Dowlais Ironworks – The Melting Pot – Merthyr Tydfil's History and Culture

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

Grade II* Listed buildings

Fifty years ago today a number of Merthyr’s buildings were given a Grade II* listing by CADW. Below is a list of all the Grade II* listed buildings in Merthyr.

Name	Location Grid Ref. Geo-coordinates	Date Listed	Notes
Cefn Railway Viaduct	Cyfarthfa SO0304907597 51°45′31″N 3°24′22″W	7 Nov 1951	Viaduct A dual-listed (see below) structure built in 1866 to carry the Brecon and Merthyr Railway over the Taf Fawr. It was designed by Henry Conybeare and Alexander Sutherland at a cost of £25,000. The fifteen arches of the 36.6 m (120 ft) high viaduct follow a gentle curve of 235 m (771 ft).
Cefn Railway Viaduct	Vaynor SO0304007795 51°45′38″N 3°24′23″W	7 Nov 1951	Viaduct A dual-listed (see above) structure built in 1866 to carry the Brecon and Merthyr Railway over the Taf Fawr. The viaduct has tall, slender limestone piers, a material originally intended to be used throughout, however, the arches were completed using a contrasting red brick due to a trade union strike by stonemasons.
Pont-y-Cafnau	Park SO0376507138 51°45′17″N 3°23′44″W	22 August 1975	Bridge An ironwork bridge spanning the River Taff constructed in 1793. The name, meaning “bridge of troughs”, comes from its unusual three tier design of a tramroad between two watercourses, one beneath the bridge deck and the other on an upper wooden structure which is no longer present. Pont-y-Cafnau is also designated as a scheduled monument.
Town Hall	Town SO0489306371 51°44′51″N 3°22′40″W	22 August 1975	Town hall A Large municipal building designed by Edwin Arthur Johnson in the early Renaissance style and built 1896–98 by Harry Gibbon. Built of red Cattybrook brick with orange terracotta dressings on a base of Pennant Sandstone. Following restoration work it became the Red House, an arts centre, in 2014.
Pontsarn Railway Viaduct	Pant SO0454309921 51°46′47″N 3°23′06″W	22 August 1975	Viaduct A dual-listed (see below) structure built in 1866 to carry the Brecon and Merthyr Railway over the Taf Fechan. It was designed by Henry Conybeare and Alexander Sutherland. The viaduct is 28 m (92 ft) high and 128 m (420 ft) long.
Pontsarn Railway Viaduct	Vaynor SO0453409918 51°46′47″N 3°23′07″W	22 August 1975	Viaduct A dual-listed (see above) structure built in 1866 to carry the Brecon and Merthyr Railway over the Taf Fechan. It is constructed of limestone and has tall, slender piers with segmental arches. The Cadw description has seven arches, Newman has eight.
Former Guest Memorial Library	Dowlais SO0699107880 51°45′43″N 3°20′57″W	22 August 1975	Library A two-storey cruciform building of 1855–1863 built as a memorial to John Josiah Guest of the Dowlais Ironworks. The Dowlais workmen intended for the library and reading room to be funded by subscription, but rising costs led to the building being completed by the company at a total cost of £7,000.
Dowlais Works Blast Engine House	Dowlais SO0690907739 51°45′38″N 3°21′01″W	22 August 1975	Engine house A 54 m (177 ft) long and 15 m (49 ft) high red brick industrial building constructed in 1905–07 to house three blowing engines as part of the Dowlais Ironworks. The works went into decline in the 1930s and in the late 20th century the building was being used by a chocolate company.
Quakers Yard Railway Viaduct	Treharris ST0885396473 51°39′35″N 3°19′09″W	1 April 1988	Viaduct A tall stone-built viaduct with six arches that spans both the River Taff and the Merthyr Tramroad. It was constructed 1840–41 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel as part of the Taff Vale Railway and widened by 1861.
Ynysfach Engine House	Cyfarthfa SO0452406096 51°44′44″N 3°23′04″W	5 Nov 1995	Engine house Built in 1836 as part of the Ynysfach Ironworks, it originally housed an engine made at the Neath Abbey Ironworks. This four-storey building of blue Pennant Sandstone with white ashlar dressings fell into disuse when the Ynysfach works closed in 1874. In the 1980s It was restored and became a museum until closed by the Leisure Trust.
Greenfield Bridge, Penydarren Tramroad	Treharris ST0902496544 51°39′37″N 3°19′00″W	20 February 2003	Bridge A single arch Pennant Sandstone structure built to replace an earlier wooden bridge that collapsed in 1815 when a train was passing over it. The semi-circular arch has span of 19.2 m (63 ft) at a height of 8.4 m (28 ft) above the river. It is part of the Merthyr Tramroad scheduled monument.
Victoria Bridge, Penydarren Tramroad	Treharris ST0942396281 51°39′29″N 3°18′39″W	20 February 2003	Bridge A single high-arch bridge over the River Taff similar in design to the nearby Greenfield bridge. Built in 1815 to replace a wooden bridge of 1800–02 it was originally as part of the Merthyr Tramway but is now a footbridge. It is part of the Merthyr Tramroad scheduled monument.

NOTE
The two viaducts constructed as part of the Brecon and Merthyr Railway both straddle the borders of neighbouring historic communities so have separate designations for each of these locations.

Merthyr’s Lost Landmarks: High Street Railway Station

by Carolyn Jacob

Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

At one time most immigrants to Merthyr Tydfil simply walked unless they got a lift on a farm cart, but the few roads were poor. The early Iron-master, Anthony Bacon, built the first direct road between Merthyr Tydfil and Cardiff. The transportation of bulky iron products to the sea ports led to the building of the Glamorganshire Canal. The locomotives and trains of no less than six railway companies ran into the Merthyr station which had the title of ‘High Street’ rather than the more common ‘Central’.

The Taff Vale Railway had been first to arrive in Merthyr with a line from Cardiff and Pontypridd to their Plymouth Street station in 1841, followed by the Vale of Neath in 1853, soon to be taken over by the Great Western. These were followed by the Brecon & Merthyr whose operations stretched down to Newport and the London & North Western with their line from Abergavenny. The final arrivals were the Rhymney Railway with access provided from Quakers Yard by their joint line with the GWR, while the Cambrian Railway had running powers through to Merthyr. In 1922 all were absorbed by the GWR.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was involved in railway projects here. ‘The railway sets you down in Merthyr at precisely the quaintest centre of the old town. There is an ancient atmosphere pervading‘, wrote Wirt Sikes, an American, in 1880. In 1856 Prince Louis Bonaparte arrived at the High Street station. On 1 April 1944, the King and Queen and Princess Elizabeth took the Royal train from the High Street station. Thousands of rails were manufactured here and the Dowlais Works sold rails to Russia, America and India. However, a hundred years ago the local Sunday trip or holiday was only to Pontsarn or the Brecon Beacons. During the Second World War many evacuees arrived by train. One evacuee wrote in a letter home; ‘we watch the trains arriving into Merthyr Tydfil railway station from the top of the slag heaps’.

In its heyday, the striking timbered roof, five operational platforms and more than 80 members of staff, ensured Merthyr High Street Station was in a class of its own. It had excellent facilities. There were refreshment rooms where first-class passengers could buy breakfast for 1s 6d. In 1945 the ticket boxes were open continuously except for 1.45pm to 2.45pm on Sundays and 12.30am to 4am on Mondays. There were toilets and brightly coloured advertisements for products such as Bovril and Venos’ Cough Cure. The waiting rooms were a pleasure to sit in, with large coal fires and plenty of seats. The station was kept litter-free and clean. High Street station cleaner Margaret Pritchard was so conscientious keeping the Merthyr Station spick and span that she accidentally polished over important finger prints after a robbery.

In the 1960s young fighters trained by former boxer Eddie Thomas would weigh on the scales in the goods depot at the station, the most accurate scales in town. The station a centre for local sporting life, filled with the sound of cooing racing pigeons and the raucous barking of whippet dogs. In 1953, after 98 years, the roof designed by Brunel was removed and in 1987 the fire-ravaged goods shed at the station was demolished.

In the 1960s Merthyr lost nearly all its passenger services except the Taff Vale route to Cardiff. In 1971 and new station building was erected but it was a shadow of its former self. The official opening of the present new Merthyr Railway Station was February 1996 by Councillor Ray Thomas. The new station which cost £500,000 to build was funded by the sale of the old station just 120 metres away.

Clifton Suspension Bridge and Dowlais Iron Company

by Victoria Owens

The following article is transcribed here with the permission of the Clifton Suspension Bridge & Museum official blog.

Since the Dowlais Iron Company made the iron that was used to forge the original chains, their importance to the Clifton Suspension Bridge was significant. The village of Dowlais itself is located on the fringes of Merthyr Tydfil and the Iron Company was established in 1759, when a group of nine gentlemen signed Articles of co-partnership in what they termed ‘Merthir Furnace’. By the 1840s, under the management of John – later Sir John – Guest, it was supplying iron rail to railway companies across the world. In time, Dowlais eclipsed the other Merthyr ironworks – Penydarren, Cyfarthfa and Plymouth – to become a vast concern; by 1853, when Guest’s widow Lady Charlotte headed the company, it had no few than eighteen furnaces in blast. The association with Clifton began a decade earlier in 1840 when Dowlais contracted to supply iron to the Copperhouse Foundry in the Cornish town of Hayle to be forged into eye-bar chains, that is, chains made up of bars with eye-plates at either end. A number of letters from John Poole on behalf of the Copperhouse Company, also known as Sandys, Carne and Vivian, to the Dowlais Iron Company – it also traded as Guest, Lewis & Co – survive which give some idea of the problems to which the contract gave rise.

On 15 August 1839, Poole wrote in confidence to Guest’s onsite manager, Thomas Evans. He wished to ascertain the prices ‘for Iron of the best quality’ that Dowlais could supply, and how soon Dowlais could provide it. Evidently Poole found the figures which Evans quoted acceptable, and fifteen months later, on 14 November 1840, he wrote again to Guest, Lewis & Co, demanding to know when they could make ’80 to 100 Tons of the Bars for the Clifton Bridge’ available at the Cardiff docks for shipping to Hayle. In bar form, the iron was not only convenient for transportation, but also ready to be worked into the finished product – in this instance, suspension chains.

At some point in the winter of 1840-41, Dowlais duly despatched a consignment of bar iron to Hayle where Brunel, always the perfectionist, sent one of his staff – a man named Charles Gainsford – to assess its quality. Having tested the iron, not only did Gainsford think it unfit for purpose, but also suspected Dowlais of having double-crossed Copperhouse. ‘We regret,’ John Pool informed the Dowlais management on 13 February 1841 ‘that [Gainsford] will allow us to use no part of the iron invoiced the 8th December last, which he says is not of best cable quality, & which he requested should not be forwarded to us when he visited the Dowlais Works. It is a great disappointment to us,’ he continues, that the Iron has not been made agreeably to the Order, and we fear the delay may subject us to a heavy loss. We hope the present shipment will be of the proper quality.’

Photo courtesy of the Clifton Suspension Bridge and Museum

It is a shocking indictment of procedures at Dowlais yet, surprising as it may seem, Poole’s aggrieved tone failed to bring about any improvement. Crucially, the iron bars from which the sections of chain were to be made up necessarily had to be straight. On 15 March 1841, Poole vented his growing impatience with Dowlais’s apparent failure to grasp this requirement in another letter of complaint. ‘Even a large portion of the Bars for the Clifton Bridge already received,’ he wrote, ‘must be heated all over to be made perfectly straight.’ He ordered them to send no more bars, other ‘than what may be inspected & approved by Mr Brunel’s representative at the works.’

By the end of March 1841, Poole’s forbearance was exhausted. Another consignment of faulty iron bars had reached him and, in considerable annoyance, he wrote at once to Thomas Evans. ‘We are exceedingly sorry,’ he protested, ‘that a large portion of the bars for the Clifton Bridge […] are so crooked as to entail upon us more labour to straighten them than ever upon welding on the eyes. […] Will you be good enough to inform us whether you are likely to have a further lot of bars shortly fit for use? It seems likely that, having received this missive, Evans read the Riot Act to the Dowlais workforce with the result that the quality of iron which they supplied to Copperhouse improved. Before long, Hayle was able to supply Clifton with satisfactory elements of the chains for the bridge ready for onsite assembly.

But by 1842, the Suspension Bridge trustees had run acutely short of money. Already £2,885 12s 1d was owing to Copperhouse and even by 1845 they had not been paid. Three years later, in 1848, so desperate for payment were the Hayle company that they were willing to accept £2780 12s 7d in return for quick settlement of their account. In the event, they were not paid until 1849, and only then after the despairing bridge trustees had taken out a loan for the purpose. In the town of Hayle, people evidently regarded this long-overdue settlement of the Clifton account as a significant landmark. The name of ‘Riviere Terrace’ which was a street of imposing houses built in 1840 changed to ‘Clifton Terrace’ by way of marking completion of the Cornish Copper Company’s contract. As for the chains themselves, when lack of funds halted work on the suspension bridge, the Cornwall Railway purchased them for incorporation within the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash.

Yet although the lack of money brought work on the suspension bridge to a temporary halt before Hawkshaw and Barlow completed its construction to a much-revised version of Brunel’s design, the association with Dowlais did not entirely evaporate. The Dowlais Iron Company had provided the original iron used in the old Hungerford Bridge whose chains Hawkshaw and Barlow adopted for their bridge, supplemented by a large volume of new links purchased from the Lord Ward Round Oak works in Dudley. If the association between the Dowlais Iron Company, the Copperhouse Foundry of Hayle and the Trustees of the Clifton Suspension Bridge was less than harmonious, it is nevertheless intriguing to witness the frustrations and stalling that could bedevil even the most celebrated of Victorian construction projects.

Please follow the link below to see the original article. https://cliftonbridge.org.uk/clifton-suspension-bridge-and-dowlais-iron-company/

My Street – part 2

by Barrie Jones

Chapter One

Tir Ysgubornewydd (New Barn Farm)

Ysgubornewydd farm was part of the Morlangau Estate; a prominent estate which extended south and east of the village of Merthyr Tydfil. In earlier times its owners were a younger branch of the family of Edward Lewis of the Van. Morlangau covered 172 acres of land already split between two farms: the Mardy and Ysgubornewydd. The earliest reference to an occupier of Tir Ysgubornewydd is the 1715 Rental which shows two occupiers of Tir Morlangau, Nicholas David and John David, possibly brothers and probably John David occupied Tir Ysgubornewydd. The Davids’ were related to Nicholas the brother of Gwenllian David wife to Lewis William of Tir Castell Morlais, and it is possible that a succession of Nicholas Davids occupied Tir Morlangau from 1666 to 1718.

In 1719 the lease of Morlangau was granted to Thomas Richard, who subsequently purchased the freehold from the Lewis of the Van family in 1727, the sale was precipitated by the hefty fine imposed on the Lewis family following their support of the failed Jacobite rebellion. At this time, 1719, probably his son, Lewis, occupied Tir Ysgubornewydd. Thomas’s other son David had ownership of Morlangau from 1749 to his death in 1780, after which ownership passed to his son William (ap David, afterwards known as Davies). Prior to his death in 1820 William may have been living at Tir Ysgubornewydd.

The Mardy farm was twice the size of Ysgubornewydd but being nearer to Merthyr village, the main road and the emerging Plymouth works by 1850 it had already lost a significant portion of its land to housing and industrial waste and had ceased to function as a single farm, its remaining fields being leased to numerous individuals. It is probable that the Mardy farmstead was located near to the main road and perhaps close to the Court and their adjoining boundary, hence its exact location yet not being known.

Prior to 1844 the Morlangau estate was held ‘under trust’ by Jane, wife of William Thomas of the Court, during that time it consisted of Ysgubornewydd Farm and eight other meadows let out to different people. The importance of the farm was already diminished by so much of it being fragmented by separate tenancies. In 1841 this is further evidenced by the farmstead being occupied by a merchant and mine workers while the farmer, Aaron Lloyd, was living off site in nearby Plymouth Street. The leasing of land for housing and industrial waste demonstrates that the estate’s owners and trustees were determined to maximise rental returns from the land rather than holding any preference for agricultural use.

By 1850 the farm estate covered an area of fifty-four acres of meadow, pasture, wood, and waste. However, only 39 acres of the farm was tenanted by Aaron Lloyd. Already the owners had allowed the incursion of waste tipping along its boundary with the Nant Blacs and the tramroad that ran from Pen Heol Ferthyr to the Plymouth Iron Works.

Ysgubornewydd Farm:

Map Ref.	Description	Cultivation	Acres	Roods	Perches
1389	Cae Jenkin Hopkin	Meadow	3	1	24
1390	Cae Lewis Thomas	Meadow	1	3	16
1391	Cae Pen Twyn	Meadow	3	–	18
1392	Waste	–	–	2	–
1393	Rubbish and Waste	–	3	3	8
1394	Y Waun	Pasture	2	2	4
1395	Cae Main	Pasture	2	2	23
1396	Cae Pwdwr	Meadow	2	2	4
1397	Road and Waste	–	2	1	12
1400	Cae Sgubor	Meadow	2	2	20
1401	Cae Dan y Ty	Meadow	1	2	7
1402	Homestead	–	–	1	8
1403	Coed Sgubor Newydd	Pasture & Wood	1	2	–
1404	Part of Coed Sgubor Newydd	Pasture & Wood	2	–	–
1404a	Cae Pant	Meadow	4	3	18
1405	Cae Ishaf Y Cwm	Pasture	3	3	22
1406	Part of Cae Ishaf Y Cwm	Pasture	5	–	24
1398	Cae Thomas Rosser	Meadow	6	3	10
1399	Cae Cant Llaeth	Meadow	2	3	4
	Total Measurement		54	0	22
*Source: 1850 Tithe Schedule (see tithe map below, area edged red)*

In 1851 the farm was further reduced in size by the construction of the Dowlais Railway through the fields Cae Lewis Thomas, Cae Jenkin Hopkin, Cae Main, Cae Sgubor, and Cae Cant Llaeth. Thus, the Dowlais Railway (“Incline”) cut off a sizeable portion of the original farm estate from the farmhouse, an estimated area of over twenty-four acres, making the later development of the Twynyrodyn side of the incline more practicable. By the time Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council purchased the remaining farm in 1947 the area between the Incline and Gilfach Cynon was already a fully established community of houses, shops, chapel, and school.

Despite this significant loss of acreage, the records show that up to its sale in 1947 the farm’s tenants farmed an area of between 40 and 50 acres. It is likely that a portion of the already fragmented Mardy Farm estate also ‘cut off’ by the ‘Incline’ was incorporated into the Ysgubornewydd farm. This area comprised four fields to the southwest of the Coed Sgubor Newydd and Cae Ishaf y Cwm fields:

Map Ref.	Description	Cultivation	Acres	Roods	Perches
1407	Coed y Banner	Pasture & Wood	6	1	38
1408	Caia Wolridge	Pasture & Meadow	3	0	0
1409	Caia Wolridge	Pasture & Meadow	2	3	36
1410	Cae Daniel Stephens	Meadow	2	0	8
	Total Measurement		14	2	2
*Source: 1850 Tithe Schedule (see tithe map above, area edged blue)*

In 1906, 4½ acres was purchased for the construction of the Mardy Hospital further reducing the amount of farmland. The hospital largely occupied the fields Caia Wolridge (1409) and Cae Daniel Stephens (1410). At no time since 1820 does there appear to be a period of settled tenancy of the farm with change nearly every decade or so. There is no family continuation usually associated with farms and generally the new tenants were not local to the area as highlighted in the following list of occupants:

Year	Tenant	Occupation	Place of Birth

1841	Aaron Lloyd (living off site)	Farmer	Merthyr Tydfil
1851	Aaron Lloyd	Farmer (39 acres)
1861	David Morgan	Farmer (50 acres)	Llanbedr, Brecon
1871	David Morgan	Farmer
1881	Edmund Gibbs	Farmer (40 acres)	Framton, Glos.
1891	James Bolton	Horse slaughterer	Tewkesbury, Glos.
1901	James Bolton	Horse slaughterer
1911	John Jones	Farmer	Rhymney, Mons.
1919	John Jones	Farmer
1929	W Price	Farmer (42 acres)
1947	W Price	Farmer (44 acres)

Sources: Merthyr Tydfil Census Returns, 1941-43 MAF Farm Survey, and MTBC Council minutes.

The tithe map of 1850 shows that field use on the farm was largely a mix of pasture and meadow (88%), so the farm was almost exclusively engaged in rearing livestock, although whether this included sheep is not known. Close to the farm’s demise in 1947 it was run as a dairy farm with thirteen cows and probably the milk was sold for local consumption which in those days was from a pony and trap. Since 1850 there has been little change in the total area of land cultivated for pasture and meadow. The Ministry of Agriculture (MAF) survey in 1943 records a small amount of land (two acres) was farmed for root crops, such as turnips, swedes, and mangolds, mainly for fodder, and over seventy fowls were reared.

Despite the gradual erosion of its acreage from the early 1800’s through the activities of both the Plymouth and Dowlais iron works, the expansion of the community of Twynyrodyn and improvements in health care, the farm was able to maintain an optimum size to ensure an agricultural livelihood. However, with the requirement that milk should be pasteurised or bottled under approved conditions under new regulations introduced in the 1950’s, it is very unlikely that a farm so small, although “well run”, could have modernised its dairy production and hence would have ceased to continue as a dairy farm. In 1947 the farm’s uncertain future may already have been anticipated. After over 150 years of industrial and urban pressure the final phase in the farm’s history was completed when through the increasing need for more and better housing the County Borough Council acquired the remaining 43.9 acres of freehold land at a cost of £3,100 plus fees.

To be continued…..

A Society Wedding

From the Monmouthshire Merlin 170 years ago today……

The South Wales Lock Out

The article transcribed below appeared in the Illustrated London News 150 years ago today.

Several fresh illustrations are given this week, from sketches by our own artists, of the deplorable stoppage of labour in the vast collieries and ironworks of South Wales. The amount of interests involved in this unfortunate rupture between capital and labour is estimated by the correspondent of a daily paper:—

“In Monmouthshire and Glamorgan there are, all told, 450 collieries, of which about 150 are the property of ironmasters. In times when business is at full swing, the amount of coal ‘won’ from these numerous pits reaches 350,000 tons weekly. The manufacture of iron in the district demands 100,000 tons this weekly output, the remainder being spread abroad—some for shipping purposes, but the greater part for household and factory consumption. To raise 350,000 tons of coal in six days would require the operation of 70,000 hands—that is to say, practical ‘pitmen’, with labourers and lads. It is reckoned that the united earnings of this great body of workmen average £100,000 a week—about 27s. a head per week ‘all round’; or take the labourers and lads at 10s. to £1 a week, and the miners at 34s.

In the immediate vicinity of these collieries are the establishments of at least a score of leading ironmasters, giving employment to some 30,000 men. Taking an ironworker’s wages at the low average of 27s. a week, nearly £40,000 would be required to satisfy the number above indicated. Then there are those who are engaged in the ironstone mines, a body of men reckoned by thousands, and whose earnings are said to be at least £10,000 weekly. One way and another it may be fairly reckoned that the South Wales coal-fields are not worked at a less weekly average cost in the shape of wages than £150,000, and when nothing is amiss this is the sum, barring the small savings of the pitman, which between Saturday and Saturday finds its way into the tills of the butcher, the baker, the grocer, the publican, and other worthy tradesfolk of Merthyr, Aberdare, Dowlais, and the surrounding districts. It is hard to say who feel most acutely the pinch of the lock-out—the shopkeeper, or those who in flourishing times are his profitable customers. In by far the majority of instances, the tradesmen in question depend mainly for support on those who are employed in the pits and at the ironworks, and when these are rendered wageless the shopkeeper may as well put up his shutters.”

Merthyr Tydvil, a place of 70,000 inhabitants, including the Dowlais, Cyfarthfa, Pen-y-darren, and other works, in the neighbourhood of the town, is situated in the north of Glamorganshire. It takes its name from an ancient Celtic princess, named Tydvil, who was Christian virgin martyr, slaughtered by the Pagan Saxons about King Arthur’s time. The Vale of Merthyr varies in width from a mile to half a mile, with hills on each side that nowhere reach an altitude of 2000 feet. It has all the characteristics of those valleys of South Wales where the days are darkened by furnaces vomiting smoke and the nights are illumined by hundreds of furnace fires. Such, at least, is its normal condition. The Vale of Merthyr is not the least valuable of the wealth-producing districts where gigantic fortunes have been accumulated. Right and left shafts rise out of the hill-side, and from side to side engines reply to each other. Small streams bear away the water that constantly springs in the underground workings. The entire vale is intersected with tramways, by which coal is conveyed, from the pit to the metal-works.

“But these days,” writes newspaper correspondent, “the Vale of Merthyr has begun to put on an appearance of desolation. The Plymouth Iron and Coal Works, which extend for nearly a couple of miles, and present a succession of valuable workings, are strangely silent. The steam-engines at the pit mouth, noisily and showily pumping, throw significant aspect of inactivity upon acres of unworked machinery; and there is long line of black, funnels, tall chimneys, gaunt beams and cranks, and gaping machinery in cold repose. Not a gleam will to-night enlighten the landscape where for years the valley has been notorious for its unearthly glare. An old man, gazing upon the dismal desertion of these magnificent works, says there are people starving in the valley, and that half the distress which exists, and will exist here, will be never known.”

In the midst of so much gloom, there is one gleam of satisfaction in the fact that the ironstone-miners are working. They will not be stopped. They have been associated with the ironworkers in past reductions, and, as they are dependent upon neither collieries nor ironworkers, work has been secured to them at Cyfarthfa. These men attempted a resistance to the first reduction, and were out about two months. They then applied for work, but the difference with the ironmasters having obliged Mr. Crawshay to blow out his blast-furnaces, he told them ironstone was not required. If, however, they chose to work upon the wages of 1871—that was, 30 per cent below the highest point which had been reached, and the level to which the present reduction of 10 per cent brings colliers’ labour—they might go on. They accepted the offer, and have been working with regularity ever since.

Although the ironworks have been at a standstill all the time, and the colliers are now reduced to a similar condition, they will be kept going, no matter how long this struggle may last. It is stated that Mr. Crawshay would have kept his ironworkers similarly employed, had they met him in the same spirit; he would have stocked iron to the extent of 100,000 tons rather than they should have been thrown out of employment. Further, he made more than one effort to come to an arrangement with the association for the employment of his ironworks colliers alone, but the union question cropped up and became an insurmountable obstacle. Cyfarthfa, therefore, with the exception of the ironstone works, is in the same position as all the rest of the ironworks, with one furnace only in blast.

There has been no event of importance during the week, lord Aberdare (who was Mr. Bruce, late Home Secretary) has declined to interfere on behalf of the men, and advises them give way. The Merthyr poor-law guardians impose stone-breaking tasks as a condition of outdoor relief.

Illustrated London News – 20 February 1875

Memories of Old Merthyr

We conclude our serialisation of the memories of Merthyr in the 1830’s by an un-named correspondent to the Merthyr Express, courtesy of Michael Donovan.

© William Menelaus (1818-1882); Hagarty, Parker; Cardiff University; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/william-menelaus-18181882-15929

To some it is probable that to say much of Dowlais and leave the name of Mr Wm. Menelaus not prominently mentioned is like enacting the play “Hamlet” and leave out Hamlet himself. To such it is fair to say my knowledge of the place is antecedent to meeting with that gentleman prior to his going there. That he did much to keep up the prestige of the place is truthfully admitted. That he did not accomplish all his desires is also a fact; his intention and actual conversion of some portion of the works to another branch of manufacture can be doubtless recalled by many. Let me bear my humble tribute to his memory. Wishing Dowlais well, I will now part with it, and hope its future will be prosperous.

Instead of returning to Merthyr by the road, let us take a pleasanter way, and, mounting some steps by the roadside at Gellifaelog, cross by the footpath over a field or two, and then take the lane (or maybe paved road) back, passing by Gwaunfarren across the limestone tramroad there (there was also a limekiln close by), and we are close to the Penydarren Park again.

Before making my congé, let me recall some things that are now gone, most probably gone forever. One is the ‘Merched y Wern’ from Neath; they were well known, Their vocation in life some 60 or 70 years ago was to go to Swansea Pottery, and, getting a large crate or basket, in reality of ware, return to Neath upon the next morning loaded with the ware, walk to Merthyr to dispose of it. They were necessarily hardy and masculine. During their walks shoes or boots, as well as stockings, were taken off, only to be put on when entering a populous place. They were generally reputed to be well able to protect themselves. Generally there were two, three or four together, and evil betide any who raised their wrath. There is a tale of a man having said something being induced to accompany them for awhile, when at a suitable place he was denuded of clothing and bound a la Mazeppa – not to a horse but to a tree. Cwm-ynys Minton, not far from the Gelly Tarw junction, is the locus in quo of the episode.

Another class that has passed away are the old butter carriers, who, with their cart and horse, took weekly journeys from various parts of Carmarthenshire. They travelled 36 or even 48 hours at a stretch. Occasionally two or three would be in company; at night, some were thus able to sleep in their carts.

Then again there were the sand girls who earned a livelihood by gathering the stones from the river, calcining them and by ‘pounding’ reduce them to sand for use for domestic purposes. There are some stones far more suitable than others for this purpose – those of the silicious kind being more in request. However clear of them the river might be occasionally, a heavy flood brought down another stock, and so it went on. I am not aware if any such an employment now exists, but formerly the river from Caepantywyll to the bottom of Caedraw was the hunting ground of the sand girls.

The River Taff below Jackson’s Bridge, possibly showing some sand girls collecting stones. Reproduced by permission of The National Library of Wales Creative Archive Licence

The produce of the works, too, has undergone a strange metamorphosis. Not only are there no iron bars now made for tin works, but split rods have ceased to be so, and, while formerly large cargoes of ‘cable iron’ went to the Grecian Archipelago and other places in the Mediterranean, in vain should I look in all of South Wales for a bar bent to the shape of the camel’s back for conveyance across the desert. Advisedly, I say thousands of tons have gone from Merthyr for such a mode of conveyance.

‘Cable’ iron was also made, but if made now cannot be made from similar materials to what it used to be. I do not know of any South Wales works making cold blast all mine iron, but, if there is such it certainly not contiguous to Merthyr, where it was at one time made. Do not, however, suppose I consider Merthyr drawing to the close of its career:

“For I doubt not through the ages an increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened by the process of the suns”

Here for the present do I close but if “The sunset of life gives me mystified life” and coming events cast their shadows before my brain, I may endeavour to say a few words respecting “What of the future?”

Memories of Old Merthyr

We continue our serialisation of the memories of Merthyr in the 1830’s by an un-named correspondent to the Merthyr Express, courtesy of Michael Donovan.

The men were from the Atlas Works (Sharp, Roberts & Co). Richard Roberts had previously been at Dowlais, and Lady Charlotte, in showing him around, took him into the church, where he remarked what a splendid fitting shop it would be.

The No 5 blast engine was, at the time of its erection, the largest ever made, and it had two steam cylinders – after the Hornblower or Woolf type, and to get all the valves to work properly, was then thought difficult – in fact, they did not work as well as desirable. Amongst the persons had for consultation was Mr Brunton from Hornsley. He it was that first brought the application of a fan for the ventilation of collieries into notice, I can recall his models and explanation. It was not readily adopted. Furnaces were very simple, and there was not much thought of economy of coal, but the furnace was dangerous. This was palliated by means of a dumb drift, but as far as I know, no colliery of any size uses a furnace for its ventilation.

Simple and efficient as the arrangement was for letting persons know the boiler was short of water it was not quite as perfect as the following will show.

Mr John Evans, on looking at the boilers of the furnace at the Ivor works, when everything was in full work, noticed the whistles (that is the only thing visible thing in the arrangement for making a noise if feed was low) were all covered, and speaking to the attendant, found he had designedly wrapped some ‘gasket’ around to prevent noise. With some cause Mr Evans was in a passion, so he ordered the man off at a moment’s notice, and sent for the writer, telling him to get the feed right. There were four boilers, and every one was in low water. The engine was doing its full work, and therefore taking steam; the fireman was firing as hard as usual to supply the necessary steam, but no water was going into the boilers to form the steam.

On examination, I found the bottom valve of the feed pump was deranged, and the anxiety and fear I experienced can be recalled now. Mr Evans, as soon as he told me, went off to the old works to send an attendant thence, but was more than an hour before he came, and in the interim, having got the valve right, the boilers were being replenished. Even then, however, danger was not over, for cold water going upon hot plates is apt to get into the molecular condition, and instead of taking up heat quietly, and get into a kind of bubble then explode. Boutigny has since done much to exemplify it, and in his work on “Heat a mode of motion”, Tyndall has fully explained it, but at that time neither had been heard of. The fact was known, but ascribed to another cause.

However, to my great relief, everything passed off safely, and without derangement of working. More than once I inclined to stop the engine. This would naturally draw all the furnace men about me, when it was likely that the imminence of danger would have caused all to get as far away and as quickly as ever they could. The experience of that hour has, however, never been forgotten.

To be continued at a later date…..

Memories of Old Merthyr

We continue our serialisation of the memories of Merthyr in the 1830’s by an un-named correspondent to the Merthyr Express, courtesy of Michael Donovan.

It was at the Dowlais Works the Bessemer process for the conversion of pig into malleable iron was tried, with the result, as told me by Sir Henry himself, “I was knocked down on my back, and for two years could not get up again”. The Bessemer process, as everyone knows, is to blow air through the molten metal and so burn the carbon out, but many years before that blowing steam through molten iron in the puddling was tried there. The furnace with the apparatus was seen in the upper forge – that is, between the Dowlais office and the fitting shop.

Sir John himself conceived the idea of running the iron direct from the blast furnace into the refinery, so as to avoid the remelting usually followed. It was used for a while at the Ivor Works at the furnace next to the engine-house on the Pant side, but the refinery process itself was soon superseded to a great extent.

The Bessemer Converter at Dowlais Ironworks in 1896. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

It was at Dowlais the very first steam whistle was made, and although the tale has been previously told, the use of the whistle for railway purposes is so extensive that it will be again told in the words of the inventor himself as told to me personally by him.

For the better understanding of it allow my saying that a column of water about 27 inches high gives a pressure of a pound for every square inch of its area, and for the feeding of his boilers James Watt had designed an automatic arrangement, based upon the weight above mentioned. Even up to 10lbs, a standpipe 270m inches high would suffice, but when it comes to 50lbs the pipe would be excessive, and as some little looking after is needed, it would be rather inconvenient, so that the regulation of the feed became dependent on the care of the stoker, he being guided by the use of gauge cocks. Stokers are human, and therefore remiss; the feed goes too low, overheating of the plates follows. This reduces their strength, perhaps, too, the steam pressure increases, and disaster follows.

Adrian Stephens inventor of the first steam whistle

Something of this kind happened, and Sir John asked Adrian Stephens if it were possible to arrange something to indicate that the feed was getting low. The upshot of the conversation was that one of the pipes from the organ in the house was sent for Stephens’ consideration. In Watts’ arrangement a float was used for governing the feed, and Stephens very naturally followed the idea. The idea of an inside valve was evolved, and by the passing of steam through the organ pipe sound was produced. It then occurred to Stephens that if the emission aperture were made all around the pipe it would be better, and he made it so.

It did not bring him profit, nor was he ever honoured as he should have been. Some Manchester workmen were then down with tools for the fitting-shop, and they either communicated or took the idea back there, and not as a regulator for feed, but as a means of calling attention the whistle became used in locomotion.

To be continued at a later date…..