by Keith Lewis-Jones
Plaque sited outside the old St Tydfil’s Hospital, CF47 0BL
William Thomas Lewis (1837-1914), later Lord Merthyr, was probably the most powerful figure in Welsh industry in the decades before 1914.
From a lowly beginning in 1855, he rose, by 1880, to be the manager of all of Lord Bute’s mineral, docks, railways, urban and agricultural property. He became a major coal owner and established the Lewis Merthyr Consolidated Collieries Ltd. He was Chairman of the Coalowner’s Association and was totally opposed to trade unions.
He was made a Freeman of the Borough in 1908 and was raised to the peerage in 1911.
Statue & plinth – Grade II Listed
History
Granite plinth dated 1900. Bronze statute by T Brock RA, sculptor of London, 1898.
The monument was relocated from the original site outside the General Hospital.
Description
Standing, bearded figure with arms across front holding unrolled document or plan. Miners’ lamp and pile of papers at rear of feet. Tapering pedestal with moulded cornice and stepped plinth. Bronze heraldic plaque to front.
Long (rear) inscription of good works begins: “Erected by the Voluntary Subscriptions of Friends and Admirers….”.
Listed Building information kindly supplied by CADW ©
Scheduled Ancient Monuments information kindly supplied by The Royal Commission on the Ancient Monuments of Wales – RCAHMW ©