Tuesday, November 11, 2008

CHARTIST MERTHYR | Public Lecture, Wed 19 Nov 200


Merthyr Chartism:
From Dic Penderyn to Henry Richard


A public lecture by Joe England

St David's Church Hall, Merthyr Tydfil, 7.30 pm

Organised by the Dic Penderyn Society

For details contact Mr Viv Pugh, Tel 01685 377883

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Walking Cyfarthfa: Landscape of industry




Walking Cyfarthfa: Landscape of industry
John Wilson 

Walking the landscape of the Cyfarthfa Iron Works.












"Merthyr Tydvil, a place never to be forgotten when once seen. The blackest place above ground; I suppose, the Non-plus-ultra of Industrialism wholly mammonish, given up to shopkeeper supply-and-demand;—presided over by sooty Darkness physical and spiritual, by Beer, Methodism and the Devil, to a lamentable and supreme extent!" (Thomas Carlyle, 1854)


Walk

Starting from the Cyfarthfa Retail Park, the following walk is based around three waymark points:
  • [1] The Cyfarthfa iron works furnace bank
  • [2] The Pont y Cafnau iron bridge
  • [3] The iron master's residence Cyfarthfa Castle

Walk extension

We may round this off into a circular walk by continuing north to:
  • [4] The Cefn Coed Viaduct
and then returning south via Cyfarthfa Castle to
  • [5] The Ynysfach Engine House 
taking us back to near the Cyfathfa Retail Park.


"Cyfartha Iron Works were founded in 1765, and by 1806 had become the largest in the world, thanks to its having been the first in the area to change to the production of bar iron and adoption of other technologically advanced processes in the late 18th century. The fortunes of the works were more mixed in the latter half of the 19th century, in spite of a change to steel production". | Source: 
ggat.org.uk

"Pont Y Cafnau ... the world's oldest surviving iron railway bridge"

"Cyvarthva Castle and Park form a fine object above the town; and Pen-y-Darren House, with its gardens, is equally interesting at the other extremity. But the general aspect of the vicinity is unprepossessing, the face of nature being disfigured by towering heaps of scoria from the furnaces, which are undergoing continued increase, thus precluding the growth of vegetation upon them, and exhibiting from their nakedness, in combination with the columns of smoke emitted from the works, a repulsive appearance of rudeness and gloomy sterility". ( A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, 1849).




Thursday, October 16, 2008

CHARTIST DOWLAIS | Public Lecture, 15 Oct 2008

Deference in Dowlais? Lady Charlotte Guest and the Chartists

Chartist Dowlais

A Public Lecture by Professor Angela V. John | Merthyr Tydfil Central Library, 15 Oct 2008 | Organised by THE MERTHYR CHARTIST FORUM and the Dic Penderyn Society


CHARTIST MERTHYR - WALK | 3 Aug 2008

Sunday 3 August |  Chartist Walk - Merthyr Tydfil | Walk and Talk - Led by Viv Pugh (Dic Penderyn Society) | Venue: Meet outside Merthyr Central Library, 2 pm




(Posted by - John Wilson)

CHARTIST MERTHYR | Day event, 12 April 2008

CHARTIST ANCESTORS - Merthyr Tydfil | Community Chartist Stories - Merthyr Tydfil, Sat 12th April 2008 | Hosted by the Dic Penderyn Society | This event celebrates the 160th anniversary of the 3rd Petition for the Charter which was presented to Parliament on April 10th 1848. 



(Posted by John Wilson)