The Aberdare Boys’ Grammar School

Contents

Latest additions

Updated  May 1st 2012

Established September 2001

May 2012

Welcome to the website of the old Aberdare Boys’ Grammar School. The web server continues to provide pages to visitors from all over the world, and the website continues to grow thanks to your contributions. If you have any photos or documents to share please let us know - our email addresses can be found in the panel on the right. Alternatively, you may wish to make a suggestion for an entry in the Former Pupils section, if so please let us have details, and a picture if possible. To see full details of what has been added recently, click the link shown below ‘Latest Additions’ in the column on the left. Thank you again to all those who have already made contributions by writing short articles or by sending in photos.

Notices

New School

The general layout of the proposed buildings of the new school at The Ynys, and new access road across the River Cynon, can be seen here.  (NB: After the new page opens right-click the map, then select rotate clockwise.)

Mrs Nesta Williams

We were sorry to hear of the death of Mrs Nesta Williams, wife of the late headmaster Mr Gwilym Williams. She died on April 2 at the family home, ‘Pennar’ in Clifton Street, Aberdare. Her funeral service took place on April 16 at Siloa, Aberdare prior to a committal service at Llwydcoed Crematorium. Mrs Williams was originally a member at Bethania, moving to Trinity, and finally to Siloa on the occasion of the closures of the former chapels. Nesta taught at the Trecynon school on two occasions when full time staff were away for protracted periods: in 1961 for John Hopkin Evans (Welsh); and in 1962 for J.A. Jones (Religious Instruction, R.I.). Mr & Mrs Williams were both from Mountain Ash and were married in 1947. They raised two boys, Stephen and Kevin.

Some Background Information about the School The school opened on September 28th, 1896 as The Aberdare Technical and Intermediate Schools with Head Master W. Jenkyn Thomas and four assistant teachers: two men and two women. There were 141 pupils present by the end of the first term, 88 boys and 53 girls taught in mixed classes for the majority of their subjects. The school soon became known as The County School and remained so until the early sixties when the Grammar School name became more widely used. The pupils from the lower end of the Cynon Valley left in 1907 when Mountain Ash County School opened initially at Gwernifor, Miskin, moving to Dyffryn House much later in 1926. Then in 1913, the girls together with the women staff left for their own school in Plasdraw.

There was little significant change at the County School in terms of the nature of staffing and curriculum over the years until the Trecynon buildings were vacated in 1964 and the school relocated to the bottom of Cwmdare Hill. In 1978 the Boys’ Grammar School closed and there was a fairly smooth transition to comprehensive status, when the Aberdare Boys Comprehensive School opened. Many of the existing staff were reappointed to the new school which was housed in the ex-grammar school buildings on Cwmdare Road, as the upper school. The buildings of Rhydywaun Secondary Modern School in Penywaun, which had also changed status, housed the lower school. The lower school at Rhydywaun was eventually brought to a new building at Cwmdare Road after a serious fire at Rhydywaun caused almost complete loss of its buildings. From September  1st, 2009 Aberdare Boys Comprehensive School, was renamed Aberdare High School (opens in new window). The school adopted a new badge, which shows a similarity to the original grammar school design with ‘dragon and book’. The picture, right, shows the school as it was in 1978, but additionally there is now a large sports hall on the site, behind the two-story block on the right. The new hall is both a school and a community facility. The decision has been made by RTCBC to close the Boys’ High School, the Girls Comprehensive (at Plasdraw and The Gadlys) and Blaengwawr Comprehensive School. It is intended that the pupils of all three schools will be housed in a new school to be built at The Ynys, near the centre of Aberdare, and which is planned to open in September 2014. Aberdare would then have three secondary schools instead of the current five.
For further details of the reorganisation scheme, click here.

School Clock

The asking price of ‘The Old Clock Tower’ is £275,000. The tower and adjacent room have been converted into a new home that featured in both the South Wales Echo and the Cynon Valley Leader in July 2009. The Echo article was particularly impressive with a three-page spread, including a full-page photo of the building on the front page of the homeWALES supplement. The current owner is Ray Radnedge of Radnedge Architectural Antiques in Llanelli. In the article he says he initially purchased the clock only. But he then heard that the tower was to be demolished by the developer, so he bought that too. The inside pages show several views of both the exterior and of the internal fittings. Details of the property can be seen on the estate agent’s website by clicking here. A gallery of photographs showing the reinstatement of the clock can be found in the School Building section. The weather vane now completes the architectural fittings at the top of the dome, and the clock faces are now illuminated. The clock, which had been removed for restoration and repair, consists of a two-and-a-half tonne structure made of solid oak with cast iron facings, copper roof, and a 10 ft pendulum.

Contacts

If you have any comments, or contributions for the site, please contact one of the editors:

Related Link

Aberdare Girls Grammar School

Aerial Views

Aberdare is one of the areas in the UK where the online satellite maps from Google Maps are of a high resolution. Go to Google Maps to look down on the old school site and explore the rest of the town.