Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Tydfil
| |
---|---|
Town | |
Location within Merthyr Tydfil | |
Population | 43,820 (2011 Census)[1] |
OS grid reference | SO 0506 |
Principal area | |
Preserved county | |
Country | Wales |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Merthyr Tydfil |
Postcode district | CF47/CF48 |
Dialling code | 01685 |
Police | South Wales |
Fire | South Wales |
Ambulance | Welsh |
UK Parliament | |
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament | |
Merthyr Tydfil
Noted for its industrial past, Merthyr was known as the 'Iron Capital of the World' in the early 19th century, due to the scale of its iron production.[5][6][7] 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.[8][9] The 1851 census found Wales to be the world's first industrialised nation, as more people were employed in industry than agriculture, with Merthyr the biggest town in Wales at that time.[10][11] 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.[12] 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.[13]
The area 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.[14][15]
History
Pre-history
Peoples migrating north from Europe had lived in the area for many thousands of years. The
The Roman invasion
The Silures resisted this invasion fiercely from their mountain strongholds, but 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 the
The coming of Christianity
The Latin language and some
Local legends
Local tradition holds that, around 480 CE, a girl called
The Normans
For several hundred years the valley of the River Taff was heavily wooded, with 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 was built two miles north of the town.[22]
Early modern Merthyr
No permanent settlement was formed until well into the
The Industrial Revolution
Influence and growth of iron industry
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 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.[24] The companies were mainly owned by two dynasties, the Guest and Crawshay families.[25]
Starting in the late 1740s, land within the Merthyr district was gradually being leased for the smelting of iron to meet the growing demand, with the expansion of smaller furnaces dotted around South Wales.[24] 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 the Plymouth Ironworks.[24] 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".[24] 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 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.[26]
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.[27]
During the first few decades of 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 the Brecon and Merthyr Railway,
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 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."[30]
Living conditions in the China district
China was the name given to a nineteenth-century slum[31] 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.[32] The inhabitants of China were seen as 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".[33]
There were at least 1,500 people living in the slum, 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
The Merthyr Rising
With 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.[35]
The
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 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 the incident to avoid prosecution.[36] 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.
The decline of coal and iron
The population of Merthyr reached 51,949 in 1861, but then went into decline for several years. As 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.[23]
In the 1870s the advent of coal mining to 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.[23]
A prime example of the decline is the Cyfarthfa Ironworks. The actions, or inactions, of
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 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
Post-Second World War
Immediately after the
Hoover and other companies targeted Merthyr, and 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 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", and 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 – 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.[37]
Cyfarthfa, the former home of the ironmaster
In 1992, while testing a new
In 2006 inventor Howard Stapleton, based in Merthyr Tydfil, developed the technology that gave rise to the recent mosquitotone or
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.[40]
The Welsh language
Use of the
Merthyr Tydfil hosted the
Industrial legacy
Founded on heavy industry, Merthyr became the ‘Iron Capital of the World’ and Wales largest town the early 19th century. However despite Merthyr's long and varied
In 2006, a Channel 4 series ranked Merthyr Tydfil as the United Kingdom's third-worst place to live.[45] In the 2007 edition of the same series, Merthyr had improved to fifth-worst.[46] 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. [47]
More recent commentary cites a growth in desirability due to various renovation projects and an increasing tourism sector.[48][49] 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.[50] The area was second highest in Wales from 2018 to 2019.[51]
Cyfarthfa Castle, a castellated mansion built for the Ironmasters of Cyfarthfa, is now a museum and art shop, attracting almost 7 million day visits in a year.[52] 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.[53]
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.[55]
The four-storey, Grade-II listed YMCA building, also with terracotta-faced structure, 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.[56]
Open-cast mining
In 2006, a large
Government
The parish of Merthyr Tydfil was made a
In 1996 Mid Glamorgan County Council 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.[61]
The
Religion
Anglican churches
Merthyr was regarded as a nonconformist stronghold in the 19th century, but the chapels declined rapidly from the 1920s onwards and most are now closed.
The Church of England (now the Church in Wales) sought to counterbalance the influence of nonconformity in the 19th century and Merthyr had a succession of notable parish priests. Among them was
Griffith's funeral was said to have been attended by 12,000–15,000 people.[64] "I venture to declare," wrote one correspondent, "no man in this part of the kingdom could be more popular in his day and generation than the Rev. John Griffith." Among the nonconformist ministers present was an old rival, Dr Thomas Price of Aberdare.[65]
Another influential character was Sir John Guest, who contributed greatly to the building of St John's Church, Dowlais.[66] Despite the generally small congregations of Anglican churches, St John's thrived: it held two services in English each Sunday and also two in Welsh. This church was significant in the plan to counterbalance nonconformity in Merthyr. In 2019 the church was converted into residential flats which retain the original structure.[67]
Nonconformity
Merthyr was notable in the 19th and early 20th centuries for a large number of nonconformist places of worship, most holding services in Welsh.
One of the earliest was
Other early chapels were Zion and Ebenezer (
The Merthyr Hebrew Congregation
Merthyr Tydfil had the largest Jewish community in Wales in the 19th century, reaching 400 at its height.[71] As the Jewish population had increased, Merthyr Hebrew Congregation was founded in 1848 and a cemetery consecrated a few years later at Cefn-Coed.[71] Merthyr Synagogue was built in 1875. Religious services ceased when it had a male Jewish congregation of under ten, the minyan (quorum) required for them.[71]
In 1978 the building was given Grade II* listing, changed to Grade II in 1983. In the 1980s the 120-year-old synagogue was sold and became a Christian Centre, then a gym. In 2009 permission was obtained to turn it into flats.[72] In 2019 it was bought by the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, which plans to open as a Jewish Heritage Centre in 2025.[73]
Culture
The town's many cultural events include local poets and writers holding poetry evenings and music festivals organised at Cyfarthfa Castle and Park. Menter Iaith Merthyr Tudful (the Merthyr Tydfil Welsh Language Initiative) has successfully transformed the Zoar Chapel and adjacent vestry building in Pontmorlais into a community arts venue, Canolfan Soar and Theatr Soar, which run a programme of performance events and activities in both Welsh and English, together with a cafe and a bookshop specialising in local interest and Welsh language books and CDs.[74]
Merthyr Tydfil Housing Association, in partnership with Canolfan Soar, has raised funds to turn the Pontmorlais area into a cultural quarter. With references to the 1831 Merthyr Rising and red bricks for its frontage, an arts and creative industries centre named Redhouse Cymru was launched in Merthyr Tydfil Town Hall on Saint David's Day 2014.[75] The town's several choirs – Dowlais Male Voice Choir, Ynysowen Male Voice Choir, Treharris Male Voice Choir, Merthyr Tydfil Ladies Choir, Con Voce, Cantorion Cyfarthfa, St David's Church Choir, St David's Choral Scholars, Merthyr Aloud and Tenovus – perform locally and abroad and in the media.
Merthyr has several historical and heritage groups:
- Merthyr Tydfil Heritage Regeneration Trust aims to preserve for the benefit of the residents... and the Nation at large whatever of the Historical, Architectural and Constructional Heritage may exist in and around Merthyr Tydfil in the form of buildings and artefacts of particular beauty or of Historical, Architectural or Constructional interest and also to improve, conserve and protect the environment thereto."[76]
- Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society sets out "to advance the education of the public by promoting the study of the local history and architecture of Merthyr Tydfil".[77]
- Merthyr Tydfil Museum and Heritage Groups aspire "to advance the education of the public by the promotion, support and improvement of the Heritage of Merthyr Tydfil and its Museums."[78]
Merthyr's Central Library holds a prominent position in the town centre, as a
Tourism
The town lies the southern edge of the
Transport
The "Pen-y-Darren" locomotive
In 1802, Homfray, the Master of the Penydarren Ironworks, commissioned engineer Richard Trevithick to build one of his high-pressure steam engines to drive 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
Roads
Road improvements mean the town is increasingly a commuter location and has shown some of the highest house-price growth in the UK.[83][84]
Public transport
Regular trains run from
Employment
Merthyr relies on a combination of
Sports and leisure
Boxing
Merthyr is well known for boxers, amateur and professional.[citation needed] The latter have included Johnny Owen, Howard Winstone, and Eddie Thomas. A series of bronze sculptures in the town mark their achievements.
Where the sculpture of Eddie Thomas stands was also the site of The Bethesda Community Arts Centre in the 1980s.
Football
Merthyr has a football team, Merthyr Town or "The Martyrs", currently competes in the Southern Football League 'Premier South' division in the English football pyramid. The team plays its home games at Penydarren Park.
The town was home to the professional
Rugby
Union
Merthyr RFC, known as "the Ironmen", was one of the 12 founding clubs of the Welsh Rugby Union in 1881. It competes in the Principality Premiership and plays home games at The Wern.
League
From 2017, semi-professional
Mountain biking
Bikepark Wales, the UK's first purpose-built mountain biking centre, is located at Gethin Woods, Merthyr Tydfil. Spread across 1200 acres, Bike Park Wales is the UK’s premier mountain bike park and has its most diverse selection of all-weather mountain bike trails.[92]
Outdoor pursuits
Parkwood Outdoors Dolygaer is an outdoor activity centre that was opened in 2015 on the site of an earlier centre run by the local education authority. Pursuits include canoeing and stand-up paddleboarding on the Pontsticill Reservoir.[93]
Education
The main secondary schools in the town are Afon Taf High School, Cyfarthfa High School and Pen-Y-Dre High School.[94]
Notable people
Among those born in Merthyr are:
- Gareth Abraham – professional footballer[95]
- Laura Ashley – fashion designer and retailer[96]
- Des Barry – author
- Members of The Blackout – Rock band featuring Sean Smith
- William Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose – newspaper proprietor, and his brothers Seymour Berry, 1st Baron Buckland and Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley
- Jamie Bevan – Welsh language activist[97]
- Nathan Craze – professional ice hockey goaltender[98]
- Gordon Davies – Fulham F.C. leading goal scorer and Wales international football player
- Richard Davies – actor
- Timothy Evans – wrongly convicted and hanged for murder
- Kevin Gall – professional footballer
- Sir Samuel Griffith – Australian politician; Premier of Queensland and first Chief Justice of Australia
- Gavin Gwynne – professional boxer
- Richard Harrington – actor
- John Hughes – businessman
- Ciaran Jenkins – broadcaster and journalist
- Declan John – professional footballer
- David W. Jones (1815–1879), Wisconsin politician
- Glyn Jones – poet
- John Edward Jones – American politician and the eighth Governor of Nevada
- William Ifor Jones – American conductor and organist
- Brian Law – Welsh international football player
- Chelsea Lewis – Welsh international netball player
- Peter Locke – Welsh professional darts player
- Julien Macdonald – fashion designer
- Man – prog-rock band
- Leslie Norris – poet
- Geoffrey Olsen – artist
- Dale Owen – architect[99]
- Johnny Owen – boxer
- Jonny Owen – actor, broadcaster and producer
- Morgan Owen – poet and author
- Joseph Parry – composer
- Gustavius Payne – artist
- Mark Pembridge – Wales international football player
- Robert Sidoli – Welsh rugby international
- Eddie Thomas – boxer
- Penry Williams – artist
- Howard Winstone – boxer
Other notable residents have included poet and author
Notable descendants of Merthyr include the singer-songwriter Katell Keineg, whose mother is from Merthyr, the "Chariots of Fire" athlete Harold Abrahams' mother Esther Isaacs, and the grandfather of Rolf Harris. The 1970s juvenile group The Osmonds traced its ancestry to Merthyr.[101]
Lady Charlotte Guest, publisher and translator, married ironmaster John Josiah Guest in 1833 and moved to his mansion in Dowlais, where she lived for many years. There she translated the stories of the Mabinogion in 1838–1845 and 1877.[102]
References in art and literature
- Anthony Trollope mentions it twice in the final chapter of Orley Farm as an example of a remote place where a young lawyer can be sent to.
- Horatio Clare's retelling of one of the Mabinogion tales, The Prince's Pen (Seren) refers to Merthyr as being "declared an insurgent zone", and that people would refer to "'what happened at Merthyr' for years to follow".[103]
- Merthyr is mentioned in the folk song The Bells of Rhymney: "Is there hope for the future?" cry the brown bells of Merthyr, quoting poetry from Idris Davies.
- In the third episode of the 1978 BBC sitcom Going Straight, Merthyr is referred to as having "more pubs... than anywhere else in Britain, and they're all shut Sundays."
- In Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series (set in an alternate history), Merthyr is the capital of an independent People's Republic of Wales.
- Australian poet Les Murray references his experiences in the town in his poem, "Vindaloo in Merthyr Tydfil".
- Canadian songwriter Jane Siberry once visited Merthyr Tydfil, and used the line "and my heart is black and heavy, it is slags of Merthyr Tydfil" as an image to convey feelings of abandonment and sadness in her song "You Don't Need", from the 1984 album, No Borders Here.
Twinnings
- Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France, since 1980[104]
See also
Notes
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- ^ "South Wales Metro work to continue in Merthyr Tydfil".
- ^ "Assembly building in valleys town". BBC News. 30 November 2006. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
- ^ "End of the line for Hoover plant". BBC News. 13 March 2009.
- ^ "Merthyr Town celebrate Western League promotion". BBC Sport. 4 April 2011. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
- ^ Match Report: Merthyr Town 1 – 9 Llanelli[permanent dead link]
- ^ Bikepark Wales, "About Us". Retrieved 21 July 2014.
- ^ "Courses at Dolygaer". Parkwood Outdoors Dolygaer. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
- ^ "List of Schools". Merthyr Tydfil. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
- ^ "Gareth Abraham". Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Database. Archived from the original on 9 October 2012. Retrieved 29 September 2012.
- ^ "South East Wales Arts – Laura Ashley". BBC. Retrieved 29 September 2012.
- ^ "Gareth Jamie Bevan, Man Who Trashed Conservative MP's Office Over S4C, Jailed". Huffington Post. 23 August 2011. Retrieved 29 September 2012.
- ^ "Nathan Craze". hockeyDB.com. Retrieved 29 September 2012.
- ^ Powell, Kenneth (28 November 1997). "Obituary: Dale Owen". The Independent. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
- ^ "We're on the right track". Wales Online. 16 April 2008. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
- ^ "Osmond concert in ancestors' town". BBC News. 24 October 2006.
- ^ "Lady Charlotte Guest". Data Wales. Archived from the original on 4 May 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
- ^ Horatio Clare (18 October 2011). "The Prince's Pen". Seren Books. Archived from the original on 1 January 2014. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
- ^ "British Towns Twinned with French Towns". France Mag. 12 January 2012. Archived from the original on 25 July 2020.
The population given as 38,000 is for the parishes round the town centre: the population of the County Borough at the 2011 census was 58,800 and in 2014 59,500.
Bibliography
- A Brief History of Merthyr Tydfil by Joseph Gross. The Starling Press. 1986
- The Merthyr Rising by Gwyn A Williams. University of Wales Press,
- The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press,
- People, Protest and Politics, case studies in C19 Wales By David Egan, Gomer 1987
- Cyfres y Cymoedd: Merthyr a Thaf, edited by Hywel Teifi Edwards. Gomer, 2001
- Civilizing the Urban: Popular culture and Urban Space in Merthyr, c. 1870–1914 by Andy Croll. University of Wales Press. 2000. ISBN 978-0708316375
- Methyr Tydfil A.F.C. 1945–1954: The Glory Years By Philip Sweet. T.T.C. Books. 2008
- The Eccles, Antiquities of the Cymry; or The Ancient British Church by John Williams (1844), p116.
- Noteworthy Merthyr Tydfil Citizens by Keith L. Lewis-Jones. Merthyr Tydfil Heritage Trust 2008.mtht.co.uk
- Keith Strange, In Search of the Celestial Empire, Llafur, Vol 3; no.1 (1980)
- Merthyr Historian volumes 1 – 21, Merthyr Tydfil Historical Society. mths.co.uk
- Wills, Wilton D. (1969). "The Rev. John Griffith and the revival of the established church in nineteenth century Glamorgan". Morgannwg. 13: 75–102. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
External links
- Old Merthyr Tydfil – Historical Photographs of Merthyr Tydfil.
- Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council
- "Merthyr Tydfil Life". BBC. Archived from the original on 3 March 2008.
- www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Merthyr Tydfil and surrounding area