Merthyr Tydfil Contents

MERTHYR TYDVIL is a market town in Glamorganshire, situated in the valley of the Taff, about nine miles from the source of that river. This town has grown into great importance by the establishment of very extensive iron works, on account of the ore and coal that the neighbourhood abounds with. There are four of these in Merthyr, the most extensive of which is the Cyfartha, employing about three thousand persons; and in this immense concern are nine blast furnaces, in conjunction with four very superior and powerful steam engines, making an average quantity of iron of from 65 to 70 tons each furnace weekly, which exceeds that of any other furnace in the kingdom. The whole of the metal from these works, and from furnaces a few miles distant, is converted into bar and other malable iron, by machinery of the most superior construction, driven by water, taken into levels at some distance up the river Taff, and conveyed by aqueducts, which produce some considerable falls on arriving at the site of the works. Merthyr does not prepossess the visitor with a very favourable idea of its respectability, as it is very irregularly built, without form or order, and ill adapted to the extent of business that is prosecuted there. The church is a plain modern edifice; there is also a chapel of ease, and meeting houses for the different dissenters; a theatre, and two reading rooms conduce to the amusement of the inhabitants. The agriculture in the vincinity of this town is of late years arrived to great perfection; and the crops from the lands in the immediate neighbourhood, are equal in proportion to the production of the most fertile districts of the kingdom. The population in the parish is 17,004, and, including the vicinity, it is estimated at 30, 000; a great portion of whom get their livelihood by the iron works, or in some pursuit connected with those large establishments. The market day is Saturday, and there is a fair on the 18th. Nov.

Post Master, D. Davies. Mail to Cardiff, &c. every day at half-past twelve; returns every night at ten

[Transcribed by Phil Mustoe, 5th April 1998]

Pigot's London Provincial Directory. Merthyr Tydfil 1822-1823

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