Excerpts from
Vaughan, F., Poor Relief in Merthyr in
the Nineteenth Century, Merthyr Historian, Vol. 1, 1976
pp 96-97
In
the first half of the 19th century Merthyr was a rapidly growing town. Four
great iron works had arisen in the Merthyr area and the influx of workers into
the area was to make Merthyr for 60 years, the largest town in Wales. Daniel
Defoe's " most agreeable vale . . . with a pleasant river running through
it called the Taafe " was transformed into a clamouring hive of industry,
the green hills black-blistered by "tips" and George Borrow would
lament, " The hills around the Taff, once so green, are blackened by the
smoke of the chimneys of Merthyr". Here in this valley the stage was set
for scenes of wealth side by side with squalor and utter degradation; on the
one hand the chandelier-lit rooms of Cyfarthfa Castle and on the other the
poverty, filth and disease that were the dark companions of the poor in their
ugly, little hovels, the cellars and basements, in which whole families lived.
A
visitor to Merthyr Tydfil in the middle of the 19th century might think that
Merthyr was a prosperous town. It had an air of prosperity, many shops and two
big markets, one in Dowlais the other in Merthyr. On Saturdays the Merthyr
market was open from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. It was a crowded, colourful. scene,
the workers parading in their Sunday-best clothes, the stalls and booths lit
with flares, the side shows, hawkers, ballad singers.
Some
of these workers who paraded on Saturday nights were lowly paid labourers
earning 10/- a week. Some were girls who earned 4/- to 6/- a week.
There
were many pubs and beer shops in the town, 305 by 1850, one to every 24 houses.
The temperance reformers attacked these " dens of iniquity " very
strongly, but the pubs were also places of social gatherings and the meeting
places of Friendly Societies.
Behind
the facade of prosperity lay the reality of poverty. When there was a slump in
the iron industry, wages were reduced. Then, indeed, it was difficult for
workers to make ends meet, especially the lowest paid workers already
mentioned. Out of their 4/- to 6/- a week some girls had to pay rent 1/ - a
week and also pay for food and clothing. These badly paid workers were those
who most easily became paupers. Others were those who had been injured in the
works-puddlers who had become blind, the many who had lost limbs. There were
workers' Sick Funds and Benefit Clubs, but a mere 4/- a week from these was not
enough to keep one above the level of pauperism. If one turned away from the
shop windows of the High Street, and naphtha flares of the Market and went into
the dark "courts" and "alleys" one would see plenty of
poverty and squalor. In that "maze of courts and tortuous lanes"
called Pont Storehouse or in "China", the cesspool of Merthyr, would
be found what one Merthyr historian has called "the final
degradation".
The
workers could do nothing about wage reductions. They could hold protest
meetings, send deputations to the iron-masters, but it was all in vain. The
working classes had not yet arrived at the day when the strike would be a
potent weapon. Where there were squalor and poverty there was disease. There
was appalling infant mortality among the working class. Three quarters of those
who died were under the age of five. Life expectancy among the working class
was about 22 years. Shopkeepers and publicans seemed to live longest.
About
the Hopkin Thomas Project
November 2009