Merthyr Tydfil: Difference between revisions

Merthyr Tydfil county borough

Geography
Area - Total - % Water	Ranked 21st 111 km² ? %
Admin HQ	Merthyr Tydfil
ISO 3166-2	GB-MTY
ONS code	00PH
Demographics
Population: - Total (2022) - Density	Ranked Ranked / km²
Ethnicity	99.0% White
Welsh language - Any skills	Ranked 15th 17.7%
Politics
Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council http://www.merthyr.gov.uk/
Control
MP	Dai Havard

Merthyr Tydfil (Welsh: Merthyr Tudful) is a town and county borough in Wales, with a population of about 55,000. It lies within the historic county of Glamorgan.

Pre-history

Various peoples, migrants from Europe, had lived in the area for more than three thousand years, dating back to the Bronze age. The were followed from about 1000BCE by the Celts, and from their language, the Welsh language developed. Hillforts were built during the Iron Age and the tribes who lived in them were called Silures by the Roman invaders.

The Roman invasion

The Romans had arrived in Wales by about 47-53CE and established a network of forts, with roads to link them. They had to fight hard to consolidate their conquests, and in 74 CE they built an auxiliary fortress at Penydarren, overlooking the River Taff (Taf). It covered an area of about 3 hectares, and formed part of the network of roads and fortifications. Remains of this fortress were found underneath the football ground where Merthyr Tydfil FC play. A road ran north-south through the area, linking the southern coast with mid-Wales via Brecon. Parts of this and other roads, including one known as Sarn Helen, can still be traced and walked on.

The local tribe, known as the Silures, resisted this invasion fiercely from their mountain strongholds, but the Roman armies eventually prevailed. In time, relative peace was established.

The Roman empire eventually disintegrated, and the Penydarren fortress was abandoned by about 120CE. By 402 CE, the army in Britain comprised mostly Germanic troops and local recruits, and the cream of the army had been withdrawn across to the continent of Europe. By about 408CE, the armies of the Saxons were landing and the locals were left to their own devices to fight off the new invaders.

The coming of Christianity

The Latin language and some Roman customs and culture became established before the withdrawal of the Roman army. The Christian religion was introduced throughout much of Wales by the Romans, but locally, it may have been introduced later by monks from Ireland and France who made their way into the region following rivers and valleys.

Local legends

After the departure of the Romans, minor kingdoms slowly developed in the area. Welsh legend describes a Romano-British leader who repelled Saxon invaders, and through conquest and diplomacy, united several small kingdoms to create a sizable kingdom that included South Wales and much of western Britain. This grew into the legend of King Arthur. More legend than fact is known about this man. Some scholars suggest that he may have been Ambrosius Aurelianus. If so, he would have spoken Latin and maintained some aspects of Roman culture, possibly including at least nominal devotion to Christianity, the official religion of the Romans at the time. Aurelianus may have been of Roman birth, and there are some implications that he may have been related to a Roman Emperor.

Another local tradition holds that a girl called Tydfil, daughter of a local chieftain named Brychan, was an early local convert to Christianity, and was pursued and murdered by a band of marauding Picts and Saxons while traveling to Hafod Tanglwys in Aberfan, a local farm that is still occupied to this day. The girl was considered a martyr after her death in approximately 480CE. “Merthyr” translates to “Martyr” in English, and tradition holds that when the town was founded, the name was chosen in her honor. a church was eventually built on the traditional site of her burial.

The Normans arrive

The valley through which the River Taff flowed was heavily wooded, with a few scattered farms on the mountain slopes, and this situation persisted for several hundred years. The Norman Barons moved in, after conquering England, but by 1093, they only occupied the lowlands and the uplands remained in the hands of the Welsh rulers. The effect on the locals was probably minimal. There were conflicts between the Barons and the families descended from the Welsh princes, and control of the land see-sawed to and fro.

Early Modern Merthyr

No permanent settlement was formed until well into the Middle Ages. People continued to be self-sufficient, living by farming and later by trading. Merthyr Tydfil was little more than a village. An ironworks existed in the parish in the Elizabethan period, but it did not survive beyond the early 1640s at the latest. In 1754, it was recorded that the valley was almost entirely populated by shepherds, and the markets and fairs at which farm produce were traded were many, bringing prosperity to some, and starvation to others.

The Industrial Revolution

Influence and growth of iron industry

Merthyr was situated close to reserves of iron ore, coal, limestone and water, making it an ideal site for ironworks. Small-scale iron working and coal mining had been carried out at some places in South Wales since the Tudor period, but in the wake of the Industrial revolution the demand for iron led to the rapid expansion of Merthyr's iron operations. The Dowlais Ironworks was founded by what would become the Dowlais Iron Company in 1759, making it the first major works in the area. It was followed in 1765 by the Cyfarthfa Ironworks. The Plymouth ironworks were initially in the same ownership as Cyfarthfa, but passed after the death of Anthony Bacon to Richard Hill in 1788. The fourth ironworks was Penydarren built by members of the Homfray family in 1784. As these works were established, along with their associated iron ore and coal mines, Merthyr grew from a village of some 700 inhabitants to an industrial town of 80,000 people.

The demand for iron was fuelled by the railways and by the Royal Navy, who needed cannons for their ships. In 1802, Admiral Lord Nelson visited Merthyr to witness cannon being made.

Several railway companies established routes that linked Merthyr with coastal ports or other parts of Britain. They included the Brecon and Merthyr Railway, Vale of Neath Railway, Taff Vale Railway and Great Western Railway. They often shared routes to enable access to coal mines and ironworks through rugged country, which presented great enegineering challenges. In 1804, the world’s first railway locomotive, "The Iron Horse", developed by the Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick, pulled 10 tons of iron from Merthyr on the newly constructed tramway from Penydarren to Abercynon. A replica of this now resides in the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea. The tramway passed through what is arguably the oldest railway tunnel in the world, part of which can still be seen along side Pentrebach Road at the lower end of the town.

During the first few decades of the 1800's, the ironworks at Dowlais and Cyfarthfa continued to expand and at their peak were the most productive ironworks in the world. 50,000 tons of rails left just one ironworks in 1844, to enable expansion of railways across Russia to Siberia. At its peak, the Dowlais Iron Company operated 18 blast furnaces and employed 7,300 people, and by 1857 had constructed the world's most powerful rolling mill. The companies were mainly owned by two dynasties, the Guest and Crawshay families. One of the famous members of the Guest family was Lady Charlotte Guest who translated the Mabinogion into English from its original Welsh. The families also supported the establishment of schools for their workers.

The Merthyr Riots

The riots of 1831 were precipitated by a combination of the ruthless collection of debts, frequent wage reductions when the value of iron periodically fell, and the imposition of truck shops. Instead of using normal coin of the realm, some ironmasters paid their workers in specially-minted coins or credit notes, known as "truck". These could only be exchanged at shops owned by the ironmasters. Many of the workers objected to both the price and quality of the goods sold in these company-owned shops.

There is still controversy over what actually happened and who was to blame. It was probably more of an armed rebellion than an isolated riot. The initiators of the unrest were most probably the skilled workers; men who were much prized by the owners and often on friendly social terms with them. They also valued their loyalty to the owners and looked aghast at the idea of forming trade unions to demand higher wages. But events overtook them, and the community was tipped into rebellion.

The owners took fright at the challenge to their authority, and called on the military for assistance. Soldiers were sent from the garrison at Brecon. They clashed with the rioters, and several on both sides were killed. Despite the hope that they could negotiate with the owners, the skilled workers lost control of the movement.

Some 7,000 to 10,000 workers marched under a red flag, which was later adopted internationally as the symbol of the working classes. For four days, they effectively controlled Merthyr.

Even with their numbers and captured weapons, they were unable to effectively oppose disciplined soldiers for very long, and several of the supposed leaders of the riots were arrested. Some were transported as convicts to the penal colonies of Australia. One of them, Richard Lewis, popularly known as Dic Penderyn, was hanged for the crime of stabbing soldier Donald Black in the leg, creating the first local working-class martyr. Alexander Cordell's novel The Fire People is set in this period. A serious political history of these events, The Merthyr Rising was written by the Merthyr-born Marxist and writer Professor Gwyn Alf Williams in 1978.

The first trade unions, which were illegal and savagely suppressed, were formed shortly after the riots. The rising also helped create the momentum that led to the Reform Act. The Chartism movement, which did not consider these reforms extensive enough, was subsequently active in Merthyr.

Many families had had enough of the strife, and they left Wales to utilise their skills elsewhere. Numerous people set out by ship to America, where the steelworks of Pittsburgh were booming. It only cost about five pounds to travel steerage.

The decline of coal and iron

The steel and coal industries began to decline after World War One, and by the 1930’s, they had all closed. In 1987, the iron foundry, all that remained of the former Dowlais ironworks, closed, marking the end of 228 years continuous production on one site.

The fortunes of Merthyr revived during World War Two, as war-related industry was established in the area. Many refugees from Europe settled in the town.

Post-world war II

Immediately following World War Two, several large companies set up in Merthyr. In October 1948, the American-owned Hoover company opened a large washing machine factory and depot in the village of Pentrebach, a few miles south of Merthyr Tydfil. The factory was purpose-built to manufacture the Hoover Electric Washing Machine, and at one point, Hoover was the largest employer in the borough. At the Hoover factory the Sinclair C5 was built.

Several other companies built factories, including an aviation components company, Teddington Aircraft Controls, which opened in 1946. The Teddington factory closed in the early 1970's.

The Gurnos housing estate was, at the time of its construction, the largest housing project in the world.

Cyfarthfa, the former home of the ironmaster Richard Crawshay, an opulent mock-castle, is now a museum. It houses a number of paintings of the town, a large collection of artefacts from the town's Industrial Revolution period, and a notable collection of Egyptian tomb artefacts, including several sarcophagi.

While testing a new angina treatment, researchers in Merthyr Tydfil disovered (purely by accident) that the new drug had erection-stimulating side effects. This discovery would go on to form the basis for viagra Wired. The inventor Howard Stapleton, based in Merthyr Tydfil, developed the technology that has given rise to the recent mosquitotone or Teen Buzz phenomenon.[1]

Local government

The current borough boundaries date back to 1974, when the former county borough of Merthyr Tydfil expanded slightly to cover Vaynor in Breconshire and Bedlinog in Glamorgan, it becoming a local government district in the administrative county of Mid Glamorgan at the time. The district became a county borough again on April 1, 1996.

Electoral divisions

The county borough is divided into 11 electoral wards returning 33 councillors. Some of these wards are coterminous with communities (parishes) of the same name. The following table lists council wards, communities and associated geographical areas.

Sport and culture

The football club, Merthyr Tydfil F.C. or 'The Martyrs' play in the Southern Football League. The town was once home to a fully-professional Football League club, Merthyr Town F.C., but they folded in the 1930s.

The rugby club, Merthyr Tydfil RFC, is known as the Ironmen.

Merthyr Tydfil hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1881 and 1901. It is twinned with Clichy-la-Garenne, France.

Merthyr Tydfil's Central Library, which is in a prominent position in the centre of the town, is a Carnegie library.

Schools and Colleges

Colleges

• Merthyr Tydfil College of Further Education

Secondary Schools

• Afon Taf High School
• Bishop Hedley High School
• Cyfarthfa High School
• Pen-y-dre High School

Primary Schools/Nurseries

• Gellifaelog Junior School
• Gwaunfarren Junior School
• St. Illtyd's R.C. Primary School
• St. Mary's R.C. Primary School

Natives of Merthyr Tydfil

Among those born in Merthyr Tydfil are:

• Laura Ashley - fashion designer and retailler
• William Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose - newspaper proprietor, and his brothers Seymour Berry (Lord Buckland) and James Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley
• Richard Davies - actor
• Sir Samuel Griffith - Australian politician
• Craig Handley - film director
• Julien Macdonald - fashion designer
• Leslie Norris - poet
• Johnny Owen - boxer
• Joseph Parry - composer
• Robert Sidoli - Welsh rugby international
• Howard Winstone - boxer

Other notable residents included Esther Isaacs, mother of "Chariots of Fire" athlete Harold Abrahams; as was the grandfather of Rolf Harris. One of the first two Labour MPs to be elected to parliament, the Scot Keir Hardie, was elected by the Merthyr Tydfil constituency.

See also

• List of places in Merthyr Tydfil for a list of settlements

External links

• Merthyr Tydfil F.C.
• Merthyr Tydfil College
• Old Merthyr Tydfil
• Merthyrs indie folksters
• Merthyr Freecycle
• Rhymney Dowlais Brewery
• Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council
• Merthyr Tydfil Online
• Trefechan Partnership Board

References

• A Brief History of Merthyr Tydfil by Joseph Gross. The Starling Press. 1980
• The Merthyr Rising by Gwyn A Williams. University of Wales Press, 1977-1988
• The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004-2005
• People, Protest and Politics, case studies in C19 Wales By David Egan, Gomer 1987
• Cyfres y Cymoedd: Merthyr a Thaf, edited by Hywel Teifi Edwards. Gomer, 2001

51°45′N 3°23′W / 51.750°N 3.383°W / 51.750; -3.383