A Crime of Passion
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Annette EdwardsA Crime of Passion
Uploaded by
Annette EdwardsA CRIME OF PASSION
The Curse of Cae Clogwyn
A while ago my cousins and I were reminiscing about what we did when we children,
and one of us mentioned that if we were naughty our Mothers used to say I`ll take
you to Cae Clogyn and leave you there. To be truthful none of even knew where this
place was, and why was it deemed to be so awful for it to be used as such a dire
warning. A bit of research soon told the full story. First of all the name was actually
Cae Clogwyn, a farm that was in the Cymmau.
The lady involved was Sydney Jones; she first made the news back in June 1883 when
a William Jones was summoned by a David Roberts for shooting at him at Cymmau
on the 25th May. It appeared that about 18 months previously it was proposed that a
marriage should take place between David and Sydney, who was the niece of William
Jones. William objected to the marriage as he thought that David`s blood was not
`sufficiently blue` and the arrangement was broken. Later Sydney gave birth to a
daughter.
David told the court that on the day of the incident he received a message asking him
to go to a meeting place near Cae Clogwyn, but when he arrived Sydney and a man
named George Jones were waiting there on the other side of the wall, a row broke out
between David and Sydney, and then he saw a gun being pointed at him from behind
the wall, but could only see a mans hat. As soon as he heard the gun being fired
David ran away, but just before the incident Sydney had already thrown a couple of
buckets of cow dung over him.
At the hearing George admitted he fired the gun, and Sydney was charged with
throwing dung, she told the court was that David was in the habit of scandalising her.
It was then revealed that David was indeed the father of Sydneys child. The court
decided that even though an assault had taken place, there was provocation, and
George was fined 1 shilling with costs and the case was ended.
Just over 18 years later on 3rd July 1901 Cae Clogwyn was the scene of a "crime of
passion" murder.
Sydneys aunt Sarah Jones died on 14 th Feb 1899, and Sydney came into possession of
the farm after being there with Sarah for nearly 40 years. The house itself wasnt very
large but there was a considerable amount of land, Sydney also was bequeathed an
amount of 2000. At the time of Sarah`s death , Joe and Sydney both lived at Cae
Clogwyn, but Sydney had later given up the tenancy, she had a new home built for
her at Bryn Golau, a little further up the mountain , and had recently moved to live
there.
Joe was told that as the tenancy was now terminated he would not be needed any
longer. On the Monday, Sydney went down to Cae Clogwyn to dispose of any items
belonging to her and Joe in readiness for new tenants to move in immediately.
Just before 1pm, Joe came on the scene and they had a short conversation, which
ended when he took hold of an old breech loading gun and shot her in the head.
Sydney was terribly injured, having had part of her face and an eye blown away, the
only witness was Sydneys daughter Maggie Jones. She said that after the first shot
Joe told her there was no more `shot` left for the gun, and then had struck her in the
face before she ran away terrified at what she had seen. Joe then reloaded the gun and
shot himself in the left side of his chest. He fell down dead.
Shortly after a neighbour came to the scene and found Sydney still alive, Dr Williams
of Cefnybedd arrived, did what he could and Sydney was taken to Wrexham Hospital
where she died later that day.
The farm had been very prestigious in its day and Joe Guest had been the farm bailiff
for over 17 years.
It seems that Joe was under the impression that Sydney would marry him, but she was
engaged to marry a man from Liverpool very soon. It was common knowledge in the
area that Joe was besotted by Sydney
The newspaper report stated that The lady of the house was a great beauty and her
bailiff was madly in love with her. Unfortunately for him her affections lay
elsewhere and on the day she was due to leave and move to her beau she was
confronted by him in the kitchen. Determined that if he could not have her then no
other man would - he shot her. He then turned the gun on himself - killing himself
outright. His victim however lay with severe head injuries. She was taken to
Wrexham Infirmary where she died two days later.
The farmhouse stood empty and fell into ruins. The substantial farm buildings stood
and were used by local farmers for housing livestock up until the land was quarried in
the 1960s for sand and gravel. All that was left of Cae Clogwyn was scooped away.
Although this area was known as "the old Quarry" it was only in fact quarried from
the 60`s to the 80`s. The path that goes from the Cymau end to the now Nature
Reserve runs along the line that was the original old drive to the farm.
