the Council Chamber for recruiting volunteers to keep public services running. Alderman W.H. Petherbridge declared that the Council would not be ruled by a ‘Soviet Committee' in London. (Dennis Morgan,
The Cardiff Story
, D. Brown & Sons, 1991)

1937:
Cardiff's ‘Pageant of Industry' included a flatback lorry carrying five miners in their working clothes, part of a display by colliery owners Gueret, Llewellyn & Merrett Ltd. This was to celebrate 100 years of progress in the industry. As a contrast there was a tableau of 1837 pit gear mounted on a horse-drawn cart. (Stewart Williams,
Cardiff Yesterday
)

1612:
Sir Thomas Button of Duffryn set sail on an expedition to find the North West Passage and to search for Henry Hudson, missing since a similar expedition in 1609. Button's quest was unsuccessful but it was nevertheless quite a voyage of discovery. He is credited with exploring the western coast of Hudson Bay and securing it for the British Crown. He named parts of the area ‘New North Wales' and ‘New South Wales', long before the latter name was adopted for the part of Australia. Button was knighted by King James I. He continued to have a significant naval career and was later appointed ‘Admiral of the King's Ships on the coast of Ireland'. (Wikipedia)

1972:
The first of the massive cooling towers that had dominated the views from Colchester Avenue in the northern part of Roath was blown up. The area is now home to the Colchester Factory Estate, various ‘superstores' along Newport Road and the Cardiff Megabowl. (Stewart Williams,
Cardiff Yesterday
)

1909:
The Cardiff Railway Company opened its line from Heath Junction to Treforest, south of Pontypridd. It was the Bute Docks Company's attempt to emulate the Barry Railway in building an independent route to bring coal to its quays. Amid much opposition from other railway companies it secured an Act of Parliament authorising the line in 1897 but the powerful Taff Vale Railway was successful in preventing the junction at Treforest from ever being used for revenue-earning traffic. Passenger services began operating between Bute Road/Queen Street and Rhydyfelin via Whitchurch, Coryton, Tongwynlais and Upper Boat. Only the Cardiff end of the route ever made any money and the service was cut back to Coryton Halt in 1931. Despite a frequent service (fifty trains on weekdays) the future of the line was in doubt and closure was proposed in 1964. Protests led to the line being reprieved and now the Coryton line is an important part of Cardiff's suburban rail network. (Don Gatehouse & Geoff Dowling,
British Railways Past & Present, Vol.28
, 1995)

1916:
Lieutenant-Colonel Frank Gaskell, whose father was chairman of Hancock's Brewery, Cardiff, was killed in action in the First World War. An experienced soldier he had served in the Boer War and then practised as a barrister in Cardiff until 1914. He was invalided home after being shot in the jaw. He played a leading part in raising the 16
^th
Cardiff City Battalion. Returning to active service, he was again hospitalised after breaking his leg in a riding accident. Again he returned to the Front and was killed when a German bullet struck his ammunition pouch. He is buried at the cemetery at Merville. There are memorials to him in St Isan's Church, Llanishen, and at St John's. (J.H. Morgan, ‘Cardiff at War' in Stewart Williams (ed.)
The Cardiff Book, Vol.3
, 1974)

1933:
The Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) visited Cardiff. He arrived in his private plane at the newly-opened Pengam Aerodrome. He went on to St John's where he unveiled a memorial plaque to Sir Herbert Lewis, late St John's Ambulance Commissioner for Wales. His full day ended with a ceremony at City Hall for the Investiture of all members of the Order of St John admitted or promoted since 1921, the year of the last such ceremony in Cardiff. (Stewart Williams,
Cardiff Yesterday
)

1915:
The bravery of Sergeant Major Fred Barter of Daniel Street, Cardiff, led to him being awarded the Victoria Cross. Having gained the first line of enemy trenches at Festubert, he called for volunteers and with eight others attacked the German position with bombs, capturing three officers and 102 men and around 500 yards of trenches. (Stewart Williams,
Cardiff Yesterday
)

1929:
The distinctive concrete Penarth Pier Pavilion opened. For the next two years, until the seaward one was destroyed by fire, Penarth Pier had two pavilions. (Roy Thorne,
Penarth: A History
, Starling Press, 1975)

1943:
An unexploded bomb was discovered below the platform at Cardiff General Station. Over a tense four days operation bomb disposal officer Major Hugo Jones successfully defused it, having first ensured that trains could pass through the station without causing vibrations which could set it off. Things were complicated by the later discovery that there was another unexploded bomb nearby, fitted with a time fuse which meant that it could go off any minute. (
Daily Telegraph
obituary of Major Jones, 2010)

2008:
Cardiff City lost 0-1 to Portsmouth in the FA Cup Final. (
Western Mail
)

1952:
‘Cardiff has many worlds in it, only some of which are Welsh. There are the docks and the crowded town of coloured people cut off geographically by railways and water from the rest of Cardiff; there is a classy part on the road to Llandaff Cathedral; there are other suburbs and there are miles and miles of council estates and little houses. The main shopping streets are the usual hotchpotch of chain stores relieved by a great many glass-covered arcades, so that shopping in Cardiff is comparatively dry. And then bang in the middle of this industrial muddle, which might be Wolverhampton or Birmingham or anywhere – bang in the middle there is a green heart, still spacious and seeming to stretch in all directions. A great part of it is laid out as a Civic Centre. It is the finest Civic Centre in these islands … The present Lord Bute generously gave the Castle and its park, his father having already given the deer park, to the people of Cardiff. We can now go in for a shilling and take a conducted tour of this glittering wilderness of wonder'. (John Betjeman – broadcast on BBC Home Service, script included in
Trains and Buttered Toast
, 2006)