Created 27-Jan-20
Modified 8-Mar-24
The fact that I am giving hospital services a separate gallery might imply people of the Rhondda were ill more of the time. Whilst the general health may well have been affected by the fact that coal-mining was not a healthy industry, the importance of the hospital services comes more from the geography of the Rhondda which meant that specialist medical facilities could be some distance away.
The earliest recorded hospital service appears in timetables from 1933 onwards with services run from the Rhondda area to Glan-Ely Hospital. This was a tuberculosis hospital on St. Fagan's Road in Fairwater, not to be confused with Ely Hospital on Cowbridge Road West which was a mental hospital. The service to Glan-Ely ceased with the Second World War. The hospital itself is long-closed and demolished, with the name living on in new housing on Glan Ely Close.
By 1949 special services started to run to the Church Village Hospital from Treorchy and Ferndale. They extended to Maerdy by 1952 and in addition an additional service was run from Evanstown and Gilfach Goch. By 1955 the service had extended beyond Treorchy to Treherbert. The various services were given numbers from 1957 and in 1960 were:
220 - Treherbert-Tonypandy-Porth Church Village Hospital (Tuesdays and Thursdays only)
221 - Blaenrhondda-Treherbert-Tonypandy-Porth Church Village Hospital (Sundays only)
230 - Maerdy-Ferndale--Porth-Church Village Hospital (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays only)
231 - Ferndale--Porth-Church Village Hospital (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays only)
240 - Evanstown-Gilfach Goch-Tonyrefail-Talbot Green--Church Village Hospital (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays only)
The Tuesday times were to suit early evening visiting, the Thursday and Sunday ones were for afternoon visiting. Since all journeys on the 230 and 231 are shown from Maerdy, it's not clear how much the 231 actually operated. It may have been used in the event of duplication. By 1963 the 240 had been renumbered the 140 as a consequence of the (opposite) renumbering of the Pontypridd to Porthcawl service. In 1964 (and possibly earlier) visiting hours changed and the 220 and 230 services ran Sunday afternoons and Monday to Friday evenings. The 140 still only ran the same days as before, but at times to suit the new hours.
In about 1965 the hospital was renamed the East Glamorgan Hospital and at the same time the services were rationalised with the 221 and 231 services no longer shown - neither had probably run for a year or two. The 220 and 230 services reduced during the week to running on Tuesday and Thursday (again) by 1968 but the evening service now also ran on Saturdays. The services received new numbers in the Western Welsh series from 3rd January 1971 with the 140, 220 and 230 becoming in order the 540-542. By 1972 the Saturday journeys on the 541 and 542 were in the afternoon instead of the evening.
From 9th July 1973 the 540 service from Evanstown ceased to run, but the 541 was diverted to run instead via Edmundstown and Tonyrefail to cover much of the lost route. Later, by 1976 the evening services returned to Monday to Friday operation so the two services ran every day of the week for the first time.
The Market Analysis Project revisions from 24th May 1981 made, as you would expect, little difference to these services except that on Sundays the 541 started from Blaencwm (and returned to Blaenrhondda) as this now formed part of the normal service down the valley as far as Tonypandy. Otherwise even at this date these services were still only intended for hospital visitors. However, I believe around 1983, this changed and both carried local passengers with just limited restrictions. The 541 now served Blaencwm and Blaenrhondda.
At deregulation the services were renumbered 141 and 142 with a change on Sundays, the 141 then not running at all and the 142 only running to the hospital. On Sundays passengers returning from the hospital to the Upper Rhondda Fawr were advised to catch a 244 from the hospital to Pontypridd, change there to a 132 and change again at Porth onto service 120! Things later returned back to how they had been with the 141 running through from Blaencwm and Blaenrhondda and the 142 from Maerdy. Notably the return 142s, except on Saturday, would not run beyond Porth unless required by hospital visitors. Also, around 1989 a new 143 service appeared on Sundays only to restore the link from Gilfach Goch although this did not run for long. The 141 remained a big bus even when all other services to Blaencwm and Blaenrhondda were worked by Bustlers.
By 1992, by now a Rhondda Buses operation, Saturday services had reverted to evenings from afternoons but a bigger change came from 25th November 1996 as the service ceased to be operated commercially (except on Sundays) and was a tendered service operated on behalf of Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council. These tendered services were operated by Shamrock. This remained the situation at the Rhondda Buses takeover.
A third hospital served by Rhondda was the one at Rhydlafar. Rhydlafar Hospital was financed and built by the USA in 1943 to provide facilities to treat the casualties expected in the forthcoming European invasion and was known as the 348 (US) Station Hospital. Intended solely for the treatment of American servicemen it was no longer needed after the war. It lay derelict for some time and was partially occupied by squatters when the decision was made to move the Prince of Wales Orthopaedic Hospital to the site, which happened in 1953. Timetables from 1954 to 1956 showed a separate service from Cardiff to Rhydlafar Hospital which then disappears from the timetables until 1965, when it appears once more, by this time numbered 125. Following the absorption of Rhondda by Western Welsh from 3rd January 1971 it became the 325, although this ceased running by 1974.
Rhondda allocated a number to another hospital service, this being the 250 which was between Ferndale and the isolation hospital at Penrhys. This hospital opened in 1904 as a small-pox hospital, the site being suitably isolated for the purpose, and it was demolished in 1971. I have been unable to find any reference to such a service in timetables and cannot confirm whether it was a number just allocated or a service actually operated.
© David Beilby
