Notable Buildings
WORKHOUSE / HOSPITAL
The workhouse was built about 1850, extended in the early 20th century and demolished
in 1999. During this time it saw a lot of poverty and illness and was, in fact, converted
to a hospital. When the workhouse closed the children ‘in residence’ were moved to
a new building on Gorad road. This building, Bron Heulog, which can be seen today,
has been converted into several homes.
The hospital after a while became the home
of very elderly and sick people, some of whom reached the ripe old age of 100 years.
The hospital duties were transferred to the new Penrhos Hospital at Holyhead in 1998
and the land where the hospital stood was sold an
d the old building totally demolished.
The landowner, Watkin Jones, built houses which are now completed.
The hospital building
was opened in March 1870 as the Holyhead Union Workhouse, following the introduction
and passing of the Poor Law Amendment act of 1834 and a very critical report written
by the Poor Law Inspector, Mr Andrew Doyle, in 1867. The workhouse cost about L3000
to build and was designed by a Mr Thomas of Meani Bridge. The builders were not very
good as there were several defects to be rectified in the first year, the biggest
of which was a leaking roof. The workhouse had separate rooms for men, women and
vagrants, a hospital room and a mortuary.
The first Master and Matron being a Mr and
Mrs Foulkes of Holyhead, receiving salaries of L40. 10s 0d per annum plus ‘lodgings
and rations’ Also employed at the workhouse was a ported, a medical officer, a schoolmaster
and a nurse. The ‘discharge’ book for the first year shows that the majority of the
‘inmates’ were:
Women, (either deserted or unmarried) and their children: 44.5%
Abandoned children:
18.3%
Single women:
fffffffffff ff12.8%
Single able-
Old and infirm:
2 married men applied for help.
Where the trade men was recorded the majority were labourers; 4 sailors and 3 shoe makers, whereas the women tended to be 3 washerwomen; 2 charwomen; 1 servant and 1 dressmaker.
Poor people tried their utmost to stay clear of the workhouse as those
in residence were classed as outcasts, even though there was good food and the rooms
and beds were clean. All the residents were treated the same whether they were old,
sick or able bodied. The able bodied were given no special privileges and the men
worked in the gardens, providing as much fruit and vegetables as could be grown for
the workhouse to cut costs. In wet whether they would pick oakum. The women would
sew and repair garments and clean the rooms. Vagrants who were taken in were always
classed as ‘filthy and in rags’ and were always bathed and given workhouse clothing.
They had to work at least one hour before they received any food.
The children did
not fare too well either. Their life was a misery especially when compared with other
‘free’ children at the time, and this must have seemed even worse for those children
who were forced to enter the workhouse with their parent(s). A school teacher was
eventually appointed for their education.
Life in the workhouse was very hard and
as such there were many who absconded where they could. If they were caught they
would be punished by being put on a diet of bread and water. If they had refused
to carry out some duty then they might even end up in Beaumaris goal for a few days,
or even sent to the asylum in Denbigh.
As stated there was a ward for the sick at
the workhouse. Facilities for them were eventually extended to cover the whole building
and this came about the Valley Hospital. The hospital initially used all the buildings
on the site, but this reduced with time to basically the external wards and the rest
of the house. The main building eventually became rundown and the cost of repair
was high, so the number of rooms used dwindled. A slight reprieve happened in the
mid to late seventies when more than just a few ground floor rooms stated to be used.
An out-
The first formal school in Valley was where the present Fire shop. The school consisted
of three rooms: two for teaching and the other was the headmaster’s room-
As the population of the village grew, the school
became too small and eventually, in 1938 a new school was built on the ‘Pont Spencer’
road. At the time this was a very modern school with cloakrooms for the children;
a headmaster’s office; three large classrooms and cooking facilities. Two of these
rooms could be joined together by slinging back a large petition wall. The school
was heated using a coal boiler in the basement to produce hot water.
In the late
1960’s the school numbers were still growing and an additional classroom had to be
provided ( a very warm port cabin) at the northern end of the school. This was meant
to be a short term measure but, in the year 2000, its still there, even after the
school was extended in 1978 and a big hall, classroom and new cooking facilities
being built. At the same time the outdoor toilets were demolished and the facilities
provided indoors.
In 1978 the school became a Community School. The school had been
extended to cater for the increasing number of pupils
School population figures for
the 70’s and early part of the 80’s were as follows:
1975 – 214 1978 – 285 1981 – 269
1976 – 266
1979 -
1977 – 292 1980 – 281
1983 – 260
Whereas the figures for the school population for the turn of the century years were
:
1999 – 172
2000 – 160
The reducing numbers were attributed to the political situation, where the government of the time passed an Act of Parliament allowing for Grant Maintained Schools. The Caergeiliog school became such a school and probably doubled its numbers in a few years. Caergeiliog school has within its catchments the village of Caergeiliog itself and also RAF Valley and the small hamlets in between.
POLICE COURT
The fine building could be found on the Trearddur Bay Road adjacent to
the present antiques shop, which used to be Liam Magee’s butchers shop. The building
was built in 1904 of very smart red brick. It comprised if the main court room with
its highly polished wood benches, dock, magistrates top bench and waiting area, a
reception, goods store, a smaller room with a table and cages and beyond that another
room full of tables. This latter room had a door that went to the magistrate’s changing
room.
Beneath this court, to the rear, was a cellar where the boiler was located for
the heating. Initially this was by coal but changed in the mid 60’s to gas. To the
front of the court were two small grassed areas, which had to be cut regularly by
Mr. Shorney.
Typical sentences of the mid 19th Century as recorded at the archives in Llangefni, Anglesey were:
Offence Fine or Sentence
(hard labour at Beaumaris Goal)
Drunk
2s 6d + 8s costs or 7 days
Stealing a Shawl 6 weeks
Stealing
a purse 3 Months
Assault & Wife battering
5s 0d+12s 6d or 7 days
Driving a cart dangerously 2s 6d + 11s
6d
on a public highway
Assault on a Police officer L10 + L3 14s
or 4 months
The original police station in Valley stood near the railway station
at the house now called Catrefle. Later, the authorities built the present police
station near the Valley Hospital or Home & Farm Supplies premises. The original station
even had a cell on the premises. The new station does not
The police court took on
a very different role in late March 1969. It took on the role of an incident room
when the murder took place in the village of Sarah Ann Hughes by a local lad of fourteen
and a half years of age. It was extremely unfortunate that the lad went on to murder
again in 1985 in the Cumbrian village of Ambleside. At the time people were extremely
anxious, especially the older generation, and probably rightly so but when the lad’s
name was discovered, the atmosphere chance to one of ‘I don’t believe it’
BUILDINGS IN GENERAL
Other changes to buildings occur when they are left to stand uncared for like the
Beecroft, on Station Road. Some houses have been demolished (station houses-
Another building that was being
pulled down was the Shell garage on the square. This was a large garage, its outer
shell covered in glass panels, that sold cars as well as fuel and was also a car
repair centre. Alongside the garage was a strip of land where all the damaged cars
were kept ready for police inspection and eventual scrapping. On the site of this
now stand another known as Derwyn Garage.
During the second world war there were
‘land army’ billets at the present location of the Tan Y Bryn Estate. The billets
were converted to bungalows after the war and these were eventually pulled to make
room for the council estate in the late 50’s and very early 60’s.
TRANSPORT THROUGH THE VILLAGE
Valley was very lucky in that it managed to prosper in the shadow of Holyhead. As
Holyhead is on an island, that main route to the Holy Isle was through Valley, no
matter which was you travelled, and this is the same today as it has been for the
last century.
The town of Holyhead was like other large towns, a focal point for trade
but with a difference that it became very important port with a costal and export
trade. Valley has a large weekly livestock market at present for Anglesey farmers
but, at one time, it was also for the large incoming and outgoing cattle and sheep
trade for the ferried taking them to and from Ireland. At places like Valley the
market helped tremendously in bringing other businesses to the village, e.g. shopkeepers,
fishmongers, butchers etc
ROADS
Roads in Valley are now the responsibility of the Councils, but as has already
been said this was not always the case. Roads in the village have changed and their
number has alsoe increased with its growth. The original roads runs from Llanynghenedl
to Valley through Gorad and the road from Four-
The Gorad road, however, has really changed.
It is twice as wide as when originally built. It serves many hundred of people each
day from the new expanse of housing, but beyond the housing estates the road narrows
to a singe lane again with no street lighting. To the vigilant driver or walker,
there can be seen two yellow concrete markers near the summit of the road, near Penrhodyn,
and these marks the point were two sets of three cables cross the road on their way
to Aluminium smelter at Penrhos, Holyhead. These cables carry electricity at 132,000
volts.
