Dyffryn St Cellars

[dpc4909]

Hi, I'm new to the forum, but have already been fascinated by the information already posted.

I have been researching my family tree, and my Mothers family lead me back to Ferndale in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

My first question for you folks is that in the 1911 census the family (Daniel & Julia O'Grady plus four children) state they live at 107 Dyffryn Street Cellars. Is this the same as the house on Dyffryn Street today, or is the Cellars significant? I don't suppose there was much money in the family as father and eldest son (my Grandfather) are listed as Hewers. My Grandfather moved to England in the 20's but died from Emphysema before I knew him. I think some of the family did remain in the area, but am still tracking down where they ended up.

Cheers, Dave

[mochyn]

I've no specific knowledge of that address but I've seen other similar descriptions on censuses in the area, such as "Under ..." and "Beneath ..." followed by the particular street address. The population was pretty tightly packed in the valleys and some houses had several families in. So I think this perhaps just means they were in the cellars of what was, and perhaps still is, 107 Dyffryn Street. What is currently 107 Dyffryn Street is on the lower side of the road so may well have cellars. Some of the nearby houses certainly do.

I suppose you'd need to allow for street numbers having been changed over the years, it does happen. If so, you might find that resident directories from various years (often to be found in local libraries) can help you infer which house is which from one directory to the next, by noting the pattern of family names in which, hopefully, some remain fixed across the period when the street numbering changed.

All that said, some of the other forum members have far better local knowledge than I do so you may well get an answer that is based on real knowledge rather than assumption.

Alan

[bobtanner16]

name bur no. age plot year
O'GRADY ANNIE 3135 4 F2 1900
O'GRADY EDITH MARY 5091 7 Months F25 1908
O'GRADY MARGARET 11532 26 A 37 1942
O'GRADY DANIEL 12336 84 D3 1948
O'GRADY julia 12181 73 d3 1947
there are 5 o,grady names in ferndale cemetery up too 1963

the cellars you are talking about are in duffryn st ferndale
one side of the street have 2 story,s the other side has 3 due to the backs of these
houses dropping away so they built cellars up to ground floor level then 2 more above

bob

[dpc4909]

Many thanks Bob. I knew the last two were buried there, they are my Great Grandparents. I didn't know about the others though - Margaret was Daniels brothers wife (I believe), and the other two girls were sisters who died young.

I also understand that Daniel Kellerher is buried in D3, he is the father of Julia O'Grady. If you have access, and it isn't too much bother, are there any other Kellerhers in the cemetery?

I have been told by my Aunt that she recalls the Kellerher family ran a fish and chip shop on e opposite side and just down from 107 Dyffryn. No idea of names though. My Aunt also believes they lived at 106, which matches the information on the internment records, so looks like e family stuck together.

Thanks again for your help.

[GaryLockyer]

Using Google Maps you can locate 107 Duffryn Street, 5 doors south of the Ferndale Hotel.
It has a white front door. If you scan the houses on either side you will notice that the northern house has one grating outside and the southern house has two gratings in the pavement at the wall.
These gratings were to allow light down into the cellars.
Go along New Street and up the dead-end Rosser St - which is the road opposite Ayron Street and you will be able to have a view of the rear of Duffryn Street. There are lanes which run in both directions off Rosser Street and they were used as entrances into the cellars. Some of the houses were intact - i.e. they owned all 3 storeys. These had very narrow stairways inside the house leading down to them, I would guess-timate that they would only have been about 30 inches wide. A tight fit for one person and no chance of meeting and crossing with someone on the stairs.
I have been in both styles of these houses and it was a very eerie feeling when the only light that you could see was being filtered down from above through those tiny gratings.
The accommodation in them was also very tiny. Consider having to cook on an oldfashioned fire hob -no cookers in those days, and everyone seemed to live in that one room. There were usually two other rooms in them as well, but they were generally bedrooms.
(Just think of the family with 4 kids living down there).
They had outside toilets and hot water was boiled in kettles on the hob.
Washing day - which used to be a Monday in Ferndale, was conducted outside in an old tin bath or similar.
Every Monday all of the clotheslines would be a-flutter with sparkling whites and from a distance appeared to be a mass of bunting waving in the breeze. Pity the days when it rained and all of the washing was dried indoors on clothes horses ar even those pull-up hoists which lifted to the ceilings.
Another street that had cellars was Darren Terrace, however they had 'proper' entrances with steps going down to them and a small yard at the front, so they were a lot lighter inside.
You can also view these on the Google maps and see the entries and steps, plus if you go in Rhondda Terrace and look up to Darren you can view the 3 storey set-ups.
These are my recollections of the cellars.
Gary

[dpc4909]

Many thanks for the insight Gary. I can see the grids on street view, and get a better picture of things now. All looks pretty basic stuff, which I'm sure wasn't uncommon back then. Apart from the four children Daniel and Julia had, I do know of three other children who didn't survive, again not an uncommon story I assume.

Daniel and Julia are shown as living at 106 at the time of their deaths in 1948 and 1947 respectively. My aunt says Julia died after being struck by a bus (20 Apr 1947). My cousin did try and dig out any news articles on this from back then, but none were found.

[brianblaenboy]

Further to the information already given, people occupying cellars was definitely a norm in those far off days. In Blaenllechau, I recall some-one living in the cellar or basement to use the posh word, and that was before our family moved to North Road where we had a tenant in the basement and that was in 1959. These days, I'm told that a lot of the houses with basements in North Road have been converted into two seperate dwellings.
The word "under" is on the census for my family before 1900 and to this date, I've not found out where Under Hill cottages were.

[GaryLockyer]

Out of interest I entered the basic details -Kellerher Ferndale Wales - into google.
There are quite a few results in there. The one that piqued my interest was in the findagrave.com result. On opening it and drilling down to Kellerher and then Daniel O'Grady there is notation that I have copied and pasted :-
Created by: Monica Porter
Record added: Jun 10, 2012
Find A Grave Memorial# 91666546
The Monica Porter name is underlined and has a link. She set this up in June 2012 and is interested in getting in touch with any other relatives. This is the link.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cg ... d=47847059
Good luck.
Gary

[dpc4909]

Thanks Gary, this is my cousin Monica who I mentioned earlier - would have been interesting if it was a new name.

[bobtanner16]

only daniel is in the cemetery up to 1963
good luck bob