Chapter 8
THE COMING OF THE COAL-OWNERS TO THE
ABERDARE VALLEY 1837–1861

1. Early Coal Trade.

Before 1760 the coal trade in Aberdare valley and North Glamorgan and Monmouthshire was confined to the uplands of those counties and the south of Breconshire. But with the coming of the substantial iron trade and the increased availability of coal from the working of the patches for iron ore, the use of coal began to be more intensive, especially in the ironworks themselves. With the coming of the canals to the ironworks districts and beyond in the 1790s, the coal trade expanded but remained small in comparison with the production of the iron trade.

2. First Valley Export of Coal.

In the 1820s the smoke nuisance in London became so bad that coal factors began the search for a coal that produced the minimum of smoke and the maximum of heat. Someone directed the attention of Mr. George Insole, a London-Welsh coal factor, to the excellent quality of the coal being produced by a certain Mrs. Lucy Thomas of Waun-Wyllt (the Wild Common) Level, near Merthyr Tydfil. She produced this coal for sale in the Merthyr area, and she occasionally sent a barge of 36 tons to the growing town of Cardiff.

In 1830, George Insole made an agreement with Lucy Thomas for the selling of Waun-Wyllt coal in the London area. The coal was soon selling so exceptionally well that in a few months Mrs. Thomas found that she could sell all her coal at the mine-head for the then fabulous price of 4s. 0d. a ton. Soon there were coal factors from the London area in Merthyr anxious to make contracts for the supply of the famous Four Feet Seam Smokeless Steam Coal of Waun-Wyllt. The facts of the situation were not lost on the industrialists of the Merthyr and Aberdare valleys, where the industrial situation was ripe for a vast expansion of the export of coal trade from the valleys to the rest of Britain.

3. Thomas Wayne and the Origins of the Aberdare Coal Trade.

Thomas Wayne, son of Matthew Wayne owner of the Gadlys ironworks in Aberdare, was the agent of the Glamorgan Canal Company at Plasdraw, Aberdare, and active in the iron trade of the district. Interested in the amazing success of Mrs. Lucy Thomas of Waun-Wyllt colliery in Merthyr in the early 1830s, he thought:—
 

“....if the four feet seam is in Waun-Wyllt in Merthyr then it must be in Cwmbach in the Aberdare valley, because only the mountain is between the two places”.

He consulted his father, Matthew Wayne, and he agreed that it might be so. Thomas Wayne then went to the owner of the Abernantygroes estate in Cwmbach, in the Aberdare valley, and made an agreement to sink a pit and work any coal found on the estate. In June 1837 he struck the coal at a depth of only 49 yards. To his great joy, on being tested, it turned out to be the famous Four Feet Seam of Waun-Wyllt. Immediately the people concerned formed the Aberdare and Merthyr Steam Coal Company.

The partners in the company were: —

Matthew Wayne,    Thomas Wayne,   W.W. Wayne,

Wm. Thos. David,   Gwladys David,    William Morgan.

The progress of the company in the first few years was:—

Coal sent down the canal:—

1839 ‒ 3,373 tons

1845 ‒ 38,000 tons

1846 ‒ 48,000 tons.

So great were the profits, 20% and so dazzling the prospects, that there ensued a veritable coal rush to the eastern side of the Aberdare valley. Here the Glamorganshire canal provided good transport to the port of Cardiff, for in the 1830s in the valleys of South Vales there were still no railways to deal with the growing industrial developments taking place on an ever-growing scale in the area.

4. First Phase of the Coal Boom in the Aberdare Valley.

The success of Thomas Wayne was soon followed by the coming to the area of the most enterprising of the new industrialists who had been rising to the surface of society in South Wales since the early 1800s.

1837	Abernantygroes Pit, Cwmbach.	The Wayne Family etc.
1840	Tir-Founder Pit, Cwmbach.	Thos. Powell.
1843	Llettyshenkin Pit, Cwmbach	Wm. Thomas (Waun-Wyllt)
1843	Ynyscynon Pit, Cwmbach	David Williams
1844	Werfa Pits, Cwmbach	John Nixon, Heath, Evens
1844	Aberaman Pit, Aberaman	Crawshay Bailey
1844	Upper Duffryn, Cwmbach	Thos. Powell
1844	Gadlys Pit, Aberdare	Wayne Family
1845	Cwmdare Pit, Cwmdare	David Davies
1848	Cwmaman Pit, Cwmaman	Shepherd and Evans
1849	Bedwlwyn Level, Cwmaman	J. Kenway
1849	Ysguborwen Colliery, Aberdare	Thomas and Joseph
1851	Cwmneol Pit, Cwmaman	Carr and Co.
1851	Fforchaman Pit, Cwmaman	Prothero Bros.
1854	Abergwawr Pit, Aberaman	Powell & Prothero
1854	Lower Duffryn, Cwmbach	Powell & Co.
1854	Middle Duffryn, Cwmbach	Powell & Co.
1861	Nantmelyn Pit, Cwmdare	Roberts & Jones

(History of the Coal Trade - Rev. Ivor Parry lectures 1964).

5. Transport in the First Phase of the Coal Boom.

The Glamorganshire Canal — In the early 1830s the Aberdare branch of the Glamorganshire canal took about 10,000 tons of iron from Aberdare to Cardiff, in addition to this were coal, limestone and some bricks. But with the rapid development of the coal industry, the conditions of canal transport soon became quite unsatisfactory.

The newly made docks at Plasdraw and Ynyscynon, Cwmbach, were frequently at a standstill because of the congestion of the docks, and were a cause of bitter local comment by the coal owners of the district, and the ironmasters. Especially as the railway boom made strong demands on the local ironworks for rails for the railways.

6. The Taff Vale Railway and the Aberdare Railway.

To overcome the chronic congestion on the Glamorganshire canal the great ironmasters of Merthyr Tydfil had in 1841 constructed the Taff Vale Railway at a cost of £300,000. The line was a great success from a transport point of view and from a profits point of view.

In 1847 the industrialists of the Aberdare valley decided to construct a railway from Gadlys in Aberdare to the Taff Vale Railway in Abercynon, a distance of 9 miles. This excellent rail link to Cardiff enormously expedited the expansion of the sinking of pits in the Aberdare area, and there was a riot of pits appearing on the landscape of the valley with their corresponding rows of miners cottages sprouting around them.

The half-yearly report of the Taff Vale Railway for the Aberdare valley for 1848 showed receipts for £1,763 9s 4d. with the conviction: — “that there was a great and profitable future for coal and iron freights in the Aberdare valley”.

(Parry, Lectures on the History of Aberdare.)

7. Other Railways in the Aberdare Valley — 1847–1865.
 

8. Effects on the Valley Scene of the Transport Revolution.

Never in the history of the Aberdare valley had there been such a tempestuous development as in the decade 1845-55. Almost the whole of the physical and social environment had been dramaticl1y changed by the construction of the railway cuttings, the embankments, the giant viaducts of Brunel, the new collieries, and ironworks of Bailey at Aberaman, the pit-mounds, the colliery buildings, ponds, water-courses, tunnels, culverts, railway stations; and above all the sprouting everywhere of houses, shops and other buildings which was turning a centuries old, quiet rural, upland area of Glamorgan into a bustling, dirty industrial urban area. This could be seen in the massive increase in coal production in the Aberdare area.

9. Coal Production in the Aberdare area.

1839 — 20,000 tons	1847 — 269,000 tons
1850 — 477,000 tons	1855 — 1,200,000 tons
1861 — 1,800,000 tons	1870 — 2,070,000 tons

This massive increase of coal output was of course paralleled by a tremendous increase in population.

10. Growth of Population in the Aberdare Valley.

1831 — 3,961 people	1841 — 6,741 people
1851 — 14,998 people	1861 — 32,299 people
1871 — 37,804 people*

*1871 new area. Part of Aberdare parish at the lower end incorporated into the new Local Health Board area of Mountain Ash, Glamorgan.

My estimation of the population of the Aberdare valley in 1871 is:—

Aberdare	37,000 people
Mountain Ash	8,000 people
Hirwaun	2,000 people
Total	47,000 approx

The Hirwaun area has always been divided between Aberdare parish, Ystradfodwg and Penderyn parishes.

POPULATION OF THE ABERDARE VALLEY IN 1801 — APPROXIMATELY 2,000 PEOPLE.