To what extent do the rhyd-y-car cottages at the museum of Welsh life, St.Fagans provide an accurate picture of housing and living conditions in Merthyr Tydfil in the 19th Century?
RYAN DAVIES
TO WHAT EXTENT DO THE RHYD-Y-CAR COTTAGES AT THE MUSEUM OF WELSH LIFE, ST. FAGANS PROVIDE AN ACCURATE PICTURE OF HOUSING AND LIVING CONDITIONS IN MERTHYR TYDFIL IN THE 19TH CENTURY?
Merthyr Tydfil, with its naturally occurring ironstone and ample woodlands, attracted the great English ironmasters to the area (the Guests, the Bacons and Crawshays). From 1759 to 1784, first the Dowlais Furnaces and then the Plymouth Works were opened, followed by the Cyfarthfa and the Penydarren Works. These works produced largely pig iron, which was carried down to Cardiff on horse pack.
In 1794, however, the marketing situation was dramatically improved with the building of the Glamorgan Canal, which ran from Cardiff and ended at Richard Crawshay's Cyfartha plant. This enabled the rapid expansion of the iron-works, and with it the demand for labour and housing.
Once the canal was opened, Richard Crawshay bought most of the land on the west bank of the River Taff, including Rhyd-y-Car Farm and, on the land between the canal and Nant Cwm-y-Glo, began to build houses for the miners of the Rhyd-y-Car iron ore mine which supplied his Ynys-Fach ironworks, which opened in 1801.
On this land, Richard Crawshay built 29 houses over a period of a number of years, with the houses following the curved alignment of the canal. It is the first six houses that are re-erected at the Museum of Welsh Life at St. Fagans and it is by studying the first three of these six houses that we hope to answer this assignment. The houses that were erected were all of a particular type, which was associated with the Crawshay family. Nearly 400 of these houses are known to have existed in the valleys, but the Rhyd-y-Car houses are the smallest of all the examples built in the area in the period 1795 to 1830, and so represent the minimum standard acceptable to the relatively enlightened Crawshay family. The houses had to be good enough to attract workers to serve the company, for many of the dwellings in Merthyr were of an extremely poor quality.
Many different types of houses were built in Wales during the first four decades of the 19th century. Some of these designs were bad, below any reasonable minimum standard of accommodation. Others showed varying degrees of ingenuity and foresight. The progress through the century towards satisfactory types of housing was slow and hesitant, probably because it was difficult for builders to exchange information and experience. Lots of builders worked by "rule of thumb" without using drawings or designs, and as such any useful ideas were spread mainly by personal contact.
The siting of houses was dictated at first by industrial convenience. They had to be within walking distance of the occupant's place of work. The designs used were governed only by the wishes of the industrialists who were subject to no regulation by the authorities. Most houses provided little other than shelter and means of cooking and heating with perhaps some storage for food. The number of rooms varied normally between two and four. Sanitation was primitive, many houses had none at all, and others were provided with a privy set over a cesspit, usually shared between several households. Overflows and seepage from such pits, and water running off the waste-strewn land around the works and houses, frequently polluted the wells and streams, which were the only source of drinking and washing water.
The reconstructed cottages at the Museum of Wales, St Fagans, were obviously an exact replica of the physical construction of the houses at Rhyd-y-Car but the countryside location at St Fagans bore no relationship at all to the environmental conditions surrounding the cottages in Merthyr. As described in the previous paragraph the open sewers, with outside toilets and no running water along with the houses being tightly built together, made for squalid living conditions, which must have been extremely oppressive particularly during hot summer periods.
Extracts from the Morning Chronicle newspaper of 1850 clearly laid out the ...
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The reconstructed cottages at the Museum of Wales, St Fagans, were obviously an exact replica of the physical construction of the houses at Rhyd-y-Car but the countryside location at St Fagans bore no relationship at all to the environmental conditions surrounding the cottages in Merthyr. As described in the previous paragraph the open sewers, with outside toilets and no running water along with the houses being tightly built together, made for squalid living conditions, which must have been extremely oppressive particularly during hot summer periods.
Extracts from the Morning Chronicle newspaper of 1850 clearly laid out the different types of houses that were built in Merthyr at this time, and gives some idea of the size and quality of the dwellings. The houses of the workmen were built in rows of uniform height and size. They were of three classes. The best were two storeys, with four small sash windows - two above and one on each side of the door. On the ground floor there was a roomy kitchen with a stone floor. Adjoining was a small room, just large enough to contain a four-poster bed, a chest of drawers, a small corner cupboard, two chairs and a window table. The ceiling was not plastered and the rafters were used for hanging up crockery and household utensils. There was no strip of garden, no back door, no place of accommodation, no drain to carry away household refuse, nor any pump or pipe for water supply. The street in front was consequently made the receptacle of every abomination consumable. Such were the residences of the best class of workmen in and around Merthyr.
Despite these conditions, the women of the household always kept the premises neat and tidy, and were constantly cleaning and scrubbing the rooms. For such a house, a workman paid 10-13 shillings (50p-65p) a month.
The second-class houses had but two rooms, one upstairs and one below. For these the rent varied from 6-8 shillings (30p-40p) a month. Finally, there were third class houses, having only one room for which the rent was about 4 shillings (20p) per month.
The Rhyd-y-Car houses are the smallest of all the examples built in the area in the period 1795 to 1830, and so represent the minimum standard acceptable. As the size of the ironworks increased, more cottages were erected in the spaces between existing cottages, which in turn formed irregular streets, very filthy for the most part and doubtless very unhealthy.
There was no public sewer or drain throughout the town of Merthyr, a place where the inhabitants numbered 40,000 or more. The first impression for a stranger who visits Merthyr is that it is a town of workmen's houses, with the style of the building being of the rudest type. The Rhyd-y-Car houses were of good quality compared to many in Merthyr and were certainly a vast improvement on the farm workers cottages that many of the first inhabitants had been used to.
Lack of ventilation and no toilets would have been nothing new to them. They had chosen to come to Merthyr and earn wages unheard of in the countryside. In 1841, 69% of Rhyd-y-Car's working population of 70 were still employed as iron miners and as such were regarded as the cream of the Merthyr working class, being the only workers in the town able to afford gold watches. Such was the considered quality of the Rhyd-y-Car houses at that time. The Rhyd-y-Car houses, with their two room planning, with an extra bedroom, plus a larder added at the back in an out-shot, was the most widely used design in and around the Crawshay works from 1795 to 1830. By far the largest number of these houses consisted of only two rooms and were very small, many of them not exceeding 8 feet x 10-12 feet. In these two-roomed houses, there were generally three beds in the upper or sleeping compartment, occupied by five or six persons. There were some four-roomed cottages which were generally occupied by peddlers, miners and colliers, with many of these taking in lodgers or single men who would pay about 6 shillings (30p) per month.
On our visit to the Museum of Welsh Life at St Fagans the first re-erected cottage we entered was based on the period around 1805 at Rhyd-y-Car. The downstairs room was very small and the air was stale because of the lack of ventilation and damp. The downstairs room was very sparsely furnished with no oven for cooking, only an open fire for heat and warming food. There were little or no personal possessions or privacy and whilst the little house was protection against the elements, it had little warmth or homely feeling.
Other houses were a lot worse in Merthyr and there were some squalid dwellings, with some of the worst being called "the cellars" near Pont-y-Storehouse. These were small two-roomed houses, situated in a dip or hollow and were very closely packed together with nothing in front or between them other than stagnant pools of liquid and household refuse. It was said that nearly 50-100 people lived in these conditions. Despite the squalid conditions, the rent was still considered high for these accommodations, ranging from three shillings (15p) to five shillings (25p) a month.
Whilst the reconstructed houses at St Fagans perfectly reflected the physical shape and size both externally and internally of the cottages, they could never capture the conditions in which the cottages were previously located. The squalor, smells, noise and cramp ness of the whole area must have been appalling and you can only imagine how difficult it must have been to live like that.
In these conditions it is not surprising that an epidemic of cholera broke out in May 1849 in Merthyr Tydfil and spread rapidly throughout the town, particularly to those parts that were the dirtiest.
Mr. T. J. Dyke, Surgeon, before the Rammell Enquiry in his "Report to the General Board of Health on the town of Merthyr Tydfil (1850)" commented that the most likely contaminants of cholera were those persons residing in courts and alleys and those who occupied double houses. Even the people who kept their houses clean, and were of clean habits and well supplied with food, but lived in double houses were also attacked. There were many cases of cholera in dwellings that were close to the Parish church burial ground, and the lack of adequate water supply, coupled with a dry hot summer, ensured the epidemic took a strong hold.
Again on our visit to St Fagans, one of the re-erected cottages from Rhyd-y-Car depicted the period around 1850. Some of the windows had been fitted with sashes and the improved air quality and freshness were obvious. Ovens had been installed as part of the fireplace so cooking was greatly improved with the resultant improvement to health and well-being. Small carpets were scattered around and more trinkets and household items were in presence. Unfortunately there was still no running water or toilet facilities.
The re-erected cottages enabled us to clearly see the improvements that were made to the physical structure over time but as the dwellings were not occupied it was difficult to imagine how cramped they may have been when occupied by large families and their lodgers. The unoccupied cottages also felt cold and uninviting whilst it would be likely that they were warm and vibrant places with so many people living in such a small area.
T. J. Dyke also commented in the same "Report to the General Board of Health on the town of Merthyr Tydfil (1850)" that it appeared that the workmen - colliers, miners, fireman and others - after their day's work came home in a very dirty condition and that their custom was to strip naked and wash in the room in which members of the household, including females of all ages, may happen to be assembled."
As a result of these deaths and the enquiries into the cause of the outbreaks, ways of improving conditions were suggested. These reports included detailed comments on the housing situation by William Kay in 1854.
He commented on the lack of ventilation, that very few of the windows actually opened, that the smallest of the houses admitted very inadequate proportions of light, and also the poor sanitation facilities.
Eurwyn William, in "A Welsh Mining Community (1987)" wrote about the housing improvements after the cholera outbreak and commented that "the fixed windows were replaced by open sash or casement windows, piped water was provided by standpipes located near terraces and the first planned drainage system was installed. A small building marked on the Public Health Act map dated 1851 by Rhyd-y-Car Bridge may have been a communal toilet, and later earth closets shared between houses were built in front gardens. Three communal baking ovens were also built at the end of the rows."
These changes marked the point at which the general housing stock began to improve and, as such, the Rhyd-y-Car cottages were slowly superseded by better housing through the remainder of the 19th century.
The final cottage visited at St Fagans showed a marked increase in household possessions and wealth. There was a grandfather clock and brass artefacts on the walls, carpets on the floor and soft furnishings. There was a standpipe outside as well as an outside toilet. Food was stored in a cool larder and the house had a warmth and homeliness. Despite the lack of damp proofing and the flagstone floor the open fire kept the room warm and dry.
Once again, Eurwyn William, in "A Welsh Mining Community (1987)" talked about Rhyd-y-Car in that "by now (1895) houses had acquired sliding sash windows and an outside toilet in the garden shared with neighbours. The interior of the house is typically Victorian in its cluttered appearance. The bare walls are enlivened by pictures and souvenirs, whilst the black leaded hearth, with its many polished brass knick-knacks, serves both as the functional and visual focus of the main room."
Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council offered several Rhyd-y-Car houses for re-erection to the Museum of Welsh Life at St. Fagans, and numbers 17-19 Rhyd-y-Car were entirely re-erected at St. Fagans in a dispassionate way, based on extensive research. As a consequence, they are a true replica of the housing and living conditions that existed in Merthyr Tydfil, although of course they can give no understanding of the surrounding and the locality in which they were based, nor other sorts of housing in and around Merthyr.
Our visits to the three cottages depicting 1805, 1855 and 1895 periods clearly showed how conditions and living standards gradually improved over the period. Furnishings and general decoration were more plentiful and of a higher quality and standard. Living conditions were generally less sparse, better ventilated and of a better disposition. Unfortunately the physical size and shape of the cottages meant they would always be small dwellings and by 1850 the coal miners rows of terrace houses were a bigger and better house. Their small size meant no available space for a bathroom so toilets would have to be outside, (often in the garden) and washing facilities would still remain in tin baths or had basins, used in front of everyone else. By the end of the century the cottages had fallen behind the standard of new housing in the area and eventually fell into decay, resulting in three of them being re-erected at St Fagans and the rest being demolished.
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