C. D. Phillips
Charles David Phillips, 1845 - 1912
A Consultant employed for a fee of £21 on the recommendation of Frederick P. Robjent to assess the situation at Boston Lodge authorised at a meeting of the FR Board in November 1908. The report was received on 10th March 1909.[1] The report has not survived.
This appears to be Charles David Phillips who was born at Newport, Mon., on 26th December 1845.
After having been educated at Long Ashton and Normal College (almost certainly The Normal College for Wales at Swansea), he served his apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer, and made a rapid advancement so that he soon became proprietor of an engineering establishment. He ultimately took extensive premises at Newport, known as the Emlyn and Central Engineering Works, together with works at Gloucester, and subsequently added branches in London and Cardiff. Newport Works carried out repairs of all kinds to locomotives, engines, boilers, etc., and manufactured hauling engines, saw-benches, mortar mills, foundry core ovens, etc. He died in Newport on 21st October 1912.[2]
Since his childhood years were long before the Severn Tunnel we can guess that he travelled as a boy to Long Ashton from Newport by ship and that the establishment was a boarding school or tuition with accommodation. He later lived at Gaer House on the Western side of Newport. It stood in splendid isolation at the top of a long muddy track which led steeoply down to the Cardiff Road.[3] It had previously belonged to the Newport coal baron Thomas Powell who at one point owned sixteen coal pits. Phillips was one of the first in Monmouth and South Wales to own a car and he was also one of the best known men of Monmouthshire and South Wales. There was a large monkey puzzle tree in the garden to show the owner's status and also a farm - now a pub. He was a serious farmer and held office in agricultural show societies including the Bath & West. Gaer house is long demolished to make way for Lansdowne Road. New houses were built on much of the land after WW2.
The works were near the centre of Newport and gave their name to Emlyn Street and nearby Emlyn Walk in the Kingsway Centre. Emlyn Street is now a mix of housing and small quite modern commercial premises.[4]
References[edit]
- ^ Johnson, Peter (2017). Festiniog Railway: The Spooner Era and After 1830 - 1920. Barnsley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1-47382-728-8. OCLC 1003267038. p157
- ^ Graces Guide to British Industrial History accessed 27/12/2017: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Charles_David_Phillips
- ^ South Wales Argus (2022) on-line page dated 19/6/2022 accessed on 11/12/24.
- ^ Stallard P (2024) Personal communication in email dated 5/12/2024