County in Wales
Merthyr Tydfil
In 1804 a steam engine chugged out of Merthyr and made railway history, years before Stephenson's Rocket. The town that powered the Industrial Revolution has a lot more to tell.
Key information
- County
- Merthyr Tydfil
- Nation
- Wales
- Population
- About 58,800 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Iron-making, Trevithick's 1804 steam locomotive, the 1831 Merthyr Rising, Cyfarthfa Castle
- What locals are called
- Merthyrians
- Famous people
- Joseph Parry, Howard Winstone, Keir Hardie (its MP), Dic Penderyn
- Football clubs
- Merthyr Town (the current club, formed in 2010; the original club played in the Football League from 1920 to 1930) and the former club Merthyr Tydfil FC (1945–2010)
About Merthyr Tydfil
The day a locomotive won a 500-guinea bet
On 21 February 1804, Richard Trevithick's steam locomotive pulled ten tons of iron and about seventy men along the tramroad from Penydarren ironworks. It covered roughly nine miles down the valley towards Abercynon. It was the first time a steam engine had hauled a load on rails. The stakes were real. Penydarren's owner, Samuel Homfray, had wagered 500 guineas that it could be done, and he won. The engine was a one-off. It was heavy enough to break the cast-iron plates of the tramroad, and it went back to work as a stationary engine. Even so, the idea had been proved here, in a Welsh valley, long before the railway age got going.
When Merthyr was the biggest town in Wales
Four great ironworks (Cyfarthfa, Dowlais, Penydarren and Plymouth) turned a sheep-farming parish into the largest town in Wales. Coal, iron ore, limestone and fast streams all sat within a few miles of each other, which was exactly what iron-making needed. Cyfarthfa was one of the biggest ironworks in the world in its day. Its owners, the Crawshay family, built Cyfarthfa Castle in 1824 as their home, looking out over the works that paid for it. It is now a museum and art gallery in a public park, and a good place to see how ironmasters lived. The Dowlais works had its own remarkable figure in Lady Charlotte Guest, wife of the ironmaster John Josiah Guest. She learned Welsh with help from scholars including John Jones (Tegid) and Thomas Price (Carnhuanawc), and translated the Mabinogion, the medieval Welsh tales, into English between 1838 and 1849. That is how King Arthur-style Welsh legends reached a wider readership. The human cost was heavy. Workers lived in crowded, unhealthy streets, and disease swept through the town. That poverty fed the anger that followed.
The town that raised the red flag
In 1831 Merthyr rose up. Workers facing wage cuts and debt court seizures took to the streets in what became the Merthyr Rising. Soldiers were sent in and there was bloodshed. The red flag is often said to have been flown here as a symbol of working-class revolt. A young miner, Richard Lewis, known as Dic Penderyn, was convicted of wounding a soldier and hanged in Cardiff. Many believed he was innocent, and he became a martyr of the Welsh labour movement. His name still carries weight in Merthyr today. The town's radical streak carried on. In 1900 voters here elected Keir Hardie, a Scottish former miner, as one of their two MPs. He was the first Labour leader in Parliament, and he sat for Merthyr until his death in 1915.
Hymns, boxing gloves and Merthyr voices
Joseph Parry, the composer of the much-loved song "Myfanwy", was born in Merthyr in 1841. His family moved to America when he was a boy, and he later became the first professor of music at Aberystwyth. The town is also a fighting one. Howard Winstone, born in Merthyr in 1939, became world featherweight champion in 1968. He had lost the tips of three fingers in a factory accident as a young man. He was trained by Eddie Thomas, a Merthyr welterweight who had been British and European champion himself. Merthyr is also a football and rugby town. The original Merthyr Town played in the Football League from 1920 to 1930, and Merthyr Tydfil FC, founded in 1945, became a famous non-league name. After winning the Welsh Cup, they beat Atlético Madrid 2-1 at Penydarren Park in the 1987 Cup Winners' Cup. Merthyr Tydfil FC folded in 2010 and Merthyr Town was re-formed. Merthyr RFC dates back to 1876.
Aberfan and the quiet strength of the valleys
On 21 October 1966 a colliery spoil tip slid down the hillside above Aberfan and engulfed Pantglas Junior School and nearby houses. 144 people died, 116 of them children. It is one of the most painful days in Welsh history, and it led to changes in how tips are managed. The village still marks the anniversary each year, and the memorial garden stands where the school once was.
Green hills at the town's back door
Merthyr may be known for iron, but the hills around it are green and open. The town sits on the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons, now also known as Bannau Brycheiniog. The Taf Fechan valley and Pontsticill Reservoir are close by. The Brecon Mountain Railway runs steam trains along the reservoir shore. In town, Pontycafnau, an early iron bridge built in the 1790s, is a reminder of just how inventive the ironmasters were. It carried a tramroad and a water channel together. Locals are Merthyrians, and the name is pronounced roughly "Mer-thir". The town is named for Tydfil, a Welsh princess who was killed around 480 AD. The Welsh word merthyr means martyr, so the name means the martyr Tydfil's place.
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Coal Mining in the South Wales Valleys
Published
In 1913 the South Wales coalfield sent out 56 million tons of coal, and Cardiff's Coal Exchange was where the world's price was set. Then the valleys went almost silent.