Welsh Journals

THE RHONDDA VALLEYS. A STUDY IN INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT, 1800 TO THE PRESENT DAY. By E. D. Lewis. Phoenix House, London, 1959. Pp. xiii, 312. 25s. Notable contributions to the study of local history in Wales have been made in recent years by H. J. Randall's Bridgend. The Story of a Market Town (Newport, 1955), and A. H. Dodd (ed.), A History of Wrexham (Wrexham, 1957). The latter was published by the Wrexham Borough Council to mark the centenary of the incorporation of the borough. Mr. E. D. Lewis's volume on the Rhondda valleys is also published by a borough council, but it marks not the centenary but the inception of the borough of Rhondda. It is considerably more than a sound local history; it constitutes a substantial contribution to the study of the industrial history of Britain. The Rhondda Borough Council is to be congratulated on its enterprise in sponsoring this work and on the appearance of this very handsome volume (which, though printed in Worcester, was bound within the borough). The Council was particularly fortunate in obtaining the services of Mr. E. D. Lewis, a native of the Rhondda, as its official historian. The thesis which he submitted to the University of Wales in 1940 on 'The industrial development of the Rhondda valleys to 1910' was already known to scholars as being of quite exceptional merit; in this volume he has expanded his earlier work and brought the study down to the present day. Mr. Lewis prefaces his book with an admirably clear account of the geological and topographical background of the area, for this is of unusual importance in understanding the growth of an industry which was entirely dependent upon geology. He proceeds to describe the valleys in pre-industrial days and possibly draws an over-idealized picture of their seclusion and sylvan beauty, in contrast with the dark, satanic pits which followed. It is characteristic of his thoroughness and perspicacity that he corrects all previous writers whatsoever in his account of the pioneers and their search for bituminous coal. Credit has always been given to Dr. Richard Griffiths for opening the first coal level in the Rhondda, but, although Griffiths built a tramroad and a short private canal, it appears that he never owned a level. The pioneer was Walter Coffin, who sank the first pits, constructed a tramroad, and developed a market for bituminous coal. In the early forties the railway penetrated into the lower Rhondda, and the coal prospectors followed, notably George Insole of Cardiff. By mid-century, however, development was still confined to the area below the junction of the two Rhonddas; the concerns were still small and mostly financed with local capital, and no attempt had yet been made to reach the steam coal seams. It was in the second half of the century that the valleys of the Rhondda Fawr and Rhondda Fach were exploited, first for bituminous coal and then for the unparalleled richness of their steam coal resources. In contrast to the English ironmasters in the Merthyr area, the new coalowners were