Extracts from Looking Back by E. Wyn Hughes
"Mynydd Parys" (Parys Mountain) is a rare and invaluable book, written by Owen
Griffith; it was originally serialised in Cymru, (Wales) a remarkable Welsh
monthly magazine, and published as a complete work in 1897. What makes this book
so fascinating is that it was written by a man who had started working in the
Parys Mountain copper mines at the tender age of nine years, when he earned four
pence a day - a fourteen hour day.
Owen Griffith was born in 1851, the son of Robert and Sydney Griffith, of
Lletroed, near the village of Penysarn. He gave up working in the copper mines
and became a successful shopkeeper in the village. Gifted with a fine singing
voice and endowed with excellent stage presence, he was a familiar figure in
eisteddfodau and music festivals. He was elected an elder in Bosra Chapel,
Penysarn, and also acted as preceptor. Active in local government, a member of
the local School Board, the Board of Guardians, the Parish Council, the District
Council, and was elected alderman on the Anglesey County Council. In a word, he
was a fine example of that public-spirited liberal nonconformist servant of the
people so typical of the late Victorian era. He died in 1897 and was buried in
the churchyard at Llanwenllwyfo. His life coincided with the brief revival in
the fortunes of the Parys Mountain copper mines that occurred in the second half
of the century, and not to the earlier period when the mines were at the height
of their production and Amlwch determined the price of copper in the markets of
the world. This was the period (1770-1800) when Amlwch was a 'boom town' ' The
Parish Registers reveal that it was not uncommon to find twenty-seven baptisms
being recorded in the space of one month. The birth rate was high and so, too,
were the deaths, especially among infants and children - over 40%. Yet Amlwch
was really no worse than any other similar town at this time.
The main cause of the high mortality rate was the appalling social conditions
that prevailed in the town: the worker's houses were mean and dirty with earth
floors, little better than hovels, 15 feet by 12 feet, with no more than two
rooms. Furniture was minimal: typically, a settle, two stools; the earth floor
was covered with rush mats, and an earthenware pot to hold water and a wall
cupboard to store food completed the meagre furnishings.
By 1800 thatched roofs were beginning to give way to roofs of slate. In such
hovels, lacking any form of sanitation beyond an earth closet, it was not
surprising that outbreaks of cholera broke out in the town from time to time as
in other parts of the country. When Amlwch suffered a cholera epidemic in
1831-32 the authorities arranged for the streets to be swept and the houses to
be whitewashed. The Parys Mountain mine was an unhealthy and dangerous place for
those who worked there. Many were injured in rock falls and others when the
black powder used for blasting exploded prematurely.
Prior to 1831 it was the custom for the miners to choose their own doctor to act
for the company, two pence a week being deducted from each miner's wages to pay
for his services. From 1831, however, each miner could visit a doctor of his own
choice at the company's expense.
One of the main health risks the miners faced resulted from inhaling fumes from
the vitriol works, and many suffered from rheumatism. Some miners preferred
their own remedies to the medicine prescribed by the doctor was a pint of spiced
ale containing an ounce of gunpowder was a favourite with many. Dr Thomas Hughes
of the Parys Mine Company and Dr Richard Lewis Parry of the Mona Mine Company
both testified to the Royal Commission on Mines in 1863; at that time the
miners' wage was from 13/6d to 141- a week. After blasting, miners had to wait
two hours before the cordite fumes cleared and it was safe to enter the mine.
Many of the miners suffered from tuberculosis and from silicosis through having
to drill through quartz to reach the copper lodes. The miners would drink vast
quantities of tea and coffee and suffered from dyspepsia. The two doctors
reported to the Commission that the miners looked fifteen years older than their
contemporaries who worked on the land.
Amlwch was a wild and violent town with much drunken behaviour. After 1830 there
were sixty taverns in the town selling beer throughout the day. Children ran
barefoot through the streets begging. Although a National School had been
established in 182 1, it had done little to improve a lot of the children. In
1831 the coronation of William IV was celebrated in the town until the early
hours of the following morning and ended in drunken brawling. Similar scenes
were common whenever a new shaft was sunk, such as the opening of the
'Coronation' shaft which celebrated the coronation of George IV in 1821.On that
occasion blasting took place from sunrise to eleven o'clock in the morning,
When the first miner sunk his pickaxe into the rock at the site of the new
shaft. Everyone shouted wildly as more rocks were blasted. By mid-day over a
thousand miners and their wives assembled on the mountain to dance and to
carouse. The gentry feasted in a marquee above which the Union Jack flew
proudly. Despite the fact two miners suffered gunpowder burns, the celebrations
continued and were finally concluded with the singing of 'Long Live King George
IV'.
In 182 5 William Lewis Hughes of Llys Dulas, whose fortune came from the mine,
made one of his infrequent visits to the mine. Hundreds of rocks were blasted
and four hundred miners, wearing blue ribbons in their hats, voiced their
welcome beside the giant open cast; later, they marched behind a band to the
town top enjoy a meal washed down with draughts of beer.
In this cultural desert, the Welsh Sunday School alone provided an oasis for the
ordinary miner. In the 1820's there was an attendance of over three hundred and
fifty at the Sunday School held at Capel Mawr and organised in sixty classes.
Through its influence some experienced a genuine conversion and their lives were
completely changed. Of some it could be said, in the words of Ecclesiasticus
Chapter XLIV verse 9,
"And some there be, which have no memorial, who are perished as though they had
never been...."
But Catherine Randal (1743-1828), long remembered locally as 'Cadi Rondol'
(though now almost forgotten), is a notable exception.
On Wednesday, February 20th, 1828: lames Webster, the proprietor of the Parys
Mountain sulphuric acid works, stands in the window of his home, Fudrol,
observing the huge funeral procession as it makes its way to St. Eleth's Church;
he is full of memories. It is the funeral of Cadi Rondol, or Catherine Randal as
recorded by the Rev. William Johnson in the Amlwch parish register.
The Randal family probably came to Amlwch with the first wave of immigrants to
work on Parys Mountain between 1761 and 1775. Jane Randal, Catherine's mother
lived in Parc Bach near Glanrafon and was buried on the 2nd September, 1794.
It appears that she had two daughters: one, Ellen, married Henry Wilson on
October 18th, 1775 in the old parish church, when her sister Cadi, was thirty
two years of age. It is interesting to note that Ellen was able to write her own
name, and it is likely that Cadi, too, was literate.
Whatever became of Ellen Randall and her husband, Cadi soon began to kick over
the traces in the licentious town of Amlwch; she became a notorious prostitute,
whose coarse language became a byword in the town - it became customary to refer
to anyone who habitually used coarse language as 'swearing like Cadi Rondol' '
She could be violent, too, as John bones (1 762-1822) as elder at Capel Mawr,
found to his cost. He tried to calm her down as she was cursing everyone in the
street. Cadi turned on him and threatened him - the very pillar of
respectability - with a knife!
However, some time after 1788 Cadi Rondal was converted in the 'Capel Mwd' at
Pengraigwen and became a faithful member of the 'society' at Lletroed Chapel,
and tramped the countryside from chapel to chapel to listen to the gospel.
On one occasion she walked to Llanfwrog and in her ecstasy jumped up on the pew
and wrecked it. Another time she suddenly remembered that she had left the dough
to rise, she grew agitated and shouted that Satan would not leave her alone!
After her conversion she earned a living handling and sorting out feathers, and
was made welcome by many a family. At Fudrol, she was invited into the dining
room where the table was already laid for a sumptuous meal but she declined to
eat, saying "You see, 1 have seen the Lord's table prepared and shall, 1 hope,
sit at it.... "
Around 1800-04 she was employed as a maid in the service of John Elias
(1774-1841) and his wife at their shop in Llanfechell. When John Elias rebuked
her for singing a lullaby to his son and suggested that a hymn would be more
suitable, she replied, "Do not imagine that 1 would sing a hymn to him -1 will
not sing the praises of my Lord to your son or anyone else."
A question put to John Elias by a maid, "Tell me, Mr Elias, was it for my sins
that the Lord Jesus suffered?" - prompting him to compose one of his greatest
hymns. Was Cadi Rondal that maid, I wonder?
According to a Plas Newydd rent book 'Catherine Randol' rented a small cottage
at Dyffryn Coch' for which she paid a rent of two shillings to the Marquees of
Anglesey - the lowest rent on the estate. Owen Griffith recalled a story about
John Elias leaving Lletroed Chapel with John Hughes of Ty'n Caeau to visit an
old woman on her deathbed - an incident immortalised by Percy Hughes (1898-1962)
in his prize-winning ballad at the Anglesey Eisteddfod in 1954
"Sion Huws a'i 'Haleliwia, A John Elias fawr,
Yn danfon Cadi Rondol Drwy berth y dwyfol wawr"
(John Hughes and his 'Hallelujah' with the great John Elias Ushering Cadi Rondol
through to the heavenly dawn.)
Her funeral was paid for by James Webster, but no gravestone was erected to mark
her final resting place. But with or without a stone, the name of Cadi Rondol
has not passed into oblivion.
Religion played an important part in the life and work of the Parys Mountain
miners for whom the prayer meeting held a special significance. Owen Griffith
records the story of the Miners' Smithy.
"These meetings were started soon after the two companies, the Parys and the
Mona, began exploiting the riches of Parys Mountain. They were held twice a day;
the first meeting was at six o'clock in the morning, the second between nine and
ten in the evening. The miners worked an eight-hour shift; those working on the
night shift were able to attend two prayer meetings, one after starting down the
mine at ten o'clock in the evening and one at the end of their first shift at
six in the morning. Those working early shift attended a prayer meeting before
starting work, similarly those on the afternoon shift could also attend the
prayer meeting held at ten o'clock. The regular meeting-place was the miners'
smithy.
Though lacking both pulpit and pews it was a sacred place, and while its
contents reflected its primary purpose, it was admirably suited to its acquired
function. Two large bellows, two large anvils, and two chimney-corners stood at
either end of the building, rough pigeon holes around the walls in which were
stored the drills belonging to the various' bargains': and the floor similarly
marked out by short iron bars representing the various bargains. Thus the floor,
the shelves and walls were the repository of all manner of drills and tools. In
the far corner, beside the great bellows, stood a small plain cupboard in which
was kept the large Bible.
The miners had deep respect for religious observances, as the tale of what
happened at the end of the eighteenth century and the early years of the
following century to the old pulpit from Lletroed Chapel.
".....it appears that one of the chief stewards of the Parys Mine took it into
his head to demolish the chapel at Rhos-y-Bol. He sensed that the miners were
reluctant to carry out the work, which was not altogether surprising since many
of them were faithful members of Lletroed Chapel. Nevertheless, the chapel was
destroyed, but at a public auction there were no bidders for the contents of the
chapel; the consequence was that the pews and the pulpit were removed to the
yard of the Mona Mine.
The timber was left in the yard in the expectation that the miners would make
use of it in the same way that they used so much timber every year. But despite
the fact that there were many occasions when timber was required (in fact,
during the course of a year some tons of timber was used), no-one in the mine
ventured to make use of the timber taken from the old chapel and there it
remained, lying in the yard until time and the elements finally consumed it. The
pulpit itself was stored in a loft, but not even the most irreligious of the
miners would venture to disturb it; and there it stood, covered with cobwebs,
until it finally vanished completely under accumulations of dust.
There is hardly anyone today who is familiar with the life of Richard bones, the
first minister to serve the chapels of Nebo and Bosra, 'the finest man the
neighbourhood produced in the last century' according to Owen Griffith. Richard
bones was born in 1840, the son of William and Ellen bones from Penysarn. In his
youth he worked as a miner on Parys Mountain, but occasionally managed to find
time to spend an afternoon at the British School in Rhos-y-Bol, where John Rhys
(later to become Professor of Celtic at Oxford) was briefly headmaster there. It
was in 1 86 5, the year Rhys left for Oxford, that Richard bones started to
preach. Within two years the Anglesey Presbytery approved his application to
study for the ministry. He spent a period between 1867 and 1872 at John Evans'
school at Menai Bridge, passed the required denominational examinations, and was
ordained a minister at Bala in 1875. Though an outstanding leader in the secular
affairs of the community, he was predominately a preacher of the gospel. The
Rev. Richard Pritchard, in his volumes on the history of Methodism in Anglesey,
record that
"The Rev Richard Jones, of Nebo, is a fine preacher. His sermons are carefully
prepared and his delivery is fluent. His only weakness is a tendency to be
monotonous from start to finish. Deliberate in manner, he has a pleasant and
effective voice. This is our opinion; we may be mistaken. This minister
possesses much independence of mind."
Whatever we may make of John Pritchard's verdict, William Jones remained a
popular preacher and at the time of his death in 1905 his preaching engagements
were full for the following nine years. His personal life was not without its
tragedies: his eldest sister died in child birth; his father became blind during
the last twelve years of his life; his younger sister was for many years a
victim of paralysis, while another suffered a long and lingering illness. Nor
was Richard Jones himself very strong, and he died at a comparatively early age
on March 22, 1896, and was buried at Llanwenllwyfo.
But according to Owen Griffith, he was a man whose religion was essentially one
of a practical nature, that practical religion that flourished among many of the
miners of Parys Mountain.
The administrative hub of the two mining companies were the two yards. There was
nothing much to distinguish one from the other, although the Mona Mine yard was
somewhat larger than that at the Parys Mine. Today they are both in ruins, but
at one time they were both the centres of great activity.
An area in land, about an acre in size, and enclosed walls some nine to ten feet
in height, situated on the south-eastern side of the mountain housed the
extensive offices of the Mona Mine Company. Within the walls was an assortment
of buildings The smithy, a lime-house, the bier house, a bell tower, wagon shed,
an oil store and an amazing accumulation of rope of various kinds and other
equipment: steel, iron, copper wire, together with stores of grease, pitch, tar
and paint etc.
Above these were extensive store rooms in which kept mats made from sea-sedge,
bedrooms, all sorts and sizes of sieves; copper iron and lead pipes. smiths'
bellows, leather, India rubber, solder, sheet lead, copper and iron nails, metal
polish, bath bricks, various coloured blankets and cloth for the miners, hard
hats for the stewards, and a vast number of old books.
Yet another storehouse was used to store gunpowder, fuse caps, candles, and
brown paper: there was a sawpit and carpenters' shop, an assay office, stables
and a turnery shed. In the corner of the yard lay a stack of timber for use in
the mines.
Between the sampling house and the offices stood a large pulpit with a top to
it, resembling for all the world an old-fashioned wainscot bed .... It was
placed by the office window in the upper part of the Mona Yard, and this pulpit,
too like the one at Parys Mine has a strange tale to tell. Once a month (or in
earlier times, once every two or three months) the company manager and its chief
clerk would mount upon this pulpit; in front of them were two massive volumes
and a small wooden box some eight inches square containing a fistful or two of
small pebbles. When 1 recall some of the incidents associated with the sheeting
of the 'bargains', 1 am amazed that a company of life guards was not required to
stand at door of the pulpit. Of the two volumes on the pulpit, one was for those
who wished to bargain to mine copper at so much a ton, the other recorded the
names of those ready to dig out the levels or tunnels at so much a fathom. The
pebbles in the wooden box were flipped over the heads to the assembled workers
to signify that the two parties, the 'tributers' and the 'tutworkmen' were
agreed on the bargain for the following month.
I saw bargains at three pound a ton of mined ore, and I also saw the folly of
miners bidding against each other so that bringing the price down till it fell
to no more than a halfpenny a ton to be shared between ten or twelve partners -
hardly enough to buy for one of them tobacco for the month they had agreed to
work. Many bargains were struck for ridiculously low sums, but none were
recalled more bitterly than the so-called 'Halfpenny Bargain.'
The miners' wages were paid out in the yards of both mines, but it was in the
Parys Mine yard that a violent incident took place about 1860.
That was the time when the lease on the land which the Parys Mine Company worked
was about to be terminated. Since another company intended to take over the
mine, the company whose lease was about to run out offered its miners an
agreement to collect all the copper that was readily available throughout the
mine and bring it to the surface, so that its successors should not benefit from
their toil. As the final month drew to a close, each 'bargain' was concluded
with the miners fulfilling the agreement.
When pay day came, however, the miners found that the officials of the company
did not intend to pay in full what was owed to the 'bargainers' who first
brought up the ore, despite the agreement. The result was that the miners as one
man moved on the office to find out if this was so. As this was to be the final
pay day two or three of the owners or lessees were present as well as usual
officials of the mine, and they told the men that this was indeed their
intention. When the miners failed to convince them that this was unjust, they
decided to hold their employer's prisoner in the office until they were paid the
last farthing. As tempers rose, the miners pressed closer to the office door.
The employers, however, remained adamant; but it was soon made clear to them
that the only way they could escape from the confines of the office was through
offering the men more money. As the miners became more and more menacing, there
were those in the office who saw justice in the miner's point of view, the
miners allowed one of them to go free. Mounting his horse he galloped away, glad
to make his escape.
The rest of those in the office remained unmoved: their stubbornness provoked
the men outside to rush right into the office. This weakened the resolve of the
owners, who began to excuse their action by pretending that they did not have
enough money on hand and that the banks were closed for the day. They promised,
however, that if they were released, they would return the following Monday and
pay the miners according to the terms of their agreement. The miners refused to
swallow this and the struggle continued until late. Finally with their pockets
much lighter by some hundreds of pounds more than they intended, the owners were
allowed to escape. One of them mounted his horse and rode off like a madman; but
before he could leave the Yard, the wind slammed the big door on him, catching
both horse and rider in a vice-like grip. There they both remained helpless
until they were finally released by the men.
Owen Griffith had himself worked in the mines on Parys Mountain, he was thus
able to give his readers a first-hand impression of conditions underground in
the mines.
We start from the eastern edge of the Open Cast through a part of the mine known
as the Bad Hole. First we descend in daylight by a zig-zag path.'lf it is calm
we light our candle and secure it in a lump of damp clay, this is the miner's
candlestick; then, with the candle in one hand, and using the other to cling to
a rickety ladder, the descent commences. At the foot of the ladder we enter a
low tunnel through which we make our way for about twenty or thirty yards in an
eastward direction; then the road turns northwards for some further fifteen
yards till we reach the old workings - a dark and gloomy place known as Gwaith
yrHwntwMawr (lit .'The big South-Walian's workings'). A brief look round and we
descend a short ladder and a second even shorter ladder at the foot of which it
becomes necessary to move forward crouched on hands and knees through a narrow
opening till another ladder is reached and a further descent is made through a
layer of blue and yellow clay. Downwards again along a short, steep path; a half
turn brings one to another gallery, from which a short ladder takes one to Level
30. This is the first open space we come to after leaving Gwaith yr Hwntw, and
we pause for a moment for a much needed rest. Its vast expanse is enormous,
difficult to comprehend. We move on till we find another ladder; we slither and
slide downwards through the mud and water till we reach a further ladder which
brings us to a truly remarkable gallery, a testimony to the skill and competence
of those who surveyed it. We proceed along it, down another ladder to Level 44.
Walking along this gallery for some forty to fifty yards in the direction of the
Garnedd Shaft, but before reaching it we descend again down rough steps to an
old working at the foot of which is a chimney with a ladder, going down this
ladder we find ourselves in Level 55. Having thus walked, crawled and dragged
ourselves for almost half an hour we at last caught sight of the shaft which we
had been aiming for from the start. We now proceed along this level to the
Sydney to inspect the lode before returning to the Garnedd Shaft to see the
smithy with its 255 foot chimney. Then we descend yet again to a deep and narrow
working below which are ladders which lead us to yet a lower level. With
considerable effort and clinging like goats to the steep ladder we came to Level
70.
After gazing with amazement at the vastness of these old working, we descend yet
further by swinging on a chain ladder through the great open space to reach
Level 80.
Here miners are at work sinking a new shaft, they are lowered by means of a
bucket on a rope to reach the bottom. The miners had just finished firing
charges to bring down more rock. All had gone well, the rock had shattered
cleanly, and where we now stood none had ever stood there before. We paused to
rest a while and to catch our breath, but for some time that was far from easy -
smoke, so thick that we could barely see anything, filled the place; water
poured on us, helping to remove the mud with which our clothes were caked, but
which at the same time left us soaked to the skin from top to toe. Nevertheless,
there we stayed until the smoke began to clear.
There was one good thing about conditions of work on Parys Mountain, no women or
children were allowed to be employed underground. Unlike other mines, women were
employed solely as surface workers; their job was to break up the ore - these
were the 'Copper Ladies'. Owen Griffith well remembers them and their colourful
ways.
The contribution these women made in preparing the copper ore for smelting was
an essential one. Until about 1870-72 the 'copper ladies', as they were known,
were a peculiar element in the neighbourhood of Amlwch. Between the two mines,
dozens, if not hundreds of women were employed to break up the ore.
They worked in long timber sheds close to where the ore was brought to the
surface. Seated in long ranks, with a block of iron weighing about a
hundred-weight called a 'knockstone' beside each one of them, the women wore a
gauntlet with the fingers protected by a series of iron bands on the left hand.
Holding a lump of ore in this left hand, the women struck it with a hammer to
remove the waste and to break the ore into a manageable size. This was their
daily task throughout the year, for which they were paid twelve pence for the
twelve hour day. The women invariably wore a 'lim Crow' hat under which they had
a spotted scarf covering the head, neck and most of the face.
By about 1800,the Parish register for amlwch bear witness to the fact that a
number of English immigrants were already settled in the parish, they bore names
such as Paynter, Burry, Miller Randal, Miller, Robinson, Silkstone, Winterbotham,
Orme and so forth. Ordinary miners were rapidly assimilated into the native
population without much difficulty became Welsh in language and outlook. A
Welshman, Thomas Williams ('Twm Chwarae Teg') controlled everything, but it was
Englishmen, bearing names such as Cartwright, Ledgey, Elliot and Carey, who were
responsible for middle management in the mines. Indeed, within a year of the
discover of copper ore in Parys Mountain in 1 768, it became a custom to hold
English services in St. Eleth's Church, until the arrival of lames Treweek
(1779-1851) and his family to live in Mona Lodge in 1811, few Cornish miners had
settled in Amlwch. But Treweek's arrival was followed by an influx of miners
from Cornwall to the area.
For some twenty years the population of the parish continued to rise as more and
more miners flocked to the area. By 1820 it was possible to discern three
strands in the population: there were the monogiot Welsh, with their religious
leaders like William Roberts (1784-1865) and Thomas bones, the translator
(1777-1847); there were the ordinary miners, non Welsh-speaking at first, but
rapidly becoming Cymricised: finally, there were the Cornish managers and their
English friends who formed a small and closed community. This last group were
those who actually controlled the Mona Mine and indeed the secular life of
Amlwch. Their leader lames Treweek, was an exceptionally able and single-minded
man, but he had a tendency to promote his friends and relatives in the Company
at the expense of equally able Welshmen. He was of the opinion that no Welshman
could be trusted to exercise authority over a fellow Welshman. Owen Griffith
refers to this practice in his narrative.
Yesterday, they came here with nothing; tomorrow their ships are everywhere,
their warehouses overflowing with all manner of goods, their coal-yards well
stocked. They have houses and land, own sumptuous coaches and fine horses; they
buy one man's stock another's corn ricks, they purchase houses and shops for
their own clubs; they exploit the unfortunate and needy, bribing them to sell
their birthright so that they may secure their own advancement -these are the
foreigners who accuse the poor and oppressed working miners of seeking plunder!
They farm their own land but rarely, if ever, do they labour themselves, and
only infrequently do they offer anyone employment, but remarkably everything is
attended to in season and no shortage of labour is evident. In the same way,
when they choose to build, they have no need to purchase material by the load or
by the foot or by weight, they proceed unhampered by such constraints.
Treweek himself does not appear to have been guilty of such practices; he was
successful in keeping relations between manager and the miners on an even keel.
But within nine years of his death, the situation erupted.
Thomas Tiddy, who was appointed manager of the Mona Mine by Treweek in 1819, in
preference to a Welshman who had successfully carried out the work for a number
of years, was born in Cornwall in 1803. Tiddy, who may possibly have been
Treweek's nephew, was married for the second time in Llanrwst in 1821 and by
1849 lived at 'Penrallt'. In that year he was accused of forcing miners from the
Mona Mine to work on his land for nothing, and to buy dead animals for the price
of live ones. By 1851, his income amounted to £175 a year.
In 1860, with the Company in financial difficulties, Tiddy attempted to cut the
miners' wages. The miners responded by coming out on strike in the June of that
year. Owen Griffith, who was an eyewitness, gives a vivid account of the strike
in which as he reveals, the prayer meeting once more played an all-important
role.
In the year 1860 the prayer meeting adopted a more militant attitude. Where the
meetings had formerly been held in the smithy, they were now held daily in
various locations on the slopes of Parys Mountain and on its summit. With the
miners who barely succeed in making ends meet whilst still employed, now that
they were no longer working their condition became even more wretched as their
employers seemed determined to drive them into the dust.
For part of each day they marched through surrounding countryside, and then
returned to the Mountain to pray. The prayer meeting was held on the open air
and its sound could be heard at the foot of the Mountain. One of the most
successful meetings was held in the Ox Quarry (probably so named because it was
the place where, on September 24, 1816, an ox had been roasted to celebrate the
landing of the Marquees of Anglesey, (the landlord, on the Island.) People of
Anglesey still remember what happened on the day of the prayer meeting.
During the agitation, Captain Tiddy, the chief manager lurked by the engine
house where the pumping engine stood and which normally functioned flawlessly.
Suddenly, without warning, with a sound like a clap of thunder, parts of the
engine flew in all directions and threatened to rock the engine house to its
very foundations.
The Captain was much agitated - "his countenance was changed and his thoughts
troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his bones smote
one against another."
While the engineman strove to calm him, one of the minor stewards rushed in
shouting "Ellis! For God's sake go to the quarry and tell Robin Tan Rhald to
quit praying before every wheel in this mine is shattered to smithereens before
we know where we are."
The engine remained as it was until 1865, but Thomas Tiddy and his wife lanet
and their three children were forced to leave Amlwch before the end of 1860.
Another Cornishman, thirty three year old George Trewren, was then appointed
chief manager in place of Thomas Tiddy.Trewren who was unmarried lodged at 'Bodgadfa'
with Henry and Arm Edwards (great great grandparents of the editor).
When two brothers William and George Buzza, came to work on the mountain,
Trewren showed them favours and this in time aroused antipathy. The practice of
settling' bargains' at the pulpit in the yard of the Mona Mine has already been
referred to. These were settled on a Saturday, but the miners had till the
following Monday to accept or reject the bargain. It was, however, understood
that in the meantime the bargain would not be offered to anyone else.
George Trewren showed the Buzza brothers around the mountain and showed them the
best bargains and offer them to the brothers despite the fact that they were
already under offer to others.
Angered by this move, the other miners went on strike. They refused to allow the
two Buzzas to enter the mine and threatened to kill them. Trewren thereupon
sacked the miners' leader, Owen Roberts. Peace was ultimately restored when
Trewren was dismissed and left Amlwch for good. From 1863 onwards, Parys
Mountain was in effect a 'closed shop' for welsh miners.
During the final period of the nineteenth century, one Charles Bunt Dyer
(1801-79) was a very important figure in the mine. Though satirised by Lewis
Williams Lewis, a local journalist and poet, who had been working in the mine
during the period of the strike, Dyer was not a bad sort. His personal diaries,
which have survived, tell something of his career. He was born in Devon in 1801,
but by 183 3 he was employed as a steward in a lead mine in Northop.
He appeared to have been a very conscientious worker and an able engineer. He
was politically active in the Northop area and was treasurer of his chapel, but
at the same time he was not averse to taking a glass of beer in the 'Dolphin' on
a Saturday night.
He was prevailed upon to visit Amlwch for three days in 1835 to view the copper
mines. He was made welcome by William Lemin and lames Treweek and had lunch with
them and with Thomas Tiddy and Samuel Greathead, Treweek's son-in-law. He became
a member of that select group, the "Amlwch Literary and Scientific Institution."
It is clear too, that he had an eye for the ladies. Though married with
children, he attempted on more than one occasion to flirt with Arm Treweek, one
of lames Treweek's daughters! He was a member of the English Wesleyan Chapel and
joined the Cornishmen at their meetings on Sundays. He was a member of the local
vestry, bought his clothes at Samuel Greathead's shop and in 1868 became one of
the trustees of the harbour. He dined regularly at 'Ty Mawr'(the present
Dinorben Hotel) with Treweek, Beer, Greathead, Lemin, Dr lones Roose, Henry and
lames Webster, Thomas Tiddy, lames lab and others. His children married well,
his daughter Emma Ellen married William Cox Paynter in 1846. Ten years later C.B.
Dyer became the Parys Mountain Mining Company chief representative in Amlwch. He
resided at Parys Lodge.
When Sarah lane Roose, of 'Bryntirion', celebrated her twentieth birthday in
1857, Dyer was one of the organisers of the banquet and the attendant
jollifications with which the occasion was celebrated. The town resounded to
shots being fired on the mountain, the houses and streets were be-flagged, a
floral arch was erected across the street by the National Provincial Bank (where
R..R. bones' shop is situated today), and the walls of the Dinorben Hotel were
covered by Union Flags. The band of the Royal Caernarvonshire Militia was hired
to march from the school playing the "March of the Men of Harlech". An address
was given by the Rev. Morris Williams ('Nicander'), following which everyone
preceded to Amlwch Port. Fortified by ale from the Mona Brewery, they all
returned to the school where more than two hundred children were given tea and
buns. Further sport followed as attempts were made to climb the greasy pole and
to catch a greased pig. Fireworks, organised by William Gould, followed as more
shots were fired and free beer was made available to the poor of Amlwch, while
fifty of its foremost citizens sat down to dine at the Dinorben. Charles Dyer
chaired the banquet at which no fewer than seven toasts were drunk and at which
the guests were entertained by I.C. Roose (Chemicus) from the Hibernian Drug
Hall.
These activities reflect Amlwch's prosperity during the years 1857 to 1870. This
was the period when Parys Mountain Mining Company, under Charles Dyer's
direction, made a profit of £400,000. The Mona Mine's fortunes were very
different.
When Charles Dyer died in 1879, the North Wales Chronicle reported "Great
sympathy was shown to the bereaved family by all classes."
Charles Bunt Dyer was to all intents and purposes the last of the foreign
stewards of Parys Mountain. With his death a distinct period in the social life
of Amlwch came to a close, and the working of Parys Mountain copper mines was
virtually over, though a few continued to scrape a living from them until 1910.