Welsh Journals

COUNTY HISTORY SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS 1961-62 I. SOUTH WALES The editor of Brycheiniog, vol. VII (1961), has undertaken the enterprising venture of commissioning a series of papers, under the general editorship of Mr. W. E. Minchinton of Swansea, to illustrate aspects of the history of industrialization in Breconshire from the eighteenth century to the present day. In addition to providing a brief general introduction and conclusion, Mr. Minchinton himself contributes papers on the woollen, iron and tin-plate, and coal industries, and also on the growth of population. Of these, the study of the iron and tin-plate industries is the most detailed and extensive. Other studies are provided by Mr. H. Pollins (canals and railways) and Mr. R. O. Roberts (Brecon Old Bank, 1778-1890). Breconshire does not form an economic unit, as Mr. Minchinton himself points out, and there is, therefore, a certain artificiality in considering the county as an isolated entity. Inevitably, also, the story of industrial growth in the county is a fragmentary one, since Breconshire was affected only marginally by the development of industry in South Wales as a whole. However, these studies together form a most useful and scholarly symposium, which provides some fascinating sidelights on many wider aspects of the impact of industry upon a rural economy, as well forming a continuous commentary upon economic change in Breconshire itself. The most prosperous periods would seem to be the decades 1851-61, which saw a dramatic railway boom, and 1911-21, with the surge in demand for Welsh coal. Since 1921, however, Breconshire has been a spectator rather than a participant in the latest phase of industrial experience, now dominated by steel and oil. The effect of these articles is much enhanced by some particularly well-chosen photographs, which are admirably reproduced. It is to be hoped that these studies will stimulate research into other facets of the industrial development of the county which are not dealt with here-for instance, the growth of roads or the pattern of labour relations. Perhaps, also, other local history societies in Wales will emulate the enterprise of Brycheiniog and encourage intensive academic inquiry of this kind into social and economic change in their counties during the industrial age. The other articles in the present volume are slighter, but form a pleasant miscellany. Mr. Cathcart King gives a useful check-list of the thirty-eight castles to be found in the county. With the aid of unpublished letters in the National Library, Miss Maxwell Fraser traces the career of Jane Williams ( Ysgafell), a forgotten nineteenth- century writer. A lengthy and highly entertaining series of extracts are printed from the 'scrap-book' compiled by the Llangattock Local History Society to illustrate social change in the parish during the past hundred years. This was the winning entry in a competition sponsored by the Local History Committee of the Brecon Rural Community Council.