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A visit to Cyfarthfa Iron works in 1850

Transcribed by Chris Parry

A visit to Cyfarthfa Iron works in 1850

By 1850, the scale and reputation of the iron metropolis of Merthyr Tydfil was know across the UK and even further. Journalists were coming to the town to write about the place, the people, the environment, the industry, every aspect of the most populated part of Wales at that time. The Morning Chronicle, between March and June 1850, published ten long articles exploring every aspect of life at Merthyr Tydfil, creating the most detailed exploration of the town published in the 19^th century. The following is an extract from one of those articles that details a tour of Cyfarthfa Ironworks in 1850.

The next iron works I visited were those of Cyfarthfa – the model works of South Wales… There are at Cyfarthfa and Ynysfach (works adjacent to each other) 11 furnaces in blast, and four at Hirwaun – all being the sole property of Mr. William Crawshay. At these works there are employed under and above ground, 5,000 hands, of whom 190 are women. By the returns furnished me, I find the amount of wages paid at Cyfarthfa and Hirwaun alone is 16,000 a month (of four weeks). The make of pig iron is 72,000 tons per annum. The quantity of the bars, rails, and tin plates is 53,000 tons a year. There is used of Welsh iron, and hematite ores for the production of the above, 166,800 tons a year. The daily consumption of coal is 850 tons. As many as 400 horses are here employed. These extensive works are chiefly carried on by waterpower, the supply being procured from the river Taff at a considerable distance up the valley, but steam is used when in summer the water fails. The machinery is very large and ponderous. Those of the water wheels are 36 feet in diameter, and the fly wheels, which are 60 feet in circumference and of prodigious weight, make ordinarily 70 revolutions a minute. About three months ago the periphery of one of these wheels flew into pieces, the fragments demolishing the roof of the mill in which the accident occurred, and descending at a distance through the roof of another mill, crushing into pieces large portions of beautiful and costly machinery then in motion, but without further casualty to the numerous workmen than a fracture of the thighs of one of them. One of the steam engines is of 260 horsepower; it has six boilers, and is of nine feet stroke.

The above particulars will convey some idea of the magnitude of these works. I was accompanied over them by Mr. Robert Crawshay, whose familiarity with the philosophy of the various processes of smelting the iron is only equalled by his practical familiarity with its manufacture, and to who I am much indebted for the attention he paid me, and for the lucid and intelligible manner in which he explained everything which I did not at first clearly understand. These works are incomparably the best constructed, the most spacious, well-ventilated, comfortable, convenient, and methodical of all the works, not only in and around Merthyr, but throughout South Wales. Everything has been done on the most liberal scale, and with an evident aim at perfection and completeness. The extensive mills, with their massive walls pierced with large circular openings for light and lofty roofs, have an air of architectural grandeur that is quite imposing. The space within the roof of one mill is 82 feet. There is here so much room that the work is carried on without any appearance on hurry and bustle which I have remarked upon as belonging to other works. I was informed by Mr. David James, a disinterested party, that men who have once enjoyed the comfort, shelter, and convenience of these works would never leave them for others if could possibly avoid it. I have said shelter, because here the men and women employed at the furnace tops and at the hearths have roofs overhead, whereas at Dowlais I have complained that they are wholly unprotected, and such is the case elsewhere. The comfort of such a provision in the windy and rainy climate of these mountains can only be adequately valued by the workpeople who have tried both situations, the exposed and the sheltered. I think it the duty of those ironmasters who have neglected providing such a shelter, to lose no time in following the example of Cyfarthfa and the other works where such conveniences have been adopted. It will be an act of great kindness to the miserables who have now to endure all weathers, and the most violent alterations of heat and cold.

Robert Thompson Crawshay. Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Museum & Art Gallery

At Cyfarthfa I saw men belonging to the furnaces, squeezers, rollers, and saws at their dinner. They had good beef or mutton, and potatoes; the boys had broth with a small piece of meat: they seemed pleased to show the contents of their tins, observing that the work was so hard and the heat so great that they could not stand it without animal food. This, it must be borne in mind, was in the mills; at Dowlais and in the other works, as I have stated, the workmen also get meat. They were rail-making in two of the mills I inspected. I saw three rails made by the direction of Mr. Crawshay. Timed by a watch, they were made in three minutes – that is, from the presentation of the white hot “bloom” to the rollers to its completion in them. The ends were cut off, filed, and the bars straightened in an additional minute and a quarter – so that altogether the making and finishing of three rails ready for laying down on the permanent way occupied just four minutes and a quarter. It was here I first saw that ingenious but simple invention, “the splitting mill” at work. It was making what is termed “nail rods”, which it did by lengthening and dividing a short iron bar into about a dozen rods, eight feet long by a quarter of an inch wide. This most important and useful invention was made in Sweden, and the consequences were most disastrous to the manufacturers of iron in this country, who, having to divide the rods by a long, tedious, and laborious process, could not compete with the new invention. The means by which this difficulty was overcome are highly interesting…….

The return made to me of the rate of wages paid at these works is as follows:-

Colliers, 15s. a week

Miners, 12s, 6d, a week

Founders, 22s. a week

Fillers, 21s. a week

Labourers, 10s. 6d. a week

Puddlers, 18s. a week

Rollers, 30s. a week; rail rollers, 31 to 41 a week.

Roughers, 18s. a week

Ballers, 24s. a week; girls, 5s. a week

The portion of boys employed under sixteen years of age is about one-sixth of the whole: at Dowlais these were returned as about one-fourth. At one of the mills in these works boys only are employed; it is a training school for them, preparing them for the heavier mill and forge work. I saw them making iron rods for rails, and light work; they seemed to work with great spirit and alacrity…[1]

[1] Morning Chronicle, March 21, 1850, London

A visit to Cyfarthfa Iron works in 1797

Transcribed by Chris Parry

In August 1797, the Duke of Rutland was travelling through south Wales documenting his travels for a book. By this time no journey to Wales was complete without seeing the spectacle of Merthyr Tydfil, which by that time was home to four large ironworks and had already attracted thousands of workers from across Wales to come and begin lives that were utterly different from the agricultural lives they left. His descriptions of Merthyr Tydfil, a visit to Cyfarthfa Ironworks and a meeting Richard Crawshay give a valuable early insight into the works, the town, the people and Richard Crawshay.

Richard Crawshay. Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Museum and Art Gallery

August 7, 1797

…We now at least were cheered with the sight of Merthyr, and the iron forges (of which there are three about the town) sending fourth large columns of smoke…Merthyr lies in the middle of these desolate hills, rich indeed in their productions of ore; it is a large place, chiefly occupied by the families of the workmen belonging to the forges. Travellers do not often go there but it is a place well worth notice, as any in Wales.

We dined heartily, and at dusk in the evening, the rain ceasing for half an hour, walked towards the forges. We wandered about for some time, and then went immediately to them, guided by the streams of fire which were bursting fourth from the chimneys. The distance of them from the town is about three-quarters of a mile; and the railroad along which we walked ran by the side of a canal; as we approached them, the effect was grand and sublime beyond all description. The fires from the furnaces were bursting fourth in the darkness of the night, and every moment we saw, as it appeared, a red-hot bar of iron walking towards us, we could see numbers of Vulcans dragging about pigs of iron just taken from the furnaces (the fires of which would dazzle the strongest eye) and pursuing their different operations, while their grimy figures, and gloomy visages, were visible by the light of the forges. We saw them running about in all directions through the doorways of the buildings, some of them hammering, others rolling the iron, while regular thumps of an immense hammer, which we heard far off, before we came near the works, and gradually increased to a thundering noise as we approached, completed the grandeur of the scene. I never saw anything that gave me more the idea of the infernal regions…

Wednesday August 8, 1797

This morning, we sent a note to Mr. Crawshay, the proprietor of the works, requesting his permission to see them. He returned a very polite answer, saying, he would be ready to attend us whenever we chose…

He (Richard Crawshay) was an elderly man, and seemed a singular character, fully convinced of the great of the great importance of the works he had accomplished; and talking in high style, which however was perfectly excusable in him…He told us, that when he originally came to the place, about 10 years ago, there was only one furnace, and that all the other extensive and magnificent works and improvements were wholly his own. He said he could not form any idea of the number of men that he employed, as he had captains under him, who had each agreed to furnish him with a certain number; however there could be no fewer than 1000 able-bodied men employed, and after adding the women, out-labourers, and etc. and etc. the total number of souls depended upon him, must amount to about 4000.

We first saw, and entered one or two of the workmen’s houses, which he had himself built for them at the rate of 30 guineas per house; they are extremely neat and clean. The works themselves consist of two divisions, one of them below, the other above a hill. He first took us to the summit, and explained to us the nature of the mines…

Very fortunately, iron ore, coal and limestone, are all found in the same hill, so that Mr. Crawshay has every requisite for his works close at home. He pointed out to us one shaft of coal, which would yield daily 200 tons. This is the quantity expected every day amongst the works…Before the end of the summer, he lays up a provision of 15,000 tons of iron ore for the consumption of winter, when the mine cannot be so easily worked.

…the ore (the puddled balls) becomes merely flattened pigs; in the second, these pigs are lengthened out into bars, three times their original length. It is astonishing to see the ease with which the workmen run about with the hot pigs of iron between large tongs, and with which they lift them without difficulty between the rollers. When thus lengthened into bars, they are taken to an immense hammer, which continually acts upon them, and gives the finishing to them, by straightening the bars. The same engine which works the hammer, moves an immense instrument like a pair of scissors, which cuts off the end of the bar, generally the worst part of it. While red hot under the hammer, a boy stamps the initials R.C. on the ends of the bar…

When we were there, three furnaces were at work, but there are five, all of which this single wheel is sufficient to blow, iron tubes connecting the whole, and joining them…

Mr. C said at present he made more iron than probably any person in the world, that he had bent his whole mind on being a perfect ironmaster, and that should he live long enough, he had yet great plans in view…

In the meantime, while so much engaged in the iron trade, Mr. C is by no means negligent of other concerns. He has cultivated the country around him, which on his arrival at the place was as barren as the bare rock. When his works were at a stand a short time since, he employed all his men on half-pay to clear the country of stones, several thousand tons of which he threw into the river and then cultivated the ground thus cleared…

Transcribed from Economic History of the British Iron and Steel Industry by Alan Birch, Taylor and Frances, 2005 (Originally published 1967), pp 83-86

Proposed Drill Hall

From the Merthyr Telegraph 160 years ago today….

Desperadoes at Merthyr

From the Western Mail 130 years ago today….

The Growth of Football in Merthyr Tydfil – part 5

Transcribed by Phil Sweet

These articles which appeared in three consecutive editions of the Merthyr Express in March 1921 are Harvey Boots’ own reminiscences of the development of three football codes in the town up to that date.

ARTICLE 3 MERTHYR EXPRESS 19^TH MARCH 1921

THE GROWTH OF FOOTBALL IN MERTHYR

(By Harvey Boots)

I concluded my last article by referring to the paucity of the gates at the new game. At this juncture, for some reason (of which I know not) the Northern Union Club gave up the College Field and procured a ground at the bottom end of the town, the field known as Rhydycar. This, in my opinion, was probably their undoing; it was inaccessible, and the view from the surrounding tips was equal to a seat in the grand stand. Whatever the cause was I am not in a position to state, but as it proved to be their last season nothing will be gained by what our Yankee cousins call “beating it” so I leave it at that. The fight had been a long and costly one. It was obvious from the beginning that there was not enough room for both codes, and it really resolved itself into a question of which would stay the longest.

We were left in possession, but we still had a deal of squaring up to do. Here I might mention that, being a private company, we couldn’t go to the public for money; we just had to shell out as far as possible as we went along. We had numerous pilgrimages to the bank – indeed the sanctum of the manager was quite familiar to us. I think Mr. H. C. Davies, whose business premises are right opposite the bank and who acted as our treasurer, must have felt like bombing the place off the earth. As for myself, I had got quite used to passing it by on tiptoe, in case the manager knew my footsteps. The horizon, was beginning to clear and the clouds to look a little less dark, so we took heart of grace and proceeded to try and make the new code as popular as the old. As it was still a case of going very warily; the public had not yet “cottoned” to the new game, but there were very evident signs that it was rapidly gaining in favour. While it was comparatively new to Merthyr, there were clubs in Aberdare, Treharris, Ton Pentre, Mardy and Barry, of very old standing, and I think the fixtures with those local teams and the very keen rivalry that is always manifest when such close neighbours meet, had as much to do with popularising the game as anything I can think of. We were beginning to take decent “gates”; Indeed, one match stands out very vividly in my memory, and that was Bristol Rovers, then like ourselves, in Division II of the Southern League. I believe we had 17 professionals signed on at this time and we played in the particular match to about £11 16s. I wonder how much wages could be paid out of that sum today? Of course, we had to visit Bristol on this magnificent response of our patrons, for the return fixture; and it is memorable for one point; if for no other, viz, they put on 11 or 13, I am not sure, goals against our side, which caused our goalkeeper to remark that it was the busiest afternoon he had ever spent in picking the ball out of the back of the net. I think his name was Daw, and he came from “Owdham”.

There is no doubt at this period we were gaining very valuable experience from our near, and shall I say “dear,” neighbours, but the mere fact that we were continually rubbing shoulders, to use a metaphor, was of the utmost advantage to us. Many were the very useful tips we received about this or that from that good sport Jack Lewis (then the indefatigable secretary of the Treharris Club and now one of the directors of the Town team); also A. (Tagg) Williams, then, I should imagine, one of the best centre-halves who has played for Wales. Then again, that guiding spirit of the Aberdare Club, Tommy Daniel Jones was always ready with a bit of wholesome advice, and so were a host of others. Of course, by this time Cardiff (they at this moment are making football history for Wales and, en passent, I wish them well), Newport, Swansea and Llanelly were members of the Southern League, too, but really, I opine that the greatest asset in those days was the old South Wales Cup. There are few among us who haven’t vivid recollections of those strenuous combats. Ye gods! What fights they were. Ton Pentre, Aberdare, Mardy, Treharris etc., etc. I am sure they are all tolerably remembered by the habitues of Penydarren Park today. Things were now becoming really ship-shape, and I think it was from this period that Soccer began to boom.

Laura Ashley

Laura Ashley was born in Dowlais 100 years ago today.

To mark the centenary, Cyfarthfa Castle Museum are holding a talk on 10 September.

For details of how to book tickets, please follow the link below.

https://cyfarthfa-museum.arttickets.org.uk/cyfarthfa-castle-museum-and-art-gallery/laura-ashley-with-huw-williams-68664ddc7b8e4

There will also be a Laura Ashley pop up exhibition in the wedding groom gallery between 10.00-14.00 today. This is in celebration and partnership with USW and Coleg Y Cymoed fashion students to showcase the Laura Ashley inspired garments they’ve created.

In addition, from the week commencing 25 September there will be a brand new Laura Ashley display area featuring a complete overhaul of the lobby display areas.

Articles

Hello everyone.

It has been brought to my attention that several articles from this blog have been used on Facebook.

This blog is intended to share Merthyr’s History and is free for everyone to enjoy, and I am more than happy for anyone to use articles from the blog, but it would be nice if you could:

a) acknowledge where the article came from

b) acknowledge the original author of the blog

A number of people have worked hard researching the article they have written, so it would be nice if they could be acknowledged.

Also, and more importantly, a number of articles on this blog have been transcribed from other sources – without fail I have sought permission from the the original authors to use their work. A few times, my request has been denied (and on one occasion I was threatened with legal action if I used the article in question), but 99% of the time, authors are happy to share their work. If you see an article that was from another source, therefore, please ask permission of the original author before copying it.

I don’t want to sound petty or anything, but a lot of the stuff I use is copyrighted, and I have had to seek permission to use it. Worse case scenario – the copyright holders may sue, and have this blog and the Facebook page where the article is copied taken down. None of us want that to happen.

All I’m asking is – please be careful, and please acknowledge sources.

Lecture over!!!

Thanks