Wealth of fine goods on offer in centre of town 170 years ago
WHAT was it like in Cardiff 170 years ago?
Well, in my book Cardiff Remembered, first published in 1997 and reprinted on a number of occasions since, I had this to say: “A visitor to the little town of Cardiff 150 years ago would have found the debtors’ prison, town hall, and butter market all situated in High Street and handily placed near the old quay.
“The fact that High Street was considered to be the best business street in Cardiff so annoyed the tradesmen of Duke Street that, in 1829, they issued a broadsheet proclaiming their wares.
“The landlords of the Olde Green Dragon, New Dragon, Crown and Anchor, The Three Tuns and The Glove and Shears, prepared a joint advertisement claiming their wines and beers at their hostelries were ‘The finest in Cardiff and superior to those inns in High Street.’
“The landlord of the Three Tuns also boasted that for the convenience of his patrons a passage led from the Three Tuns to the High Street meat market.
“Among the tradesmen a visitor would have found in Duke Street in 1829 were W Allen, baker and confectioner, and E Young the mercers and drapers.
“Mr D Evans claimed to sell ‘the safest drugs in town’ while the ‘best’ china tea could be obtained from Smith and French the grocers.
“Other shopkeepers who advertised their wares were CC Williams, currier and leather merchant; J Wheeler, architect; and W Reed, a bookbinder, printer and bookseller.
“Before the advent of the railway, the London to Milford coach used to pass through Duke Street, which in those days was only 14ft wide in places.
“The sewer system consisted of open gullies and a nearby brook was often polluted by tannery refuse.”
Meanwhile, some of my readers will remember the days when the milkman delivered the milk daily and left it on one’s doorstep.
Then there was the coal man who would carry sacks of coal through the house to the coal bunker at the bottom of the garden.
These memories came flooding back after reading a new book by Jan Preece called Newport at Work: People and Industries Through The Years.
This book explores the working life of this South Wales city and its people, and the industries that have characterised it.
With chapters on The Fishing Village, The Normans and After, The Twentieth Century, The Years of Decline and the New Industrial Era it will appeal to all those with an interest in the history of Newport.
Just like Cardiff Docks, the Newport Docks played a vital role in the history of Newport, with its many ancillary industries that grew up with the docks, including the railways from the South Wales Valleys.
Well illustrated throughout, the book is published by Amberley Publishing, priced £14.99.
No doubt we can expect to see a Cardiff at Work book in the near future!
There must be many Cardiffians whose ancestors were dock labourers, and up to the 1950s there were more than 85,000 dockers across a large number of British ports.
If you are researching the lives of your ancestors who you knew worked in the docks then Tracing Your Docker Ancestors: A Guide For Family Historians is the book for you.
This 150-page book covers the daily lives of the dockers and their families and identifies all the relevant sources researchers can go to for all information including archives, libraries, museums and the internet.
The book, by Alex Homer, is published by Pen-and-Sword at £14.99.