Cefn Golau Cholera Cemetery
| Cefn Golau Cholera Cemetery | |
|---|---|
 The cemetery today | |
| Location | Wales |
| Coordinates | 51°46′N 3°16′W / 51.76°N 3.26°W |
| OS grid reference | SO1308 |
  Location in Wales | |
Cefn Golau Cholera Cemetery is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It is situated on a narrow mountain ridge in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent between Rhymney and Tredegar in South East Wales.
The Welsh name 'Cefn Golau' means 'hill of light'. 'Cefn Golau' is also the name of four nearby places. Two of them are cemeteries: a modern one. which is maintained by the local authority, Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council, and its disused predecessor, the original cemetery of Tredegar. The other two places are a suburb of Tredegar and a nearby feeder reservoir (or pond).
The graves in the cemetery date from the three outbreaks of cholera, to be precise 'Asiatic cholera', which occurred in Wales: 1832-33, 1849-50 and 1866.[1] It is the only surviving cholera cemetery in South Wales[2] and one of the few remaining remaining in Britain[3].
History
[edit]1832-33
[edit]The 1832-33 cholera epidemic was the first one which occurred in Tredegar. The disease arrived in Newport in the June of 1832 and in the following month in Swansea from the 'Mary Ann'[4], a ship that had previously sailed from Calcutta where an outbreak of 'cholera morbus' had occurred[5].
Local historian W.J. Probert documented that the first person who died in the town was Wm. Thomas, a wheelwright and a native of Swansea, who died on the 20th of October 1832.[6] Thirty-five local residents, nineteen males and seventeen females, died in quick succession from the 10th of November to the 19th of January of the following year.[7] However, this was not the final toll. Probert also documented that other victims were 'taken away by night to be buried by their friends'.[8]
Victims of cholera were buried in specially designated burial grounds in remote locations. Local historian Oliver Jones documented that the local authorities ‘closed the chapel graveyards and opened a special cemetery on Cefn Golau in an effort to bury the bodies as far away as possible.’[9]
1849-50
[edit]The 1849-50 epidemic was the second one and was much serious than its predecessor. The disease had already struck neighbouring Rhymney in the July and Nantyglo in the August of 1849 before it reached the town. There are two estimates about the number of deaths which occurred. According to famous physician Charles Creighton (1894), one hundred and fifty-seven deaths occurred during May 1849[10], while according to Jones (1958) two hundred and three deaths occurred.
As the number of victims increased, scarcely a street in the town remained unaffected. The doctors searched for remedies without success, people left their homes and fled into the countryside while others stayed indoors. Many sought help from their religion and the chapels were packed, but the death toll still mounted. People could appear to be fit in the morning and then be dead by evening. The disease caused so much fear that few people were willing to help bury the victims. With the arrival of colder and wetter weather in the autumn, the number of new infections gradually dwindled.[11]
1866
[edit]In contrast to the previous two epidemics, the 1866 epidemic originated in the Middle East.[12] A doubtful case of the disease occurred in late May in Swansea, which prompted the Merthyr Telegraph to ask, ‘Is the Cholera Coming?’. Its question was answered later in the summer when, as Jones (1958) documented, ‘the disease again made havoc in the industrial districts of South Wales.’ The number of deaths from the disease cannot be specified. The closest estimate is that for the Bedwellty Registrar District for the year which states the number deaths of 122. One gravestone in the cemetery is dated '1866'.[13]
The headstones
[edit]The burial ground on its remote windswept site was abandoned a long time ago. However, a few gravestones still stand in the sheep-nibbled turf. Some headstones in the cemetery date from 1832. They are small, with boldly cut scripts and elegant floral designs. In contrast the headstones from the 1849 outbreak are much larger and more numerous, with most of the deaths dating from the months of August and September when the epidemic was at its peak. There is one stone from the 1866 outbreak.
Jones (1969) documented that the headstones 'describe the victims of the 1832 and 1848 epidemics as "natives of the Tredegar Iron Works".[14] An example is the first headstone to be erected in the cemetery, of William Thomas, see above, which reads:
One headstone is a memorial to Thomas James, who died on 18 August 1849, aged 24 years. The inscription on it reads:
To try for cure was all in vain, But God knew what to me was best,
Did ease my pain and give me rest.[15]Some of the inscriptions on the gravestones are in English, others in Welsh and some are in a mixture of the two languages.[11]
The aftermath
[edit]Jones (1988) observed that the Bedwellty Board of Guardians was appointed in 1849 'with responsibility for administering medical relief' and that the 'Tredegar Company drew the attention of the Guardians to the filthy state of the town and suggested that an Inspector of Nuisances [a forerunner of an Environmental health officer] be appointed.'[16] In 1866 an area health board was established partly because of a government order and because another outbreak of cholera was feared. Also, in an early undertaking of public health, the Bedwellty Guardians co-opted three doctors to undertake house-to-house inspections and the local police superintendent was appointed as the part-time Inspectors of Nuisances with the power to prosecute householders who failed to dispose suitably their refuse.
In 1874, these public health undertakings were followed by the creation of the Health and Education Fund by the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company, one of the several local health schemes some of which combined to form the Tredegar Medical Aid Society.
References
[edit]- ^ Jones, G. Penrhyn (1958). "Cholera in Wales". National Library of Wales Journal. 10 (3): 281-300. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
- ^ Hayman, Richard; Horton, Wendy (2013). West Monmouthshire and adjacent uplands An Archaeological Survey (PDF). Aberystwyth: RCAHM Wales. p. 16. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
- ^ Keen, Richard (1995). "The archaeology of industrial Wales". Industrial Archaeology Review. 18 (1): 63-82.
- ^ Jones, 1958.
- ^ "Asiatic Intelligence Calcutta". The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australia. VII (4): 553. 1819. Retrieved 20 April 2025.
- ^ Probert, W.J. (1991). "Cholera at Tredegar 1832-33". Gwent Family History Society Journal. 27: 16-17.
- ^ Probert wrote that he had obtained the information from an entry in the Bedwellty parish burial register which was headed 'Register of persons who died of cholera and were buried near Tredegar Iron Works in this parish'.
- ^ Probert stated under this information: 'Received this account from Joseph Thom. (sic), grave digger in 1835. Thos Ellis (sic) This was copied from Thos. Ellis account by me: W. Morgan, P. Clerk, in March 1841'.
- ^ Jones, Oliver (1969). The early days of Sirhowy and Tredegar. Tredegar: Tredegar Historical Society. p. 71.
- ^ Creighton, Charles (1894). A History of Epidemics in Britain Volume II From the extinction of plague to the present time. Cambridge: The University Press. p. 845.
- ^ a b "Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council: Cefn Golau Cholera Cemetery". Archived from the original on 13 November 2010. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
- ^ This and the following information about the epidemic is from Jones (1958).
- ^ Tredegar Ironworks Cholera Cemetery;Cefn Golau Cholera Cemetery Accessed 28 April 2025.
- ^ Jones, op. cit.: 41. Jones commented that that the town did not have or was not allowed 'to have an identity apart from the industry that sustained it.'
- ^ Keen, Richard; Burgum, Ian (1997). Wales. Orion Publishing Company. p. 151.
- ^ Jones, Gareth (1988). The Aneurin Bevan Inheritance The story of the Nevill Hall and District NHS Trust. Abertillery, Gwent: Old Bakehouse Publications. p. 10. ISBN 1 874538 17 4.