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Old picture postcards of the school

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This is the earliest card so far, from Colin Rees. It is postmarked 1904 and posted to Llandyssil. Below it is an enlargement of the boys in the centre, who may be wearing some kind of uniform?

This next postcard was used in November 1905
and it was sent from Brickyard Farm, Rhigos.

A view looking up Hirwaun Road towards the Park School, now Ysgol Iau Y Comin, Trecynon,  Aberdâr.  The postmark is very indistinct but could be 1907. The postcard is from the Wrench Series, No. 2104 and was posted to St Peter's in Jersey.

new A similar early view; looking up Hirwaun Rd, but a wider view that includes the Park Gates as well as the school. There's no statue of Lord Merthyr , so this dates the view as being before 1913.

Here's one from Steve Hammonds. The print on front of the card is almost identical to the Wrench series card above and to other postcards. On the back it says it was published by James Parr of 14 Canon Street Aberdare. It was postmarked September 1907, though we think the photo must have been taken earlier because it doesn't include the Chemistry block.
It was sent to Honiton, Devon.

This next card is postmarked 1906, and it shows the school with a covering of snow. Note that the block housing the Chemistry lab has now been added at the far end of the building.

An undated card, but the picture was taken after the Chemistry block had been added to the top end of the main building, and therefore taken after 1906. This photo also shows the old cottages which were located in Gadlys Road near the school.

new This one is postmarked Aug 14, 1908, sent by a D. Jenkins to John Roberts of Manchester House, Aberayron.

Again, an undated postcard. However, because there are no rails or overhead electricity poles for the trams, a date
prior to 1913 is indicated. The presence of the Chemistry Lab indicates post-1906.
In the lower left corner we see that the postcard is captioned incorrectly; it states the school to be a council school, a term applied to local Aberdare Board of Education Schools, but the school was funded by the Glamorgan County Council. This is why the school was known as The County School during most of its existence. Although in 1896 referred to as
The Aberdare Intermediate School, we have never seen it referred to as The Aberdare Technical & Intermediate Schools, which is the name carved into the grey Forest dressings above the main hall windows. All the Intermediate Schools were required to provide a technical subject that was to be matched to the needs of the surrounding area. In the case of the Aberdare school, Commercial Subjects were offered: shorthand and bookkeeping. Subsequently, a strong commercial department developed under the leadership of R.V. Hoggins.

Here's the back of another postcard which doesn't show the school but has an interesting postmark. When we were at school, mail from Aberdare was franked as "Aberdare". Since then the mark has changed more than once.  However, I was surprised to see the postmark on this birthday postcard of 1927.  I suppose that Cwmbach must have had its own sorting office at that time. (From Colin Rees)

new This one shows Lord Merthyr and the field gun that was on display at the Park during the inter war period. It was a German 10cm Kanone which, from the early years of World War 1, became the main long range gun of the German Corps Artillery. The view also shows the chimney stack of the mining laboratory, later to be converted to the biology laboratory. The tramway support poles for the electricity supply cables can also be seen. The card is a stained monochrome photograph with some careless addition of the red pigment.

This next card is postmarked 1932. It shows the school from the usual angle, but the interesting feature of this picture is that on the far left behind the main building it shows the skylights which were located on the roof of the buildings in the upper playground which housed our Biology lab, thus proving that they were built before this time. I haven't seen any earlier pictures which show this part of the school. The picture on the card is of poor quality, especially the colour, and the scan has made it even worse. You might have noticed that none of these photos show the bus shelter which was below the bottom gate during the 1960s.

Here's one postmarked 1961. It shows part of the school buildings in the upper playground, and again shows the skylights on top of the building which was the Biology lab in our day (1957-64). This one also shows the bus shelter. Malcolm Lloyd has told us that this bus shelter was present in his time in school (1942-49), and is also visible on the Christmas card photo from the late 1950s and early 1960s. However, this bus shelter may have been replaced with something more substantial in later years as the OS map published in 1973 suggests that it was inset into the wall of the school grounds.

Here's a relatively recent picture postcard of the school sent to Leighton Jones in his first term at University, 1964. This is the picture that we've adapted for use in the banner heading on the front page of the new web site because it is a rare view of the whole face of the main building.