The story I raised in last weeks column was in connection with, a ‘shed’ that may be 50 to 100 years old. But now this week, thanks to my pal Tim Powell, we have a stunning reveal on the ‘shed’. Cadoxton is Tim’s stomping ground, and he lives so near to this interesting building. It must be said, we were right about its ‘explosive’ place in history.
In Tim’s words: “I saw your piece on the old explosives magazine in the garden of Rock Cottage. 46 years ago when I moved here I met an old chap in his 80s (a friend of Tom Clemett) who, as a boy, worked in the quarry. He told me all about it. The building you refer to was indeed a magazine and tool store. The floor is about two feet lower inside and made of flag stones. There is a solid shelf on one side. The explosive was mainly nitro-glycerine based but they also used black powder.
“The fuses and detonators were kept separate in an outhouse attached to the cottage. The cottage is twice the size now of what it was”.
Breaking up the story from Tim, I have been invited to visit Lynnette Knight, the owner of Rock Cottage, and hopefully there will be even more to add to this story. Although not illustrated on Ordnance Survey maps, we know the reason for that. Certain buildings are not recorded by the cartographers if they are under a certain size. We can now tell readers that the ‘shed’ is well over 100 years old.
Tim continues: “Across the road – the road had not been constructed back then – was a vertical boiler steam engine. It drove a flywheel and shaft to the rock crusher which stood roughly where the current occupants of Rock Cottage park their cars, and also a belt driven big cylinder pump to stop the quarry from flooding,” which is now a play park.
“The old chap used to stoke the engine at 5.30am every weekday so there would be a head of steam ready for the day. The men arriving for work would draw water off the boiler to brew tea.
“He then had to go with a hand cart and get tools from the store. Rock drills, picks, hammers and chisels. After that he tended the boiler and ran errands. Any blunt tools he would take to the forge in Brock Street to get reforged and sharpened. He worked there until it all shut down and business moved to Dinas Powys and Wenvoe. Then he went to work on the docks as a coal trimmer. I went to his funeral. There were only half a dozen of us there. A nice chap.”
Thanks for that Tim. Its so much more social history than we could ever dream of, in regards to the ‘old explosives magazine’ that is now used as a potting shed by Lynnette.
One last point is that our researcher for Barry and District Museumeers Facebook page, John Anzevino, tracked down an old undated black and white image of the old village at the time when the quarry had now been abandoned and filled with water. The road had not been put in at that stage, south of our ‘old explosives magazine,’ which is shown in the photo.
It retains a chimney. So, a last blast with a date for our building? The Ordnance Survey of 1898 shows the area south of our building to be a quarry but, by 1915, it isn’t marked as a quarry.
But, guess what readers. I did find the answer.
There are five revised versions of the Ordnance Survey map of 1915, and, on one, it does actually show the ‘old explosives shed.’ I had looked at the wrong map version all along. So lets guess it was built some time after 1900, and before 1915.
Phew, 126 years old or there abouts.
Have we a little room this week, for this weeks mystery?
My mate Joe Solowyk on the Barry and District Museumeers Facebook page posted about our intriguing all red brick building this week. It can be found along the Holton Road end of Greenwood Street and opposite to the grounds of the Civic Offices. So before we continue I do not have anything like the full story for this building, so again a call for information: karljlangford@hotmail.com.
I went out and took the photo. There are two flora in relief terracotta motifs on the two front gables.
Today the building is used by DRL motorcycles for repairs and MOT’s. So for a little dating evidence, yes, I went to the Ordnance Survey. The building did not exist in 1898, but by 1914 it did. So, we have some solid start unlike last week.
The Barry and District Museumeers, gave us a start on a potted history, for the Greenwood Street building. Lyn Sadler, believes the following: that at some stage it was used by the post office, then Jones Dairies, and now for motorcycles. Cathy Copeland added that Jones Dairies, used to keep some electric milk floats there, and store cream in a large walk in fridge. And remembered that her brother locked himself in there but sister came to the rescue.
So that’s where we will leave it this week, hanging on a knife edge. Personally it doesn’t look like a purpose built structure for the post office, but an early car garage. But, I could be wrong.
