Early legends tell of a medieval park, or
hunting preserve in the area called Parc Cwm
Brychiniog, which was subsequently made into
four farms in Tudor times, one of which was
called Parc Uchaf and another Parc Isaf. Thus
the area became known as Cwmparc and its
stream Nant Cwmparc ( Cwm being the Welsh for
valley), with the development of the mining
village in the valley in the 19th Century the
village also became known as Cwmparc.
Details of the early history and development
of Cwmparc are contained within the booklet,
‘History of Cwmparc. King Coal Invades a
Sylvan Valley’ which was awarded the prize at
Treorchy Semi-National Eisteddfod in 1923. The
author describes Cwmparc in 1923 as ‘ a mining
village of considerable pretensions, aspiring
almost to the more dignified name of township’
with a population of about five thousand. He
describes the Parc Colliery and further down
the valley The Dare, and the constant
processions of coal-laden trucks running down
the railway that flanked the Parc River.
The pioneer of Cwmparc’s development was David
Davies, Llandinam described as, ‘foremost of
Welsh industrial kings and founder of the
renowned Ocean Coal Company’, who had in 1862
negotiated with Crawshay Bailey to commence
coal mining on the Tremains Estate. Sinking
operations were begun in August 1866 and by
the end of that year Parc Pit had produced its
first output of coal.
He
describes how Railway Terrace was the first of
the new streets in Cwmparc to be built near to
the railway leading from the pithead. The
street was known euphemistically as ‘Tub Row’
because of the habit of the occupants for
leaving their tin bath tubs out on the
pavements in the evening, ‘thus setting a trap
for, and imperilling the life and limbs of
unwary strangers on a dark night’. As for the
rest of the village he describes how Parc
Road, the main street, ‘ now more than half a
mile long’, contained the more ‘reputable’
buildings, such as the Miners Institute, two
hotels and three chapels. He details how, with
the influx of population, housing in the early
days of Cwmparc was a major problem.
In particular he recalls one elderly
resident’s recollection of how when she came
to Cwmparc her family consisting of a mother,
father and four children managed to secure
accommodation in a shepherd’s cottage, Parc
Bach. The extent of the overcrowding can be
seen when you realise that the cottage already
accommodated the shepherd, his family and
three other lodgers! With such a demand it was
not long before builders and property
speculators moved into the area, thus in 1867
Cwmdare Street was completed and most of Parc
Street the following year. Tallis Street,
Barrett Street and Vicarage Row were soon to
follow erected by a local building club
enterprise. Tallis Street was named in honour
of Mr A.S. Tallis, manager of Dare Colliery
and Barrett Street in honour of a
well-respected Scottish doctor in the
neighbourhood.
Thirteen years later in 1936 the author
provided an additional chapter to update his
work. When looking at the then current state
of the village there is quite a different tone
from that taken thirteen years previously. He
describes the industrial history of the
village as being ‘overhung with gloom’ and the
district as being ‘haunted by the spectre of
unemployment’. The village’s main employer,
and indeed reason for being, The Parc and The
Dare pits had always worked intermittently and
had been ‘unable to absorb all the eager
claimants for work’. There had been moments of
industrial strife, notably the 1926 general
strike and the ‘stay in’ strikes of 1935.
In 1954 the National Coal Board merged the two
pits, and finally in 1966 after a hundred
years of production the Parc and Dare pit
closed for the last time, leaving Cwmparc’s
‘sylvan’ valley to revert in some measure back
to its original beauty.