Henry Haydn Jones
Encyclopedia
Sir Henry Haydn Jones was a Welsh
Liberal Party
politician.
, Wales
. He was the son of Joseph David Jones
(1827-70), a schoolmaster in the town and a respected Welsh musician and composer. After the early death of his father, Haydn Jones was brought up by uncles at Towyn (now called Tywyn
) where he was educated at the Board School & Academy. In 1903 he married Barbara Annie Gwendolen Davies Jones, daughter of Lewis D. Jones, a Welsh-born Chicago
ironmonger and quarry
owner.
. Jones continued to rise in the political world being elected as the Member of Parliament
(MP) for Merioneth
at the January 1910 general election. He continued to serve in this role until 1945 general election
, and received a knighthood in 1935.
slate quarry, the Abergynolwyn
estate and village and Talyllyn Railway
came up for sale. Aware of the distress which would be caused by permanent closure of the quarry Sir Haydn bought the lot himself in 1911 for £5250, and became the sole owner of what became the Abergynolwyn Slate and Slab Company. In 1935 he extended his quarry ownership, leasing the Aberllefenni Slate Quarry
in the neighbouring Corris
district.
The quarrying and slate business did well until the early 1920s when demand fell and the Bryn Eglwys quarry was only kept open by pillaring the easy to obtain slate rather than by digging out new underground chambers. At times there was a three day week, but the quarry soldiered on until 1941 when Sir Haydn's lease expired. He continued on a yearly lease until 1946 when a roof fall caused by the continued pillaring closed the quarry for good.
built to carry slate from the quarry to Tywyn. After the quarry collapse and closure in 1946, the railway had little reason to continue operating. Haydn Jones declared that the railway would remain open while he remained alive and it continued to run until 1950. After his death his widow reached an arrangement with L. T. C. Rolt
and his associates allowing them to lease the railway, which continues operating to this day.
One of the Talyllyn locomotives, ex-Corris Railway
No.3
, was named Sir Haydn after him in 1951. This was more appropriate than was known at the time, as Sir Haydn's strong support of the Corris Railway during his time as lessee of Aberllefenni Quarry was instrumental in the railway continuing to operate throughout World War Two and the locomotive therefore avoiding the wartime scrap drive.
It is in his role as owner of the Talyllyn Railway that Sir Haydn Jones became a figure known, albeit not by name, to many small children. One of the early railway preservation people who joined Rolt was the Rev. W.V. Awdry
, and in the form of the owner of the Skarloey Railway
, Sir Haydn was immortalised in his books
as Sir Handel Brown. As in real life, loco No.3 on the Skarloey Railway was named after him as Sir Handel
.
, donated by his widow in 1995. Sir Henry Haydn Jones succeeded (barely) in keeping his promise that the railway would outlive him. After the railway was revived by L. T. C. Rolt
and others it prospered and became a major Welsh tourist attraction and flagship to the infant Heritage railway
movement. The Aberllefenni slate quarries are now all closed.
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
politician.
Upbringing
Henry (sometimes known as "Harry") Haydn Jones was born in RuthinRuthin
Ruthin is a community and the county town of Denbighshire in north Wales. Located around a hill in the southern part of the Vale of Clwyd - the older part of the town, the castle and Saint Peter's Square are located on top of the hill, while many newer parts of the town are on the floodplain of...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. He was the son of Joseph David Jones
Joseph David Jones
Joseph David Jones was a Welsh composer and schoolmaster, commonly known as J. D. Jones. He was the father of industrialist Sir Henry Haydn Jones....
(1827-70), a schoolmaster in the town and a respected Welsh musician and composer. After the early death of his father, Haydn Jones was brought up by uncles at Towyn (now called Tywyn
Tywyn
Tywyn is a town and seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay coast of southern Gwynedd , in north Wales. The name derives from the Welsh tywyn and the town is sometimes referred to as Tywyn Meirionnydd...
) where he was educated at the Board School & Academy. In 1903 he married Barbara Annie Gwendolen Davies Jones, daughter of Lewis D. Jones, a Welsh-born Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
ironmonger and quarry
Quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
owner.
Politics
In 1889 Haydn Jones was elected as a member of Merioneth Council, and a year later he was the chair of the council. He was eventually elected an AldermanAlderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
. Jones continued to rise in the political world being elected as the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for Merioneth
Merioneth (UK Parliament constituency)
Merioneth, sometimes called Merionethshire, was a constituency in North Wales established in 1542, which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the English Parliament, and later to the Parliament of Great Britain and of the United Kingdom...
at the January 1910 general election. He continued to serve in this role until 1945 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...
, and received a knighthood in 1935.
Business
In 1909 the Bryn EglwysBryn Eglwys
Bryn Eglwys was a remote slate quarry located near Abergynolwyn in Gwynedd mid-Wales.- History :The quarry was first worked on a small scale in the early 1840s. In 1864 William McConnel leased the quarry, forming the Aberdovey Slate Company Limited. McConnel planned to increase production at Bryn...
slate quarry, the Abergynolwyn
Abergynolwyn
Abergynolwyn is a village in southern Gwynedd, Wales, located at the confluence of the Nant Gwernol and the Afon Dysynni.Historically, the village was part of Merionethshire and its main industry was slate quarrying and the village was founded in the 1860s to house workers at the nearby Bryn...
estate and village and Talyllyn Railway
Talyllyn Railway
The Talyllyn Railway is a narrow-gauge preserved railway in Wales running for from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast to Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn. The line was opened in 1866 to carry slate from the quarries at Bryn Eglwys to Tywyn, and was the first narrow gauge railway in Britain...
came up for sale. Aware of the distress which would be caused by permanent closure of the quarry Sir Haydn bought the lot himself in 1911 for £5250, and became the sole owner of what became the Abergynolwyn Slate and Slab Company. In 1935 he extended his quarry ownership, leasing the Aberllefenni Slate Quarry
Aberllefenni Slate Quarry
Aberllefenni Slate Quarry is the collective name of three slate quarries, Foel Grochan , Hen Chwarel and Ceunant Ddu, located in Aberllefenni, Gwynedd, North Wales. It was the longest continually operated slate mine in the world until its closure in 2003...
in the neighbouring Corris
Corris
Corris is a village in the south of Snowdonia in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. Although the Snowdonia National Park covers much of the area around Corris, the village is not within the park. The name is possibly derived from the English word "quarries", and the extensive slate quarries that surround...
district.
The quarrying and slate business did well until the early 1920s when demand fell and the Bryn Eglwys quarry was only kept open by pillaring the easy to obtain slate rather than by digging out new underground chambers. At times there was a three day week, but the quarry soldiered on until 1941 when Sir Haydn's lease expired. He continued on a yearly lease until 1946 when a roof fall caused by the continued pillaring closed the quarry for good.
Talyllyn Railway
By buying Bryn Eglwys, Haydn Jones had become effectively owner of the Talyllyn RailwayTalyllyn Railway
The Talyllyn Railway is a narrow-gauge preserved railway in Wales running for from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast to Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn. The line was opened in 1866 to carry slate from the quarries at Bryn Eglwys to Tywyn, and was the first narrow gauge railway in Britain...
built to carry slate from the quarry to Tywyn. After the quarry collapse and closure in 1946, the railway had little reason to continue operating. Haydn Jones declared that the railway would remain open while he remained alive and it continued to run until 1950. After his death his widow reached an arrangement with L. T. C. Rolt
L. T. C. Rolt
Lionel Thomas Caswall Rolt was a prolific English writer and the biographer of major civil engineering figures including Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Thomas Telford...
and his associates allowing them to lease the railway, which continues operating to this day.
One of the Talyllyn locomotives, ex-Corris Railway
Corris Railway
The Corris Railway is a narrow gauge preserved railway based in Corris on the border between Merionethshire and Montgomeryshire in Mid-Wales....
No.3
Sir Haydn (locomotive)
Sir Haydn is a narrow gauge steam locomotive, built by Hughes' Locomotive & Tramway Engine Works Ltd of the Falcon Works, Loughborough in 1878. It operated on the Corris Railway in Wales, until closure in 1948, and since 1951 has operated on the nearby Talyllyn Railway...
, was named Sir Haydn after him in 1951. This was more appropriate than was known at the time, as Sir Haydn's strong support of the Corris Railway during his time as lessee of Aberllefenni Quarry was instrumental in the railway continuing to operate throughout World War Two and the locomotive therefore avoiding the wartime scrap drive.
It is in his role as owner of the Talyllyn Railway that Sir Haydn Jones became a figure known, albeit not by name, to many small children. One of the early railway preservation people who joined Rolt was the Rev. W.V. Awdry
W.V. Awdry
Wilbert Vere Awdry, OBE , was an English clergyman, railway enthusiast and children's author, better known as the Reverend W. Awdry and creator of Thomas the Tank Engine, who starred in Awdry's acclaimed Railway Series.-Life:Awdry was born at Ampfield vicarage near Romsey, Hampshire in 1911...
, and in the form of the owner of the Skarloey Railway
Skarloey Railway
On the fictional Island of Sodor in The Railway Series by Rev. W. Awdry, the Skarloey Railway is a narrow gauge railway which runs from the main line at Crovan's Gate to the passenger terminus at Skarloey. Beyond Skarloey the line continues to a slate quarry.In the stories, the railway is run by...
, Sir Haydn was immortalised in his books
The Railway Series
The Railway Series is a set of story books about a railway system located on the fictional Island of Sodor. There are 42 books in the series, the first being published in 1945. Twenty-six were written by the Rev. W. Awdry, up to 1972. A further 16 were written by his son, Christopher Awdry; 14...
as Sir Handel Brown. As in real life, loco No.3 on the Skarloey Railway was named after him as Sir Handel
Sir Handel
Sir Handel is a fictional steam locomotive from The Railway Series children's books by the Rev. W. Awdry and its spin-off TV series, Thomas and Friends. Sir Handel lives and works on the Skarloey Railway on the Island of Sodor as Engine No.3...
.
Papers and Legacy
The papers of Sir Henry Haydn Jones are archived at the National Library of WalesNational Library of Wales
The National Library of Wales , Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales; one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies.Welsh is its main medium of communication...
, donated by his widow in 1995. Sir Henry Haydn Jones succeeded (barely) in keeping his promise that the railway would outlive him. After the railway was revived by L. T. C. Rolt
L. T. C. Rolt
Lionel Thomas Caswall Rolt was a prolific English writer and the biographer of major civil engineering figures including Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Thomas Telford...
and others it prospered and became a major Welsh tourist attraction and flagship to the infant Heritage railway
Heritage railway
thumb|right|the Historical [[Khyber train safari|Khyber Railway]] goes through the [[Khyber Pass]], [[Pakistan]]A heritage railway , preserved railway , tourist railway , or tourist railroad is a railway that is run as a tourist attraction, in some cases by volunteers, and...
movement. The Aberllefenni slate quarries are now all closed.