From Tyddyn 1 To Terrace: The Development of Ironworkers’ Housing In Merthyr Tydfil, c . 1750–1850

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Industrial workers’ housing in south Wales has traditionally been treated as completely separate from vernacular cottages and farmhouses. However, by tracing the development and evolution of housing in Merthyr Tydfil across the period c. 1750 to 1850, this paper demonstrates that there was a continuity between the vernacular farmhouses of the upper Taff Valley and the earliest ironworkers’ houses in the town. It shows that the first rows were formed by making piecemeal additions to the gable ends of farmhouses; that the standard house type in Merthyr by c. 1830 was derived from the predominant farmhouse type in the upper Taff Valley; and finally, that the vernacular tradition persisted as late as 1850, in the arrangement of rows of houses on a site-by-site basis and in the ‘squatter settlements’ with their semi-agricultural character. This paper draws on surveys and fieldwork undertaken by the Welsh School of Architecture, Merthyr Tydfil Heritage Trust and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales, as well as individuals such as Jeremy Lowe and A. J. Parkinson, in the 1970s and 1980s, to draw out brand new observations and conclusions that have not previously been made.