by Alison Davies
With the proposed water treatment works at Dan y Castle Farm I have been inundated with messages asking for the history of the farm.
Dan y Castle , Llwyn Molgoch.
Dan y Castle Farm – or, to give it, its original name Llwyn Molgoch is a farmstead below Pontsarn Road, it nestles in the summer shadows, southwest of the Brynar and Morlais Castle hill.
With the building of a new road alongside the heads of the valleys, the land it is now visible from the roadside.
There has been a farmstead on this site since at least the 1500s, with earliest records naming it as Tir Llwyn Molgoch as part of the original Tir y Gyrnos Farm in 1640s with it eventually being sold in the early 1700s.
The original name Llwyn Molgoch was translated as ‘Bush of the red summit’, by Charles Wilkins, 1904.
Wilkins wrote, that, ‘tradition at the farm was, that Molgoch was a warrior, who, when escaping his enemies, sort shelter in a bush, where he was captured and killed’.
While, John Griffiths, writing about The Farms in the Merthyr Valley in 2011 gave two possible explanations, one, of Molgoch as, either, meaning’ Red Hill’ or secondly ‘the farm at ‘Molgoch Grove’ where he gives Molgoch as a name, or nickname. Griffiths further questioned, that, in some Welsh directories Moloch meant terror or dread.
There are a variety of spelling variations for Llwyn molgoch.
Lloyne moyle Goch – 1756 Gyrnos sale
Llwynmoelgoch – 1839 Merthyr Telegraph.
Glamol Yoch – 1850s Tithe map.
While, I am neither able to prove, or disprove its early origins, we will look at its significance and growth as one of the most important estate farm lands throughout the 1800s in Merthyr, and, how it became an integral piece of Merthyr’s history.
By the early 1800s Llwyn Molgoch had been separated from the original Gyrnos farm and was now part of the Penydarren Ironworks Estate land.
It was here at Llwyn Molgoch on May 13th 1813 that David Davies was born. He would grow up to be one of the most influential businessmen in 19th century South Wales.
While of interest is that his father, Thomas, rolled the first Iron rail at the Penydarren Ironworks and in South Wales.
David began work at Penydarren iron works firstly as a door boy at a young age, then training as a cutter man. Through his skill as a cutter, he was noted to have improved the manufacture of nail iron at Penydarren.
David left Penydarren works to take on the College Lock Ironworks in Llandaff, Cardiff.
By the early 1860s, he had then become the general manager at Gadlys Ironworks until 1863, when, he was drawn back to his native Merthyr. With his business partner, Thomas Williams he purchased the Penydarren estate and its works where he lived until 1884. From there, he became a partner, and later sole proprietor of the famous Beaufort Tinplate Company in Morriston, and Alderman, JP Swansea.
David Davis died September 1894 aged 81 years. The newspapers of the day ran extensive tributes to his achievements.
He is buried alongside his first wife in Cefn Cemetery.
By the 1830s Llwyn Molgoch was now in the ownership of the Crawshay family, and part the Cyfarthfa Estate. In the farmhouse where David Davies was born, now lived one of the first gamekeepers to the Crawshay family Thomas Havard who later moved to the newly built Gurnos Model Farm.
A succession of gamekeepers went on to live at Llwyn Molgoch. There was an ongoing problem with poaching on the Cyfarthfa Estate. From the front door, just two fields away, stood a folly, a stone tower known as the ‘keepers Tower’. It still stands today but is now surrounded by houses in New Gurnos, near to Pen y Dre School.
From this tower the gamekeepers would patiently wait for the poachers and their dogs, this elevated view allowed the gamekeepers to track the poachers across the land. Looking at Ariel photos today you can still see a well-trodden pathway leading from Llwyn Molgoch to the tower.
The land here is a pre industrial landscape undeveloped.
The history of the Cyfarthfa Estate is too important to be brushed aside, too important to be ignored, forgotten and built over. The act of preserving or preservation isn’t for the here and now . It’s for the future, a gift of preservation of our heritage for a generation or generations to come.
In 2025 , to mark the 200th year of Cyfarthfa Castle, Merthyr Historical Society and Cyfarthfa Castle produced a book called Cyfarthfa Castle and Park 1825 -2025. A people’s History. Here on page 41 is an article by Christine Trevett. This article, titled Class, clashes and Crawshay Land. The article formally acknowledges the history, and the importance of the Cyfarthfa estate and its lands. It was chosen, I’m sure by the author for its weight of significance.
In writing about it, she shows how very important this landscape is.
Now acknowledged in print, its history stands for the future. Its future should be preserved, therefore, now is the time, time for, Merthyr Historical Society, Cyfarthfa Castle, Cyfarthfa Foundation and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council to stand up for our history, and Heritage.
To see more of Alison’s fantastic research about Pontsarn and Vaynor, please follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/747174317220437
& Pastimes in the 18th & 19th Century, Merthyr Tydfil by Geoffrey Evans
1. A Visit to Merthyr Tydfil in 1697 by Brynley F. Roberts
1. Vince Harris, 1904-1987 by Margaret Lloyd
1. Elphin, Literary Magistrate: Magisterial Commentator by Brynley Roberts
1. The Merthyr Tydfil 1835 Election Revisited, Lady Charlotte Guest’s Account by E (Ted) Rowlands
1. Three Generations of a Dowlais Medical Family 1860-1964 by Stuart Cresswell
Most of what’s known about the Cyfarthfa Philosophical Society comes from Charles Wilkins’s A History of Merthyr Tydfil, published much later in 1867. This is how Wilkins (left) describes how the Society began, apparently with a strong interest in astronomy:
In 1877, he was “initiated into the mysteries of the Druidic lore”, and at the 1881 National Eisteddfod, held in Merthyr Tydfil, he won a £21 prize (approximately equivalent to £2,100 in 2019) and gold medal for the best “History of the Literature of Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire from the earliest period to the present time.” In 1882 he founded ‘The Red Dragon: The National Magazine of Wales’. That same year, it was reported in the Western Mail (7 December 1882) that, “after careful examination of the various works written by Mr. Wilkins”, he was “unanimously elected to the super graduate Degree of Literature (Lit. D.)” by the Druidic University of America and its affiliate in Maine.
