An English translation of the name Tonypandy
is ‘the meadow of the fulling mill’. E.D.
Lewis in his work ‘The Rhondda Valleys’
provides us with an outline history of the
mill that once stood in Tonypandy, and from
which the town took its name. He describes
how, ‘The woollen manufactri and the pandy or
fulling mill were situated on Nant Clydach,
near the confluence of the Clydach brook and
the River Rhondda Fawr at Tonypandy’. He
further describes how the mill dates back to
1738 and was established by Harri David, and
was run in the second half of the eighteenth
century by David Martin.
He states that in the first half of the
nineteenth century the primary work of the
mill was the bleaching of the finished work of
the farmsteads in the area around Tonypandy.
The work of the mill declined with the coming
of the Taff Vale Railway to Tonypandy which
made cheaper textile goods from the North of
England more readily available. The mill
eventually closed, and in 1914 an unsuccessful
attempt was made to transfer its wheel and
loom to the National Museum.
The 1847 tithe map of the area around
Tonypandy shows how the area, possibly because
of importance of the mill as a centre for
local farmers, contained in addition to the
usual scattered farmhouses a number of
cottages as well as a shop. Mines were sunk at
Tonypandy, such as Nantgwyn on the hillside
above Tonypandy in 1892, and Gellifaelog sunk
by Walter Coffin in 1845. However Tonypandy’s
importance came more from its position as a
commercial and cultural centre for the
surrounding villages.
The first free library in the Rhondda was set
up in Tonypandy above a furniture shop in
Dunraven Street, and theatres such as the
Empire Theatre of Varieties and the Theatre
Royal thrived in the last half of the
nineteenth and early part of the twentieth
century. Tonypandy also boasted the
substantial Methodist Central Hall for many
years, a substantial and impressive building.
Originally known as the Wesleyan Central Hall
it was erected in 1923 at a cost of £27,000
and contained a main hall capable of seating
1,000, as well as suites of rooms and a lesser
hall, which sat 500.
Additionally the town had a secondary school
erected in 1915 which later became its grammar
school, a Roman Catholic church and elementary
school, a main police station which in 1926
had a compliment of three sergeants and ten
constables.
For many years a fountain and water trough,
known locally as ‘The Lady with the Lamp’,
graced Tonypandy square. This fountain and
statue was erected in 1909 with money left
over from the memorial statue to Archibald
Hood the well-known Scottish engineer and
local mine owner.
Tonypandy is best known as the place of the
1910
Tonypandy Riots, which led to the
Metropolitan Police and military units being
stationed in the Rhondda, following
disturbance during the Cambrian Colliery
Dispute.