Having written probably more than most people would want to read about Blaenavon and its industrial heritage, I feel that I have neglected the larger nearby town of Merthyr Tydfil.
Merthyr Tydfil shared the easy access to iron ore, coal, limestone, timber and water that made Blaenavon an excellent site for the Industrial Revolution and in fact numerous ironworks were already at work here before construction began at Blaenavon. Notably the Dowlais, Plymouth, Cyfarthfa and Penydarren works. Most of this industry was owned by two families, the Guests and the Crawshays.
In the first few decades of the nineteenth century the Cyfarthfa ironworks owned by the Crawshay family became the most productive in the world. In just one year (1844) 50,000 tons of iron rails left the Cyfarthfa ironworks and headed to Russia for the building of the Trans-Siberian railway.
By the time of the 1851 census Merthyr Tydfil had become the largest town in Wales, owed to the success of its industrial output. This was also the census that showed Wales to be the first industrialised nation in the world- with more people employed in industry than in agriculture for the first time in human history.
Castell Cyfarthfa Castle by Alan Richards, July 2014. Source: Wikimedia Commons
The family home of the Crawshay family was Cyfarthfa Castle. Despite its name and crenellations it was never a castle or indeed any sort of defensive structure. It was built in the 1820s as an elaborate mansion for the industrial dynasty and had a cellar containing an impressive 15,000 bottles of wine and spirits. Half of these were of Port.
The house was sold in 1908 to the local council. Part of the ground floor became a museum and the rest of the house became a school. In 1997 the building was one of the sites considered for the new Welsh Senedd but was ultimately rejected and it continues as a museum to this day.
The former cellars contain an impressive exhibition on local industrial history, covering the ironworks, mines, the development of Trevithick’s locomotive and the Merthyr uprising.
On a very wet day in Wales it was a very worthwhile rainy day activity and well worth the £3.50 entrance fee.
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