Mining in Cilfynydd and the Rhondda

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  Mining in Cilfynydd and the Rhondda        

                                     

Before 1850 Cilfynydd was a very different place. The population increased dramatically whereas before 1850 it was a rural area after 1850 it became overcrowded and cramped. Before 1850 the roads were muddy tracks and the rivers were pure and clean. Before 1850 disease was less common after it was a lot more widely spread because of the cramped conditions and overcrowding.

  After 1850 the population rose from 1,000 to 120,000 people. People came to South Wales for jobs in the pit the housing conditions were better than where they had come from but they were still pretty poor standards of living. New industry developments brought Cilfynydd into a new age. Railways were needed to transport coal, so countryside was getting smaller and smaller and industry was quickly growing bigger and bigger.

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  Men often lost their lives down the pit with rock falls and such. There were a lot of children working down the mines. People often had no choice but to send their children down the mines because they needed the money. A report that was published in 1842 claimed that children as young as four were working down the mines, it also said that collieries in South Wales employed more children than any other mining district in Britain. One of the main tasks done by children was opening and closing trap doors that were situated at the end of ...

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