Treherbert

The name Herbert, which gave rise to Treherbert in the upper part of the Rhondda Fawr, was not an individual at all, but an ancient family which married into the Bute family in the eighteenth century. Treherbert developed In the mid 1850s in association with mining developments taking place on lands belonging to the Marquess of Bute at nearby Cwmsaerbren.

The Marquesses of Bute, with their family seat at Cardiff Castle, owned vast estates totalling some twenty two thousand acres throughout Glamorgan and following the death of the second Marquess in 1848 his trustees decided to try to open up some of those areas of land which were believed to contain coal deposits. One area In which they were particu]arly Interested was Cwmsaerbren Farm, comprising some six hundred and five acres, which the second Marquess had purchased with its mineral rights.

In December 1855 a pit (later known as the Bute Merthyr Colliery) was opened on the Cwmsaerbren Farm land and produced its first wagonload of steam coal. At the same time, the need for suitable housing for the miners and their families led to a building programme resulting in the creation of Treherbert. Because of a shortage of reputable builders at the time the trustees themselves had to undertake the work. The name Herbert Town had already appeared in the parish registers by December 1854 and by 1857 some fifty houses had been erected.

The name Herbert was one which had been associated with the Bute family since 1766 and had a long and distinguished history.

It can be traced back to one Herbert, chamberlain to William Rufus, and is continued down through several generations to Jenkin Herbert who held the post of master sergeant to the lordship ofAbergavenny around the year 1360. The great grandson of Jenkln was Sir William (Gwilym) ap Thomas of Raglan whose son, also named William, first took Herbert as a surname and who was subsequently made Earl of Pembroke (of the first creation) by Edward IV in 1468 In recognition of his having successfully forced the Lancastrlan forces to surrender Harlech Castle. His grandson William also gained favour at the court of Henry VIII resulting In the gift of lands and offices in South Wales. He gained further favours under Edward VI. being created Baron Herbert of Cardiff and Earl of Pembroke (of the second creation) in 1551.

The influence and wealth which the Herberts possessed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were enormous. Successive generations of the family held Important parliamentary and crown offices in South Wales until 1733 and these factors, together with successful marriages, made them the most powerful family in Glamorgan during that period. However, their main interests gradually turned towards their estates In Wiltshire and soon after the Restoration they began to dispose of much of their land In South Wales. Those estates which were retained passed to Thomas, first Viscount Windsor (second son of the first Earl of Plymouth) on his marriage.

Viscount Windsor sold off the Monmouthshlre lordshlps in 1722, but in 1766 the Giamorgan estates passed to his granddaughter. Charlotte Jane, co-heiress of the second Viscount and through her, when she married In the same year. to her husband John, Lord Mountstuart, the heir of the third Earl of Bute.

Prior to industrialisation, the villages we know today as Treherbert, Tynewydd, Blaenrhondda and Blaencwm consisted of a number of isolated farms and a small number of scattered homesteads. The area was sparsely populated and as the Revd. Lewis described in his 1959 outline History of the Parish of Treherbert, ' lay completely off the beaten track, at the head of a secluded, pastoral valley, which had preserved all the characteristics of rural charm'. Although there is evidence of human habitation going way back to Celtic times the population of this district remained small, in 1841 there were only 218 people residing in the 'Middle hamlet of Treherbert'. However by 1861 this had increased by 500% to 1,203. The development of these villages, and indeed to a certain extent all of the Rhondda depends largely on one event, namely the sinking of the first steam-coal pit at Cwm- Saebren (Treherbert) in 1855.

The trustees of the Marquess of Bute sank this pit after buying Cwmsaebren farm from William Davies for a fee of £11,000 in August 1845. The sinking of a trial pit began in 1850, however progress was painfully slow due in large part to the inadequacies of the transport system in the Rhondda in the 1840's. All the equipment had to be hauled by horse along rough tracks the eight miles from the Taff Vale railway terminus

Despite this in April 1853 the Upper 4ft seam of steam coal was struck at a depth of 125 yards, and production was begun in 1855. Incidentally it was in January of this year the first recorded use of the name Treherbert was seen in the Parish records, commemorating one of the family names of the Marquess of Bute. The first 38 wagons of steam coal were transported from the newly extended Taff Vale Railway station at Gelligaled (Ystrad) to Cardiff on the 21st December that year. From this time in the mid 1850's the expansion of the villages at the top end of the Rhondda Fawr really began and the building of the first rows of houses took place, the first being at Bute Street, Dumfries Street, and Baglan Street.