Dowlais

This article is about the village. For the company named after it, see Dowlais Group.

Dowlais
The Guest Memorial Library
Dowlais
Location within Merthyr Tydfil
Population6,926 (2011 census)
OS grid referenceSO075075
Principal area
  • Merthyr Tydfil
Preserved county
CountryWales
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townMerthyr Tydfil
Postcode districtCF48
Dialling code01685
PoliceSouth Wales
FireSouth Wales
AmbulanceWelsh
UK Parliament
Senedd Cymru – Welsh Parliament

Dowlais (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈdɔu̯lai̯s]) is a village in the north-east of the county borough of Merthyr Tydfil, in South Wales. The name is derived from the Welsh du, which means 'black', and glais, which means 'stream'.[1][2] Dowlais is notable within Wales and Britain for its historic association with ironworking; once employing, through the Dowlais Iron Company, over 7,000 people, the works being at one stage the largest in the world.[3][4]

Governance

Dowlais was originally part of the parish of Merthyr Tydfil. In 1872 its population was 15,590.[5]

From 1973 to 1996 Dowlais was an electoral ward in Mid Glamorgan County Council.[6] Since 1996 it has been a ward in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. At the 2011 census the ward had a population of 6,926.[7] In 2003 Dowlais was represented by an independent councillor, John Pritchard, who was also Mayor of Merthyr Tydfil.[8]

History

Welsh historian Frederick Rees (1965)[9] observed: ‘

'In September, 1759, a partnership of nine persons, including some local names and that of Isaac Wilkinson[10], was formed with a capital of £4,000 to set up a furnace or furnaces near Merthyr on the banks of the stream called the Dowlais'.[11]

The partnership took out a lease from Lady Windsor, the widow of Herbert, Lord Viscount Windsor. The terms of the lease were extremely favourable. They comprised a yearly rent of £31 and without any requirement to pay royalties on the iron and coal extracted from the site, which prompted Rees to comment that 'the prospects were considered very doubtful.'[11] In 1767, the partnership offered John Guest from Broseley in Shropshire the post of manager of the works because of his knowledge of the Coalbrookdale method of smelting iron with coal.[12] For some years, Guest didn't make much headway. But, by 1782, when he became a partner, the ironworks had become 'well established'. And, following the involvement of successive members of his family, the works became extremely successful.

By the mid-1840s there were between 5000 and 7000 men, women and children employed in the Dowlais works.[13] During the early to mid 1800s the ironworks were operated by Sir John Josiah Guest and, from 1833, his wife Lady Charlotte Guest. Charlotte Guest introduced welfare schemes for the ironworkers. She provided for a church and a library. The school, which dates from 1819, was improved and extended, becoming "probably the most important and most progressive not only in the industrial history of South Wales, but of the whole of Britain".[14]

In the 1850s, after Sir John's death, the works existed under the control of a board of trustees.[14] In August 1856, two of the trustees, George Thomas Clark and Henry Austin Bruce, bought a license from Henry Bessemer and Robert Longsdon to use the Bessemer process to produce steel.[15] However, it was not until 1865 that the process was used, with £33,000 being spent on a new steelworks.[16] The process needed high grade iron ore which was unavailable in South Wales. However, it was abundant in northern Spain, in particular around the city of Bilbao.[17] Consequently, in 1873 the company bought out the 'Orcenera Iron Ore Company' of Bilbao, which supplied it with iron. By 1900, more workers were needed for the ironworks. However, the recruitment of them was adversely affected by the occurrence of the Second Boer War for which, despite the widespread opposition to it (see Opposition to the Second Boer War), many young men enlisted. Consequently, the company recruited labourers from Ireland and twelve experienced metalworkers from the 'Altos Hornos' works in Bilbao[18][19], upon the understanding that they would repay the fare upon their arrival[18].

The Spanish workers were initially housed in the sheds of the ironworks and in local pubs, which E.P. Martin, the general manager of the Dowlais works (and the eldest son of George Martin, the longstanding mining engineer of the 'Dowlais Iron Company') remedied by ordering the construction of six bungalows in specially built 'Alfonso Street'.[18][20] The work was completed in January 1901 and complemented by the construction of a second tranche of houses in the October.[18] Academics Oscar Álvarez Gila and Stephen Murray observed: 'the building of the houses was particularly significant as it emphasized how valued the Basque workers were to Martin, particularly since there is no evidence of him doing the same for any of the other nationalities represented at the Dowlais Works.'[18] [21] More Spanish workers arrived in 1907, after which, by 1911, census reports documented 246 Spaniards living in and around the village.[19] Welsh historian Jan Morris observed that the Spanish workers were 'militantly syndicalist' - they 'gave Welsh trade unionists all sorts of new ideas.'[22] They 'were excellent Rugby players, and they became very popular: many Welshmen learnt Spanish from them'.[22]

Following the involvement of successive members of his family, the ironworks became extremely successful. As Welsh historian John Lloyd (1906) observed: 'the Dowlais Works are known to all the world, ranking as one of the largest in the United Kingdom ....'[23] Steel production at Dowlais eventually ceased in 1936 because of the Great Depression. However, the iron foundry continued until 1987.

Notable buildings

Little remains of the works that once sustained the community throughout the Victorian era until the 1930s. The two notable buildings that remain are the engine house, which is now used as Dowlais Community Centre, and the stable block, which is now used for social housing.

Dowlais House, which was demolished, was once home to Sir John Josiah Guest and Lady Charlotte Guest. From 1838 it was where Lady Guest translated the Mabinogion[24], which took her eight years to complete[24].[25] The Guest Memorial Library, which was commissioned by Lady Guest and designed by Charles Barry, still stands.

St John's Church, a Grade II listed building, contains the tombs and burial places of several notable people, including Sir John Guest who had the church built in 1827. St John's closed in 1997 but has received several hundred thousand pounds of Welsh Government money to preserve it.[26]

In its heyday, Dowlais had numerous nonconformist chapels. Almost all of them have disappeared although the buildings of Bethania (Independent) and Hebron (Calvinistic Methodist) are now used by evangelical congregations. Other chapels have been demolished including Bryn Seion and Gwernllwyn.

Sport and leisure

Dowlais is home to rugby union club, Dowlais RFC.

Notable residents

Notes

  1. ^ "Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru".
  2. ^ "Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru".
  3. ^ "Dowlais Ironworks, Merthyr Tydfil (34084)". Coflein. RCAHMW. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  4. ^ Newman 1995, p. 446.
  5. ^ "Dowlais Glamorgan". Vision of Britain. University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 17 January 2016. (info reproduced from the 1872 Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales)
  6. ^ "Mid Glamorgan County Council Election Results 1973-1993" (PDF). The Elections Centre (Plymouth University). Retrieved 15 April 2019.
  7. ^ "Dowlais Ward: 2011 Census: Census Area Statistics". National Statistics: UK government. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
  8. ^ "Civic cheerleader on the taxes". Wales Online. 1 July 2003. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  9. ^ See also Jones 2001.
  10. ^ Isaac Wilkinson was a pioneering English industrialist who had bought the Bersham Ironworks, near Wrexham in north-east Wales.
  11. ^ a b Rees 1965, p. 133.
  12. ^ Randall 1870, pp. 124–125.
  13. ^ Birch 1967, p. 255.
  14. ^ a b Birch 1967, pp. 291–5.
  15. ^ Elsas 1960, p. 193.
  16. ^ Birch 1967, p. 358.
  17. ^ Facaros & Pauls 2003, pp. 30, 37, 38.
  18. ^ a b c d e Álvarez Gila & Murray 2013.
  19. ^ a b Yeoman 2016.
  20. ^ Morris 1984, p. 339 claimed that the street was called 'King Alfonso Street' (perhaps after Alfonso XIII, the incumbent King of Spain), before observing that the inhabitants of the street 'turned out to be fervent anti-monarchists'.
  21. ^ Llewellyn & Watkins 2000 observed that the street was colloquially called 'Spaniards Row', which Murray 2020, p. 153 attributed to the possibility that the locals did so 'on the basis that they ... saw the Spanish as itinerant workers.' However, he noted that, with few exceptions, the Spanish were 'stayers'.
  22. ^ a b Morris 1984, p. 339.
  23. ^ Lloyd 1906, p. 19.
  24. ^ a b Ponsonby 1950, p. 65.
  25. ^ Vere Brabazon Ponsonby was the 9th Earl of Bessborough and the godson of Lady Guest.
  26. ^ Katie Sands (29 October 2015). "Church that hasn't been used for 20 years to get £100k cash boost to help convert it into 20 flats". Wales Online. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  27. ^ "Gurnos-born actor Harrington nominated for S4C drama role". Wales Online. 21 March 2013. Retrieved 3 July 2025.

References

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