Tonypandy
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.
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