Shipyards, Scandal and Pigstyes
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SHIPYARDS, SCANDAL AND PIGSTYES CHANGING Chepstow in the first world waR THE CHEPSTOW SOCIETY Chepstow High Street before the First World War At the start of the Great War in Works, beside the river, where several 1914, Chepstow was a small hundred people worked. Edward Finch, an iron merchant from Liverpool, had market town of some 3,000 established the yard in 1849 to build people. Brunel’s innovative Tubular Bridge, taking the railway across the Wye. It had been an important port before and during the Napoleonic Wars - but, a The works continued making dock gates, century later, it was best known for its masts, bridges, piers and other castle, for its salmon, and as a crossing structures, and, after Finch’s death in point between Gloucestershire and 1873, also built small tugs and barges. south Wales. Boats ran to Bristol on market days, and there were excursions In 1911, Tom Valentine Ellis – the son of by rail, boat and, increasingly, char-a- one of the founding staff of the yard – banc, up the Wye valley. became its managing director. By far the largest local employer was After war was declared in August 1914, Finch’s engineering yard, the Bridge the town responded to the call to arms. Many men joined up – and there were Another early impact of the war on the local issues to be addressed. town was the influx of refugees from Belgium. By October 1914, thousands of Within a week, a town meeting agreed Belgian refugee committees were set up to set up a convalescent hospital in nationally, and many men joined up to Chepstow, where less seriously injured help liberate “plucky Belgium” from its combatants could return to convalesce. German occupiers. Ellis owned Gwy House on Bridge Street The Belgian Refugee Committee in – now the Museum – and in November Chepstow was one of forty such groups 1914 offered it for use as a hospital. The in Monmouthshire. It sought homes offer was gratefully accepted, and the where the refugee families could be hospital, run by Red Cross volunteers, housed, found interpreters, helped opened in 1915. Run entirely on a arrange employment, and organised voluntary basis, it continued to provide fundraising. By the end of 1915, over care for wounded soldiers for the 800 refugees had arrived through duration of the war. Newport. In 1894 he bought the partly ruined Mathern Palace, the former home of the Bishops of Llandaff, from local solicitor G. C. Francis. Tipping rebuilt it as a home for himself and his aged mother. After her death he commissioned a new home for himself, Mounton House, designed by Francis’ architect son, Eric. Tipping and Eric Francis later collaborated in designing High Glanau, Henry Avray Tipping (1855-1933) near Trellech. One of the homes provided for resettling Avray Tipping was also involved in the refugees was Mathern Palace, planning the new garden suburb of owned by Henry Avray Tipping. Born in Rhiwbina in Cardiff. He was also partly France, the son of a wealthy Quaker responsible for the gardens at the Prime businessman and MP, he grew up in Minister’s home, Chequers, as well as Kent and became the Architectural countless articles and books on country Editor of “Country Life” magazine. houses and architecture. THE STANDARD SHIPYARD Merchant shipping in the Atlantic provided essential fuel and food to the country. But, by the middle of 1915 it was being devastated by German U- boats operating in the waters beyond the Bristol Channel, off the Wales coast and around Ireland. John Henry Silley (1872-1941) The submarines were generally undetectable. Radar had not been invented, and sending airships out over Silley was born at Tutshill. He had been the ocean to observe them and drop apprenticed at Finch’s yard before bombs by hand was largely ineffective. joining the Star shipping line in London, rising to become its chief engineer. The losses were considerable, in terms of ships, manpower and essential He set up his own business in London, supplies. Up to 300,000 tons of shipping later merging it with others to form R was being lost to attacks each month, a and H Green and Silley, Weir, Ltd, which huge loss for the country to bear. became one of the leading ship repair companies in the country. But, at the same time, industry in the United States was being revolutionised In 1915, Silley persuaded several leading by the adoption of the assembly line shipowners, including Lord Inchcape of practices pioneered by Henry Ford. P&O, to form a consortium to build cargo ships to standardised designs. J. H. Silley and his associate, Allan Hughes, were among the first to In April 1916 the Standard Shipbuilding propose that similar practices of Company was established. “standardization” be adopted in Britain, The new company was chaired by James to build ships more rapidly than using Caird of Turnbull, Martin & Co., with the old methods. Silley as managing director. Silley proposed that a major new Important to the shipowners was the shipyard be developed at Chepstow. fact that it was free of the trade unions The area was deemed relatively safe in established shipbuilding centres, and from air or sea attack. There was flat was seen as more open to innovation. land for development, beside deep Though the town lacked a sizeable water, and the railway could connect the workforce, the company expected this site directly with the iron and steel to be resolved through Government works at Newport. conscription. The Weekly Argus, 1 July 1916 Looking towards the railway bridge - the Meads before the shipyard was developed. The Standard Shipbuilding Company Workers had to be brought in from bought Finch’s yard at a cost of outside. Experienced men from £300,000, and with it acquired a further Tyneside, Teesside and Clydeside came 45 acres in the Meads – the open area of to the area, and free railway passes fields downstream of the railway line. were provided for those coming daily There, they were to develop a new from Newport, Cardiff, and elsewhere. shipyard for building prefabricated Within weeks, virtually all “standard” ships, of a larger size than accommodation in Chepstow had been could be built at Finch’s yard. requisitioned. The old bobbin factory The Company acquired rights to the on Lower Church Street was converted foreshore, and settled the interests of into accommodation, and informally local salmon fishermen. Public footpaths renamed the “Bob Inn”. through the Meads were closed, and the Local landowners, businesses and southern stretch of the medieval Port farmers claimed that they could not Wall was demolished, together with compete with the wages offered by the several cottages and the old Mill House. yards, and questions were asked in The contractors - Topham, Jones and Parliament over the influx of population. Railton - laid railway tracks into the area, At the same time, the need for more and started work on eight new slipways men to enlist to fight in the war itself where ships of up to 3000 tons, would was growing. be assembled. In May 1916, one report said that The shipyard aimed to provide good “Chepstow will have no rival as a large quality, comfortable and affordable shipbuilding centre”. Another said that: houses, in a planned landscape with “This great venture will prove that no ample open space - along the lines of other country can build ships as well and the then-popular Garden City as cheaply as Great Britain”. movement. The architects were the London practice of Dunn, Watson & But The Times was more pessimistic. It Curtis Green. reported in September 1916 that: “A dearth of labour is delaying the The plan was for a central spine road – Standard Shipbuilding Company’s Hardwick Avenue – from which side scheme at Chepstow. Just under 200 streets extended, following the contours men are employed, but a number have of the site. Three of the roads came to left because they could not obtain be named after partners in the Standard house-room in Chepstow, a little old- shipyard – Green, Hughes, and Caird. fashioned town of under 4,000 The estate was directly linked to the inhabitants… Little progress has been shipyard by a passageway under the made with the garden village scheme, railway line. Three open spaces were and a considerable time is likely to proposed – a village green with trees, a elapse before any new homes will be tennis and bowls area, and a recreation ready…” ground. For the first time, the Finch’s yard began employing women workers. In Houses were designed for different December, the Weekly Argus reported classes of workmen – labourers, skilled that, “the firm having used every tradesmen, foremen, and clerical staff. possible effort to obtain men… [they] It was intended that there would be no had no alternative but to resort to standard designs. Each house was females, a number of whom are now planned to suit its site and prospect, engaged at their shipyard…”. although standardised doors, windows, stairs and chimneys were fitted. The The Company planned to provide houses houses would later be described as for its workers, on 150 acres of land being in the “Arts and Crafts” style of sloping down towards the railway line, the period. below Hardwick House. The land had been used until then as allotments and The estate pioneered the use of orchards. concrete blocks in house building. The blocks were made on the site, many by particular position, while the prospect prisoners of war. and aspect has been carefully studied in each case. An architect’s textbook at the time called the Hardwick Garden City houses: The difficulty of getting bricks and the presence of good material for concrete “… an excellent example of successful led to the adoption of concrete blocks design in concrete.