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Cyfarthfa Ironworks

Cyfarthfa Ironworks Interior at Night by Penry Williams (1825)
Location
Location	Cyfarthfa, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales
Production
Products	Iron
History
Opened	1765 (1765)
Closed	1919 (1919)

The Cyfarthfa Ironworks was an ironworks located at Cyfarthfa near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales.

History

See also: Industrial history of Merthyr Tydfil

On 29 August 1765, Cumbrian slave and tobacco trader Anthony Bacon secured the rights to 4,000 acres of coal-rich land on the west bank of the River Taff. He and his business partner William Brownrigg hired an ironmaster named Charles Wood, who proceeded to build blast furnaces at the site for his new potting and stamping method of turning pig iron into bars.

In 1775, the start of the American Revolutionary War saw an increase in demand for iron production to make military supplies; Bacon secured a contract to supply cannons and guns. For this, he erected foundries and a boring mill to supply castings. The partnership between Bacon and Brownrigg ended on 22 July 1777 and the former expanded his estate, leasing land from the Earl of Plymouth which would later become Plymouth Ironworks.

Bacon had been elected MP for Aylesbury in 1764 and after the Disqualification Act of 1782 was disallowed from holding government contracts. He entered into negotiations with Francis Homfray and granted him a lease on 27 September 1782 for a "‘mill for boring cannon at Cyfarthfa, as also the lower works, called the Foundry, with a pool of water and other premises, for a term of fifty years at £20 per annum". The two fell out just two years later in 1784 after Homfray accused Bacon of not supplying enough metal, and he transferred his lease to David Tanner, an ironmaster from Monmouth. Soon after, Homfray had established his sons at a rival ironworks in Penydarren.

When Bacon died at Cyfarthfa on 21 January 1786 his belongings were split between his five children, with his eldest son Anthony Bushby Bacon inheriting the Cyfarthfa estate through the Court of Chancery. Around the same time, Tanner transferred his lease to Richard Crawshay, who was one of the witnesses of the elder Bacon's will. When Bushby Bacon came of age, Crawshay paid him a fixed rent of £5,000 for the Cyfarthfa mineral lease, alongside a fifteen shilling royalty per ton of extra coal or iron raised. By 1794, Crawshay was the sole proprietor of the works.

Now under the ownership of Richard Crawshay, Cyfarthfa adopted Henry Cort's rolling and puddling methods. In 1794, Crawshay became the key shareholder of the Glamorganshire Canal, a 25 mile strip leading from Merthyr to Cardiff. This replaced the horse drawn carriages which had previously been used to transfer iron, and was very efficient.

19th century

The Crawshay coat of arms, c. 1868. The cannonballs below the dog represent the ironworks' efforts in the Napoleonic Wars

At the start of the century, Cyfarthfa took advantage of the need for cannons during the Napoleonic Wars. Iron from Sweden and Russia was expensive, so it provided a reasonable alternative. Lord Nelson paid a visit to the ironworks in 1802, and apparently favoured Cyfarthfa iron for his cannons. By 1803 there were six furnaces in action at the works, and over 2,000 men were employment there.

When Richard Crawshay died in 1810, his son William Crawshay I (William Sr.) and his son-in-law Benjamin Hall both received a three-eighths share of his estate, leaving the other quarter to his nephew Joseph Bailey. William Sr. showed little interest in the production of iron, but was an instrumental part of the company's selling agecy at George Yard on London's Upper Thames Street. Despite his lack of interest, he became the sole proprietor after buying both Hall and Bailey's shares, with the latter's costing £20,000 in January 1813.

While William Sr. managed the sales side of the company, his son William Crawshay II (William Jr.) managed its iron production. He was responsible for the construction of Cyfarthfa Castle in 1824 and the growth of the company, leading to him being nicknamed the "Iron King".

In 1854, George Borrow wrote a description of the ironworks at Cyfarthfa:

I saw enormous furnaces. I saw streams of molten metal. I saw a long ductile piece of red-hot iron being operated upon. I saw millions of sparks flying about. I saw an immense wheel impelled with frightful velocity by a steam engine of two hundred and forty horse power. I heard all kinds of dreadful sounds. The general effect was stunning.

When William Jr. died in August 1867, ownership of Cyfarthfa passed to his son Robert Thompson Crawshay, who was by then fifty years old. His ownership was a short one that saw great decline, from the Long Depression to the discovery of the Bessemer process that revolutionised the production of steel.

In 1874, Robert Thompson announced plans to disable all the company's blast furnaces due to a greatly reduced number of orders. Closing the furnaces cut around 3,000 jobs from the works.

On 28 October 1888, a gas leak occurred in one of the works' boilers, which were heated by the excess gas of the blast furnaces. Six or seven workers passed out due to inhalation and were recovered from the boilers; four of them died.

After Robert Thompson's death in May 1879, his sons ran the company under the name "Crawshay Bros." until it was absorbed by Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds in 1902. By this time the works had begun using the Bessemer process to produce steel instead of iron, but the Crawshay family appeared disinterested in the works. The transition was partly managed by engineer Edward Williams, the son of Taliesin Williams, whose years of working as an ironmaster were greatly beneficial.

20th century

Under the control of Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds, Cyfarthfa reopened during World War I to meet munitions demands. However, it closed down again in 1921 and around 2,000 men lost their jobs.

Since its closure, the site has seen many attempts at development.

In 1931, plans were discussed to use the empty Cyfarthfa site to make weldless steel tubes. The plans would have created around 1,500 jobs from the outset, and any investing company would have been allowed to use the land rent-free for the first five years. Two experimental furnaces were built on the site in 1932 by Ayedeecee Metals, who were aiming to produce a new patent of aluminium alloy.

In 1937, Commissioner for the Special Areas in England and Wales George Gillett reported proposals to build a factory on the site, but had not seen the plans to confirm whether they were satisfactory or not.

Present day

Layered brickwork excavated at the site in 2013

In 2013, building work on the site revealed archaeological evidence of the ironworks including a clay plug used for temperature control, expensive dressed stone walls, a canal, and tram lines. A virtual 3D map was created of the ruins was created, and the site was soon covered over to construct a DIY store as part of the Cyfarthfa Shopping Park.

Ynysfach Ironworks

The Ynysfach Ironworks was adjacent to the Cyfarthfa works and owned by the Crawshay family. It found use as a meeting place for the poorer members of Merthyr's community, resulting in the murder of a labourer in 1890.

In August 2011, archaeological work by Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust began on the site of the old ironworks.