Volume 2

England and Wales delineated, historical, entertaining & commercial. Alphabetically arranged / by Thomas Dugdale ... Assisted by William Burnett.

  • Dugdale, Thomas.
Date:
[1854-60?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: England and Wales delineated, historical, entertaining & commercial. Alphabetically arranged / by Thomas Dugdale ... Assisted by William Burnett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    36/596 (page 832)
    County of Glamor- gan. Extensive copper- works. Numerous canals. Facilitjr for travelling. produce annually about 11,000 tons of pig iron, and 12,000 tons of bar iron ; and the number of men employed by this establishment is usually from 1,500 to 2,000, making, with their wives and children, at least 5,000 persons. Their are several other iron works in the county. Tin plate manufactories are also numerous. The next manufactory in point of importance is that of copper. The ore is conveyed to this county from Cornwall, North Wales, and Ireland, for the convenience of coals ; and there are smelting works, on an extensive scale, in the neighbourhoods of Aberavon, Neath, and Swansea. At the last mentioned place there is an extensive manufactory of earthen ware ; and a manufactory of a similar kind has been established at Eglwysilian, amongst the mountains to the northward of Cardiff. A woollen manufactory was established some years since at Bridgend, chiefly for Welsh shawls. Coarse cloth is manu- factured in small quantities at some private establishments ; and a consi- derable quantity of flannel, which forms the chief clothing of the peasantry, is made throughout the whole of the county. The chief article of produce, for exportation, is coal; of which large quantities have, for many years, been shipped annually from the ports of Neath and Swansea. The commercial consequence of Glamorganshire has, however, been derived from its canals, which have led to the establishment of new manufactories in the heart of the country, and furnished means for transporting to its harbours the produce of the interior. The first canal formed here was that from Cardiff to Merthyr Tydvil, which was commenced in 179 L and finished in 1798. Its entire length is about twenty-six miles : it has forty locks in that distance, and the elevation, at the head, is about 570 feet above the level of high water at Cardiff. From Cardiff it has been continued on a larger scale, to the entrance of the Taff near Penarth. This part admits of ships of 200 tons to the town quays, built on its banks. A branch from this canal communicates with the works in the neighbourhood of Aberdare. To avoid interruption in transporting the produce of the Merthyr works in dry seasons, when the canal is scantily supplied with water, a rail-road has been constructed at the upper end for the length of about eight miles, along which, the iron, &c., are conveyed in waggons. A canal, begun at Neath in 179L was carried up the vale nearly to the confines of the county. It was afterwards extended south to Briton- ferry, where a convenient shipping-place has been built for loading the vessels with the coal, and other articles of exportation furnished by the neighbourhood. The length of this canal is thirteen miles, and it has sixteen locks. From the upper extremity a rail-road has been formed to communicate with the iron works of Hirwain and Aberdare. Soon after the Neath canal was constructed, another was made along the vale of the Tawy, from Swansea up to the Brecknockshire hills, above Ystrad-gunlais. The length of this is sixteen miles, the depth about five feet. Numerous rail-roads communicate with this canal in various places. Near Swansea are two other small canals, which are private property. This county is intersected by a great number of good roads, which afford easy and convenient communications between the different towns and villages. The high road to Milford runs, through its whole extent, in an east and west direction, from Rumney bridge to Pontarddulais, on the river Loughor. A mail coach, to and from the metropolis, passes this way daily ; and two other coaches, one from Gloucester, the other from Bristol, proceed as far as Swansea on alternate days. Stage waggons are unknown in the county, its numerous ports superseding their use, and affording every necessary facility for supplying the chief towns with merchandise of every description from England. What is now termed Glamorganshire formed anciently a part of the province of Siluria, supposed to have comprehended also the whole of Monmouthshire, with portions of the counties of Hereford and Gloucester. The British name, which the Roman writers thus latinized, was Sylhvg, or Essyllwg, supposed to signify ** beautiful