The History of Merthyr Tydfil

Preface

. Ten years ago I began to collect materials for this work, and after gathering a great deal of information from old inhabitants, many of whom have since been numbered amongst the dead, the task was abandoned for a time. Then my lamented friend, Mr. T. Robinson, devoted his leisure to the under taking, but finding it too engrossing, he handed to me the facts he had gleaned. But even then little progress was made with the History, until the year 1863, when the Parish Library having been kindly placed at my service, I found the necessary links to form the historical chain of events. Iu the labour of collecting and revising I received considerable aid from friends — Mr. Samuel Parry, the late Mr. Robinson, Mr. Stephens, Mr. Dyke, Mr. Morgan Williams, and others. For a portion of the Memoir of Taliesin Williams I was indebted to the Biography of Eminent Welshmen, and for many interesting details to Mr. Lewis and Mr. Phillips, of the Vestry.

Thus aided, fragments of this History first appeared in the Merthyr Telegraph, and a revised continuation was begun at the close of the year 1865, in the Merthyr Express. Now, with many corrections and additions, I send forth this unpre tending volume into the world, grateful to the noble and gentle patrons, and to all my friendly subscribers, and hopeful that, even with its defects and omissions, this History will be found an interesting chronicle of the rise and progress of Merthyr Tydfil. Springfield Villa, Merthyr Tydfil, Feb. 8th, 1867.

Introduction

. The town of Merthyr is placed in an elevated position on the northern edge of the great coal basin of South Wales. The river Taff has its source in the Beacon range of hills, part of the old red sandstone formation, eight miles to the north of the town. The river Morlais springs from the hills above Dowlais. The climate, from its high position, is of a lower temperature than that of Swansea. Rain is frequent, the hills attracting the masses of vapour. The rainfall in 1866 was little short of 5 feet ; average rainfall 58 inches. Winters are gene rally cold, frost frequent, but not of long continuance. Heat in the summer great, the thermometer in the sun often marking 108. Fahr., and in the shade 84. Fahr. The prevailing winds are S.W. and N.W. Beyond the line of the coal basin the millstone grit, 229 feet in vertical thickness, forms a band nearly 1050 yards wide.

The outcrop of the mountain limestone, finely deve loped at Vaynor, disappearing at N.W. of Cefn, and re-appearing at Hirwain, extends about one and two-fifths miles in the immediate district. The millstone grit in part consists of pure silicious sandstone, and in part of coarse conglomerate. The limestone differs much in quality, portions being well adapted for agricultural use, and other kinds for iron-working purposes as a flux. The inclination in the strata is variously stated as 1 in 12 and 1 in 10, the greatest inclination magnetic, north and south. The coal becomes less bituminous towards the west, and more so towards the east. There are two faults at Merthyr running in a direction nearly lengthwise with the valley, and parallel to each other ; one passing in a line under the parish church, the other threefourths of a mile to the east.

The principal ground landlords are the Marquis of Bute, Lord Dynevor, Miss Richards, Baroness Windsor, Dowlais Iron Co., R. Thomas, Esq., R. E. Davies, Esq., D. Davies, Esq., Cwm ; and G. Overton, Esq. THE HISTORY OP MERTHYR.

Chapter I. Footprints Op The Past

— TYDFIL AND THE BEYCHAN FAMILY. PT1HE indications of volcanic disturbances in the district, elevating the mountain ranges and breaking up the strata beneath, are shown more plainly at the hill of Kilsanos, near Cefn, than anywhere else in our neigh bourhood. There the limestone rock, instead of being at its usual angle, is thrust up almost perpendicularly, and a striking proof is thus afforded of that wondrous power which was here exerted, that could scatter the massive rocks in all directions with the ease of a child throwing pebbles by the sea shore. After the repose of nature had begun, and the fierce strife of elements had passed away, we have still evidences that through our valley ran an inland sea. The rocks at Taff Vawr, in their singular likeness to the cliffs on our shores, do not alone confirm this.

The coal strata under the Penydarran estate, supplying bivalves of a decided sea deposit, are not confirmative, though they show that the coal deposits were not made in fresh, but in salt water. We must look to the superficial deposits for the strongest proof, and this is given by the discovery of old red sandstone boulders and rolled stones from Breconshire on Aberdare hill, and still more convincingly shown by the marine shells, corals, &c, with sea sand found in the fissures of the cliffs, at Morlais. Later excavations also in the various streets of Merthyr, revealing masses of rolled and waterworn stones, confirm this view. We note these facts as interesting to the thoughtful reader. They afford substantial foundation whereon the mind can raise enduring creations, evidence proving that around the base of old Morlais, and where our town H now stands, once surged the sea — that a wilder roar than has ever in later years been made by our vast machinery once echoed above the busy hive, the scene of industry and contentment, that we now behold.

Time passes. Time, of which the most erudite men write with care, wonder, and doubt. Time, so vast that computation fails, and the puny mind strives in vain to grasp and to comprehend. The sea has passed away ; the iron-like rocks have yielded to the influence of centuries ; where the sea heaved the flowers and the grass grow ; where lay the centre of the sea bed the Taff sparkles ; dense woods arise along the hill-side, and a wilderness and marshy tract of solitude greet the mental eye. Here, in the land of the Silures, a brave and impulsive people, came the Roman, and left his records engraven deeply on the earth. Those records are numerous and interesting. On the Aberdare hill we have the Roman camp, a castra statha, or standing camp, with its trench and razed tower, and numerous signal and other towers near the Giant's Grave (one of large size), are plainly indicated.

On the opposite range, and further in the Gellygaer districts, there is a Roman milestone placed by Frontinus at the side of the road he had formed to aid him in subjugating the Silures. This stone bore years ago the name of the Roman General, but it was clipped off in Vandal days by a drunken mason, named Shon Morgan, returning home from the fair. When Penydarran House was built, the workmen found a great many Roman bricks, and some tessellated pavement, in digging the foundations. These, unfortunately, were not preserved, but the simple fact shows that on the site stood a Roman villa. Pontsarn, or the river road, is also a Roman memento, and it was near this bridge that the Roman road from Gellygaer crossed, passing up the Glais Valley to a station near the Beacons. It is interesting to note how carefully the Romans kept to the hill tops.

The valleys were wooded and filled with a warlike people, a people of whom it is said that their persistence in refusing to be beaten fretted Ostorius, the Roman General, to death ! So the road leading along the mountain height to the Wain hastily dips down to Vaynor, and as hurriedly clambers up the opposite slope. Records of the contemporary Britons we have in Penlan Kistvaen, a burial place of a chieftain, yet unopened ; in the Cairn of Aberdare hill, built of the razed towers of the Roman camp ; of the many Kistvaen on the Gellygaer hills, generally known by the natives as stone coffins ; by the Vaynor cross, a memorial stone engraved in Jones's Brcconshire, but now lost ; by the Taff Vawr, supposed to be the pass of the Druidical Altar referred to in Hughes's Horœ Brill. ,* and the tradi tionary record of that mighty giant, whom the good people of the hill-side believe sleeps in peace in the " giant's grave."

Such the scene, filled in with these interesting footprints of the past, where by the side of a mountain stream arose a little hamlet, called it may be Vjy a name derived from its local position ot peculiarities. But the time was approaching when it was to have a baptism in blood, and bear for all the future a name associated with the memory of a gentle woman and a brutal and cowardly deed. When the Romans sailed from our shores to defend their own assailed land, the influence of Christianity, refining and elevating the character of the people, combined with the reliance that had been placed in the protective power of their Roman governors, left Britain •exposed and unable adequately to withstand the attacks of the Picts and Saxons, who made predatory trips to the Island with every favourable wind.

These barbarians, in addition to their lust for the wealth of the Britons, hated them for their piety, and thus, like Attila, wherever they roamed they left the footprints of blood. In this portion of the island more than any other part of Britain, where a pure Christianity was to be found long ere Augustine's Mission, the Britons, or Welsh, as we must now term them, were reduced to great extremities and suffering. Like most of the Welsh tribes they wisely elected a Regulus or chieftain over them, for the purpose of concentrating their strength against the enemy. The chieftain of this district and the county now termed Breconshire was Brychan, Prince or Regulus, of Garth Mathrin. He began his reign in the year 400, and soon won a name for sterling ability and for his great piety. He is mentioned in the Triads as one of the three holy families, and was thus held in even saintly odour.

But he was no austere monk fond of horsehair and seclusion. The Triads tell us that he brought up his children and grandchildren in learning the liberal arts, that they might be able to show their faith in ■Christianity to the nations of the Cymru who had no faith. A Patriarch •of the Brecon hills, with rougher notions of the marriage obligation than we hold, he rivalled the worthies of patriarchal days. He had twenty-four sons and twenty-five daughters, some of them natural ; and two of the former were trained hi arts of war, and many of his sons and daughters became illustrious in the martyr-roll of that eventful time. AVe are told, on the authority of old records, that he had three wives, but it is believe 1 that he discreetly buried one before he married another ; and stern historians, with the same plausibility, urge that his familjwas not so large, as the forty-nine represented children and grandchildren.

We glean from the Trueman Manuscripts and Cambrian Biography that at this eventful epoch — it may be conjectured about the year 420, on tlie 23rd of August — a family meeting of the Patriarch and his sons and daughters took place in our valley. A daughter lived near Troedyrhiw, and the raids of the Irish Picts had been more than usually severe ; so the old man and his family met to sympathise together in their sorrows. Vivid the picture that greets the imagination : the care-worn chieftain, the fair 'Tydfil, her blooming sons, her warlike 'brothers, her husband too, b2 was there. Sorrow must have fled at such a time. And near tranquilly flowing Taff, unsullied then, the hills, the Beacons, their grand background, they lingered ! While here a band of the Picts, Brachtyr Fichti, and Saxons poured down from the mountains, and an indiscriminate massacre began.

Neither prayer nor beauty softened the heathen heart. Tydfil, her father, husband, and sons were at once slain ; Rhawin and Rhun with others escaped for a while, but were pursued, and while desperately defending a bridge over the Taff, at Troedyrhiw, they fell mortally wounded. This silled the pagan soul with delight, but their triumph was brief. Nevydd, a son of Rhun, hastily gathered the natives together, and, rendered invincible by the terrible strength of their passion and of their revenge, poured down on the heathen Picts like a mountain flood, scattering them to the winds. And then, amid the sobs of a stern but loving race, we can imagine the bleeding remains gathered, and placed, with solemn affection, in the scene where the foul murder had been committed ; and as Merthyr Tydfil, or Martyr Tydfil, the little hamlet became known and memorable.

The common notion, and we imagine the right one, is that the martyrdom of Tydfil occurred on the site of the old church. It would seem that it was the general custom to bury where the martyrdom took place. Rees (Welsh Saints) quotes the following in reference to Cynog, thc Martyr, which will apply with equal force to Tydfil : — " Sepulchrum C}Tiawe in Brcchen awe Cognacio Brychan. Kynawe ap Brychan Merthyr ac am Merthyr Cynawe ym Brecheiniog y maen Gorwedd." This Cynog here referred to was the eldest brother of Tydfil, and was murdered on the Van Mountain, in Breconshiro, by Pagan Saxons. After him the parish of Merthyr Cynog received its name. So Tydfil, we can justly conclude, was laid underneath the old church, and hither came many a mourner to lament over her grave. In addition to the dedication of Merthyr church to her memory, the church of Llys-werni, in Glamorgan shire, was also dedicated to her, and a well at the part now termed Brecon road, the lower part of Garth Mathrin, the district of which Brychan was Regulus, was deemed endowed with miraculous virtues.

From the Lansdown Manuscript and the customs of the Irish at the time, we have a clear notion of the scene that might often have been witnessed in those grey years of ours, ere the now sturdy civilization was born. " More than the name of God they knew not," staftes the old writer. " They take lono* journeys, barefoot, to the ruins of some ancient church or famous well, and there, on the mountain side, listen to the minstrels, who, accompanied by the harp, celebrate the deeds of their ancestors." In Ireland to this day votive offerings are hung on the thorn generally found near old wells, and in niches of the cell the pater sticks abound where the good pilgrims offer up their prayers to the patron saint. So it was with our Holy well there can be no doubt. But of thc facts, and whether or not our well had special virtues even surpassing ordinary wells, no record exists.

It is, however, no flight of imagination to suppose that Tydfil's well was believed to be endowed with extraordinary powers, though it may have lacked the still more astonishing virtues of a well in Cornwall, which is alleged to give the dominion, the power of ruling, to the first of a married couple who shall drink of its limpid waters. Naturally such a well is anxiously visited by every young married couple, all anxious to drink first. A humorous anecdote illustrative of this is related of a couple who sought the well, and the husband having drunk first, the wife followed meekly, " as it became her province," yet, strange to say, she ruled the husband with a rod of iron ! The matter was cleared up in later years by the confession of the wife, who, in reply to an astonished query, said that she went to the well the previous night for a bottleful,'and drank it in the church.

The memory of Rhun is preserved in Pontyrhun, at Troedyrhiw ; that of Sanis, a sister of Tydfil, by the hill at the back of Cefn, known as Kil sanos, or more properly Kilsanais. Kil is Irish for church, and it may be assumed that in the fifth century a small wattled church, a mere thing that stout men with axes in their hands could form in any woody district, here once raised its humble head. The name is also retained in Ynyssanos, in Glynneath valley. Arthden, a brother of Tydfil, is commemorated by an inscription in the eastern side of the old church. The stone, visible from the highway, is from Garth Mathrin, or Brecon lands, and in the miniscue character. A worthy clerk of this parish, now dead, insisted on the inscribed stone being simply the vagaries of a mason, but a moment's inspection will banish the idea.

The inscription is prefaced with the Christian emblem indicating the holy character of the personage commemorated. The only memorial church that was dedicated to him was erected in Monmouthshire in the district of his sister Gwladys ; but this church, like the majority of churches in those days, was razed by the pagan Saxons. A long epoch of church building in modern days cannot atone altogether for the sad and wanton destruction caused amongst the devout Britons of the fifth and sixth centuries. This Arthden is stated in Bonedd y Saint to have been buried in the Isle of Man, but if there were not two Richards this must be incorrect, as our memorial stone was found near human bones of gigantic character under portions of the foundation of the old church. Mr. Jones, of Carlton Villa, remembered the exhumation, but no other relics were found to prove the name or lineage of the deceased.

Capel Gwladys, on the hills below Troedyrhiw, in the Gellygaer district, preserves the memory of another daughter of Brychan. The Capel, as it is called by the farmers, is very much more like a Roman camp than the foundation of a chapel, and its site near the Roman road, coupled with its peculiar form, is almost confirmative of this. This Gwadlys was the tutelar saint of that district — the eastern hills that line our town ; but it is interesting to refer not only to the antique days, the dry days of saintship, but to the generation before, when she was. one of the bonniest lasses of her father's court, or her grandfather's, for there is a doubt as regards this, and just prior to the time when she was won by that worthy but long-named personage Gwynllyn Filwr ab Glynys of Gwynllew in Monmouthshire.

Let us dip for a few moments into the old pages of the British Saints, and cull a legend, which gives us not only history, but a hint at old customs and failings : A TALE OF VOCIIKITV MOUNTAIN. After a long interval of time, the King Gwynllin, enjoying his kingdom, desired to be joined in wedlock to a certain young lady for her very high reputation, who was elegant in appearance, beautiful in form, and adorned with silk vestments. Her name was Gwladys, and she was the daughter of a certain Regulus called Brychan. Therefore he sent many messengers to the father of the young lady, who earnestly requested that she should be given to him in marriage ; but her father having heard the message became angry and full of rage, refused to betroth his daughter, slighted the messengers, and sent them back without honour ; which they, taking amiss, returned and related to their master what had been done to them.

Which being heard, raging with great anger, he armed as many as three hundred slaves, who should take the young lady away by force. They immediately set out on their journey, and came to the court of the aforesaid Regulus, which is called Talgarth, and found the young lady before the door of her residence, sitting with her sisters, and passing the time in modest conversation, whom they immediately took by force and returned with speed. Which Brychan, her father, hearing he was seized with grief of heart, and mourning the loss of his dearest daughter, called to his assistance all his friends and neighbours to recover her. All his auxiliaries having come together, he with haste pursued his enemy with his accomplices ; whom, when Gwynllin saw, he frequently ordered the said young lady to be brought forward, and he made her ride with him ; and not flying, but taking her slowly on horseback, he preceded his army, waited for his soldiers, and manfully exhorted them to battle.

But Brychan, with his men, boldly attacking the hard-hearted king and his followers, slew two hundred, and pursued them to the hill, which is the boundary between the two countries, and is called in the British language Bochriwcarn, which signifies the cheek of a stony road. But when Gwynllin had arrived at the boundary of his dominions, being bodily safe with the aforesaid young lady, and sorrowful from fighting with his enemies, a great slaughter having taken place, lo, three brave heroes, Arthur, with his two knights, Kai and Bedwin, were sitting upon the top of the aforesaid hills and playing with dyce. When they saw the king with the young lady coming near them, Arthur was immediately seined with love towards the lady, and full of bad thoughts, said to his companions, " Know ye that I am vehemently inflamed with love towards the lady, whom the soldier carries off riding."

But they forbidding him said, " Far be from thee to commit such wickedness ; for we have been accustomed to assist the destitute and the distressed, wherefore let us go forward, and quickly render our assistance that the contest may be terminated." And he said, " Since ye both will assist him, rather than take away the lady from him, for me, go and meet them, and carefully enquire which of them is the owner of this territory." And they immediate^ departed, and to the enquiry made by the order of the king, Gwynllin answered, " God being witness, and all the most learned in the land, I profess myself to be the owner of this territory." The mes sengers on returning to their master, mentioned what they had heard from him. Then Arthur with his armed companions rushed upon the enemies of Gwynllin, who turning their backs fled with great confusion to their own country.

Then Gwynllin triumphing through the assistance of Arthur, went with the aforesaid lady Gwadlys to his palace that was on that hill, which from his name afterwards received the British appellation All twynllin, that is, the Hill of Gwynllin ; for from Gwynllin Gwynllwg, and from Brychan Brycheiniog are called. Farther down the hills, and in a field near Capel Brithdir, we have the memorial of a descendant of Lady Gwladys in Tegernacus, or Teynon, who is thus commemorated : TEGERNACUS FILIUS MARII HIC JACIT. Mar was son of Gwladys, and thus Tegernacus was the grandson and a warrior of note. He is described as of the tufted plume, "Teynon twryf vliant.' Mr. Stephens suggests that in this hero we have the person who gave his name to the locality in which Tintern Abbey now stands. Tin-teyrn in its British form would be Din-teyrn, and this is an abbreviation of Teyrnæ.

In this form the name occurs in the Welsh Chronicles — "A.D. 1179 this year a convent was completed at Nan Teyron." The British heroes were accustomed to wear tufts of feathers in their caps, helmets, or head-dresses. Llywarch Hen represents himself to have been adorned with yellow plumes : "After having had sleek steeds, ruddy garments, And yellow plumes, My leg is slender, my piercing eye is gone." With this insight into the past but little imaginative power is required to recall our Tegernacus from the repose of fourteen centuries, and see the " Murat of his day" defiling through this vale at the head of his warriors, or charging the enemy on those picturesque mountains of ours that close us in from the eastern gales. His form is slight, but his eye keen ; proudly wave the plumes in his helmet, fleeter than the wind is he as he dashes along, and well may the Pictish thief and assassin tremble from his hiding place in the oak copse as the war-song of Tegernacus is borne to his ears 1 The daughter whom we believe Brychan and Tydfil came to visit at the time of the murder was Tanglwystl.

An oid farmhouse in the neighbourhood of Troedyrhiw is known as Havod Tanglwys ; and this we identify as her summer abode — a spot singularly beautiful even at the present day. She was a much-loved daughter of Brychan, and is said by Llewelyn Prichard to have been named in remembrance of renewed affection on the part of Brychan for his wife after a long separation. Assuming this Havod to be as we imagine, there is no longer any mystery why the Brychan family were so far away from Brecon when the pagans fell upon them.

Chapter II. Brychan Family

— MAELOG THE HERMIT. — THE WARRIOR'S FORD. — GWYNNO AND OUR SAINTS AND WARRIORS. ri^HE barbarians who slew our Tydfil, and so many of her family, left indications of their inroad in other than traditions of murder. These Picts and Scots were the ancient Irish — a Scythian tribe of marauders from Germany. The tribe of the Scot gave Scotland its name, but fortunately for the destinies of that country transplanted themselves to Ireland, from whence they contrived to affect our history in a remarkable manner, cutting off the various chieftains as they assumed the power, and revelling in pagan mischief. These ancient Irish evidently had a settlement in this neighbour hood, and we are guided to the fact by the etymology of names in our district. The western range of hills which in modern days we term Aberdare mountain, was in part anciently Bryn-y-Gwyddyl, or the mountain of the Irishman.

Over this, the direct route from the coast, the Irish tide must have periodically swept until it earned its ill-omened name among the primitive dwellers in the valley. Another portion of the range was called Bedd-y-Gwddyl, the grave of the Irishman, proving that the foray was not always harmless. Again, we have a Gaelic and a proper name in Kilsjanos ; and many a strange marking, mysterious memoranda, hieroglyphs, about which time is dumb, meet the wanderer's eye on those bold mountain waves. In Dowlais, too, we have a reminiscence of the pagan. The name is com posed of the gaelic Dubh black, and Glais a brook — the black brook. In the neighbourhood of Dowlais the coal strata crop out, and in some places they are so exposed that the full size of the vein has been perceptible, and this, of course, has been worked in a patch.

It follows that the " freshlets" of the mountains, the sudden storms we so often have, sweeping through such places, would tinge the main stream deeply with coal, and warrant its name of " The Black Stream." Little did the Irish pagan think that such a frown on the face of the mountain burnie was indicative of wealth sur passing the golden rivulets of Australia, and yet, for ages, onward rolled the black stream unnoticed to the sea. After the murder of Brychan his province was divided according to the old Welsh custom of Gavelskind between his two sons, Cledwyn and Rhun ; but of these petty chieftains, or monarchs, little is known except that Cledwyn succeeded in fully revenging his father's murder. He successfully drove the Picts out of his principality ; but, with a vivacity and daring that can be traced in their descendants, the Pagans soon reestablished themselves and figured prominently in the successive reigns of other reguli.

After these came other rulers unrecorded, save by name, until we come to the close of the fifth century, when the position of Regulus was held by the grandson of Brychan, Caradoc Freich Fras. This chieftain is mentioned as one of the knights of King Arthur, and is named in a triplet said to have been composed by that celebrated hero : — " Three battle knights 1 had, Mened and Lud the armour clad, And, pillar of Cambria, Caradoc ! i If this be a true specimen of Arthur's verse, it is no wonder that he was anointed one of the three vain bards of Britain. But though Arthur was no poet, Caradoc was a man of note and prowess in his day, so that even Aneurin, the poet of the Godlodin, loved to sing his praise : — When Caradoc rushed to battle, His stroke was like that of the woodland boar, Bull of the army, in the mangling fight ; He allured the mad dog with his fist.

But from the courage of Cattraeth, From Hedden hill ere it was gained ; After the grasping of the clear mead, Gwrien saw not his father." It would seem that Caradoc fell at Catterick, Yorkshire, about A.D. 603, but the traditions of the British Church represent him to have crossed into Brittany, and to have become the patron of Saint Padarn, familiarly known as the founder of Llanbadarn Vawr, in Cardiganshire. If destitute of warriors in modern days, this district was not so bare in the days of old ; warriors whose days of peace were passed in hunting of so wild and terrible a nature that the traditions of the German forests are shamed. The route was alorfg the Brecon range of hills, sweeping over the Beacons, and on by the range behind Dowlais. This, states tradition, was the favourite hunting track of King Arthur and his gallant knights, with whom we may be certain Caradoc was included.