Town in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales
Aberdare
Aberdare once had a Football League club, a Home Secretary for a local lord and a choir of ironworkers that beat the best in London.
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Key information
- County
- Rhondda Cynon Taf
- Nation
- Wales
- Known for
- Steam coal, Victorian choirs, the Eisteddfod and Aberdare Park
- What locals are called
- Aberdare folk, or simply Cynon Valley people
- Famous people
- Henry Austin Bruce (Lord Aberdare), Caradog, Kelly Jones of the Stereophonics (from nearby Cwmaman)
- Football clubs
- Aberdare Town; formerly Aberdare Athletic (Football League, 1921–27)
About Aberdare
The Football League club that vanished
Aberdare once had a place in the Football League. Aberdare Athletic joined the new Third Division South in 1921 and played there for six seasons. In 1927 the club failed to be re-elected and Torquay United took its place. Aberdare Athletic folded not long afterwards. It is one of the great what-ifs of Welsh football, and a reminder of how big and confident the town was in the coal years. Today the flag is flown by Aberdare Town, and rugby remains the other great Saturday habit in the valley.
Where the Dare meets the Cynon
The name is the geography. Aber Dâr means the mouth of the River Dare, which runs into the Cynon here. For most of its history this was a quiet farming area. Then came iron. The Aberdare Canal opened in 1812 to carry iron down to the coast, and ironworks such as Gadlys, founded in 1827, followed. The Taff Vale Railway reached the town in 1846. The real fortune, though, was underneath. Aberdare's steam coal was prized for ships and railways, and pits sprang up all along the valley. A farming parish turned into one of the busiest industrial towns in Wales within a couple of generations.
The ironworkers who conquered the Crystal Palace
Aberdare's most famous musician was a conductor known as Caradog. His real name was Griffith Rhys Jones, and he led the South Wales Choral Union, a choir drawn from the valleys' chapels and works. In 1872 they travelled to the Crystal Palace in London and won the national choral competition. They did it again the following year. The press called the victory a triumph for the Welsh working man. The town never forgot it. A statue of Caradog by Goscombe John was unveiled in Victoria Square in 1920, and he still stands in the middle of town, baton in hand. The Eisteddfod has a long history here too. The National Eisteddfod came to Aberdare in 1861, 1885 and 1956.
The Home Secretary who gave Wales its schools
Henry Austin Bruce was born near Aberdare in 1815. He rose to be Home Secretary from 1868 to 1873 and became the first Baron Aberdare. He is best remembered for education. The Aberdare Report of 1881 examined schooling in Wales and argued for proper intermediate and higher education. It led to the Welsh Intermediate Education Act of 1889 and the creation of county schools across the country. His name lives on in Cardiff too, where Aberdare Hall was set up as a residence for women students at the university college he helped to lead.
A park, a pit and a famous band
Aberdare Park opened in 1869 as a green space for a town that had grown very fast and very smoky. It still has its bandstand, and it remains the town's favourite place for a Sunday walk. Down the road at Hirwaun, Tower Colliery tells the other half of the story. Opened in 1864, it became the oldest continuously worked deep mine in Britain. When British Coal planned to close it in 1994, the miners bought it themselves in 1995 and ran it as a workers' cooperative until it closed in 2008. The valley's modern fame is musical. The Stereophonics came from Cwmaman, just up the road, and Kelly Jones's songs carry the voice of the Cynon Valley round the world.
What to look for in town
Start in Victoria Square, with Caradog and the Victorian buildings around him. The covered market is a short walk away, and it is still a good place to pick up Welsh cakes and local gossip. The canal and ironworks sites are now mostly quiet, but they mark the places where Aberdare began. The mountains above the town are close and steep, which explains why the pits and terraces spread along the valley floor in long lines. The Coliseum theatre in Trecynon is a reminder that this was a town with a taste for entertainment as well as hard work.