Robert and Lucy Thomas Memorial Fountain

“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Started the day with the customary cooked breakfast before heading off for a day out to find a photo in Merthyr Tydfil with BobsBlips. It’s been many years since I’ve visited the town centre and my recent forays to the edges of the town intrigued me, there seemed to be lots more opportunities for inspiration there than I remembered from visits as a QS. My interest had been grabbed by the various ‘Trails’ posted on https://www.visitmerthyr.co.uk/things-to-do/trails/merthyr-tydfil-town-centre-trails/ so I was keen to see for myself. I’d outlined a trail for us using the web trails as a basis, mixing and matching what might give us a few photo opportunities with some history thrown in. We began at the old Ironworks remains alongside the Taff Trail; could be more impressive if the site was developed a bit to give some more information boards/artists impressions and cleared the undergrowth and trees obscuring a clear sight of the old blast furnaces. Next stop was nearby Joseph Parry’s cottage, he who penned ‘Myfanwy’; the cottage, in front of which was the beginning of the Glamorgan Canal, is open by appointment only so could be an interesting stopover for another occasion. We headed over Jackson’s Bridge, an C18th stone bridge which once carried the Dowlais Ironworks Tramroad over the Taff, and on past the Court of Requests pub, once the site of a notorious court which empowered bailiffs to seize property of debtors, many of whom were victims of redundancy or reduced wages during the iron industry depression years. This was one of the principal targets of the 1831 Merthyr Rising, following which Dic Penderyn was hanged in Cardiff for his part in the insurrection. On to the Ynysfach Engine House, although an impressive structure and once a power house for the blast furnaces it’s now just an empty shell under the care of the Museum (and closed). The path took us down and across the front of Merthyr College, which sits on the bank of the Taff with it’s weir and fish pass – I was surprised to read that the fish ladder is to allow salmon and sea trout to migrate upstream. Equally surprising was the ‘Banksy’ style artwork adjacent the footbridge. I can’t resist a nice bridge to photograph and following the road downstream provided just that, and a passing motorist slowed and ‘begged’ us to photograph her, so I obliged of course, and then she was gone. The plasterers renewing some of the rendered walls with artwork on the sides of the flats also got in on the act. Photo for the day is the Robert and Lucy Thomas Memorial Fountain, in front of St Tydfil’s Church, which was built in 1894 in the place where she was martyred around 480AD. The name ‘Merthyr’ signifies a martyr, or a martyr’s shrine, hence the name of the town. On our way uphill we detoured to see the imposing Victorian Gothic building that was once a synagogue, now awaiting re-purposing for a twenty-first century lease of life. Plas Coffi on High Street was a welcome diversion not only for coffee - and cake for me – but also for an exhibition of black and white photos by Walter Waygood, which finished our tour of the town today.