Gethin Jones Coming Home

Crossing the Severn Bridge into Wales

is television presenter Gethin Jones,

here in search of his family's past.

Gethin first hit our screens as a presenter of Blue Peter.

He later went on to dazzle as a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing.

So, how does Gethin feel at the start of his journey?

Yeah, I feel a bit apprehensive this morning. Maybe a bit nervous.

Just because I know very little about my mother's side of the family,

it's always been kept quite quiet,

for reasons I may find out over the next couple of days.

It's like the...the unknown, really.

I have no idea what's in front of me and what I'm going to find out.

First, he drops in at the Cardiff home of his parents,

to see his dad, Goronwy, and his mum, Sylvia,

as well as sister Mererid.

At this stage, it's his mother Sylvia's story

that remains the biggest mystery.

With so many great-aunts and uncles,

maybe that's why my mum's so confused about her past.

But uncovering his mother's family

will lead him to reveal a family secret

that has remained hidden for more than 80 years.

Gethin Jones is Coming Home.

Gethin's journey begins here in Barry, South Wales.

For the very first time,

he's about to learn that Barry was home

to the maternal side of his family.

At the Salem Baptist Church,

he meets with genealogist Mike Churchill Jones.

Hi, Gethin. Welcome to Salem Baptist Church,

which is in the heart of the Barry Dock community.

What I've got for you here is your family tree,

and I'll explain why you're in Barry Docks as we go through the tree.

The story begins with Gethin's mother's side of the family tree.

My mum, I don't know anything about.

Sylvia Groskop was born in 1941...

..to Robert Groskop and Lauretta.

And Robert Groskop is really the reason why you're in Barry Dock.

Pictured here are his Groskop family,

including Robert Groskop, Gethin's grandfather.

He and his brother, Levi,

they were boilermakers and riveters in the shipyards.

I... I thought they had a...

just a shop in a market here.

Robert Groskop was born to a Gershon Groskop and a Martha Robinson.

Gershon, seated in the centre of this family photograph,

was Gethin's great-grandfather.

-I've seen a teacup...

-Right.

..with the name Gershon Groskop, I think, in the house.

Well, Gershon was a Polish Jew.

Did you know that?

I knew there was a Jewish side

to Mum's family.

He came to the UK in 1853.

He worked as a hawker, a travelling jeweller and clothing dealer.

He was pretty self-sufficient.

Shortly, Gethin will get out into the Barry sunshine

to follow his Groskop family line.

But what of his father's side of the tree, the Joneses?

Um...

You've got deep Welsh roots in both Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire.

In Carmarthenshire, it's in the villages of Pontyberem

and surrounding villages.

That makes sense.

Gethin's dad, Goronwy Jones, later came to live in Cardiff.

Goronwy was born to a Thomas Clifford Jones

and a Jennie Olwen Evans.

I'm Gethin Clifford, so I took my grandfather's name, and I...

I knew him and I was very, very fond of him.

It's a lot to take in.

I mean, before coming here, I probably knew...

maybe 5 to 10% of what's on this piece of paper.

It's a fantastic piece of work.

Next, Gethin heads to Barry Docks,

built in 1889 to accommodate the booming demand for coal.

Gethin's grandfather, Robert Groskop, came here in 1907.

To help understand what drew him to the town,

Gethin meets with historian Dr John Davies.

I've just discovered that my grandfather, Robert,

worked here at Barry Dock as a boiler maker.

Well, if you came down at the beginning of the 20th century,

he'd have come when Barry was at its height,

and by 1901, it had overtaken Cardiff

as the largest coal-exporting centre in the world.

If you'd gone to Aden or Port Said,

you'd have seen ships coming in from Barry, bringing coal.

And, of course, essential to coal...steam shipping,

was the boiler, in which you heated the water.

And it was a very skilled job,

because it had to face a lot of pressure, it had to be sealed,

and a boilermaker created the slabs of steel

and then riveted them together to make the boilers.

So, he basically had a skill

and followed it down here because this was where the work was, was it?

Well, with the rate it was growing down here

and becoming the largest coal port in the world

meant that there were jobs for people with that sort of skill

and probably quite well-paid jobs as well.

I was just going to ask, what would his standard of living have been?

A boilermaker who understood how ships and how trains worked,

what pressure was needed to create the steam,

they would be very esteemed people and probably earning quite well.

Quite a clever man, then?

-I would... Well, a highly-skilled man.

-Yeah.

-Shame it didn't rub off on me, really!

-Well, I don't know...

Perhaps you have hidden skills as well!

How different are the docks now,

compared to how they would have been when my grandfather was working here?

Well, I understand he came down in 1907.

Well, then... Well, by the eve of the First World War,

Barry was exporting over ten million tonnes of coal a year.

You can imagine here... I've seen pictures.

You could walk across here, jumping from deck to deck

-on the ships that were parked here.

-Really?

-Yes.

-It would have been that busy?

-Oh, yes.

So, that would mean that...

You know, this site that we've got now, with hardly a ship in sight,

would have been abnormal in 1907.

It was a world-renowned place

for the work of boilermakers like your grandfather.

I didn't know anything about my grandfather, Robert,

so my grandfather on my mother's side.

I didn't know where he came from, why he came to Barry...

I know that now and so, to go down to the docks

and have an idea of what he did,

how he lived his life, what he did for a living...

I feel a little connection with him and I think that's pretty cool.

Gethin now knows that his Groskop family settled in Barry,

but as Jewish immigrants, they came originally from Poland.

At the nearby Reform Synagogue,

Gethin has come to learn more of their story.

The building was originally a chapel,

but after being bombed in World War II,

it was later converted into a synagogue.

And it's here that Gethin meets with Jewish history expert

Dr Nathan Abrams.

Many Jews came into Britain in the 1880s, like my own family...

Yours came about 30 years earlier and they would have come here for...

economic opportunities, to better themselves -

Britain was far more industrialised than Russia or Poland -

and they would have come here to seek opportunities.

With all the Jewish people coming over at that time,

how were they treated in Britain?

How would my great-grandfather have been received here?

Um, well, in the 1850s, there aren't that many Jews coming over.

So, I imagine they would have been perceived as a curiosity.

Er...

As an exotic curiosity, particularly if they adopted, sort of, typical...

Eastern European Jewish dress.

You know, the black hat and the long black coat.

Gethin's family were amongst the very early wave

of Eastern European settlers.

Dr Abrams has a very special document to show Gethin,

a record of new arrivals to Britain from 1853.

That's fairly early for Jewish immigration to the UK.

The big waves were the 1880s, until about 1905.

And if you look at number 68 here, Groskopf...

Wow! So this, this is getting off the boat here, the docks here?

So, if you're coming from Eastern Europe,

you will come into an eastern port, so, most likely Hull...

..from this part of the world.

I'm just fascinated why they moved to Wales. Oh, well... Yeah, no...

Why HE would have moved here.

Because then his son, my grandfather,

came to Barry Dock to work,

because that's where the industry was.

One of the things to think about is, in the UK,

immigrant groups like Jews tend to concentrate.

-Oh, right.

-And there are good reasons for that.

In terms of shared customs, religion, language...

But the downside of it is...

economic opportunities are reduced,

because too many people do what you do.

So what we see is that people move off into smaller areas of the UK,

like Barry, to get away from...

from a concentration.

From what I've learnt this morning, that would make complete sense.

Because it turns out my grandfather was quite skilled as a boilermaker,

and therefore, he was very much needed in...

-in the docks in Barry, working on the ships.

-Yeah.

For the very first time in his life,

Gethin gets to see the photograph of his Groskop family...

..including his grandfather, Robert.

I don't think I've ever seen a picture of my grandfather.

He's skinny, like me.

The interesting thing, looking at this picture,

is how British they all look.

Especially in terms of their dress.

They are very Anglicised,

there's nothing to mark them out as Jewish at all.

Oh, yeah.

Shortly, Gethin will learn a deep Groskop family secret,

with profound consequences for both Gethin and his mother, Sylvia.

But first, he heads to Barry's famous beachfront

to learn of the town in which they lived,

where there's just time for holidaymakers

to snap a few photographs

with the newly-discovered descendant of Barry.

Gethin's grandfather, Robert Groskop, lived until 1960,

in a house just yards from the beach

and would have joined many workers - dockers, as well as miners -

who flocked to Barry's beaches every summer.

To learn of the beaches' history as a Mecca for the working man,

Gethin meets again with historian Dr John Davies.

Well, we are here on the promenade in Barry,

looking over the delightful sandy bay

-which, as it's a fine day...

-It is, it's amazing, it's fantastic.

It's one of the nicest bays there is

and, as it's a nice day, there's a fair number of people here.

But it's amazing to think that just over 100 years ago,

there were 87 people in the old parish of Barry.

There was nothing here except a dovecote, some Roman remains

-and a little castle, and there wasn't even a parish church.

-Wow!

And then by 1901, it had 27,000,

and it's got nearly 50,000 now.

So, the growth has been very remarkable indeed.

I'm amazed! I haven't seen it for years and years. This...

You could be anywhere. This could be Los Angeles.

Well, you know, there was no point in having a seaside resort here.

I mean, we didn't have trains to carry people.

It would take all day to come from Aberdare in a horse and cart.

That's a journey!

So, the coming of the railway to bring in coal

also brought in people.

And the great rush in the summer were the Sunday School trips.

We would have an entire chapel, perhaps 150, coming to Barry.

All eating candy floss and enjoying themselves hugely.

So, there was money in it.

And, of course, people came to stay as well.

John, would the coal have come on the ships around here?

-Is this a journey maybe my grandfather...?

-No, they'd have...

Yes, certainly. They'd have come up the Severn Sea,

or the Bristol Channel... Severn Sea sounds more sensible.

I can't see a ship in that water.

There isn't a single ship to be seen,

and this would be unbelievable.

I remember staying in Barry in about 1955

and you could hear the hooters all the time.

'55.

So the decline here's been precipitate

since the mid-20th century.

It's really hard to believe that just a short time ago,

it was such a different place.

Gethin has learned a lot about his earlier ancestors in Barry,

but now back at the Reform Synagogue,

things are about to become much more personal.

The next story he will learn concerns his immediate family

and has profound implications for both Gethin and his mother, Sylvia.

Tell me about my grandfather, Robert.

Well, Robert... He had a good trade.

Um...

He married Loretta,

they had a child in 1925,

which was named after Robert.

I thought my mum...

was an only child!

She wasn't an only child.

That is the death certificate of Robert Groskop.

Oh, my goodness!

Death certificate. He's one month.

How... How did he...? What is this?

It says, "Gastric Catarrh."

-OK, so...

-Three days.

So, Robert was born in 1925,

Mum didn't come along until 1941,

so Mum never met him and knew nothing of him, really.

A lot of time had passed. 16 years.

It's a big gap as well, to try for a baby again, isn't it?

Well, the...

They tried again. They had another child after that.

In 1926, another child was born and they named him Gershon.

-Have a read of that.

-So, two brothers.

That's unbelievable.

Son of Robert Groskop, boilermaker.

So, they had two sons that died

within a couple of weeks of being born?

Indeed.

-This is so weird.

-A sad time for them.

And he had double tragedies.

He was trying to produce heirs,

and they were dying.

I'm worried that you're going to pull out another certificate now.

-No.

-No? That's it? So, there were two brothers?

Indeed, indeed.

So, Mum was an only child, really?

-If... I mean, that sounds awful, but you know what I...

-Yeah.

No wonder there was no chat about it, because they...

-It was too painful to mention.

-Yeah.

And also, my mum's kind of removed from it as well,

because 15 years later, it's not something you can...

as a child, even, you could really relate to.

-No, and the tragedy is...

-Why 16 years later, try?

I have asked myself the same question, tragically.

But there was no other children born to them

until your mother came along,

15 years later.

A lot of sadness, and then...

It's so weird, thinking of my mum as one of three.

Just the most surreal experience, finding out about...

..what would have been my...

my two uncles...

..Robert and Gershon,

passing away so early in their lives,

just one month old and the other one was two months old, and...

despite the fact it's quite separated from me,

because I didn't know these people,

it's a family tragedy, so...

You see your family name in there and it's...

it's naturally upsetting and...

..quite sad as well that we didn't know, you know,

and we're finding it out today.

But that's why I did the show, because I wanted to know.

Next, Gethin is travelling

to learn of his father's side of the family tree.

He's heading to the former coal mining village

of Pontyberem, near Llanelli.

Gethin can trace his father's side of the tree, the Jones line,

back to the 1600s,

both in Ceredigion and the village of Pontyberem, in Carmarthenshire.

But it's in Pontyberem where Gethin will focus his research.

I remember Pontyberem as being a massive part of my upbringing.

I remember going there a lot at the weekend.

I do remember it being a big journey, back then. You know?

I look at it now and you could commute, if you wanted to.

What is it, about 60, 65 miles from Cardiff?

Back then, it was a big journey, a lot of planning going on.

Mum and Dad getting the car ready, getting us ready...

Pontyberem, in Carmarthenshire.

The man on the right is Gethin's great-grandfather, Gwilym Jones,

and on his right, his brother John.

They may have been humble Pontyberem colliery blacksmiths,

but as Gethin will later hear, it was their ingenuity

that would help to save many lives in the village.

Gethin is heading for Pontyberem's Memorial Hall.

In 1852, his family lived in this small village,

which was the site of one of

Wales' earliest mining disasters.

Although Gethin's family didn't perish that night,

this disaster would affect everyone in this small, tight-knit community,

which historian Phil Cullen can reveal.

One night in May of 1852,

27 men descended into the mine

in order to work the night shift.

It was a perfectly ordinary shift,

they left their homes, they left their loved ones,

fully intending to return in the morning.

Unfortunately, quite soon after they commenced work,

there was an in-rush of water, an inhalation of water,

and sand, like a quicksand, flowed into the mine

and only two people had any chance of survival.

One actually was near the pit bottom, the shaft bottom,

and a young lad that was working with him.

And he actually floated up the shaft on the water

with the little boy hanging on desperately to his coat as he...

as he came up the shaft with the water.

Unfortunately, the little boy became cold and tired

and he lost his grip and, indeed,

he fell back down into the abyss,

never to be seen alive again.

They managed to rescue the only survivor

and that was the only man of the 27 that survived that awful night.

As time passed, they didn't recover the bodies, it took a long time...

Months passed, months turned into years, and 18 months later,

they finally managed to get to the bulk of the bodies.

But it must have had an horrendous effect on your ancestors

and, indeed, the whole community.

This disaster was just the start of the price paid in lives for coal.

Thousands of miners, over many years,

would go on to lose their lives.

But Gethin's ancestors were determined to take action.

His great-great-grandfather, John Jones,

and his two sons, Gwilym and John,

set out to invent a very special miner's safety lamp.

A lamp they built using their skills as colliery blacksmiths.

A story Phil is about to tell Gethin.

By far the biggest problem that miners faced was firedamp.

Methane gas.

Some of these pits in East Wales were like the slaughterhouses,

where men had no chance.

Hundreds of men wiped out in seconds of explosions.

A lot of research was done by the pioneers,

people like Dr Clanny

and Sir Humphry Davy, into the Davy lamp.

Extraordinarily, two generations of Gethin's family -

his great-great-grandfather, John Jones,

and great-uncle, also called John Jones -

created and built their own safety lamp,

designed specifically for the conditions of the Pontyberem mines.

And this is known, and this is an original lamp,

-that your ancestor actually made...

-No!

-It's a John Jones lamp, yes.

-It belonged to a John Davies of Pontyates.

-Pontyates!

And it was made in 1899, in another village down the valley.

So, this John Jones lamp... So that... John Jones Senior?

We believe that John Jones Junior and Senior

-were involved in the production of the lamp.

-Wow!

But it's still unclear. It must have been a quality lamp,

because over the years, in the timeframe we're talking about,

between them, they made over 2,000 lamps.

So it must have been a very sought-after item.

Can you give me an idea of how important these lamps were

and how much they helped miners?

Well, it would simply be impossible to work a mine

without the use of these lamps.

That's how important they were.

And, indeed, that lamp that you're holding

became the forerunner of the modern miner's lamp,

-which is still used in mines throughout the world today.

-Really?

So, if you like, he was a pioneer in the field of lamp making.

-That's... That's pretty amazing, isn't it?

-Yeah, it is. Very amazing.

So how does Gethin feel

about this very special chapter in his family's history?

Just a couple of days ago, John Jones was a name on the family tree.

He made something that was so crucial to saving the lives

of so many of his workmates and, not just at the time,

but in the future as well, and that was the lamp.

And I can only be proud of him for doing that. It's...

It's a fantastic feeling to be here,

knowing that your blood managed to invent and to make

this lamp that was so important, an integral part of any miner's life.

As blacksmiths,

the Joneses made over 2,000 of their famous Pontyberem lamps.

Now Gethin will have a go at making part of one lamp,

to help understand some of the skills used by his family.

He's at a nearby forge, to meet with blacksmith Toby Petersen.

-Toby? Gethin. Nice to meet you.

-Hello, welcome to the forge.

Where does one start, then?

Well, I think you probably have to start with the tools

that he had at his disposal.

What we have here is an arrangement of tinsmith stakes,

and all these, he would have been familiar with.

And they're the perfect starting point for working the brass,

to make a lamp.

The number of different components in making the lamp,

I found quite awe-inspiring, actually.

-Really?

-It's a very complex thing to put together, yeah.

Wow, that's really, really cool to hear.

OK, well, we'll do our best, eh?

Where do we start? Show me.

-This one?

-No, this side.

John Jones worked at his forge with his father, John Jones Senior,

who, of course, was Gethin's great-great-grandfather.

He is greatly credited for helping his son design and make

these life-saving lamps.

They leave an incredible legacy,

of which Gethin is right to be proud.

Lots of little taps.

As a skilled man yourself,

are you impressed with what he was able to achieve?

Given the time in history, yeah, absolutely.

I mean, he was an inventor. There's...

there's no doubt in my mind that people like...

John Jones...

..were part of the British spirit of invention.

He made it possible for men to work underground

with a light and not rely on a candle.

As a humble colliery blacksmith,

John Jones was an extraordinary visionary and pioneer.

But Gethin may not have quite inherited

his skill and flair with metal.

And that's my effort on my great-grandfather's brother's...

..John Jones lamp.

What d'you reckon, for a first effort?

It's coming, it's nearly there.

I think the top's a bit dodgy.

Yeah, there you go.

Toby, thank you so much for showing me how to do it. It's fascinating.

I'm so proud of the fact that he did this, it's incredible.

-Very, very fine work. Yeah.

-Thank you.

-"Very fine work," I think he meant his, not mine.

-Yeah.

John Jones had a grandson, Thomas Clifford,

who grew up to be Gethin's grandad,

someone Gethin was very close to, until his death in 1989.

Gethin is nearly at the end of his journey,

but can never come home to Pontyberem

without visiting his grandfather's grave.

Yeah, their house was just up the road,

and his gravestone is...here.

That... That line there,

"Ynghanol bywyd yr ydym mewn angau,"

always reminds me of him, and...

..always puts a bit of a lump in my throat, actually.

In English, it says, "In the midst of life, we are in death."

I haven't been here for a while, but, weirdly,

I used to come here quite a lot,

especially when I was working up in North Wales

and coming back and forth.

I always used to pass by and sit here and have my lunch.

Maybe it's because it's the only relative I knew,

and I was quite young when he...when he died.

I remember my dad coming into my bedroom in the morning

and telling me that he'd passed away,

and I was devastated. I was...

absolutely gutted. It was so unfair, you know,

for someone so small to lose someone so important.

I just used to come here and talk to him, really.

He was always a good listener.

Gethin is now coming to the end of his journey into his family's past.

But how does he feel about all that he's learned?

It's been the most wonderful experience.

I was a bit nervous at the beginning because, obviously,

I'm going into the unknown, I didn't know what I was going to discover.

But more than anything, it's been brilliant to know more

about my mother's side of the family

and to get to know my father's side of the family a bit better.

Both sides of the family had different struggles,

but they were determined, they had a brilliant mindset and...

and...

thanks to them, I'm here today,

and I realise I have a lot to be grateful for.

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