Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
designs in the 1970s) and Julien Macdonald (he of the shimmery, figure-hugging dresses
favoured by Kylie and Britney).
Merthyr Tydfil means 'the place of Tydfil's martyrdom' - the town was named in hon-
our of a Welsh princess who, according to legend, was murdered for her Christian beliefs
in the 5th century. St Tydfil's Church is said to mark the spot where she died.
Merthyr remained a minor village until the late 18th century, when its proximity to iron
ore, limestone, water and wood led to it becoming a centre of iron production. The discov-
ery of coal reserves upped the ante, and by 1801 a string of settlements, each growing
around its own ironworks - Cyfarthfa, Penydarren, Dowlais, Pentrebach and others -
merged to become the biggest town in Wales (population 10,000, eight times the size of
Cardiff at that time). Immigrants came from all over Europe, and the population peaked at
81,000 in the mid-19th century.
By 1803 Cyfarthfa was the world's biggest ironworks. Ever more efficient ways to
make iron were pioneered, on the backs of overworked labourers (including, until 1842,
women and children as young as six) who lived in appalling, disease-ridden conditions.
By the 19th century Merthyr was a centre of political radicalism. The Merthyr Rising of
1831 was the most violent uprising in Britain's history - 10,000 ironworkers, angry over
pay cuts and lack of representation, faced off against a handful of armed soldiers, and riot-
ing continued for a month.
As demand for iron and steel dwindled in the early 20th century, one by one the iron-
works closed down. Unemployment soared, reaching as high as 60% in 1935. In 1939 a
Royal Commission even suggested that the whole town should be abandoned. But com-
munity ties were strong and people stayed on.
The Taff Trail runs along the river on the western edge of town, crossing the handsome
railway viaducts of Cefn Coed (the third biggest in Wales) and Pontsarn, both completed
in 1866, as it heads up to Pontsticill Reservoir.
THE ABERFAN DISASTER
On 21 October 1966 Wales experienced one of its worst disasters. Heavy rain loosened an already dangerously
unstable spoil heap above Aberfan, 4 miles south of Merthyr Tydfil, and sent a 500,000-tonne mudslide of lique-
fied coal slurry down onto the village. It wiped out a row of terraced houses and ploughed into Pantglas primary
school, killing 144 people, most of them children.
Today the A470 Cardiff-Merthyr Tydfil road cuts right through the spot where the spoil heap once stood. The
site of the school has been turned into a memorial garden, while the village cemetery contains a long, double row
of matching headstones, a mute and moving memorial to those who died.
