#aberafan

Merthyr Tydfil sits within the South Wales coalfield which covers an area of around 1000 miles squared. Merthyr is described by T.E. Clarke in his travel guide to the area, originally published in 1848  as lying amongst ‘bleak mountains’ and surrounded by the by-products of the iron industry creating large mounds that frame the town. Merthyr was very much a town created by the Industrial Revolution and the Iron Industry, but it’s existence is much older. 

Merthyr had been established in Glamorganshire since Medieval times but it did not become a significant settlement until the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Its name comes from the Welsh for martyr (Methyr) and the name of a Welsh saint named Tydfil. She was the twenty-third daughter of King Brychan of Brycheiniog in the 5th Century. He tale says that she was murdered around 480 on the site of the settlement by pagans along with her brother Rhu. I don’t know an awful lot about early Welsh history so I don’t know how well informed of a judgement this is, but I find it rather interesting that the site took the name of Tydfil and not her brother. She was also thought to be buried on the site. The word merthyr in fact is thought to mean a mausoleum of a martyr in old Welsh rather than martyr itself. Either way, the same meaning applies. 

Merthyr was rich in coal, limestone and iron ore, allowing for this to be a prime location for industry even before the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Small scale industry had been established since the Elizabethan age but ultimately it would be the beginning of mass industry that would see Merthyr explode. The Industrial Revolution caused Merthyr Tydfil, and other industrial towns on the coalfield, to grow in size rapidly due to migration from the surrounding counties for work at the many new factories and mines. The town had become greatly significant to the Iron Industry in Wales. There were four major ironworks in the town which were Dowlais, Cyfarthfa, Plymouth and Penydarren. Charles Wilkins described Merthyr as an ‘El Dorado’ filled with the riches of iron production and trade.

Within a century the settlement boomed into a significant industrial town, unimaginable to the people who inhabited the small village for the centuries prior.Between 1801 and 1831 the population of Merthyr has grown by about 14,000 people. In 1801, the town had a population of only 7,705. It was still one of the largest parishes in Glamorganshire, with most of the others lingering beneath the 1,000 mark. By 1831, the population was around 22,000 and more than doubled in 20 years to 46,378 in 1851. This was not an experience unique to Merthyr or even the South Wales area, but this was growth on an unimaginable scale within the area. The closest to it was Swansea, growing from 6,831 in 1801 to a measly 24,902 in 1851. Some of the tiny parishes of 1801 experience large growth but not to the heights of Methyr. Aberafan, where Dic Penderyn (mentioned in the latter portion of the Merthyr Tydfil series) was from, grew from 275 in 1801 to 2,380.

The nature of the settlement allowed it to be a hotbed for dissent and radicalism. Large settlements naturally allowed for ideas to spread, leading themselves to be breading grounds for radical ideas in both politics and religion. Wales itself in the 19th Century became a Nonconformist nation, with the majority of the people belonging to Nonconformist and Dissenting congregations such as Baptists, Unitarians and Congregationalists, while the landowning, often English, elite were mainly Anglicans. Merthyr was no exception. This radical and dissenting tradition can be seen quite clearly in some of the buildings of Merthyr, such as what is supposedly the oldest purpose-built synagogue in Wales. During a time of religious toleration these types of buildings would of course have been something that large settlements would have had. However, this was still something that dissenters and radicals would be more welcoming towards. In fact, Merthyr had a sizeable Jewish population. Merthyr was a very Welsh town with the 1841 census declaring that 91% of the population had roots in other counties across Wales. However, that leaves a 9% non-Welsh population. I am unsure how this figure separates between different groups, however, it is linkely that the majority of these probably would have been English, Scottish and Irish. However, people certainly came from further afield, with evidence of migration from across Europe such as Germany, Northerin Italy and Russia. This experience is echoed by other industrial areas across Wales such as the copper works at Swansea, mines and iron works at Blanafon and slate mining in Snowdonia. 

As with many other large settlements, Methyr had its rich and its poor. The poorer sections of society were concentrated in a slum with names and connotations that would not be acceptable by today’s standards. The slum was called China with the inhabitants known as ‘the Chinese’. Despite the name, the majority of the population would have likely been Irish. It was a hotbed for crime, mainly out of necessity. Those who lived in the China slum were seen as entirely separate class to the other inhabitants, labelled as a kind of criminal underclass. The living conditions were exceptionally poor, with diseases that plagued the 19th century such as cholera raging rampant through the area. The inhabitants of ‘China’ formed their own society which became known as ‘the Empire’ with an ‘Emperor’ and ‘Empress’ which were seen to be the leaders of the town. In fact, different sections had their own names, Rodnies were juvenile criminals, Nymphs were prostitutes and Bullies their pimps.  

You can read about the details of the rising, its precursors, events and ramifications in these series of posts below. Each one when clicked should take you to a different post about the rising.

The Prelude to the Merthyr Rising (Long term causes)

The Immediate Sparks of the Merthyr Rising (Short term causes)

The Events of the Merthyr Rising (1): 31 May -  June 1831

The Events of the Merthyr Rising (2) 3 June - 6 June 1831