Vaynor ( Welsh : Y Faenor , meaning "The Manor") is a village and community (formerly a parish ) in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough in Wales , United Kingdom. The population of the community at the 2011 census was 3,551.
71-500: It is about four miles north of the town of Merthyr Tydfil and is within the borders of the Brecon Beacons National Park . The community includes the three villages of Cefn-coed-y-cymmer , Trefechan and Pontsticill as well as Pontsarn and Vaynor. To the west are Nant Glais Caves . It also includes the southern section of Pontsticill Reservoir and the eastern end of Llwyn-On Reservoir . Until 1974,
142-473: A hammer at the Penydarren Ironworks. With the assistance of works engineer Rees Jones, Trevithick mounted the engine on wheels and turned it into a locomotive. In 1803, Trevithick sold the patents for his locomotives to Homfray. Homfray was so impressed with Trevithick's locomotive that he made another bet with Crawshay, this time for 500 guineas so that it could haul 10 tons of iron along
213-584: A few scattered farms on the mountain slopes. Norman barons moved in after the Norman Conquest of England, but by 1093 they occupied only the lowlands; the uplands remained in the hands of the local Welsh rulers. There were conflicts between the barons and the families descended from the Welsh princes, and control of the land passed to and fro in the Welsh Marches . During this time Morlais Castle
284-517: A growth in desirability due to various renovation projects and an increasing tourism sector. In 2021 Merthyr Tydfil local authority area had a 27.9% house price increase over the 12 months of the year, the highest of any of the 22 local authority areas in Wales. The area was second highest in Wales from 2018 to 2019. Cyfarthfa Castle, a castellated mansion built for the Ironmasters of Cyfarthfa,
355-435: A part of the archaeological record. Seeds are a common plant material that are found and included in the archaeological record. The seeds that archaeologists find are usually those that were burned during cooking, which helps to preserve them. Features are also part of the archaeological record, and are material culture that usually archaeologists are unable to take and study inside a lab. Features can include burn marks in
426-479: A physical model and postprocessual archaeologists a textual model. Lucas condenses Patrik's list into three distinct definitions of the archaeological record: In its broadest sense, the archaeological record can be conceived as the total body of objects made by, used by, or associated with, humanity. This definition encompasses both artefacts (objects made or modified by humans) and ' ecofacts ' (natural objects associated with human activity). In this sense, it
497-469: A separate class, away from the respectable areas of Merthyr, and were clearly recognisable by their lifestyle and appearance. In his article, In search of the Celestial Empire , historian Keith Strange compares China to areas of Liverpool, Nottingham and Derby, and states that this area was just as bad if not worse than those "little Sodoms". There were at least 1,500 people living in the slum,
568-469: A stark contrast to the heavy industry in the coal and ironworks which had an almost entirely male workforce. Several other companies built factories, including the aviation components company Teddington Aircraft Controls, which opened in 1946 and closed in the early 1970s. The Merthyr Tydfil Institute for the Blind, founded in 1923, is the oldest active manufacturer in the town. Cyfarthfa, the former home of
639-504: A ward to Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council , electing two (generally Independent ) county councillors. 51°47′00″N 3°22′48″W / 51.78325°N 3.38002°W / 51.78325; -3.38002 Merthyr Tydfil Merthyr Tydfil ( Welsh : Merthyr Tudful ) is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough , Wales , administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council . It
710-488: Is a picturesque part of the Taff Trail cycle path linking Cardiff to Brecon. Merthyr Tydfil Town Hall has been given a new lease of life as an arts and creative industries centre. The Grade-II listed terracotta building, opening originally in 1896 having taken 35 years to build, has had an £8 million refurbishment finishing in 2014. The four-storey, Grade-II listed YMCA building, also with terracotta-faced structure,
781-573: Is about 23 miles (37 km) north of Cardiff . Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydfil , daughter of King Brychan of Brycheiniog , who according to legend was slain at Merthyr by pagans about 480 CE. Merthyr generally means " martyr " in modern Welsh , but here closer to the Latin martyrium : a place of worship built over a martyr's relics . Similar place names in south Wales are Merthyr Cynog , Merthyr Dyfan and Merthyr Mawr . Noted for its industrial past, Merthyr
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#1732783905098852-590: Is currently known for its industrial heritage and adventure tourism. Merthyr and the surrounding areas boast the Grade-I listed Cyfarthfa Castle , the world’s fastest seated zip line, the UK's largest mountain bike park, the largest indoor climbing wall in Wales, national cycle routes and plans for the UK's longest indoor ski slope. Peoples migrating north from Europe had lived in the area for many thousands of years. The archaeological record starts from about 1000 BCE with
923-454: Is equivalent to material culture , and includes not just 'ancient' remains but the physical things associated with contemporary societies. This definition, which emphasizes the materiality of the archaeological record and aligns archaeology with material culture studies and the 'material turn' in cultural anthropology , has become increasingly common with the rise of post-processual archaeology . More conservative definitions specify that
994-474: Is like a vision of Hell, and will never leave me, that of these poor creatures broiling, all in sweat and dirt, amid their furnaces, pits, and rolling mills." China was the name given to a nineteenth-century slum in the Pont-Storehouse area of Merthyr Tydfil. This was not a ' Chinatown ' in the modern sense, and its residents were mainly English, Irish and Welsh. The inhabitants of China were seen as
1065-521: Is now a museum and art shop, attracting almost 7 million day visits in a year. Further plans report a 50 million renovation planned of the Castle and its surrounding areas, including rescuing the 200-year-old Cyfarthfa furnaces west of the Taff, a scheduled ancient monument of world importance, but currently endangered. Cefn Coed viaduct is the third largest in Wales and now a Grade II listed building. It
1136-421: Is the story of the human world. Scholars have frequently used in textual analogies such as 'record', 'source' and 'archive' to refer to material evidence of the past since at least the 19th century. The term 'archaeological record' probably originated this way, possibly via parallel concepts in geology ( geologic record ) or palaeontology ( fossil record ). The term was used regularly by V. Gordon Childe in
1207-545: Is undergoing an £8.6million refurbishment. Originally created by leading Welsh architect Sir Percy Thomas in 1911, it is planned to be a hub for economic and social activity. In 2006, a large open-cast coal mine to extract 10 million tonnes of coal over 15 years was authorised just east of Merthyr, as part of the Ffos-y-fran open-cast mine . The parish of Merthyr Tydfil was made a local board district in 1850, which became an urban district in 1894. The urban district
1278-415: Is used to interpret the archaeological record for a better understanding of human cultures. The archaeological record can consist of the earliest ancient findings as well as contemporary artifacts . Human activity has had a large impact on the archaeological record. Destructive human processes, such as agriculture and land development , may damage or destroy potential archaeological sites . Other threats to
1349-823: The Celts . From their language, the Welsh language developed. Hillforts were built during the Iron Age and the tribe that inhabited them in the south of Wales was called the Silures , according to Tacitus , the Roman historian of the Roman invaders . The Romans arrived in Wales by about 47–53 CE and established a network of forts , with roads to link them. They had to fight hard to consolidate their conquests, and in 74 CE they built an auxiliary fortress at Penydarren , overlooking
1420-473: The Industrial Revolution came a sharp decline in young men working in agriculture, who were attracted by higher wages paid in industries such as iron. In 1829, the depression hit Merthyr hard, as ironmasters responded with dismissals, wage cuts and short-term working. Any sudden downturn in the market plunged workers into hardship, widening the class distinctions. The Merthyr Rising of 1831
1491-592: The Merthyr Tydfil Tramroad from Penydarren ( 51°45′03″N 3°22′33″W / 51.75083°N 3.37583°W / 51.75083; -3.37583 ( Merthyr Tramroad ) ) to Abercynon ( 51°38′44″N 3°19′27″W / 51.64556°N 3.32417°W / 51.64556; -3.32417 ( Merthyr Tramroad ) ) , a distance of 9.75 miles (15.69 km). Amid great public interest on 21 February 1804, it successfully carried 11.24 tons of coal, five wagons and 70 men over
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#17327839050981562-519: The Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney constituency is Gerald Jones ; the Senedd member is Dawn Bowden MS. Archaeological record The archaeological record is the body of physical (not written ) evidence about the past. It is one of the core concepts in archaeology , the academic discipline concerned with documenting and interpreting the archaeological record. Archaeological theory
1633-601: The River Taff . It covered an area of about three hectares , and formed part of the network of roads and fortifications; remains were found underneath the Merthyr Town F.C. football ground. A road ran north–south through the area, linking the southern coast with Mid Wales and Watling Street via Brecon . Parts of this and other roads, including Sarn Helen , can be traced and walked. The Silures resisted this invasion fiercely from their mountain strongholds, but
1704-466: The Roman army eventually prevailed. In time, relative peace was established, and the Penydarren fortress was abandoned by about 120 CE. This was bad for the local economy, which had come to rely upon supplying the fortress with beef and grain, and imported items such as oysters from the coast. The Romans had intermarried with local women and many auxiliary veterans had settled on farms locally. With
1775-573: The Welsh language in the town declined significantly in the late 19th and 20th centuries. In the 1891 census , 68.4 per cent of the 110,569 inhabitants habitually spoke Welsh. By the 1911 Census, the figure had fallen to 50.9 per cent of 74,596 inhabitants. The 2011 census showed 8.9 per cent primarily speaking Welsh. Merthyr Tydfil hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1881 and 1901 and the national Urdd Gobaith Cymru Eisteddfod in 1987. Merthyr has 3 Welsh medium primary schools, with
1846-539: The decline of the Roman Empire , Roman legions were withdrawn about 380 CE. By 402, the Roman army in Britain consisted mostly of Germanic troops and local recruits; the cream of the army had been withdrawn to the continent of Europe. Sometime in that period, Irish Dalriadans (Scots) and Picts attacked and breached Hadrian's Wall . During the 4th and 5th centuries the coasts of Cambria (Wales) had been subject to
1917-418: The 1950s, and seems to have entered common parlance thereafter. In the first critical review of the concept, philosopher Linda Patrik found that by the 1980s archaeologists conceptualised the term in at least five different ways: Patrik argued that the first three definitions reflected a "physical model" of archaeological evidence, where it is seen as the direct result of physical processes that operated in
1988-467: The 19th century progressed, Merthyr's inland location became increasingly disadvantageous for iron production. Penydarren closed in 1859 and Plymouth in 1880; thereafter some ironworkers migrated to the United States or even Ukraine , where Merthyr engineer John Hughes established an ironworks in 1869, creating the new city of Donetsk in the process. In the 1870s, the advent of coal mining to
2059-467: The 19th century, the ironworks at Cyfarthfa (and neighbouring Dowlais) continued to expand, and at their height were the most productive ironworks in the world: 50,000 tons of rails left just one ironworks in 1844, for the railways across Russia to Siberia. With the growing industry in Merthyr, several railway companies established routes linking the works with ports and other parts of Britain. They included
2130-550: The Brecon and Merthyr Railway, Vale of Neath Railway , Taff Vale Railway and Great Western Railway . They often shared routes to allow access to coal mines and ironworks through rugged country, which presented great engineering challenges. According to David Williams, in 1804, the world's first railway steam locomotive, "The Iron Horse", developed by the Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick , pulled 10 tons of iron with passengers on
2201-557: The Plymouth Iron Works and Crawshay the works at Cyfarthfa. The fourth ironworks was Penydarren , built by Francis Homfray and his son Samuel Homfray in 1784. It was the need to export goods from Cyfarthfa that led to the construction of the Glamorganshire Canal running from their works right down the valley to Cardiff Bay, stimulating other businesses along the way. During the first few decades of
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2272-660: The Plymouth Ironworks. However, this was less of a success until the arrival in 1763 of a "Cumberland ironmaster, Anthony Bacon , who leased an area of eight miles by five for £100 a year on which he started the Cyfarthfa Ironworks and also bought the Plymouth Works". After the death of Anthony Bacon in 1786, the ownership of the works passed to Bacon's sons, and was divided between Richard Hill, their manager and Richard Crawshay . Hill now owned
2343-517: The Second World War, this has included women too. "Initially 350 people were employed, by the mid 1970s that number had risen to near 5,000; making Hoover the largest employer in the borough", therefore strongly filling in for the declining coal and iron industries. The strong growth of employment of women in Merthyr after the Second World War can be seen as a result of the introduction of more light manufacturing and consumer-based business –
2414-492: The archaeological record consists of the "remains", "traces" or "residues" of past human activity, although the dividing line between 'the past' and 'the present' may not be well-defined. This view is particularly associated with processual archaeology , which saw the archaeological record as the "fossilised" product of physical, cultural and taphonomic processes that happened in the past, and focused on understanding those processes. The archaeological record can also consist of
2485-496: The archaeological record include natural phenomena and scavenging. Archaeology can be a destructive science for the finite resources of the archaeological record are lost to excavation. Therefore, archaeologists limit the amount of excavation that they do at each site and keep meticulous records of what is found. The archaeological record is the physical record of human prehistory and history , of why ancient civilizations prospered or failed and why those cultures changed and grew. It
2556-413: The archaeological record is often due to the lack of examples, but the archaeological record is everything the science of archaeology has found and created. Components of the archaeological record include: artifacts, built structures, human impact on the environment , garbage, stratigraphy , mortuary practices, plant remains, or animal remains. Artifacts from the archaeological record are usually found in
2627-495: The archaeological record. There are different databases which are used to archive and preserve the documentation in addition to the artifacts which serve as archaeological records. One of these databases is The Digital Archaeological Record. The Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) is an international digital repository for the digital records of archaeological investigations. tDAR's use, development, and maintenance are governed by Digital Antiquity, an organization dedicated to ensuring
2698-540: The biggest town in Wales at that time. The city of Donetsk in Ukraine (then in the Russian Empire ), originally 'Hughesovka', was founded by John Hughes of Merthyr in 1870, when he took iron working to the area. Iron production declined in Merthyr from 1860 on, though Merthyr's population continued to rise due to the emergence of coal mining in the area, peaking with around 81,000 people in 1911. The area
2769-470: The demand for iron led to the rapid expansion of Merthyr's iron operations. By the peak of the revolution, the districts of Merthyr housed four of the greatest ironworks in the world: Dowlais Ironworks , Plymouth Ironworks , Cyfarthfa Ironworks and Penydarren . The companies were mainly owned by two dynasties, the Guest and Crawshay families. Starting in the late 1740s, land within the Merthyr district
2840-576: The employment it had previously. This led to marked economic challenges for the area, particularly in the 20th century. In 2006, a Channel 4 series ranked Merthyr Tydfil as the United Kingdom's third-worst place to live. In the 2007 edition of the same series, Merthyr had improved to fifth-worst. However complaints about the show led to an investigation by regulator Ofcom, which noted the programme had been guilty of "unfortunate and avoidable" factual inaccuracies. More recent commentary cites
2911-521: The full distance in 4 hours and 5 minutes, at an average speed of 2.4 mph (3.9 km/h). As well as Homfray, Crawshay and the passengers, other witnesses included Mr Giddy, a respected patron of Trevithick, and an "engineer from the Government". The latter was probably a safety inspector, who would have been particularly interested in the boiler's ability to withstand high steam pressures. This allowed others to develop Trevithick's ideas; some claim
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2982-409: The ground, and once dug up, archaeologists put data such as photographs and exact location of the artifact into the archaeological record. Bones are sometimes found and included in the archaeological record. Bones can be from both animals and humans that have died and been preserved. Bone fragments and whole bones can be a part of the archaeological record. Plant and organic material found can also become
3053-495: The healthy volunteers in the trial study. This discovery formed the basis for Viagra . In 2006, inventor Howard Stapleton, based in Merthyr Tydfil, developed the technology that gave rise to the recent mosquitotone or Teen Buzz phenomenon. In September 2021, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council announced a bid to apply for city status, to be coordinated by urban economic and social researcher Dr Jane Croad. Use of
3124-429: The hope of negotiating with the owners, the skilled workers lost control of the movement. Several supposed leaders of the riots were arrested. One of them, Richard Lewis, popularly known as Dic Penderyn , was hanged for stabbing a soldier in the leg, becoming known as the first local working-class martyr. It was claimed in 1876 that it was not Lewis who stabbed Black, but another man, Ianto Parker, who fled to America after
3195-473: The incident to avoid prosecution. Such claims have never been fully verified, although Lewis's innocence is widely accepted in Merthyr. The Chartist movement of 1831 did not consider the reforms put forward by The Reform Act of 1832 to be extensive enough. In 1802, Homfray, the Master of the Penydarren Ironworks, commissioned engineer Richard Trevithick to build one of his high-pressure steam engines to drive
3266-418: The inhabitants of which were the poorest of society and had a bad reputation. Their living conditions were some of the most squalid in Britain. The slum was based around narrow streets, badly ventilated and full of crowded houses that led to festering diseases. China became known as "Little Hell" and was notorious for having no toilets but open sewers, which caused diseases such as cholera and typhoid . With
3337-448: The ironmaster William Crawshay II , an opulent mock castle, is now a museum. It houses a number of paintings of the town, a large collection of artefacts from the town's Industrial Revolution period, and a notable collection of Egyptian tomb artefacts, including several sarcophagi . In 1992, while testing a new angina treatment in Merthyr Tydfil, researchers discovered that the new drug had erection-stimulating side effects for some of
3408-416: The long-term preservation of irreplaceable archaeological data and to broadening the access to these data. The archaeological record serves as a database for everything archaeology stands for and has become. The material culture associated with archaeological excavations and the scholarly records in academic journals are the physical embodiment of the archaeological record. The ambiguity that is associated with
3479-479: The lower end of the town. The demand for iron was also fuelled by the Royal Navy, which needed cannon for its ships, and later by the railways. In 1802, Admiral Lord Nelson visited Merthyr to witness cannon being made. Famously, upon visiting Merthyr in 1850, Thomas Carlyle wrote that the town was filled with such "unguided, hard-worked, fierce, and miserable-looking sons of Adam I never saw before. Ah me! It
3550-525: The main reasons for its downfall. The Crawshays refused to modernise by replacing iron production with steel production, using the newly discovered Bessemer process . This led to closure of the works in 1874, which caused economic hardship and unemployment in Merthyr. After Robert's death in 1879 his son William Thompson Crawshay took over the Cyfarthfa works. William finally modernised the works, introducing steel production. However it took until 1882 to get
3621-523: The modern railway system was born in Merthyr Tydfil. In modern Merthyr, behind the monument to Trevithick's locomotive, is a stone wall, the sole remainder of the former boundary wall of Penydarren House. There is a full-scale working replica of Trevithick's 1804 steam-powered railway locomotive in the National Waterfront Museum , Swansea. The population of Merthyr reached 51,949 in 1861, but then went into decline for several years. As
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#17327839050983692-457: The new Merthyr Tramroad from Penydarren to Quakers Yard . He also claims that this was the "first 'railway' and the work of George Stephenson was merely an improvement upon it". A replica of this locomotive is in the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea. The tramway passed through what is arguably the oldest railway tunnel in the world, part of which can be seen alongside Pentrebach Road at
3763-457: The past (like the fossil record); in contrast, definitions four and five follow a "textual model", where the archaeological record is seen as encoding cultural information about the past (like historical texts). She highlighted the extent to which archaeologists' understanding of what constituted 'the archaeological record' was dependent on broader currents in archaeological theory , namely, that processual archaeologists were likely to subscribe to
3834-651: The raids of Irish pirates, in much the same way as the south and east coasts of Britain had been raided by Saxon pirates from across the North Sea . Around the middle of the 5th century, Irish settlements had been established around Swansea , the Gower Peninsula , Carmarthenshire , and in Pembrokeshire and eventually petty kingdoms were established as far inland as Brecon. The Latin language and some Roman customs and culture became established before
3905-447: The south of the town gave renewed impetus to the local economy and population growth. New mining communities developed at Merthyr Vale , Treharris and Bedlinog , and the population of Merthyr rose to a peak of 80,990 in 1911. The growth of the town led to a grant of county borough status in 1908. A prime example of the decline is the Cyfarthfa Ironworks. The actions, or inactions, of Robert Crawshay ("The Iron King") can be seen as
3976-476: The streets of Merthyr Tydfil, calling for reform, and protesting against the lowering of their wages and general unemployment. Between 7,000 and 10,000 workers marched, and for four days magistrates and ironmasters were under siege in the Castle Hotel, with the protesters effectively controlling the town. Soldiers called in from Brecon clashed with the rioters, and several on both sides were killed. Despite
4047-476: The third opening in 2022. There are also calls for a Welsh medium secondary school to be built in Merthyr. Founded on heavy industry, Merthyr became the ‘'Iron Capital of the World'’ and Wales' largest town the early 19th century. However, despite its long and varied industrial heritage with the decline of heavy industry and the closure of long-established nearby collieries and ironworks, Merthyr could not offer
4118-559: The town's county borough status be withdrawn. The fortunes of Merthyr revived temporarily during World War II, as war industry reached the area. Immediately after the Second World War , several large companies set up in Merthyr. In October 1948, the American-owned Hoover Company opened a large washing machine factory and depot in the village of Pentrebach , a few miles south of the town. The factory
4189-700: The village was a civil parish in the Vaynor and Penderyn Rural District of Brecknockshire . From 1974 to 1996, it was part of Merthyr Tydfil district in Mid Glamorgan . It is notable for its connections with the Ironmaster Robert Crawshay , owner of the world's first ironworks at Cyfarthfa , who is buried in Vaynor churchyard . Between 1973 and 1996 Vaynor was an electoral ward to Merthyr Tydfil District Council, initially electing three district councillors. Subsequently, Vaynor became
4260-476: The withdrawal of the Roman army. The Christian religion was introduced throughout much of Wales by the Romans, but locally it may have been introduced later by monks from Ireland and France, who made their way into the region following rivers and valleys. Local tradition holds that, around 480 CE, a girl called Tydfil , daughter of a local chieftain named Brychan , was an early local convert to Christianity, and
4331-542: The works back up and running. It never fully caught up with other steel-making areas and closed again in 1910. Despite a comeback during the First World War , it finally closed in 1919. The local steel and coal industries began to decline after the war. By 1932, more than 80 per cent of men in Dowlais were unemployed; 27,000 people emigrated from Merthyr in the 1920s and 1930s, and a Royal Commission recommended that
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#17327839050984402-412: The written documentation that is presented in scientific journals. It is what archaeologists have learned from the artifacts they have documented. This spans the entire world; archaeology is the human story that belongs to everyone's past and represents everyone's heritage. This data can be archived and retrieved by archaeologists for research. The mission of an archaeologist is often preservation of
4473-408: Was abolished and the borough council took over its functions in the area, being renamed Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council . The council governs the town and the wider Merthyr Tydfil County Borough , which stretches as far south as Treharris and Bedlinog. The town includes the electoral wards of Park , Penydarren , Cyfarthfa, Gurnos, Dowlais, Vaynor, and Town . The Member of Parliament for
4544-591: Was almost entirely populated by shepherds. Farm produce was traded at a number of markets and fairs, notably the Waun Fair above Dowlais . Merthyr was close to reserves of iron ore, coal, limestone, timber and water, making it an ideal site for ironworks. Small-scale iron working and coal mining had been carried out at some places in South Wales since the Tudor period, but in the wake of the Industrial Revolution
4615-517: Was built two miles north of the town. No permanent settlement was formed until well into the Middle Ages . People continued to be self-sufficient, living by farming and later by trading. Merthyr was little more than a village. An ironworks existed in the parish in the Elizabethan period , but it did not survive beyond the early 1640s at the latest. In 1754, it was recorded that the valley
4686-611: Was gradually being leased for the smelting of iron to meet the growing demand, with the expansion of smaller furnaces dotted around South Wales. By 1759, with the management of John Guest, the Dowlais Ironworks was founded. This would later become the Dowlais Iron Company and also the first major works in the area. Following the success at Dowlais, Guest took a lease from the Earl of Plymouth which he used to build
4757-533: Was known as the 'Iron Capital of the World' in the early 19th century, due to the scale of its iron production. The world's first steam-powered railway journey happened in Merthyr in 1804, travelling 9 mi (14 km) from the ironworks at Penydarren to the Glamorganshire Canal on the Merthyr Tramroad . The 1851 census found Wales to be the world's first industrialised nation, as more people were employed in industry than agriculture, with Merthyr
4828-516: Was made a municipal borough in 1905, with eight electoral wards . Merthyr Tydfil was granted county borough status in 1908, making it independent from Glamorgan County Council . From 1974 to 1996 the borough reverted to being a lower-tier district council, with Mid Glamorgan County Council providing county-level services in the area. The borough was also enlarged in 1974, gaining Vaynor from Brecknockshire and Bedlinog from Gelligaer Urban District. In 1996, Mid Glamorgan County Council
4899-470: Was murdered by either Welsh or Saxon pagans , and buried in the town. The girl was considered a martyr after her death. Merthyr translates to "martyr" in English, and tradition holds that when the town was founded, the name was chosen in her honour. A church was eventually built on the traditional site of her burial. For several hundred years the valley of the River Taff was heavily wooded, with
4970-410: Was precipitated by ruthless collection of debts, frequent wage reductions, and imposition of truck shops . Some workers were paid in specially minted coins or credit notes known as "truck", which could be spent only at shops owned by their employers. Many workers objected to the price and quality of goods sold there. Throughout May 1831, the coal miners and others who worked for William Crawshay took to
5041-522: Was purpose-built to manufacture the Hoover electric washing machine; at one point, Hoover was the largest employer in the borough. Later the Sinclair C5 was built in the same factory. Hoover and other companies targeted Merthyr; its declining coal and iron industries gave space for new businesses to start up there and grow. There were then increasing numbers of unemployed workers in the area and, since
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