The Memorial Hall
Seymour Street, Aberdare
This picture is from
a postcard that was available in the first decade of the last century.
This one is franked 1906. The building occupied a large plot on the corner
of Seymour Street and Whitcombe Street in the centre of the town. The
foundation stone is dated July 16th, 1894. There were two of these, and
they can be seen in the picture above, one behind the lamp-post, and the
other between the second and third doorways in Seymour Street. Close up
pictures of these stones are shown below.
The building was originally built for use by the Church Club. It housed
an assembly hall, committee rooms and a snooker room on one of the upper
floors. The building was also the first home of the Aberdare Public Library,
opening there on January 4th, 1904. It left these premises in May 1917.
The library was then housed on the upper floor of a building on the corner
of Seymour Street and High Street, opposite St. Johns Church; then in
December 1949 it moved again to Siloa Hall behind Green Street Methodist
Chapel.
The library occupied its present and fourth home in September
1963.
The school has taken a keen interest in the library over the years:
W. Jenkyn Thomas was a member of the first general committee, and in later
years the school contributed chairmen of the Town Library Committee: E.
Ogwen Williams 1915 - 1921; W. Charlton Cox 1922 - 1932; Mr. L.M. Thomas
1937, 1944, 1946 - 1949 and 1953.
A red glazed brick was used to face the building which was notable for its cupola above the hall, decorated cornices and elaborate canopies especially above the doorways to the hall itself. The building was demolished in 1988 and so far, nothing has replaced it.
Looking west up Seymour Street |
Again, looking west up Seymour Street towards |
Looking south down Whitcombe Street towards the cross roads with |
The canopy above one of the Hall doors.
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This is the door canopy in Whitcombe Street. |
Another view of the Seymour Street canopy. |
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This picture shows one of the rooms in the Memorial Hall buildings in its last days in the 1980s. |
Foundation and Memorial Stones |
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The two memorial stones have now been incorporated into the walls of the Dare Valley Country Park Centre. They can be found in the alley-way that leads from the car park to the enclosed courtyard of the Centre. The stones appear to be carved on a pink granite, but the mortar work around them has defaced them slightly. The wording on this one is as follows: This foundation stone of the church clubs |
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The hall was called The Memorial Hall, because the it was built to commemorate the ten years spent in the town by The wording on the stone reads as follows: this foundation stone of the hall was laid |
Richard Bowen Jenkins |
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