Tag: Samuel Homfray

Merthyr Tydfil to Aber Cynon Tramroad – part 1

by Gwilym and John Griffiths

Some sources have recorded that this tramroad (then called a dram road) was started around 1800 by agreement between William Taitt of Dowlais, Samuel Homfray of Pen y Darren and Richard Hill of Plymouth. They added that the construction, under the supervision of George Overton, was allegedly started in 1799 and finished in 1802. Yet see under Leases 1800 for a few of the early leases in summary. It seems that Richard Fothergill was much involved in setting up these leases. In addition, the route was always described as being from Morlais Castle to Navigation House.  The route was from Pen y Darren to Aber Cynon, 9½ miles, a fall of 341 feet. Brief details were recorded in The Pen y Darren Locomotive by Stuart Owen-Jones.

The tramroad was used briefly (three times or numerous times, see below) with a trial of Trevithick’s steam engine on Tuesday 21 Feb 1804, returning to Pen y Darren the following day, but shortly thereafter the tramroad reverted to horse power for many further years. The weight of the steam-engine apparently damaged the rails. However, Charles Wilkins, ‘The History of Merthyr Tydfil’, page 252, thought that the engine, ‘after serving a long time on the tramway, was removed to a pit called Winch Fawr (in the hamlet of Heol Wermwd not the one in the hamlet of Gelli Deg), and finally taken to the top of the incline owned by the Pen y Darren Company at Cwm Bargod.’ We are not so sure. Richard Trevithick himself recorded the event from which the following summary is appropriate:

  1. On Saturday 11 Feb 1804, the fire was lit in the ‘Tram Waggon’ and Richard Trevithick worked it without the wheels to try the engine.
  2. On Monday 13 Feb 1804, they put the waggon on the ‘Tram Road’. It worked very well and ran up hill and down with great ease and was very manageable. There was plenty of power.
  3. Between 13 Feb and 20 Feb 1804 the ‘Tram Waggon’ had been worked several times. They had tried loads of up to ten tons, and it worked easily. He was sure it could cope with forty tons. Richard Trevithick intended making a smaller engine for the tram road as the first one had too much power, and would be used instead to work a hammer.
  4. On Tuesday 21 Feb 1804 they made the journey with the engine. They carried ten tons, presumably of iron, in five waggons, with seventy men riding on them for the whole of the journey. He recorded, very clearly, that it took four hours and five minutes to cover the nine miles because they had to cut down some trees and remove some large rocks out of the tram road. No mention of the stack being knocked down by a bridge or any problem with the ‘tunnel’ by Plymouth Works. They returned, but a broken bolt released the water, and the engine did not arrive back at Pen y Darren Works until the evening of Wednesday 22 Feb 1804. No mention of broken tramway plates or of having to be hauled back to Pen y Darren by horse.
  5. Later they tried the carriage with twenty-five tons of iron, and found the engine was more than a match for that weight. The steam was delivered into the chimney above the damper. It made the draught much stronger by going up the chimney. Trevithick’s locomotive was the first to employ this very important principle of turning the exhaust steam up the chimney, so producing a draft which drew the hot gases from the fire more powerfully through the boiler.

In May 1854, some forty years later, Thomas Ellis, an engineer from Tredegar, wrote a letter describing the first journey the Pen y Darren locomotive took in February, 1804. His father was at Pen y Darren when the engine was made and tried. Samuel Homfray, proprietor of the Pen y Darren Works, Merthyr Tydfil, made a bet of 1,000 guineas with Richard Crawshay, of the Cyfarthfa Works, that Trevithick’s steam-engine could convey a load of iron from his works to the Navigation House, nine miles distant.

To be continued……

Merthyr Tydfil in 1803 – part 3

From: The Scenery, Antiquities and Biography of South Wales, from material collected during two excursions in the year 1803. Volume 1, by Benjamin Heath Malkin (1807)

Pages 268 – 272

In such a review of the increasing wealth and population, which these important manufacturers are yearly conferring on the country, we may well exclaim with Jago,

Hail, native British ore! of thee possess’d,
We envy not Golcenda’s sparkling mines,
Nor thine, Potosi! nor thy kindred hills,
teeming with gold.  What! though in outward form
Less fair? not less thy worth. To thee we owe
More riches than Peruvian mines can yield,
Or Montezuma’s crowded magazines
And palaces could boast, though roof’d with gold.

This town, as it may properly be termed, is now by far the largest town in the whole principality. Its population, in the year 1802, was found to be upwards of 10,000; and it is supposed that it amounts at this time, December 1803, though at the interval only one year from the date of the numeration to considerably more than 11,000; and this is to be understood without the including the suburbs, as we made denominate it correctly enough, of Coed y Cymmer, on the Breconshire side of the River, the population of which is at least 1,000. Swansea, heretofore the largest town in Wales, exceeding every other town by at least 1,000 inhabitants, is now nearly, if not quite, doubled by Merthyr Tydfil. It is true, external appearance of Merthyr Tydfil is not to be compared with that of Swansea.

The House of Mr. Homfray at Penydarren is large and elegant, with fine and well planted gardens, greenhouses, hot-houses, and all the accommodations befitting the residence of a wealthy family: but the splendours of Merthyr Tydfil begin and end with this mansion. When the first furnaces and forges were erected, there could not exist the slightest glimmering of prescience, that this little obscure Welsh village would, in less than 40 years, grow up to such a magnitude, as to be far more populous than any other town in Wales.

The first houses that were built were only very small and simple cottages for the furnacemen, forgemen, miners, and such tradesmen as were necessary to construct the required buildings, with a common laborers who are employed to assist them. These cottages were most of them built in scattered confusion, without any order or plan. As the works increased, more cottages were wanted and erected in the spaces between those that had been previously built, till they became so connected with each other, as to form a certain description of irregular streets, very much on the plan of Crooked Lane in the City of London. These streets are now many in number, close and confined, having no proper outlets behind the houses. They are constantly very filthy for the most part, and doubtless very unhealthy. Some streets, it is to be observed, have within these few years being built, and more are building, on a better plan; in straighter lines, and wider, having decent houses, with commodious outlets, and other necessary attentions to cleanliness and health.

In some of the early, and rudely-connected streets, we frequently see the small miserable houses taken down, and larger and very respectable buildings erected in their stead. Such improvements are increasing with some degree of rapidity. Shopkeepers, innkeepers, forge-men, some of them at least, and in no inconsiderable numbers, are making comfortable fortunes, and consequently improving their dwellings. Mr. Crawshay, however, is more conspicuously qualified to set them an example of industry rather than elegance. His house is surrounded with fire, flame, smoke, and ashes.

The noise of hammers, rolling mills, forges, and bellows, incessantly din and crash upon the ear. Bars and pigs of iron are continually thrown to the hugely accumulating heaps that threatened to choke up every avenue of access. It is more humourously than truly said in the neighbourhood, that such scenery is most congenial to the taste, such sounds most lulling to the repose of the owner. The fact however is, that the situation of the Master’s dwelling was fixed long before Mr. Crawshay came into it; and when it is considered how conveniently it lies for the superintendence of the business, few men, brought up in the habits of commercial prudence, would consult agreeable prospects and domestic elegance, at the expense of that best security, the ever-watchful eye of a principal. The machinery of this establishment is gigantic; and that part of it, work by water, among the most scientifically curious and mechanically powerful to which modern improvement has given birth.

The most remarkable piece of mechanism in Merthyr Tydfil is the great water wheel made by Watkin George. Its diameter is 50 feet, and it has the power of 50 horses. It has the advantage of water from above, on its centre, and beneath it; or, in other words, it possesses all the forces of an overshot, breast, and undershot wheel. I apprehend it to be the largest in the Kingdom. Watkin George and William Aubrey, with the two principal engineers, and they are both natives of this country. Watkin George in particular, who planned and executed this immense undertaking, was a common village carpenter. Owing to his success in these mechanical inventions, he got forward by degrees, and became at last so useful to Mr. Crawshay, as to obtain a share in his works. He has lately quitted the concern with from thirty to forty thousand pounds in his pocket. This is one among the most remarkable instances of wealth acquired by the untutored ingenuity of natural faculties.

Merthyr Tydfil in 1803 – part 2

From: The Scenery, Antiquities and Biography of South Wales, from material collected during two excursions in the year 1803. Volume 1, by Benjamin Heath Malkin (1807)

Pages 260 – 264

Merthyr Tydfil derives its name from Tydfil, the daughter of Brechan, Prince of Brecknockshire. She was the wife of Cyngen, son of Cadelh, Prince of the vale royal and part of Powys, about the close of the fifth century; and is reckoned among the ancient British saints. She, with some of her brothers, was on a visit to her father, then an old man, when they were set upon by a party of Pagan Saxons and Irish Picts, as they are termed in various old manuscripts. Tydfil, her father, Brechan, and her brother Rhun Dremrudd, were murdered. But Nefydd, the son of Rhun Dremrudd, a very young man, soon raised the country by his exertions, and put the infidels to flight. It should seem by this anecdote, as well as by others that may be found in the Cambrian biography, derived from ancient memorials of the British saints, that Brechan had his residence, or what the modern language of princes usually terms court, at this place. Tydfil having been murdered, or martyred in the manner described, a church was here dedicated to her in after times, and called the church of Merthyr Tydfil, which signifies the Martyr Tydfil, from the Greek word μάρτυρ, a witness, exclusively appropriated in ecclesiastical language to the designation of those who have borne testimony by their sufferings to the truth of their religion.

These are the few and scanty memorials which have hitherto been discovered respecting the history of this place in the earliest times. But it was in after ages, though inconsiderable in population and political importance, of no contemptible note as a sort of hot-bed, that contributed principally to engender and kept alive for more than a century, those religious dissensions, which still separate a larger proportion of the inhabitants in Wales, than in any part of England, from the established church. Indeed it cannot be, but the zealous and devout, whether capable or not of appreciating controverted creeds or metaphysical distinctions, will form themselves into distinct societies, where the scanty provision of the clergy and their neglected state of the churches, scarcely admit of that seemliness and grave impression, so necessary to the due effect of public worship. Almost all the exclusively Welsh sects among the lower orders of the people having truth degenerated into habits of the most picture lunacy in their devotion. The various sub divisions of Methodists, jumpers, and I know not what, who meet in fields and houses, prove how low fanaticism may degrade human reason: but for the intelligent and enlightened part of the dissenters among whom have appeared many luminaries of our learning are everywhere respectable and nowhere more respected, than the estimation of moderate and candid churchmen. At Blaencannaid, in this parish, the first dissenting congregation in Wales was formed about the year 1620 or very soon after; and it was while preaching to this society that Vavasor Powel, a man celebrated in the annals of nonconformity, was taken up and imprisoned in Cardiff gaol.

Vavasor Powel was born in Radnorshire and descended on his father’s side from the Powels of Knucklas in that County, an ancient and honourable stock; by his mother from the Vavasors, a family of high antiquity, which came out of Yorkshire into Wales and was related to the principal gentry. He was educated in Jesus College, Oxford. When he left University, he became an itinerant preacher in the principality; and the circumstance of his belonging to the unpopular sect of Baptists exposed him to much persecution. In 1640, he and his hearers were seized under the warrant of a magistrate, but very shortly were dismissed. In 1642, he was driven from Wales because he objected to Presbyterian ordination.

At that time there were but two dissenting congregations in Wales, of which this at Merthyr Tydfil was one.  In 1646 he returned to the exercise of his profession with ample testimonials; and such was his indefatigable activity, but before the restoration they were more than 20 Baptist societies chiefly formed under his superintending care. He was one of the commissioners for sequestrations. The usual fate of bold integrity awaited him; that of becoming obnoxious inturn to all parties. As an advocate of Republican principles, but not for their prostitution to the mockery of freedom, he preached against the protectorship, and wrote some spirited letters of remonstrance to Cromwell. For this he was imprisoned. He was known to be a fifth monarchy man: at the restoration therefore he underwent a series of persecutions at Shrewsbury, in Wales, and lastly in the Fleet prison which ended only with his death. He was permitted to return to Merthyr Tydfil after his imprisonment at Portsmouth, as well as at Shrewsbury: but as he persisted in exercising his functions, he was committed to Cardiff Castle and afterwards sent to London, where he expired in the Fleet, and was buried in Bunhill Fields.

Pages 264 – 267

But it was not to the bloody memory of its martyrs, whether ancient or modern that Merthyr Tydfil was to owe its rank in historic page; for it continued a very inconsiderable village until about the year 1755, when the late Mr. Bacon took more notice of the iron and coal mines, with which this tract of country abounds, than they had before excited. For the very low rent of two hundred pounds per annum, he obtained a lease of a district at least 8 miles long and 4 wide, for 99 years. It is to be understood, however, that his right extended only to the iron and coal mines found on the estate, and that he had a comparatively very small portion of the soil on the surface, on which he erected his works for smelting and forging the iron. He possessed in addition some fields for the keep of his horses, and other necessary conveniences. He at first constructed one furnace; and little besides this was done, probably for at least ten years. The next advance was the erection of a forge for working pig into bar iron.

About the beginning of the American war, Mr. Bacon contracted with government for casting cannon. Proper foundries were erected for this purpose; and a good Turnpike road was made down to the port of Cardiff, along an extent of 26 miles. At Cardiff likewise a proper wharf was formed, still called the cannon wharf, whence  the cannon were shipped off to Plymouth, Portsmouth, and wherever the service required. These were carried in waggons down to Cardiff, at a prodigious expense of carriages, horses, and roads. There are those who do not hesitate to assert, but I know not with what truth, that 16 horses were sometimes employed to draw the waggon that contained only one cannon. It is likewise said, that the roads were so torn by these heavy waggons and the weight of their loads, that it was a month’s work for one man to repair the Turnpike after every deportation of cannon. I had no opportunity of inquiring properly and minutely into the truth of these relations; but I cannot help suspecting them to be matter of fact in the main hyperbolically aggravated, though I derive the account from very respectable sources of information.

This contract is supposed to have been immensely lucrative to Mr. Bacon; but he was obliged to relinquish it about the close of the American war, or rather transfer it to the Caron company in Scotland, as I have been informed; where most, perhaps all, of the cannon are now cast. He made this disposal, that he might be enabled to hold a seat in parliament, to which he had been elected. Soon afterwards, about the year 1783, he granted leases of his remaining term, in the following parcels: Cyfarthfa Works, the largest portion, to Mr. Crawshay, and the reminder to Mr Hill. Mr. Bacon had never had any interest in Penydarren or Dowlais works; but his heirs have from the other two a clear annual income of ten thousand pounds.

Mr. Crawshay’s iron works of Cyfarthfa are now by far the largest in this Kingdom; probably indeed the largest in Europe; and in that case, as far as we know, the largest in the world. He employs constantly 1500 men, at an average of 30 shillings a week per man, which will make the weekly wages paid by him £2250, and the monthly expenditure, including other items, about £10000. From the canal accounts, it appears that Cyfarthfa works sent 9,906 tonnes of iron to Cardiff between the 1st of October 1805 and the 1st of October 1806 so that the average may be reckoned from 180 to 200 tonnes every week. Mr. Crawshay now works 6 furnaces, and 2 rolling mills.  For procuring blast for the furnaces and working the Mills, he has for steam engines, one of 50, one of 40, one of 12, and one of 7 horse power.

The quantity of iron sent from Penydarren works by the canal, from October 1805, to October 1806, was 6,963 tonnes; so that the men employed by Mr. Homfray must amount to about 1,000 and his monthly outgoings must be about £7000 and the weekly average of iron from 130 to 140 tonnes. Dowlais ironworks belonging to Messrs Lewis and Tate, are next in the scale to those of Penydarren. Their produce last year amounted to 5,432 tonnes. Plymouth works, belonging to Mr Hill, sent out within the same period, 3952 tonnes, or 26 tonnes per week. They employ about 500 men at a monthly expense of about £4000. The total of the iron sent to Cardiff down the canal from the 1st of October 1805 to the 1st of October 1806 was 26,253 tonnes, or about 500 tonnes weekly; whence it is shipped off to Bristol, London, Plymouth, Portsmouth, and other places, and a considerable quantity to America.

The number of smelting furnaces at Merthyr Tydfil is about 16.

To be continued…..

The Glamorganshire Canal – and the Rise of Rail

By Laura Bray

We all know the story – a wager between Samuel Homfray  of the Penydarren Ironworks, and Richard Crawshay of Cyfarthfa that Trevithick’s steam locomotive could haul ten tens of iron from Penydarren to Abercynon, and we all know that Homfray won his bet, and Merthyr became known across the world as the home of the first railway.

But have you ever wondered why the bet was made? Perhaps it just a whim between two very rich two men with money to burn. After all the bet was sizeable 500 guineas or something like £40,000 in today’s money.  Perhaps it was because Homfray, who had used Trevithick’s engines to drive a hammer in the ironworks, was a pioneer.  Or was it because of the Glamorganshire Canal…..?

The Glamorganshire Canal in Merthyr. Photo Courtesy of the Alan George Archive

By the late 18th century, Merthyr was probably the most important manufacturing town in Britain, with a population 8 times larger than that of Cardiff, which was the nearest port.  However, the river wharfs in Cardiff were rapidly reaching capacity and could not keep up with the maritime demands made by Merthyr’s four ironworks.  In addition, it was prohibitively expensive to get the goods from Merthyr to Cardiff, costing the ironmasters something like £14,000 p.a. – a sum equivalent to around £1m today.

Richard Crawshay. Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery

It was within this context that Richard Crawshay took the lead in lobbying for a Parliamentary Bill in order to get the powers to build a canal from Merthyr to Cardiff, and in 1790 the Glamorganshire Canal Act was passed. The Act provided that a company be formed of The Company of Proprietors of the Glamorganshire Canal Navigation with power to purchase land for making the canal and to carry out the necessary works.  The Act also laid down the route that was to be followed, authorised the raising of £90,000 to meet the cost of completing the canal, and laid down the maximum charges for carrying various classes of goods, up to 5d. per ton per mile for carrying stone, iron, timber, etc. and up to 2d. per ton per mile for carrying iron stone, iron ore, coal, lime-stone, etc. It also stated that the distribution of Company profits was not to exceed £8% per annum upon the capital sum actually laid out in making the canal.

The Canal Company appointed a Committee from amongst its shareholders to be responsible for the management of the Company’s affairs, and the first Committee meeting was held on 19 July 1790 at the Cardiff Arms Inn, when it was decided to enter into a contract with Thomas Dadford senior, Thomas Dadford junior and Thomas Sheasby to construct the canal at a cost of £48,228, exclusive of the cost of land. This is about 3 times the annual cost of sending goods to Cardiff, so it was estimated that all costs would be recouped in as little as three years.

Construction work started in August 1790 and it was a massive undertaking – over its length of 25 miles, the land drops by 543 feet, so it was necessary to build 51 locks, some double, and one in Nantgarw, a triple lock; some locks were 10 feet high and the one in Aberfan topped 14’6″. In addition. there was the necessity for an aqueduct to be built at Abercynon, a tunnel under Queen St in Cardiff, several feeders to be created and, as the canal came closer to Merthyr, it had to be cut through sheer mountain rock.  By 1794, however, there was a functioning and effective new transport link between Merthyr and Cardiff at a final cost of £103,600.

Aberfan Lock. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

But even before the canal was completed it had become clear that it needed to be extended beyond Cardiff so as to give access directly to the sea.  Another £20,000 was raised by subscription and a deal was struck with the Marquis of Bute, who owned the land, to build a sea lock and canal basin, which enabled ships of 200 tons to dock. The Sea Lock itself was 103 feet long with gates 27 feet wide.

The canal made transport to Cardiff very cheap, but generated very high revenues.  It was designed to take canal boats of up to 25 tons, each drawn by a horse, with a man and a boy.  By 1836 there were about 200 boats on the canal, each doing 3 round trips every fortnight.  That’s a lot of tonnage at an average of 3d a ton.

But all was not well in the Committee.  From the start, it was dominated by Richard Crawshay, who tended to regard the canal as his and his attempts to squeeze the profits of the other ironmasters was bitterly resented. As early as 1794 Richard Hill Of the Plymouth Works complained that the Canal Company was using water from the river that was legally his.  Guest, in Dowlais, was also vocal about how we could access the canal from his works.  A branch canal seemed impractical so a tramroad was proposed  to which the canal company contributed £1000.  This was competed in 1791 – before the canal.  The Crawshays built a second tramroad between the Gurnos Quarry and their works in Cyfarthfa and a third was built in 1799 by the Hills, linking the Morlais Quarry with the Dowlais to Merthyr Tramroad at Penydarren.

But by 1798, tensions in the committee were so great that they blew.  As a consequence, the other ironmasters were dropped for the canal committee, leaving only Crawshay, and it was another 26 years before they rejoined.  But discussions took place between them about how to break the Crawshay stranglehold of the canal, and the answer seemed to be the construction of a tramroad from Merthyr, to meet the canal at Abercynon.  This tramroad, which opened in 1802 and was built without an Act of Parliament, linking the two existing tramroads from Dowlais to Merthyr and from Morlais to Penydarren.  From the point of view of Guest, Homfray and Hill, although the trams using it were horse drawn,  this new tramroad avoided the delays caused by the locks between Merthyr and Abercynon.

This is the background to the bet that was made between Homfray and Crawshay.  Could the new stream locomotive pull a load of iron?  Could it supersede canal power?

We all know that it did, but broke the rails on the way down, so could not come back.  But progress had been made.  The Taff Vale Railway Company opened as far as Abercynon only 40 years later, and to Merthyr a year later and the canal’s decline was inexorable and it had all but ceased by 1900.

Looking back, it is reasonable to ask, if there had been no canal, where would the home of the steam locomotive be?  Not Merthyr, that’s for sure.

Merthyr’s Heritage Plaques: Richard Trevithick

by Keith Lewis-Jones

Richard Trevithick

Monument sited at CF47 0LJ
Frieze sited at Tesco car park CF47 0AP

Richard Trevithick from Camborne in Cornwall was carrying out work on the stationary steam engines at the Penydarren Iron Works for Samuel Homfrey. For some time he had been experimenting on self-propelled steam vehicles. Whilst at Penydarren, he had the opportunity to try his railway locomotive on the Penydarren Tramroad.

On 21st February, 1804, Richard Trevithick’s locomotive was used to haul a train of 10 tons of iron and 70 passengers along the Penydarren Tramroad from Merthyr to Abercynon (then known as Navigation), a distance of nearly ten miles. This was the first steam engine to haul a load on rails!

 

Memories of Old Merthyr

We continue our serialisation of the memories of Merthyr in the 1830’s by an un-named correspondent to the Merthyr Express, courtesy of Michael Donovan.

There are two trivialities that must be stated about Penydarren before alluding to that which will perpetuate its memory for all time. (1) The end of the forge was a pure example of Doric architecture, (2) and the small stack of the roll lathe boiler was an exact model one-fifth the size of the monument on Fish Street Hill, London.

Penydarren Ironworks in the early 1800s. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

The Petherick family had positions in the early days of Penydarren, and Evan Hopkins, the author of “Magnetic Distribution of Metalliferous Veins” went thence to South America about the deposits there. It is, however, as the parent of the locomotive that Penydarren will ever be remembered. As there seem to be doubts about some things I will endeavour to put it clear, although not strictly within my own personal recollections.

Notwithstanding the great genius of James Watt, and the wonderful sagacity of Mathew Boulton, the idea of using steam in a cylinder to give motion to a piston, and allowing it then to escape into the atmosphere, was thought to be too dangerous, and the condensation of the steam was adhered to them.

Richard Trevithick (left), however, more daring, did not allow himself to be influenced by such fears, but towards the close of the 18th century began to put his thoughts into use. He made a road locomotive, and in 1802, injunction with Andrew Vivian, obtained the patent.

It is only my idea that the Pethericks were the means of introducing Trevithick to Penydarren, for one (a Mr John Petherick), wrote in 1858 that, “I perfectly remember when a boy, about the year 1802, seeing Trevithick’s first locomotive, worked by himself, come through the principal street of Cambourne”. But be that as it may, this, or another of Trevithick’s make, travelled to London, and often ran upon some ground near Bethlehem Hospital, and also where Euston Station now stands. It must be borne in mind that it was thought quite impossible to get sufficient grip between the wheels and a road to cause them to move the carriage forward.

It is clear Trevithick was in the neighbourhood about 1800, for stationary engines were made by him or from his designs both at Penydarren and Tredegar Works. These have been seen at work by me. His first locomotive was used about the works, and very probably hauled some of the cinders which for the tip alongside of the Morlais Brook and River Taff. The fact of an engine having cast iron wheels, running on an iron road being able not only to propel itself forward but draw a load after it was there demonstrated, and must have been a subject of controversy because a bet of £1,000 was made between Mr Homfray and Mr Crawshay as to the possibility of its taking ten tons of iron down to the basin and bringing the empty trams back.

The ten tons of iron was take to its destination, but for some cause the engine and the empties did not return to the works as satisfactorily as hoped for. The weight of the engine is stated to have been about five tons, and the gross weight altogether of 25 tons.

It seems as if Mr Homfray was an exceedingly hot tempered man, and it is clear that Trevithick had the same infirmity. This I have from one who was able to recall both personally. It would scarcely be proper to trace here how engines were designed by Trevithick, and did work elsewhere soon afterward, and how Trevithick himself having more enticing engagements allowed others to carry on the work he had begun.

To be continued at a later date…..

Merthyr’s Ironmasters: Richard Crawshay

Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery

Richard Crawshay was born in 1739 in Normanton in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the first child of William Crawshay (1713–1766), a farmer, and his wife, Elizabeth (1714–1774), née Nicholson. He had three sisters. According to family tradition a bitter quarrel with his father led to the sixteen-year-old Crawshay setting out for London.

Initially starting work aged 16, he was apprenticed to a Mr Bickleworth of York Yard, Thames Street, selling flat irons in an iron warehouse, he eventually became, on Bickleworth’s retirement in 1763, sole proprietor of the business, and by the 1770s he had established himself as one of London’s leading iron merchants.

He married Mary Bourne in 1763 and they had a son William and three daughters, Anne, Elizabeth and Charlotte. Charlotte married Benjamin Hall, and became the mother of Benjamin Hall, 1st Baron Llanover.

By 1775, he was acting as the agent for Anthony Bacon, owner of Cyfarthfa Ironworks, for supplying iron cannon to the Board of Ordnance, and in 1777 he became a partner in the business. In 1786, following the death of Anthony Bacon, he took over the whole Cyfarthfa Ironworks, in partnership with William Stevens (a London merchant) and James Cockshutt. In May 1787 he took out a licence from Henry Cort for his puddling process, but the rolling mill needed was not completed until 1789. He solved the problems of the puddling process by using an iron plate for the furnace ceiling and sea-washed sand for the floor. In 1791 he terminated the partnership, which had made little profit. He continued the business alone, and had two blast furnaces, eight puddling furnaces, three melting fineries, three balling furnaces, and a rolling mill in 1794. A blast furnace was built by 1796, and a fourth in 1796. There were six by 1810. He thus developed Cyfarthfa into one of the most important ironworks in South Wales.

The Cyfarthfa Ironworks in the late 1700’s by William Pamplin – Richard Crawshay’s gardener. Courtesy of Cyfarthfa Castle Museum & Art Gallery

Crawshay was very ambitious and imperious in manner, being called ‘The Tyrant’ by some, but was without social pretension. He was active in protecting the interests of the iron trade and was a major promoter of the Glamorganshire Canal which immensely improved transport of iron to Cardiff docks.

In 1804 Samuel Homfray the proprietor of the Penydarren Ironworks made a wager with Richard Crawshay of 500 guineas that Richard Trevithick’s steam locomotive could haul 10 tons of iron along the Merthyr Tramroad from Penydarren to Abercynon. Crawshay lost the bet when Trevithick’s became the first to haul wagons along a “smooth” iron road using adhesive weight alone.

At his death in 1810, Crawshay’s estate was worth £1.5 million. In his will he left three-eighths of the Ironworks to his son William Crawshay, three-eighths to his son-in-law Benjamin Hall and two-eighths to his nephew Joseph Bailey.

Merthyr’s Ironmasters: Samuel Homfray

Following on from the previous article, here is a bit more about Samuel Homfray in the first instalment of another new (hopefully) regular feature.

Samuel Homfray with Penydarren Ironworks in the background

Samuel Homfray was born in 1762, the fifth son of Francis Homfray and his second wife Jane. Francis Homfray (1725-1798) had been born into a successful industrial family, his father (also called Francis) had made his fortune in the iron industry at Coalbrookdale in Staffordshire. In 1749 Francis Homfray and Richard Jordan, also of Staffordshire, leased a water corn grist mill called Velin Griffith and a forge in the parish of Whitchurch, and in September 1782, he approached Anthony Bacon, owner of Cyfarthfa Ironworks, and leased the cannon foundry at the works to manufacture weapons and ammunitions.

In 1784 Homfray complained that he was not receiving sufficient metal and tapped Bacon’s furnace at Cyfarthfa. Francis Homfray worked the forge and mill until March 1786. However, after a disagreement with Bacon over the supply of iron, he gave up the lease of the Cyfarthfa property.

Francis encouraged two of his sons – Samuel and his older brother Jeremiah to lease land at Penydarren, next to the Morlais Brook and build an ironworks. After years of fierce competition with the Dowlais and Cyfarthfa Ironworks, they began to prosper. Samuel took over as proprietor of the Penydarren works, while Jeremiah moved to Ebbw Vale.

Penydarren Ironworks

Samuel was one of the chief promoters of the Glamorganshire Canal, which opened in 1795 and cost £103,000, of which he subscribed £40,000 and which enabled the transporting of heavy manufactured iron to Cardiff docks. In 1804 Samuel won a 1000 guineas wager with Richard Crawshay as to which of them could first build a steam locomotive for use in their works. Homfray employed Richard Trevithick for this purpose and his locomotive won the bet, hauling five wagons, carrying ten tons of iron and seventy men, at a speed of five miles an hour.

In 1800, Samuel married Jane Morgan, daughter of Sir Charles Gould Morgan, 1st Baronet of Tredegar House, and thus obtained a favorable lease of mineral land at Tredegar, where he established the Tredegar Ironworks.

In 1813 he left the Penydarren Iron Company to concentrate his resources on developing the Tredegar Ironworks. Handicapped at Penydarren by a shortage of coal on the property, he faced no such problems when he built his new works. By 1823 Tredegar had five furnaces in blast, producing over 16,000 tons of iron each year.

Homfray’s connection with Penydarren was re-established in 1817 when his daughter Amelia married one of the works’ new owners, William Thompson.

In 1813 he was appointed High Sheriff of Monmouthshire and, having unsuccessfully standing as a candidate for a seat in Parliament for Brecknock in 1806, he was elected as Member of Parliament for the Borough of Stafford in 1818.

He relinquished his seat two years later, and he died on 22 May 1822 in London and was buried at Bassaleg.