Ystradyfodwg

Ystradyfodwg is an ancient upland parish in northern Glamorgan, adjacent to the border with Brecknockshire. Its name means the Vale of Tyfodwg, who was either a 7th-century saint or chieftain.

It includes most of the valleys of the Rhondda Fawr and Rhondda Fach rivers. Initially a sparsely populated wild area of upland sheep-walks, it became in the mid 19th century a dynamic centre of the coal mining industry, with a large, new industrial population. The parish church is situated at Ton Pentre, which is marked as Ystrad-dyfodwg on nineteenth-century maps.

The parish has an area of over 25,000 acres, stretching from the confluence of the Rhondda rivers at Porth, over the mountain as far as the Vale of Neath. It is divided into four townships or hamlets: Home (between the rivers), Clydach (south of the Rhondda Fawr), Middle (the upper part of the valley) and Rhigos (north of the mountains).

During the 19th century, the population of the parish increased as follows:

	1801	1811	1821	1831	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901
Population	542	973	985	1,047	1,363	1,998	3,857	17,777	45,052	69,685	89,907

Lower-quality coal from the Upper Coal series was worked in a small way in Trealaw as early as 1807, but the development of the Rhondda steam coal gave rise to the rapid population growth. The development began with the start-up of the Bute Merthyr colliery in Treherbert in 1855. In the Rhondda Fach, the first coal was mined in 1862 at Ferndale. The Taff Vale Railway reached Treherbert in 1856. Collieries then rapidly developed along the valley, with the lower part of the valley developing last because of the deeper pits required to find the steam coal in that area. By the end of the century, mining villages formed an almost continuous urban strip along both valley floors, with coal mining and its ancillary trades virtually the sole industry.

The majority of the incomers came from west Wales, particularly Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire.

Outside links

• Location map: 51°40’31"N, 3°31’43"W
• Ystradyfodwg on Genuki