Number 10, The Circle, right,
which once housed the offices of
the Tredegar Workmen's Medical Aid Society before repair work
was started in Spring 2005

How the Medical Aid Society started...

BRITAIN'S National Health Service began in 1948 and was brought in by Aneurin Bevan, the Tredegar politician and MP for the Ebbw Vale constituency who became Minister for Health and Housing in 1945. Bevan had an ideal model on which to base his new health service, described as "the most far-reaching piece of social legislation in British history," and that was local community self-help scheme run by the Tredegar Workmen's Medical Aid Society on which he had served as a committee member in the 1920s.

When he created the NHS, Nye Bevan said, "All I am doing is extending to the entire population of Britain the benefits we had in Tredegar for a generation or more. We are going to 'Tredegarise' you" - as quoted by the eminent historian Dr John Davies in the TV series 'Wales: Power and the People', shown on BBC One Wales on February 21st, 2007.

And as Neil Kinnock said, "The mixture of cunning and passion that he (Bevan) had to employ in establishing the NHS is widely recognised. Less attention has been given to the way in which he learned the arts and crafts of providing and managing communal health care in the Tredegar Workmen's Medical Aid Society.

"But, as he testified, the experience of a local working model that embodied all the principles of universal donation during fitness for universal provision during illness was invaluable. It made the rapid establishment of a national system feasible because that task was then more a matter of refinement and enlargement rather than one of raw invention," Lord Kinnock wrote in the foreward of the book 'The Aneurin Bevan Inheritance' by Dr Gareth Jones, published in 1998.

The Tredegar Medical Aid Society which was formed around 1890 was widely regarded as one of the best of its kind. Under this local health service, nearly all of the town's residents were covered by the scheme through subscriptions which entitled members and their dependants to the most comprehensive and the best medical, surgical and dental services in the country, according to need and free at point of care.

Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council has put up a plaque outside No. 10, The Circle, as part of the Aneurin Bevan Heritage Trail, which says:
"These were the offices of a mutual society (1890) formed by miners and ironworkers of the Tredegar Iron and Coal Co. Through modest weekly contributions, they were able to employ doctors, a surgeon and run a hospital. Bevan's political influence locally enabled socialist working-class nominees to gain control".

"Society becomes more wholesome, more serene and spiritually healthier,
if it knows that its citizens have at the back of their consciousness
the knowledge that not only themselves, but all of their fellows,
have access, when ill, to the best that medical skill can provide" - Aneurin Bevan

HEALTH AND EDUCATION: Tredegar's Medical Aid Society, which was formed around 1890, had emerged from the 'Health and Education Fund' established in the town around 1871. This had been set up with representatives of workers and the managements of the Tredegar Iron and Coal Companies (which later combined). The society was one of a number of community health schemes set up during the 19th century especially in the industrialised area like the South Wales valleys initially in an effort to treat victims of work-related accidents and also combat diseases such as typhoid, tuberculosis and cholera (see 'Death and disease in the early days' section below).

Under this scheme, each worker employed in the ironworks and collieries, paid 3d in the pound out of their wages to receive medical care for themselves and their families. Part of the fund financed sick pay at different rates for men, women and boys for a period of 12 months. Other people who were not employed by the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company could subscribe to the society and enjoy the same benefits with the exception of sick pay. This early fund also helped to maintain schools in the area.

MERGER: Around 1890, the company scheme merged with others developed independently by Benevolent Societies in the town and all their funds were combined. The South Wales Miners' Federation had 19 lodges with 5140 members and another large scheme was the Tredegar Workmen's Sick, Accident and Funeral Fund, which had a membership of 3,000 and gave help in times of sickness and also helped to ease the costs of burial.

The new society became known as Tredegar Workmen's Medical Aid and Sick Relief Fund, and eventually had a membership of nearly 5,000. An early office was based in an annexe at the back of the Congregational Church in Castle Street.

The Society is thought to have moved to 10 The Circle around 1911, buying the property a few years later. The main administrative offices were based in the building which is believed to date from around 1880. The building had two dental surgeries and a dental X-ray darkroom which was certainly well established by 1941.

COTTAGE HOSPITAL:
Tredegar General Hospital in Park Row, pcitured right in 2005 was opened in December, 1904. The initiative to provide this hospital came from the Medical Aid Society.

As far back as 1901, the Society had convened a public meeting to discuss the establishment of a hospital and eventually a another committee of more than 30 members was set up to build it and then manage it. Although the Medical Aid Committee and the Hospital Committee were run independently they shared some of the same members.

The Society's doctors attended the hospital's patients. The Medical Aid Committee also donated equipment and gave a grant towards building an extension.

Land for the new Tredegar Park Cottage Hospital, as it was then called, was donated by Lord Tredegar who also gave Bedwellty Park to the townspeople. Funding came from the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company, other local employers and organisations, donations from individuals such as Mr L D Whithead, an ironworks owner, private and public donations and "above all" by the workmen mainly from the pits who agreed to maintain the hospital by having an extra halfpenny a week deducted from their wages (in 1909 it was an additional 1d per week).

To supplement the subscriptions and the running costs, many different fundraising events were held each year. These events formed the town's main social calendar

Bevan was a member of the Cottage Hospital Management Committee around 1928 and was chairman in 1929/30. Tredegar General now has an extension known as the Aneurin Bevan Medical Centre. A portrait of Bevan hangs in the hospital's foyer.

HEALTH CENTRES: In 1906, the Society built a large surgery and a doctor's house at Park Place in the south end of town at a cost of £1,300. By 1910, the Society decided to expand its services on the other side of town by building a new surgery in Church Street. The Society already owned one property in the street and then bought two neighbouring cottages. These three buildings were demolished and a new Central Surgery was built on the site. The Central Surgery was remodelled in 1919 and contained consulting and treatment rooms, a pharmacy, waiting rooms and living quarters for the doctors and their families.

Throughout the Depression the Society increased its services. The Palace Cinema in Park Place was converted into a surgery with consulting rooms for three doctors, a treatment room, pharmacy and waiting rooms.

After 1948 Monmouthshire County Council took over the buildings and the two surgeries were eventually sold. The Park Place surgery and former cinema has now been turned into a snooker hall while the Central Surgery is now the Christina Louise Nursing Home. The building is now listed at Grade II. The council kept Number 10 The Circle and a variety of departments such as the careers service were based there (see below).

The former Central Surgery,
left, in Church Street
which has now been
turned into a
private nursing home.
It is now a Grade II
listed building.

 

 

SUCCESSFUL: The Society was long regarded as being the most successful of its kind. Records show a visit by Sir AB Markham and an MP, T. Richards, in June 1911 about an Invalidity Bill. "It was conceded at that meeting that the Tredegar Workmen's Medical Aid and Sick Relief Fund was far in advance and more beneficial in respect to its members than any of the other societies."

FRIENDLY SOCIETY: After the introduction of this 1911 Bill, the Society had to phase out sick pay - two shillings a week for 12 months - and registered in January 1913 as a Friendly Society. It then became the Tredegar Workmen's Medical Aid Society and was able to claim a capitation grant from the Government to cover the medical costs of each their working members who were paying National Insurance.

CHIEF DOCTOR: In 1911 too, after a ballot of all the subscribers, the Society appointed Dr E. T. H. Davies, one of the most highly qualified doctors practising in Wales, as the Chief Medical Officer and also the Medical Superintendent of the Cottage Hospital. He recorded 2,584 votes in the final round against his opponent's tally of 1,804.

As the chief medical officer, Dr Edwin Davies was also allowed to conduct a private practice. He finally retired from the post in 1949 after a long and illustrious career. Dr Gareth Jones in his book The Aneurin Bevan Inheritance, describes Dr Davies as a driving force in the Society "urging it constantly to provide better and better services for the Society's members while at the same time being renowned for his parsimony and reluctance to spend money."

The former surgery
at Park Place, left,
which is now
a snooker hall

 

 

 

SPECIALIST TEAMS: Between 1915 and 1948, the Society employed a team of five doctors, two dentists, two dental mechanics, three dispensers and their assistants and a nurse. The services of chiropodists, masseurs and others were available to members and the Society paid for the services of specialists when required. There was said to be an emphasis too on educating people about health matters.

Members, their dependants (plus retired members and widows) also received free spectacles, drugs, and any appliances they might have needed. If a referral was needed, they could receive free treatment, said to be within days, at hospitals outside the Tredegar area, which included London, Bath, Cardiff, Newport and Birmingham. Fares for buses or trains were paid for or transport provided. Members and their dependants even qualified for convalescent or spa treatments at Droitwich, Buxton or Porthcawl - they were entitled to three weeks a year. If members were taken ill while on holiday, the doctor's bill was paid by the Society.

QUERY CLUB: In its early days, Tredegar was a company town and the Tredegar Iron and Coal Company had its men in key positions on many committees including the Medical Aid Society - until the Query Club (see Aneurin Bevan page and Walter Conway section below) lessened their power.

But as Michael Foot says in the first volume of his Aneurin Bevan biography, the medical scheme owed part of its inspiration and sustenance to working-class initiative. The Society was controlled by members with committee members elected annually and between 1,000 and 1,500 people turning up for annual general meetings in the 1940s.

There were disputes at times among committee members about who should be eligible for the benefits that the society provided with its limited resources. As Michael Foot points out in the biography one question which caused controversy was - should the unemployed be able to claim. Certainly during the Depression years of the 1930s the unemployed were eligible for treatment as one 85-year-old member recalled in 2005 for a BBC Wales TV interview.

WALTER CONWAY: At the forefront of those who opposed the company's influence not only in the Medical Aid Society but other major organisations in Tredegar was the Query Club formed around 1920-21 and made up of men such as Nye Bevan and Walter Conway.

Conway had been born, orphaned and had grown up in the Tredegar Workhouse. He then became a workhouse guardian who helped to run it. In 1915 he became the Secretary of the Medical Aid Society and was one of those instrumental in making the community health scheme such a success. A street in Cefn Golau has been named after him, and a citation and a photograph are on display in the Assembly Rooms at Bedwellty House.

His death in 1933, was a sad blow to the Society, which he had served as secretary for eighteen years "Due to his integrity, business-sense and diplomacy, a local health service had been created that covered 95% of the population of the town. It was a huge achievement," said Blaenau Gwent's Heritage Officer, Frank Olding.

A J CRONIN: One of the doctors employed by the Society between 1922 and 1924 was A. J. Cronin, author of the novel "The Citadel" which has been turned into a film. He based the book on his experiences of working in Tredegar and elsewhere in South Wales. He is said to have based characters in the book on his colleagues such as Dr Edwin Davies and Walter Conway. Cronin's wife also worked in one of the dispensaries, and the family lived at The Glen, one of the houses owned by the society who also rented houses out to other doctors (apart from the chief medical officer who had his own house), and to the caretaker and a dental mechanic.

Introduction of the NHS:

Number 10, The Circle pictured in the 1990s. The frosted glass on the upstairs corner window on the first floor has the Medical Aid Society's name etched onto it.

The shop sign running the length of the offices says 'Pianos, Harmston & Co' - dating from the time
when it was used as a music store, around 1910.

AFTER THE NHS STARTED: When the National Health Service was launched in 1948, the new Ministry of Health took over most of the facilities and staff provided by the Medical Aid Society and the Hospital Committee. The Society then had 4,142 members.

Members, however, decided that the Society should carry on in a modified way. No 10 was sold to Monmouthshire County Council on the condition that the Society remained in one of its upstairs rooms which they did until the Society was wound up in 1995.

FINAL DAYS: After the NHS started in 1948, Mrs Norah Childs, was appointed as Secretary of the Medical Aid Society and worked there until she retired in 1995 at the age of 71.

Mrs Childs started working for the society in 1941 at the age of 17 as a clerk. She recalls that after 1948 members were initially entitled to have their specialist treatment paid for privately. This however stopped as funds began to dwindle. Members were then granted travelling expenses to hospitals, convalescent homes and spa centres. The society gave grants towards surgical appliances and spectacles and their repair, payments to cover treatment in private nursing homes if unavailable through the National Health Service, grants for hospital stays for 10 weeks, a subsistence allowance for visits to hospitals for treatment, and payment for extractions by a private dentist if an NHS dentist was unavailable.

In 1994, the Society had 114 members, (plus retired members, widows, war veterans) who had paid 18p per week for grants towards costs for travelling, spectacles and their repair and dental treatment. After the Society was wound up, the remaining funds went to buy equipment for the hospital.

Mr Granville Hall hands
over the last payment
in May 1994 to
Mrs Norah Childs,
Secretary of the
Tredegar Medical Aid Society.

The Society's work effectively
ceased in December that year
and it was wound up
in March 1995.

THE FUTURE: The building was used until around 2003 as a Gwent County Council's careers' office among other things and in Spring 2005, Tredegar Development Trust started negotiations to buy it from Blaenau Gwent council.

The Trust intends to apply for funding possibly from Lottery and Heritage grants and to have the building restored to its former glory. A steering committee is to be set up to decide its future use. If you have any ideas or wish to show your support for the project please e-mail Tredegar Development Trust. (See 'Your Say' page).

DEATH AND DISEASE IN THE EARLY DAYS:

'BUNCH OF FIVES': One rudimentary health scheme in Tredegar, called the 'Doctors' Fund' had begun as far back as 1813 when a Dr Richard Monkhouse was appointed works surgeon by the Tredegar Iron Company, says author Dr Gareth Jones in his book The Aneurin Bevan Inheritance. Each employee had a small weekly deduction from their wages and received free medical advice but had to pay for medicine. Dr Monkhouse started the town's first surgery in 1813 in a group of small cottages in Coronation Street, known as the 'Bunch of Fives'.

The Bedwellty Board of Guardians, which was first formed in 1849, was responsible for the administration of medical relief. An area health board was then appointed in 1866 and then an Inspector of Nuisances, first suggested by the Tredegar Iron Company, appointed because of the fears of disease.

'PAINFUL CHAPTER': High on the mountain top near Tredegar stands a cemetery which shows why community health schemes as well as decent living conditions and good sanitation were so important. The Cefn Golau Cholera cemetery, now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, serves as "a unique reminder to one of the most painful chapters in the history of Blaenau Gwent", says a Blaenau Gwent pamphlet.

In this isolated cemetery lie buried at least two hundred people, victims of the disease known as the "King of Terrors". There were two major cholera epidemics in Tredegar, the first in 1832-33 and another in 1849. A lesser outbreak also struck the town in 1866.

The Cefn Golau
Cholera Cemetery,
now a Scheduled
Ancient Monument