( Photo 1 ) . Derwen road, approx 1900.
THE GOOD OLD DAYS.
A year in the life of Bridgend town.
BRIDGEND 1891
It was a time:- when holidays were so rare to have, it became news that anyone being able to afford one was printed in the newspaper and striking workers demand 8 old pennies an hour in pay, In today’s money, this is worth approximately £2.73 today.
18th December 1891
ACCIDENT.—
Whilst a trap belonging to Mr. D. Williams, grocer, was being driven down Park-street the horse suddenly fell forward, and the driver was pitched out. It was dark at the time, and on looking around it was found that a manhole recently dug by the Local Board men had been left unprotected. No doubt it will prove the subject of litigation, and our readers will be apprised of it in due time.
25th September 1891
BRIDGEND.
MR. A. J. WILLIAMS, M.P., and his family have gone off on a driving tour in North Wales.
7th August 1891
BRIDGEND.
A DARING THEFT.—
On Saturday night last about eleven o'clock, some persons stole a cigar show case, containing a large number of cigars, to the value of £3 from a shop in town. It is sincerely to be hoped that the miscreants will be speedily apprehended, and justly punished.
19th December 1891
BRIDGEND.
The gale raged on Sunday with much violence in this district and rain fell in deluging showers, flooding the Ogmore river. There is no serious damage reported, but the storm has been of such an alarming kind that people have kept indoors, and messages from outlying parts have not yet come to hand. A tall chimney was blown down in Coity-road, and crashed through the roof of a dwelling-house. The inmates fortunately escaped.
14th August 1891
THE CARPENTERS' STRIKE.—
We understand that the employees of the different local firms resumed work last Monday, after a fortnight's cessation of work. The men asked for 8d. per hour, but a concession on both sides has been made, with the result that the men go back to work with an advance of one halfpenny per hour.
A halfpenny in 1891 was worth approximately £0,19
9th October 1891
BRIDGEND. ACCIDENT.—
On Sunday evening last, whilst Mr. Arthur Jenkins and his sisters (children of the late Mr. Edward Jenkins, surveyor) were taking a drive along the road to Southerndown the pony suddenly took flight at a bicycle a short distance ahead. The animal, turning up the bank. upset the occupants of the trap and bolted. All of the occupants were more or less injured, a little child with them being unconscious for some time, but it is now progressing very favourably. The cyclist pursued the runaway horse, and succeeded in capturing it.
13th November 1891
THE STORM.—
A severe storm, accompanied by heavy rain, raged over the town on Wednesday last. Slates were blown down in several parts of the town. A chimney over Mr. Bird's premises, in Caroline-street, was blown down, and a young man passing at the time narrowly escaped injury from the failing stones, his hat being knocked off by one of them,
11th December 1891
SICKNESS.—
Cut of the population of 5,000 that Bridgend boasts of, there are hundreds down with sickness, influenza, of course, having the credit for most of it.
28th April 1891
BRIDGEND.
The result of the recent census in that portion of the Bridgend district which comprises Coity Lower and Newcastle Lower, and is generally returned as Bridgend—is as follows :
Coity Lower, 3,655;
Newcastle Lower, 1,236;
total, 4,891.
The census of 1881 gave a total population of these two parishes as 4,153; the increase thus being 738 over a ten year period.
14th January 1891
BRIDGEND.
DEATH FROM EXPOSURE.-
On Tuesday morning an inquest was held at the police-station, Bridgend, touching the death of Timothy Breen, a labourer, who was found in a frozen condition on a field in the suburbs of Bridgend. It is supposed that the body had lain there for a week before discovery. The jury, by direction of the Coroner, Mr E. B. Reece, returned a verdict of "Died from exposure."
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