GENERAL
INTEREST
INTEREST
“Merthyr Express” 4 February 1905
A Curious Find When travelling the mountain near Fochriw on Wednesday, a drayman made a curious find which now awaits a claimant at the Dowlais Police Station. The find is a brass coffin plate engraved as follows: "Evan Evans, died Jan 28th 1905, aged 70 Years."
1 September 1934 Lost Tobacco Box While road excavation was being carried out in Railway-terrace for the purpose of brass laying relief drains, a tobacco box engraved "Howell Thomas, P.A.V." was found by Mr. J. Lawrence, the Gellygaer Council road foreman. Mr. Jenkin Thomas, Martin-street, who was standing by promptly claimed it. He recollected his father losing it about 30 years ago. The box was in perfect condition and will now be a prized possession.
17 September 1938 Cycling Feat Two Fochriw boys, D. Lyn Jones and W. Walters have cycled from Fochriw to Glasgow, where they visited the Exhibition. The two left Fochriw on Sunday, August 7th, and, on the Rhymney road, met a Cyfarthfa schoolboy, Rees Williams, and another lad named Donald Bencough, who attends Lewis' School Pengam. The four reached Glasgow on Friday, August 12th, and the return journey commenced on Sunday, 14th August.
31 October 1964 A ‘Pop’ Group The group known as “The 5 Commandments,” which includes two local boys, Ronald James, 24, Pontlottyn Road, and Phillip Coggan, 25, Martin Street, were invited to play at the Victoria Hotel, Blackpool, recently, and proved to be very popular. They have been invited to play at a forthcoming dance in the area with the Norman Holt Band.
1 April 1916 A Fochriw Tragedy: Snowbound On The Mountain The blizzard on Monday night, had a terribly tragic sequel in the adventures of a party of young Fochriw people, and the death of Willie Grimmett, only son of Mr. and Mrs. Grimmett, Pentwyn. On Monday afternoon, a party of young people walked over the mountain to Pontlottyn to visit a picture show. By the time for their return journey, the storm was blowing with great fury, and while some of the party elected to remain at Pontlottyn overnight, others set out to make the five mile walk (Note by Webmaster: The distance from Pontlottyn to Pentwyn is actually about 1.5 miles) over the mountain. Darkness had come on quickly, but the party faced the blizzard in the confidence that they were sufficiently familiar with the road to make their way through. Of the party's fearful experiences, there are, so far, only such a disjointed account as the exhausted survivors can give. No news was received of the young people all night, and after nearly 12 hours, the first of the party was found by a search party crawling on their hands and knees from a disused quarry, where they had found partial shelter. This was at 7:30am on Tuesday morning. Search parties scoured the mountains throughout the morning, the distracted mothers themselves making brave efforts to join in the search, but they were unable to get further than the foot of the mountain. The snows had drifted to unheard-of depths, and the fate of the whole party was for some time in doubt. In the absence of telephone, or other communication with Pontlottyn, hours of anxiety were spent at Fochriw, where it was not known who of the party had set out on their return. The search parties worked through the night heroically, time and again falling back in face of the cruel blizzard. Police Sergeant H. Williams, and Police Constable Perrett,