Chapter 7
ABERDARE VALLEY — THE GREAT CHANGE 1759–1837

1. The Coming of the Ironmasters.

In 1750 there were only seven furnaces in South Wales and these were small. Under the stimulus of a giant demand occasioned by Britain’s wars on the Continent, India and North America there began an iron rush to the northern edge of the South Wales coalfield, where all the materials existed for the making of a big iron-making industry.

Here are the works that were set up in steady succession: —

1757 Hirwaun Works.

1759 Dowlais, Merthyr.

1765 Cyfarthfa Works.

1776 Plymouth Works, Merthyr.

1778 Beaufort, Mon.

1779 Blaenavon, Mon.

1784 Penydarren, Merthyr.

1796 Ebbw Vale, Mon.

1799 Llwydcoed, Aberdare.

1799 Nantyglo, Mon.

1800 Abernant, Aberdare.

1827 Gadlys, Aberdare

2. Aberdare Ironworks.

The Hirwaun Works — John Mayberry and John Wilkins: Indenture between them and Lord Windsor for leasehold of all mines of iron ore and coal on Hir Waun Wrgan in the parish of Aberdare, Glamorgan for 99 years from June 1758 for 99 years at £23 per annum.

This setting up of the Hirwaun ironworks began the large-scale industrialization of the Aberdare area. The workers for the building of the ironworks were imported. Gravestones in the local cemeteries show that the workers came to Hirwaun from the surrounding valleys and the border counties of Wales and England.

Soon Hirwaun was a hive of industry. Long rows of cottages were built; ponds were built for the works; a water wheel was installed; the mountainside was patched for iron-ore and coal, i.e., large open trenches were dug, which then progressed towards the mountain, the ore was removed, the unwanted debris was thrown behind the trench and the process was continued. The ore was taken to the works on the backs of mules. The completed iron was then taken by packhorse to the port of Neath, which was 16 miles distant.

3. The Impact of the Hirwaun Works on the People of Aberdare Valley.

The impact of the establishment of the Hirwaun works on the people of Aberdare valley must have been a strong one.

First, there was the introduction of several hundred strange people on the quiet rural community of the valley. One could imagine the valley people going to view the new workings and watching the processes with interest. The buildings on a scale they had probably never seen before. The giant ponds filling, the installation of the water wheel, the vast trenches on the common, the long trail of pack mules plodding across the moorland, and above all the sky at night reddened by the red hot glow of the blast furnaces, all seemed to conspire to produce a feeling that great changes were about to take place. Yet though the Aberdare valley was changing, in the years 1758 to 1799 the chief changes came about in the neighbouring valley of Merthyr Tydfil, about four miles from Hirwaun, where five great iron works were set up in the same period.

4. Llwydcoed Ironworks

In March 1787 Samuel Hughes, Gent, of Tregynter in the County of Brecknock conveyed to Samuel Glover and William Mond of Abercarn, Mon. (all that royalty and lordship or reputed lordship of Llwydcoed and several tenements in Aberdare for the sum of £6,000).

In 1800, an indenture was made between Samuel Glover of one part and John Thompson of Salop, J. Hodgett of Stafford, George Scale and John Scale, leasing some 702 acres of Llwydcoed Forest for 70 years from 1799 at a rent of £1,000 per annum.

On July 26th 1801, the first iron was released from No. 1 furnace. Fifty tons of iron ore was used every day and the make was taken to Penydarren by mule and cart.

The opening of the Llwydcoed works increased the growth of housing in the valley.

5. Abernant Ironworks.

On the 4th October 1800 Jeremiah Homfray of Penydarren, Merthyr and James Birch of Abernant took a lease on certain farms in Abernant, Aberdare for the purpose of establishing an ironworks, sinking mines and patching for ore, over an area of 530 acres. In 1801 they leased more land in the same area, from different landowners and farmers.

In February 1802, Birch and Homfray took into partnership with themselves: —

1. James Tappenden.

2. James Tappenden Jnr.

3. Francis Tappenden.

All were of Furzedean, Kent. The Tappendens brought into the business £40,000 new capital.

Under the vigorous drive of the Tappendens, the Abernant iron company constructed tramways all over the upper part of the valley and down to the new canal at Glyn-neath, which provided easy access to the port of Neath.

In 1807, Birch and Homfray withdrew from the partnership.

It was the establishment of the Abernant ironworks that transformed Aberdare village into a nucleated township, as the works stood only about half a mile from the centre of the village and therefore easily accessible to the slowly growing township.

6. Methods of Iron Making in Aberdare Valley — 1759–1815.

(a) Patching - large quantities of iron ore near the surface were patched. The surface soil was removed. Argillaceous shale worked and the iron ore sorted out. The refuse trammed to the nearest spoil heap.

(b) Scouring — Ponds were made on the upper slopes of the common. The water was then suddenly released, the clay and soil were carried away and the ore was picked out.

(c) Levels or Tunnels — These were made into the mountain, the shale was trammed out and weathered and the ore picked out.

(d) Thomas Rees visited Aberdare in 1815 and noted:—

“First the iron ore was calcined in kilns, to get rid of the sulphur etc. Then it was put in the furnace with coke, wood and limestone; it then emerged as “pig-iron”. It was then put in a furnace with only coke in a “finery”. When the iron was fluid, it was run off into moulds. In this state it was called “finers metal” and was brittle. It was then put in a puddling furnace, stirred, and exposed to the air. Finally, it was put through rollers and beaten with a 3 ton hammer.”

(e) The 18th century technological advances of Cort’s puddling process, and Boulton & Watt steam engines put up the rate of production. Before Cort, twelve hours with the hammer made 1 ton of iron bars, but after Cort, twelve hours with the hammer produced 15 tons of iron.

(J. Yockney - “Economic Geography of Aberdare”.)

7. Transport in the Aberdare Valley 1759‒1815.

Before and after 1759 transport of goods and people were by packhorse. In 1770 Anthony Bacon, the great Merthyr ironmaster made a road from Merthyr to Cardiff. In 1791 the Merthyr ironmasters constructed the Glamorganshire Canal to Cardiff but they would not let the Aberdare ironmasters use it. It enabled a barge to take 36 tons of iron from Merthyr to Cardiff in a 10-hour journey.

In 1793 a canal was built from Neath to Glyn-neath which was 6 miles from Hirwaun works and 10 miles from the Abernant works. From 1804 onwards horse-drawn tramroads connected these works to the Neath canal. These tramroads greatly eased the transport of iron and coal in the valley, but the lack of good water communications such as they had in Merthyr hindered the full development of the ironworks of the valley. However, after great confusion and delays in 1811 a canal was built from the Glamorganshire canal at Abercynon to Plasdraw, Aberdare. This gave the industrial development of the village and the valley a tremendous boost forward.

8. The Gadlys Ironworks.

(a) The coming of the Aberdare branch of the Glamorganshire canal to Aberdare led to the setting up of an ironworks right in the centre of the Aberdare village, which gave an impetus to the further development of Aberdare as a nucleated town.

(b) The Gadlys ironworks was set up by Matthew Wayne at the Gadlys, which is about 440 yards from the old parish church of St. John in the centre of Aberdare village.

Matthew Wayne was a former furnace manager of Richard Crawshay the Merthyr ironmaster, by whom he was left £800 in his Will. Matthew Wayne was on terms of great friendship with Joseph Bailey, nephew of Richard Crawshay, and brother of Crawshay Bailey. Wayne went into partnership with the Baileys at Nant-y-Glo ironworks. He later sold the interests in the Nant y Glo works and went back to Merthyr.

In 1827, Matthew Wayne set up the Gadlys Works. His partners were George Rowland Morgan and Edward Morgan Williams, who retired from the Works in 1829.

It was a small compact Works with one furnace on land leased from the Bute estate. Ore was obtained from a balance pit nearby and from the Dyllas area of Llwydcoed. Coal was obtained from a small pit nearby at Cae Cwm. In 1828, Gadlys ironworks sent iron down the canal to Cardiff.

1828 — 444 tons.     1834 — 731 tons.

Matthew Wayne had three sons, all active in the iron trade. One of them Thomas Wayne was the agent at Aberdare for the Glamorgan canal company and a trustee for the Aberdare Turnpike Trust. He was soon to be a most important man in the further industrial and social development of the Aberdare valley and of South Wales in general. (“Notes on the History of Aberdare” - Rev. Ivor Parry. 1964).

9. Pou1ation Growth in the Aberdare Valley - 1759‒1837.

(a) There are no exact figures for the population before 1759, but some idea of the basic population can be got from the fact that all the upland churches of Glamorgan, which are very old, have a seating capacity of between 200-250, which suggests that the population centred round a figure of between 200 and 400.

In 1801 the population of Aberdare parish = 1,486

In 1821 the population of Aberdare parish = 2,062

In 1831 the population of Aberdare parish = 3,961

(b) The area of settlement in the Aberdare valley indicated the setting up of the ironworks.

Malkin in 1807 wrote: “Abernant and Llwydcoed had three blast furnaces apiece, and that Hirwaun was a confusion of anvils and blast furnaces ...” p.12.

Rees in 1815 wrote:— “...the village is losing its rural character..........there is a multiplication of houses in every direction”.

Malkin wrote:— “that industry had excited the farmers to improve their lands. Corn was being grown where it was never grown before”.

The growth of population is shown by the growth of the output of iron exported from the district.

In 1815 the tonnage sent down the canal wss 21,000 tons. Despite the post-Napoleonic War depression, the population continued to grow rapidly:—

1831 — 3,961.      1841 — 6,741

But in the 1830s a new industrial development was to take place that was to have a most dramatic effect on the future development of the Aberdare valley.

(J. Yockney — “Economic Geography of Aberdare,” 1956).