Purple plaque: Irene Steer

During my most recent visit to Cardiff's Roath Park Lake, on 7 January 2016, I took some photos of this purple plaque. 

I'm sure I must have noticed the plaque before but had not paid it any attention. I determined to find out more, both about the plaque itself and the woman it commemorated:

Irene Steer, 1889-1977, Swimmer : Olympic Gold Medallist
Remarkable women in Wales

A quick online search brought up the website, Purple Plaques, which explained that the plaques were dedicated to Welsh women whose achievements deserved more recognition than they had previously received. As the website explains:

There are currently an estimated 250 mainly blue plaques commemorating notable figures in Wales, and only a few of these are female. Purple Plaques aims to address this inequality and give women a prominent place in history.

As you can see from my photographs, Irene Steer's plaque is to recognise her noteworthy sporting achievements, which culminated, at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, in her being the first Welsh woman to win an Olympic gold medal. The Purple Plaques website provides more detail of this incredible event so I thought I'd try, by searching through the digitised editions of old Welsh newspapers, to discover more about the lead up to that gold medal performance. Here's what I found:

Evening Express, 19 October 1907

MISS IRENE STEER

LADY CHAMPION SWIMMER OF WALES.

To Miss Irene Steer, daughter of Mr. George Steer, 32, The Parade, Cardiff, has fallen the honour of bringing to Cardiff for the first time the swimming championship of Wales. This is specially praiseworthy considering the fact that she is but eighteen years of age. Miss Steer, quite early in life, showed a remarkable liking for the water, and at the age of nine she was able to swim. Since then she has made extraordinary progress in the art, and soon outclassed most of the girls who opposed her. Prior to winning the championship Miss Steer had succeeded in winning no less than fifteen prizes. On the occasion of the championship at Swansea on Tuesday evening last, we may point out that she swam the distance of 100 yards in record time for a Welsh lady, doing it in 93sec. and so beating Miss Daisy Chapman, of Swansea, who last year took 106sec. to cover the distance. Miss Steer, who is a most graceful swimmer, has been instructed by Mr. Mark Taylor, of the Cathedral-road Baths.

Just two years later, Irene was making headlines once more, as you can see from this article published in the Evening Express, 29 August 1908:

CHAMPION LADY SWIMMER 

MISS IRENE STEER AND HER ACHIEVEMENTS.

That Miss Irene Steer, of Cardiff, the Welsh champion lady swimmer, has thoroughly earned her title cannot be denied. Her victory twelve months ago over Miss Chapman, of Swansea, who held the championship for five years, came as a big surprise, but no one who attended the Cardiff Swimming Club's gala on Thursday to see Miss Steer defend her title anticipated defeat. Their anticipation proved correct, for after winning her heat in the easiest possible manner, she gained a decisive victory in the final from Miss Fennell, also of Cardiff. Her performance was really remarkable, for her time, 1min. 25 3-5sec., is only about 7sec. outside the world's record for the 100 yards. Miss Steer, whose portrait we reproduce, is eighteen years, and the daughter of Mr. George Steer, draper, The Parade, Cardiff. She learnt to swim at the early age of eight, and under the able tuition of Mr. Mark Taylor, late of the Cardiff Corporation Baths, and now of the Premier Baths, Cathedral-road, she soon showed promise of becoming a fine swimmer. She won numerous minor events, but it was only two years ago that she first thought seriously of competing for the Welsh championship. Up to this period Miss Steer had been content to rely on the graceful breast stroke, but on the advice of her trainer, who was secretly confident that there was a great future in store for his pupil, she changed her stroke to the overarm, with the result that at the first attempt she succeeded in carrying off the coveted championship at the Swansea Baths last year. The chief feature of Miss Steer's swimming is her effective kick. Next Wednesday Miss Steer will compete for the English ladies' championship at the Hackney Baths, London, and lovers of this healthy recreation in South Wales may rest assured that she will put up a good fight to uphold the credit of Wales.

It seems Irene's achievements were not confined to swimming, as she also excelled at the complementary sport of water polo, as noted in the Evening Express, 7 July 1910:

WATER POLO.
WELSH INTERNATIONAL WITH SCOTLAND.
The water-polo match between Scotland and Wales will take place at Newport on 1 September 10.
CARDIFF LADIES' MATCH.
The Cardiff Premier Ladies' Swimming Club defeated the Cardiff Ladies' Club at the swimming baths by four goals to nil, the latter team being quite outclassed. Miss Irene Steer scored the four goals.

 And, later that year, on 20 August 1910, the Weekly Mail newspaper was singing Irene Steer's praises when she won her first British swimming championship, and that in a world record time. The reporter manages to convey the excitement of the event with their report, I think:

WORLD'S RECORD TIME

MISS STEER WINS BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP.

Miss Irene Steer, of the Cardiff Premier Ladies' Swimming Club, accomplished an excellent performance at the Knightstone Baths, Weston-super-Mare, on Monday by winning the 100 Yards Ladies National Championship in record time, defeating the holder, Miss Jennie Fletcher, Leicester, by over 4sec. This was the third time for Miss Steer to contest the event, the two previous occasions seeing her finish second to Miss Fletcher, who had held the title for the past six years. On the present occasion the holder was badly beaten, both in her heat and in the final, Miss Steer winning by a yard in her heat, while quite half-a-dozen yards divided the pair in the final. The time—lmin. 13 3-5sec.— equals the world's record made by Miss Fletcher last year. There was a splendid entry for the event, including Miss Mackay, the Scottish lady champion and 100 yards record holder, Miss Jessie Spiers, Liverpool, and many other district champions, but the four ladies mentioned were confidently expected to enter the final, and this proved to be so, Miss Steer and Miss Fletcher qualifying in the first beat, which the Cardiff lady won by a yard in 77sec., and Miss Spiers winning somewhat easily from Miss Mackay in the second heat, which took 79 1-5sec.

THE FINAL.

The four ladies were accorded a great ovation when they came out for the final. Miss Fletcher had No. 1 station, Miss Steer No. 2, Miss Mackay No. 3, and Miss Spiers the outside. A good start was effected, Miss Steer being the last to enter the water by a fraction of a second. The Cardiff lady, however, soon made headway, and at twenty yards was leading slightly. On the first turn Miss Steer led the holder by a yard, with Miss Spiers third a similar distance away. Making the pace for the second length, Miss Steer, swimming a true crawl stroke, gained considerably on the holder, and led by five yards when they turned for the last stage. The holder, who was using her favourite overarm stroke, made the turn beautifully and reduced the gap by a couple of yards through it, but, settling down again to her "crawl." Miss Steer again forged ahead, winning amid much cheering by about six yards from the holder, with Miss Spier[s] third four yards away. One of the first to congratulate the new champion was Miss Fletcher, who shook hands directly they were out of the water, remarking, "It's your turn now, Miss Steer, and you deserve it for your magnificent swim."

It would be 96 years before another Welsh woman was awarded an Olympic gold medal (Nicole Cook, cycling, 2008), which makes Irene Steer's win all the more amazing. Let's hope the installation of the Purple Plaque at Roath Park Lake will prompt more young women to aspire to such achievements.

Cardiff Bay: dolphins

Dolphin: Naut.; a post or buoy for mooring a vessel (Collins Dictionary).

The Environment Agency, a division of the UK Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs, provides this rather more comprehensive definition as part of its asset management information:

A man-made marine structure that extends above the water level and is not connected to shore. It is usually piled into the river or sea bed. Dolphins may be used as a temporary tethering point, a structure for housing navigation aids or for protecting other structures from ship impacts.

The old timber dolphins dotted around Cardiff Bay, near Mermaid Quay and the entrance to Penarth Marina, serve as a reminder of the days when Cardiff was a very busy port, when ships from all around the world would be moored not only at the quay sides but also to the dolphins, awaiting their allocated slots for unloading and reloading. Some of these dolphins are now in a very dilapidated state, while others continue to carry functional navigation aids for the marine traffic still active within the Bay.

Cardiff Bay: Bowline Knot

Located off Havannah Street, at one of the entrances to Cardiff Bay Wetland Reserve, partially obscured behind the circle of shrubs that surrounds it and officially called Bowline Knot (according to the Cardiff Public Art Register), but also known as the Rope Knot, this 'cast bronze and mild steel' sculpture was created by Andrew Rowe in 2000.

The sculpture models a length of rope tied to a ring that is set into the ground with a bowline knot, the type that was traditionally used to tie ships to the dock at which they had moored. The art register reports that 'this bronze sculpture reflects Cardiff Bay's heritage as one of the worlds [sic] principal coal-exporting ports.'

You can read about Andrew Rowe's career on the Fresh Air website, and learn more about his current work and see examples of his formidable artworks on the website of DAR Design, the company he founded in 1990.

Pargeting: Harriet Street, Cogan

Firstly, in case you're unfamiliar with the term, pargeting (or pargetting) is the name given to the decorative plasterwork you often see on the facades of older houses. I spotted this particular example on a house in the Penarth suburb of Cogan, about a mile or so from where I live, and it has me mystified.
 

The first houses in Cogan were built in the 1860s to house the workers who were constructing and later working at Penarth docks, back in the days when the mining and exporting of coal was the dominant industry in south Wales. They are mostly small two-storey terraced houses that line both sides of Cogan's oldest streets but the house with the pargeting is different from the others (see photograph above; the house is at the right). 

These days the building is used by a variety of community based businesses, and perhaps that was always its function, but it's the medallion at the centre of the pargeting that is most intriguing. (In the street photograph, which dates from 2022, the medallion was painted black but it has since been repainted white.) 

The medallion looks like a coin, the portrait appears to be that of King Edward VII, and the inscription that encircles the bust is the same as that found on coins minted during Edward's reign, between 1901 and 1910. The Latin 'EDWARDUS VII DEI GRA: BRITT: OMN: REX FID: DEF: IND: IMP' translates to 'Edward the Seventh, by the Grace of God, King of all the Britains, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India'. (You can see an example of a well-worn penny from that time on the Windows on Warwickshire website and a pristine example on a page of the Elysees Numismatique website.) 

The use of a coin image in the decorative pargeting makes me wonder if the building once had a financial function, as a bank perhaps, but unfortunately I've been unable to uncover any details of the building's history so, for now, it remains a mystery.

** Updated 20 January 2026

Thanks to a message from local author David Ings, for which I am exceedingly grateful, I now know that this building was originally Cogan's Reading Room. I found the following brief notice in the Barry Dock News of 7 November 1902 about the building's opening:

COGAN NEW PUBLIC READING ROOM.-A new reading-room which has been built in the centre of Cogan by the Penarth Urban District Council, at a cost of £640, was opened to the public on Saturday last. The opening ceremony was performed by Mr S. Thomas, J.P. Mr Thomas gave a review of library work, after which he was presented with a gold key, by the contractor, Mr J. Pickford. Mr Thomas then declared the room open to the public. Subsequently a luncheon was provided at Cogan Schools.

I also found a photograph (on Pinterest, which links to a Tumblr page) showing a number of men, apparently queuing at the 1902 opening. The image appears to have been sourced from the People's Collection Wales website but PCW has a terrible search system and I've failed to find the original. Unfortunately, the photo  doesn't show the entire building so we can't see whether the medallion centrepiece is an original feature but the facade has obviously been altered at some stage as the words 'READING ROOM' can be seen in the photograph.

Cardiff Bay: coal dram

Most people, especially those of Scottish heritage or with strong Scottish connections, would associate the word 'dram' with whisky, the word indicating a measure of that national drink equivalent to one sixteenth of an ounce (though from experience I think most 'wee drams' would be rather more than that). In Wales, the word has an entirely different meaning – it is 'the Welsh term for a tram, a small wheeled truck used for transporting coal and other materials between the coal face and the surface'.

This particular dram is located on the approach to Cardiff Bay's Barrage, the rock, earth and concrete construction that forever closed off the bay from the adjacent Bristol Channel. It sits in a small area of coal-related ephemera, grandly labelled the Age of Coal exhibition, sandwiched between the Cardiff Sailing Centre building and an assemblage of outdoor fitness equipment. 

The information board adjacent to the dram reads as follows:

This coal dram was kindly donated by the Rhondda Heritage Park. ...
The example shown dates from around 1950 and carried one and a half tons of coal. It would also be used to carry pit props (by having the ends cut away) and explosives, when the top would be enclosed with lockable doors.
Drams could be shackled together to form trains or 'journeys' and could be as many as 40 drams in length if the train allowed.
They were pulled on rails by static haulage engines using long steel ropes or by locomotives. Drams were also pulled by colliery horses if operations were not mechanised.

 

Ironwork fence railings, 1

The Victorian-era houses of Penarth have some wonderful architectural details, both on the buildings themselves and on the fences that enclose them. Fortunately, the original makers of some of these adornments were not shy in labelling their products, and the stunning ironwork along the street boundary of this particular house in Victoria Road is clearly marked with the maker's details: W. A. Baker & Co Ltd, Newport, Mon[mouthshire].

According to the Lost Art website, W. A. Baker & Co Ltd was founded, as W. A. Bakers Foundry, in 1880, and the 1881 census confirms that William A. Baker, aged 34 and born in Devon, was 'an Ironmonger & Ironfounder employing 27 Men & Boys in Newport' (Census ref RG11/5261/110/1). The Lost Art site continues: 'Welsh foundries were responsible for producing both elaborate and decorative ironwork as well as the more everyday items that provided the bulk of the employment for iron workers' and, although W. A. Baker operated out of its Westgate Works, 'the company was also linked to an ironmongery shop in the city that sold many of its products, apparently stocking everything from bedsteads to ammunition'. You can see a photograph of the impressive foundry buildings as they were in 1905 on the Newport Past website.

Hungry tree, 10 years on

Back in December 2015, when I'd only been living in Wales a few months, I wrote a post for the daily Nature blog I had recently started (earthstar.blog) called Hungry trees. In that I wrote

I’ve only been in Cardiff a short while, but already I’ve discovered two hungry trees. One is slowly but surely wrapping itself around a post box in my street. And not just any post box – this tree has style. It’s consuming a Grade II-listed Victorian post box that was probably erected around 1900. Not surprisingly, the post box has now been decommissioned.

The post box is Grade II listed due to its age – not that many post boxes have survived from the Victorian era. According to the British Listed Buildings website, residential development occurred in this area of the Cardiff suburb of Roath between 1890 and 1914, with the houses on the south side of Roath Park Pleasure Gardens, where this box is located, being constructed between 1897 and 1907. It is likely that the post box was erected on the street during this time, probably prior to 1901. 

During the last week of 2025, I was in the Roath area and decided to walk past this wonderful old post box to see how it was faring. As you can see from my side-by-side photographs (the images on the left were taken in October 2015, on the right in December 2025), the tree – probably just a sapling when the post box was installed; now over 100 feet tall – has consumed quite a lot more of the post box in the past ten years.

Time goes by

 

Clock tower, Pierhead Building, Cardiff Bay

The tower is known, unofficially, as 'Baby Big Ben' and the 'Big Ben of Wales', and is certainly an impressive culmination to the iconic edifice that is the Grade-I-listed Pierhead Building (more about the building itself in a future blog). Though the face of the tower clock is the original that was installed prior to the building's opening in 1897, the clock mechanism is not. That was replaced with an electronic motor sometime in the 1970s. The original mechanism, after some peregrinations, has recently been restored, and is now housed in a specially constructed glass case in Cardiff's St Mary Street (more on that in a forthcoming post). 

Happy New Year, everyone! For 2026, I've decided to return my focus to the subjects listed in this blog's header, namely 'sprinklings of history, a smidgeon of genealogy, a dash of art, a dusting of architecture', as well as the eccentric fascinations I continue to develop. Short posts like today's, with a single, often black-and-white photograph, will be mixed, when time allows, with longer, more detailed blogs with additional illustrations. Thanks for following along.