Volume Eight - Pre-Victorian to the present day - more aspects - Chains at Penarth Dock - Macey, Mules and Wallace Family History . . .

At this time, William became involved in what were early union activities. In October 1890, The ‘Dock Warfe Riverside and General Labourers Union of Great Britain and Ireland’ formed a Penarth Branch. Each Branch was known as a Lodge, and members called each other Brother. ‘Brother William Mules’ was elected as Secretary of the Branch (see image left).

The main employer of men in the Penarth Branch was the Taff Vale Railway Company. A local saying at the time was ‘The wages of sin are death. The wages of the TVRC are slow starvation’, so the union had a lot of work to do.

By 1895, William had moved along the street for the second time to 8 Maughan Terrace. He was 53, and still working as a coal tipper and had risen to foreman. He was living with Elizabeth (48) and 5 of his children. His son William Alfred Mules, his son’s wife, Louisa Jane, and their 3 children had also moved back in with them. There were therefore still 12 people in the house!

The Pilot in the 1880’s. Was Albert amongst the dockers posing outside? His son, William was pictured outside The Pilot in the 1920’s (see later)

By 1906, William was still living at 8 Maughan Terrace with his wife Elizabeth and his last three daughters Francis Elizabeth (nicknamed Fanny), May, Mabel Emily, and young Arthur George. William and Elizabeth had been together for 25 years. He continued to work down the docks, and ‘Mother’ would often wait in the small front garden of number 8 to see him coming up the hill at the end of the day.

William was a diarist. The diary is in two parts. The first part contains daily entries on his life and activities. The second part is a weekly financial Schedule of income and outgoings.