Pre-industrial Merthyr What is now
Merthyr Tydfil town centre was originally 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. Farm produce was traded at many markets and fairs, notably the Waun Fair above
Dowlais.
The Industrial Revolution Influence and growth of iron industry What is now Merthyr Tydfil County Borough 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 in the northern half of the County Borough. 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
Francis Homfray and
Samuel Homfray after 1784. The demand for iron was fuelled by the
Royal Navy, who needed
cannon for their ships, and later by the railways. In 1802,
Admiral Lord Nelson visited Merthyr to witness
cannon being made. was built to carry the
Brecon and Merthyr Railway 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 engineering challenges. In 1804, the world's first railway
steam locomotive, "The Iron Horse", developed by the
Cornish engineer
Richard Trevithick, pulled 10 tons of iron on the newly constructed
Merthyr 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 alongside Pentrebach Road at the lower end of the town. The
1801 census recorded the population of Merthyr as 7705, the most populous
parish in Wales (however, the built-up area of
Swansea, covering several parishes, then exceeded 10,000). By 1851 Merthyr had overtaken Swansea to become the largest town in Wales with 46,378 inhabitants. By this time,
Irish immigrants made up 10% of the local population, and there were substantial numbers of
English, together with some
Spaniards and
Italians.
The Merthyr Rising The
Merthyr Rising 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. Some workers were paid in specially minted coins or credit notes, known as "truck" which could only be exchanged at shops owned by their employers. Many of the workers objected to both the price and quality of the goods sold in these shops. Some 7,000 to 10,000 workers marched and, for four days, magistrates and ironmasters were under siege in the Castle Hotel, and the protesters effectively controlled Merthyr. The
Gurnos housing estate was established by Merthyr Tydfil Council in the early 1950s and expanded over many years. Cyfarthfa, the former home of the ironmaster
William Crawshay II, 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. On 21 October 1966 a colliery tip slid down a mountain at
Aberfan, 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Merthyr, covering the village school and causing the
Aberfan disaster. In 1992, while testing a new
angina treatment in Merthyr Tydfil, researchers discovered that the new drug had erection-stimulating side effects for some of the healthy volunteers in the trial study. This discovery would go on to form the basis for
Viagra. In 2006 inventor Howard Stapleton, based in Merthyr Tydfil, developed the technology that has given rise to the recent mosquitotone or
Teen Buzz phenomenon. ==Open cast mining==