The People who made the South Wales Valleys
The People who made South Wales great
Before the Industrial Revolution Southern Wales was a sparsely populated agricultural area. However, since Roman times there had been coal mining and simple iron production. In Pontypool iron production started in 1425 and the town became famous for Pontypool Japanware. In the Wye Valley wire was made at the Angiddy works from 1560.
People from Ireland, Scotland and the English Midlands rushed to Southern Wales in search of the new, comparatively well-paid industrial jobs and during the 19th century the population increased 10 fold.
Without these people – the Industrial Revolution would not have happened!
The entrepreneurs and inventors
Whilst Southern Wales had a wealth of natural resources - coal, ironstone, limestone and water – it also needed money to develop industry. Land-owning families such as the Morgan’s from the Tredegar Estate in Newport and the Hanburys from Pontypool invested, along with business men from London and other parts of the UK. These families earned considerable sums from industry, and they went on to build impressive homes such as Tredegar House, Cyfarthfa Castle, Cardiff Castle and Castel Coch.
Some of the money was used to support inventors:
- Richard Trevithick was employed by Samuel Homfray from Penydarren Ironworks near Merthyr. It was here that he created the first locomotive in 1802. This pulled 10 tons of iron along 9.75 miles between Penydarren and Abercynon on 21st February 1804 – a journey that took 4 hours and 5 minutes – and which won a 500 guinea bet for Samuel Homfray.
- David Thomas revolutionised the iron industry in 1837 when he applied hot blast to smelt iron ore and anthracite coal, reinvigorating the iron industry of the Swansea Valley. In 1839 he emigrated to Pennsylvannia and went on to become an important figure in the industrialisation of the USA - the "Father of the American Iron Industry".
Other notable inventors who worked in Southern Wales include Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Sidney Gilchrist Thomas.
The workers
The population explosion was so great that there were often difficulties in finding places to live. Many small houses would have a large family and lodgers living there. “Hot bedding” existed where the same bed was be used by more than one person (one working day shifts and the other night shifts).
Some ironmasters created good living conditions for their workers. The Rhymney Ironworks built the model village of Butetown for their workers, and as early as 1788 the Blaenavon owners of Hill, Hopkins and Pratt had created housing for their workers. In Llanelli, the Neville family made land available for their copper workers and colliers to build their own houses.
The creation of an industrial nation also changed the way that people were paid. Bartering was no longer feasible, and workers had to be paid with money. However, there was often a shortage of “coins of the realm” and so local “truck” systems were set up, with coinage that had to be spent in the shops/beer houses associated with the works or the mine. In some areas this was a way in which the ironmasters could help the workers by keeping costs low. However, in other parts of the country prices were inflated and the quality of goods was poor. Men were also often paid after long waits in beer houses, where they ran up debts before they were paid.
The jobs
Early in the Industrial Revolution workers at ironworks and coal mines included the whole family. Even young children would be employed in dangerous jobs such as pulling the mined coal out of narrow crevices and pushing heavily laden trucks (drams). The youngest children were employed opening and shutting the air doors! It was the norm for whole families to work together until 1842 when legislation prevented children and women working underground.
However, jobs above ground were also dangerous. Ironworks were made dangerous by the heat and the fumes, as well as the long hours worked.
As well as these trades, each community also had a range of professions – such as surveyors, solicitors and doctors, and all the other jobs needed to create and support a community, in particular shopkeepers, butchers and publicans.
The Heros ...
Would you die for what you believed in? More than twenty men died in Newport in 1839, fighting for The People’s Charter, which called for votes for all men and a secret ballot.
The story of Chartism is the story of real people: husbands, sons, wives and mothers, caught up in a passionate campaign for parliamentary reform, a campaign which changed, and continues to change, basic human rights across the world.
The South Wales Chartists had many heroes. John Frost, who had the vote, risked personal ruin as he campaigned for the right to vote for all men.
He was sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered for his part in the Chartist march in Newport on November 4th 1839, but his sentence was commuted to transportation to Australia. Nineteen year old George Shell, a cabinet maker from Pontypool who joined the marchers, died after he was shot by a soldier. Other unknown heroes who died in the rising are buried in unmarked graves in St Woolos Cathedral. But the principles they fought for have been accepted as the cornerstone of our modern democracy.
