MERTHYR TYDFIL

Site Description

Merthyr Tydfil was the first true iron town in the world, growing up around a series of different ironworks. The adoption of coke fuel permitted the conglomeration of numerous furnaces and forges on a band of outcropping coal, iron ore and limestone at the head of the South Wales coalfield, transforming Merthyr from a village in the 1750s to the largest town in Wales by 1801.

Dowlais Ironworks, established in 1759, was probably the first to use coke fuel in South Wales. The other great works were Plymouth (1763), Cyfarthfa (1765), and Penydarren (1782), but a number of subsidiary works were constructed during the early nineteenth century. All of these ironworks grew into multi-furnace sites, and by 1840 Dowlais, which was the largest at the time, had 18 furnaces and employed 10,000 people and 100 steam engines. The King of Prussia, who visited in 1844, described Merthyr as 'the fiery city of Pluto', but introduction of Bessemer steelmaking in 1856 began its decline, since local phosphoric ores could not be used until the introduction of the Thomas process in 1878. Several works closed, while others converted to steel production using imported ores. Several monuments and buildings of importance lie within this area, including Cyfarthfa Furnaces, Ynysfach Engine House, Cefn Coed Viaduct, Cyfarthfa Castle, Dowlais Stables, Pontycafnau Iron Bridge and aqueduct of 1793, and typical early workers' houses at Chapel Row in Georgetown. These are integral to a much larger landscape of tramroads, railways, canals, settlement, quarrying and mining. The town retains its incoherent pattern of development between the separate ironworks' communities, dictated by the routes of tramroads and the extent of slag heaps.

The whole area has been included on the advisory Register of Landscapes of Outstanding Historic Interest in Wales. However, major opencast mining, land reclamation and development schemes are under consideration, and the planning process is being challenged to balance this with heritage interests if extensive areas of characteristic tips, transport features, watercourses and mines are to be retained.

(Notes via D.K Leighton for TICCIH 2000 Conference)
Site visited B.A.Malaws, 05 September 2000.

The Welsh Assembly Government has recently opened a major office in the town near a large telecommunications call centre. Hoover (now part of the Candy Group) has its Registered Office in the town and remained a major employer until it transferred production abroad in March 2009, resulting in the loss of 337 jobs after the closure of its factory.

RCAHMW, 2009.

Coflein

MERTHYR TYDFIL

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