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Maesteg
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Maesteg is a town in the County Borough of Bridgend, Wales, lying at the northernmost end of the Llynfi Valley, close to the border with the county boroughs of Neath Port Talbot and Rhondda Cynon Taff. In 2001, Maesteg had a population of 20,685.
Historically a part of Glamorgan, the growth of the town started with the opening of ironworks in the 1820s and 1830s. Once a coal mining area, the last pit closed in 1985, and since then Maesteg has become a dormitory town for the steel works at Port Talbot.
earliest settlement in the Llynfi Valley is at the Bwlwarcau Iron Age Hillfort near to Llangynwyd village which is around 2 miles to the south west of Maesteg Town centre.
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Encyclopedia
Maesteg is a town in the County Borough of Bridgend, Wales, lying at the northernmost end of the Llynfi Valley, close to the border with the county boroughs of Neath Port Talbot and Rhondda Cynon Taff. In 2001, Maesteg had a population of 20,685.
Historically a part of Glamorgan, the growth of the town started with the opening of ironworks in the 1820s and 1830s. Once a coal mining area, the last pit closed in 1985, and since then Maesteg has become a dormitory town for the steel works at Port Talbot.
History
The earliest settlement in the Llynfi Valley is at the Bwlwarcau Iron Age Hillfort near to Llangynwyd village which is around 2 miles to the south west of Maesteg Town centre. This places earliest human settlement in the area around Maesteg to more than 2,000 years ago.
Immediately surrounding the Maesteg Area is significant evidence of settlement in the Bronze Age, which reaches back further in time, to nearly 4,000 years ago, in Carn Llechart, Crug yr Afan and Carn Bugail, there is also evidence of Neolithic settlement in this area of South Wales, in Penmaen Burrows in the Gower peninsula, and Maesteg is also close to where the Red Lady of Paviland was found in the Gower, where the oldest remains of humans have been found in the United Kingdom, dating from 26,350 years ago +/- 550 years; so there is significant evidence that the area around Maesteg has seen anthropological contact for a very long time.
Closer to modern times, the Romans established a settlement at present day Bridgend, and it could be assumed that they visited the Llynfi Valley as they also established a settlement at Neath, although the road that connected them was to the south of the Llynfi Valley as the topography is somewhat treacherous between Maesteg and Neath.
Industrial History
The origins of the present-day community in the Llynfi Valley date from the late 1820s when the area’s considerable coal and iron-ore resources were developed on an industrial scale for the first time. In 1828 a fifteen-mile horse-drawn railway was completed between a new harbour at Porthcawl and Garnlwyd in the Llynfi Valley. This was the Dyffryn Llynfi and Porthcawl Railway (DLPR); it was extended to the Coegnant district near the head of the valley in 1830. The railway opened-up the district and prompted the formation of an iron company which began building a works on Maesteg Uchaf Farm, near the site of the present-day town centre, in 1826. The company took its name from the farm and, by 1831, two furnaces were in blast and the first rows of workers’ housing had been completed near the Maesteg Ironworks. At about the same time one of the first zinc smelters in Wales was set up on Coegnant Farm near the northern terminus of the DLPR.
In 1839 work on a second, larger, ironworks commenced at Nantycrynwydd Farm on a site now largely occupied by the Tesco store and adjoining car park. The works, which became known as the Llynfi Ironworks (or ‘The New Works’) was started by the unsuccessful Cambrian Iron and Spelter Company and was bought by the ambitious Llynvi Iron Company in 1845. The Cornstores section of the Maesteg Sports Centre and the adjoining base of a blast furnace remain as links to the Llynfi Works and the valley’s significant nineteenth century iron industry. The two ironworks, with associated collieries and new housing, transformed what was an area of scattered farms with a population of about 400 in 1821 into a growing township with a population of 4,000 by 1841.
The Cambrian/Llynfi Works attracted the investment capital of a number of prominent figures from the early Victorian period including the poet William Wordsworth, who was a Cambrian shareholder in the early 1840s, Sir Felix Booth, the gin distiller, and the writer and radical politician, Dr John Bowring. Bowring invested heavily in the Llynfi Works in the mid 1840s and, for a number of years, that part of the valley around his works was known as Bowrington. During his association with the Maesteg district he campaigned in Parliament for a decimal system of coinage and was largely responsible for the introduction of Britain’s first decimal coin, the florin or ‘two shilling piece,’ (now the ten pence piece). John Bowring lost his capital in the trade depression of the late 1840s although the iron company continued trading. After his Llynfi venture, John Bowring became British Consul in Canton, China, and was Governor of Hong Kong 1854-59.
The iron industry in Maesteg continued, with varying degrees of success, until wrought iron making was replaced by the manufacture of cheaper, mass produced steel during the 1870s. In its heyday, after the opening of the broad-gauge, steam-hauled Llynfi Valley Railway in 1861, the Llynfi Works had a reputation for producing high-quality iron. In the mid-Victorian period there was a flourishing export trade to southern Italy and Turkey for example, rails were exported to the USA and Llynvi ‘Navy Quality’ No.3 Cable Iron was highly regarded by the makers of Admiralty-tested anchor chains. However, as the Llynfi site could not be adapted for the production of steel, iron making ceased in the Maesteg area in 1885.
During the mid 1880s with the closure of the Llynfi Works and its associated collieries, the Maesteg district, with a population of about 10,000, faced an uncertain future. Fortunately, the local coal industry began to expand with the formation of North’s Navigation Collieries Ltd in 1889. The colliery company was led by the remarkable Colonel North, the ‘Nitrate King’ and, some years later, in 1900, another company led by Sir Alfred Jones of the Elder Dempster shipping line also developed collieries in the valley. Due to the expansion programme set in motion by the two mining companies, two of the local, former iron company collieries were modernised (Coegnant and Garth) and two new large collieries were sunk at Caerau and St John’s (Cwmdu). Because of the development of the coal industry, the local population increased from about 10,000 in 1891 to almost 30,000 in 1921.
During the years 1890 to 1925 the valley gained a World-wide reputation as a producer of Admiralty-grade steam coal, high quality coking coal and what was regarded as the best house coal in south Wales. By the early 1920s there were over 7,000 miners at work in the valley. However, as the area depended to such a large extent on the coal export trade, it was seriously affected by the trade depression of the years 1928-1938. During that period of acute poverty and large-scale unemployment, the population of the Llynfi Valley decreased by almost a third as many left the district to seek employment in the new light industries growing up in areas such as west London and the Midlands.
For many years after the Second World War the local coal industry employed well over 2,000 workers and new jobs were created in local Government-built factories and in new industries in the Port Talbot and Bridgend journey-to-work areas. Due to the buoyant coal industry and the success of the new factories during the years 1950-75, the population of Maesteg and district stabilised at about 20,000, roughly the figure today. With the creation of more jobs in the Bridgend and Port Talbot districts, the Llynfi Valley gradually became a residential area, a process which speeded up with the terminal decline of the coal industry during the period 1977 to 1985.
Today, the valley faces another employment crisis, just as it did in the 1880s and the 1930s, with the closure of two local factories in 2007/8 which were the largest employers in the district.
Llynfi Valley Metal-Working Centres
| Name | In Production | Maximum Workforce |
|---|
| Coegnant Spelter (zinc) Works | 1830-47 | 95 in 1839 | | Maesteg Iron Works | 1828-1860 | 561 in 1841 | | Llynfi Iron Works | 1839-1885 | 2,000 in 1870 | | Llwydarth Tinplate Works | 1868-1900 | 470 in 1886 |
Llynfi Valley Collieries
| Name | Year Sunk (Opened) | Year of Closure | Maximum Workforce
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| Garth | 1864 | 1930 | 1,007 in 1907 | | Oakwood (Davis's Pit) | 1868 | 1928 | 495 in 1899 | | Coegnant | 1881 | 1981 | 2,182 in 1914 | | Caerau | 1890 | 1977 | 2,432 in 1922 | | Maesteg Deep | 1868 | 1930 | 671 in 1910 | | St John's (Cwmdu) | 1908 | 1985 | 1,479 in 1920 |
Transport
The A4063 south links Maesteg to the M4 motorway and Bridgend.
Maesteg has two railway stations, all on the Maesteg Line, with services operated by Arriva Trains Wales to Cardiff Central via Bridgend, usually continuing to Cheltenham Spa via Newport and Gloucester. The terminus station is Maesteg and the others is Maesteg Ewenny Road. Garth station serves the village of Garth, just outside Maesteg. There is a bus service, replacing a withdrawn rail service, from Maesteg to Caerau.
There were other railway stations; Llangynwyd, also on the Bridgend line, and Maesteg (Neath Road), on the Port Talbot Railway but these are now closed.
The nearest airport is Cardiff International, reached by changing trains at Bridgend.
Regeneration
Maesteg recently underwent a regeneration scheme to revitalise the town.
The tasks for improvement were;
Education
Maesteg has 6 main stream primary schools: Cwmfelin Primary, Plasnewydd Primary, Blaencaerau Primary, Nantyfyllon Primary, Llangynwyd Primary and Garth Primary. There is also a Catholic Primary school, St. Marys and St. Patricks and a Welsh-medium school Ysgol Cynwyd Sant. One of the two comprehensive schools located in Maesteg is Maesteg Comprehensive School which has recently relocated to new premises. The new school cost £17,000,000. The second comprehensive school is a Welsh medium school Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Llangynwyd. The Welsh school is located on the same premises where Maesteg Comprehensive School was previously. The pupils of Cynwyd Sant will commence secondary education at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Llangynwyd and the pupils of St. Marys and St. Patricks will then pursue their education in Archbishop McGrath.
Plasnwewydd Primary School is a primary school in the centre of Maesteg. It is one of the biggest primary schools in the Llynfi Valley with just over 400 pupils. Plasnewydd is now an eco-school. It is one of six feeder schools of Maesteg Comprehensive School. The headteacher is N Watkins.
Cwmfelin County Primary School's head teacher is Mrs. D. Hiley. It is a feeder school of Maesteg Comprehensive School.
Garth Primary School's head teacher is not yet chosen as the last headmistress Mrs O'Hallaron left. Garth Primary School is a eco-school after earning it's green flag several years ago being the first in the Llynifi Valley.and first in the Bridgend County Bourgh. It is a feeder school for Maesteg Comprehensive School.
Music and art
Maesteg has a tradition of music and theatre. There are many local groups providing music styles from the traditional male voice choir music to the more modern rock band, Funeral for a Friend, who originally hail from Maesteg.
Maesteg Children's Choir hosts many concerts throughout the year, and Curtain Up Youth Theatre has been performing musicals since the turn of the millennium, giving children of the valley a chance to showcase their talents. Maesteg Amateur Operatic Society recently celebrated its 60th anniversary with a prodution of 'The King and I.' The society continues to flourish with talents from all ages eager to perform, ranging from 16 to founder members, who are still active, at 80 and above.
Artist Christopher Williams was born in Maesteg in 1873. Six of his paintings are on display in Maesteg Town Hall.
Sport
Maesteg is home to Maesteg Park A.F.C. a football (soccer) team founded in 1945 and affiliated to the Football Association of Wales. There are four Welsh Rugby Union teams in Maesteg. The older is Maesteg RFC founded in 1877, while Maesteg Harlequins RFC were formed in the 1920s. Also there are Nantyfyllon RFC and Maesteg Celtic RFC who recently gained promotion to join Nantyfyllon and Maesteg Harlequins in division three.
Notable people
- Phillip Boswood Ballard (1865-1950), pioneering educational psychologist.
- Allan Bateman, Wales and British Lions, rugby union and rugby league player.
- Dave Bowen (1928-1995), Arsenal and Wales, footballer and football manager.
- Jason Cook, European boxing champion.
- Matthew Lee Davies, Funeral for a Friend (lead vocalist)
- Ray 'Chico' Hopkins, Wales and British Lions, rugby union and rugby league player.
- George Jeffries (1889-1972), founder of the world-wide Elim Pentecostal Church.
- Carol Minogue (nee Jones), mother of Kylie & Dannii Minogue.
- Sian Lloyd, ITV weather presenter.
- Islyn Thomas (1912-2002), U.S.-based author, engineer and industrialist.
- Thomas Llyfnwy Thomas (1912-1983), U.S.-based vocalist and T.V. personality.
- Christopher Williams (1873-1934), leading artist, portrait painter.
- John J. Williams, Wales and British Lions, rugby union player and international athlete.
Media
As part of Bridgend County the local radio station is 106.3 Bridge FM. Bridge FM is the most listened to radio station in Bridgend County. Breakfast presenter, Lee Jukes has very close ties with Maesteg Gleemen Male Voice Choir and is also a Patron of Maesteg Amateur Operatic Society.
There are also newspapers. The Glamorgan Gazette, (Paid for weekly) that has its main office in Bridgend. The Gem (formerly The recorder) a free weekly, printed in Cowbridge and The Llynfi News, a free monthly paper, based in Maesteg
External links
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